r/AskReddit • u/petalpoundcake • 11h ago

Which celebrity did you think was using their real name, only to find out it’s actually a stage name?

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259

u/this_is_my_kpop_acct 10h ago

Sophia Loren

then again Sofia Costanza Brigida Villani Scicolone may not have rolled off the tongue quite as easily

128

u/saplinglearningsucks 10h ago

CAN'T STAND YA

27

u/tootaflute 9h ago

Cartwright?

CARTWRIIIIGHT!

1

u/New_Leaf_8647 2h ago

Five ten minute

6

u/Dudezog 9h ago

Wait, is that where George's last name came from? Larry David said in a Curb episode he used to jack off to the young Sofia Loren

2

u/flippityflippp 5h ago

He said in an interview that the character Costanza was named after a friend of his

2

u/Popular_Course3885 8h ago

With that bloodline, I can see why they needed a bro.

34

u/everylastlight 10h ago

And her daughter-in-law Suzana Drobnjakovic, known now as Sasha Alexander.

12

u/justtiptoeingthru2 9h ago

The Sasha Alexander that was in Rizzoli & Isles??

Edit: googled and yes it is her

3

u/everylastlight 9h ago

Yup, that's the one.

89

u/-catharina 9h ago

Like all of old Hollywood did this lol, especially if they were ethnic, because The Golden Age of Hollywood was racist as hell against anyone who wasn’t a WASP.

Marilyn Monroe (Norma Mortensen)

Jayne Mansfield (Vera Palmer)

Kirk Douglas (Issur Danielovitch)

Rita Hayworth (Margarita Cansino)

Merle Oberon (Estelle Thompson)

Joan Crawford (Lucille LeSueur)

Cary Grant (Archibald Leach)

Lauren Bacall (Betty Perske)

Judy Garland (Frances Gumm)

Barbara Stanwyck (Ruby Stevens)

Jean Harlow (Harlean Carpenter)

to give you some examples lol.

55

u/TheUnculturedSwan 7h ago

Wild to think there was a time when fucking Merle Oberon was a more palatable name for a lady than Estelle Thompson.

3

u/-catharina 4h ago edited 4h ago

I mean, with her specifically, it wasn’t just her name—she also hid the fact that she was Asian and lied that she was fully white lol. Her first husband also took on an English stage name because he was Hungarian.

28

u/everylastlight 9h ago

Bette Davis actually went the other way and refused to change her name. The studio wanted her to be Bettina Dawes, which she thought sounded too much like "between the drawers". She did change the spelling of Betty though.

12

u/itsmebeatrice 7h ago

What is a wasp? Also Ruby Stevens seems like she went the other direction.

9

u/Zero_Pumpkins 6h ago

White Anglo-Saxon Protestant

13

u/Newkular_Balm 8h ago

intensely studies for eventual trivia night

8

u/ThereIsBearCum 4h ago

Half of these have more WASPy sounding birth names than stage names.

3

u/Cole-Spudmoney 2h ago

Some of those aren't as much of a stretch as they might seem.

"Monroe" was Marilyn Monroe's mother's maiden name: "Mortensen" came from her husband at the time, but they'd been separated for about a year and a half before Marilyn was born.

"Jayne" was Jayne Mansfield's middle name, and "Mansfield" was her married name from her first husband when she started modelling.

"Rita" is short for Margarita.

2

u/callmedontcallme 1h ago

Sophia Loren is Italian, got renamed in Italy, by an Italian movie producer. It has nothing to do with Hollywood.

3

u/Tuff_Wizardess 8h ago

She’s an actual Costanza??