Wild reason movie star had to change names

Hollywood legend Michael Keaton has revealed that he’s not been using his real name throughout his entire career.

Hollywood legend Michael Keaton is going back to using his real name, and it just so happens to be the same as another major film star.

It turns out Keaton is actually the beloved actor’s stage name, and he was born Michael Douglas.

Keaton told People that he had picked his new name out of a phone book when he was starting out in Hollywood in the 1970s, and the other Michael Douglas was already starting to make a name for himself as an actor.

Michael Keaton... Picture: MATRIX

...Michael Douglas. Picture: Getty

“I was looking through – I can’t remember if it was a phone book,” he told the outlet. “I must’ve gone, ‘I don’t know, let me think of something here.’ And I went, ‘Oh, that sounds reasonable.’”

This is because the Screen Actors Guild bands members from using the same name as another professional actor.

Michael Douglas, 79, is the son of three-time Academy Award nominee Kirk Douglas and is married to Best Supporting Actress winner Catherine Zeta-Jones.

Because of this rule, Keaton was forced to drop his birth name and come up with a new one.

Despite going by his made-up alias for decades, Keaton is planning to go by his birth name going forward.

“I said, ‘Hey, just as a warning, my credit is going to be Michael Keaton Douglas,’” Keaton said about his next movie, Knox Goes Away, which he directed.

Keaton can next be seen in the sequel to Beetlejuice, alongside returning stars Catherine O'Hara and Winona Ryder. Picture: Gareth Cattermole/Getty Images.

However, he said, “It totally got away from me. And I forgot to give them enough time to put it in and create that.”

He added: “But that will happen.”

In a cruel twist of fate, it turns out the other Michael Douglas’ surname isn’t his original name either.

Douglas’s father, Issur Danielovitch, Americanised his surname in a bid to assimilate to US culture.

The revelation comes after Keaton shared his honest reaction to his DC movie Batgirl being canned.

Keaton, who filmed scenes as Bruce Wayne — aka Batman — in DC Studios’ axed movie said he didn’t lose much sleep over its dramatic shelving in 2022.

“I didn’t care one way or another. Big, fun, nice cheque,” the US actor told GQ.

Keaton, 72, did say he admires directors Adil El Arbi and Bilall Fallah, who had a rebound hit this summer with Bad Boys: Ride or Die.

“I like those boys. They’re nice guys,” he said. “I pull for them. I want them to succeed, and I think they felt very badly, and that made me feel bad.”

“Me?” Keaton added. “I’m good.”

Originally published as Wild reason movie star had to change names