Nom de Guerre

I was perusing an old copy of a World Almanac the other day and thinking what a nifty little print resource it is. One of my favorite sections is the Original Names of Selected Entertainers section. With my fascination with names this section has always been fun for me to read.

Now I think most people know that John Wayne's birth name was Marion Morrison and that Twiggy is really Leslie Hornby, but what about these:

Alan Alda/ Alphonso D'Abruzzo
Julie Andrews/ Julia Wells
Anne Bancroft/ Anna Maria Louisa Italiano
Orson Bean/ Dallas Frederick Burrows
Pat Benetar/ Patricia Andrejewski
Bono/ Paul Hewson
Michael Caine/ Maurice Mickelwhite
Dyan Cannon/ Samile Diane Friesen
Diahann Carroll/ Carol Diahann Johnson
Arthur C. Clark/ E.G. O'Brien
Samuel Coleridge/ Nehemiah Higginbottom
Peter Coyote/ Peter Cohon
Tom Cruise/ Thomas Mapother IV
Bo Diddley/ Elias Bates
Kirk Douglas/ Issur Danielovitch Demsky
Jenna Elfman/ Jennifer Mary Butala
E.T.'s voice/ Patricia A. Welsh
Gerald R. Ford/ Leslie Lynch King, Jr.
Jodie Foster/ Alicia Christian Foster
Kathie Lee Gifford/ Kathie Epstein
Whooopi Goldberg/ Caryn Johnson
Susan Hayward/ Edythe Marrener
Heloise/ Eloise Cruse Bowles Reese
Heloise II/ Ponce Kiah Marchelle Heloise Cruse Evans
Billie Holiday/ Eleanora Fagan
Ice-T/ Tracy Morrow
Wynnona Judd/ Christine Ciminella
Joyce Kilmer/ Alfred Joyce Kilmer
Hedy Lamarr/ Hedwig Kiesler
Queen Latifah/ Dana Owens
Elle Macpherson/ Eleanor Gow
Chico Marx/ Leonard Marx
Groucho Marx/ Julius Marx
Gummo Marx/ Milton Marx
Harpo Marx/ Adolph Marx
Zeppo Marx/ Herbert Marx
Demi Moore/ Demetria Guynes
Chuck Norris/ Carlos Ray
Notorious B.I.G./ Christopher Wallace
Old Yeller/ Spike
Queen of Voicemail: Marsha Graham [aka The Voice] (actress/official voice of many commercial voice-mail systems
The Rock/ Dwayne Johnson
Meg Ryan/ Margaret Hyra
Vangelis/ Evangelos Papathanassiou
Senor Wences/ Senor Wenceslao Moreno
Jane Seymour/ Joyce Frankenberg
Snoop Doggy Dog/ Calvin Broadus
Ringo Starr/ Richard Starkey
Sigourney Weaver/ Susan Weaver
Zorro/ Don Diego de la Vega


"We are what we pretend to be, so we must be careful about what we pretend to be." - Kurt Vonnegut