Real Identities of celebrities

Ultimate Warrior is Jim Hellwig. His old partner Sting is Steve Borden.

 

Chris Jericho is the son of longtime NHLer Ted Irvine, who spent the bulk of his career with the Rangers.

 

There was a morning DJ on WKBW growing up, went by Stan Roberts. His real name was Stanley Robert Noodleman, or something like that. I don't think Rod Roddy, Sandy Beach, Joey Reynolds and Jefferson Kaye were their birth names, either.

The Rocketship 7 guy on WKBW TV, Dave Thomas, was really David Boreanaz Sr. His son kept his real name when he went into show biz.

I don't think anyone would change his name to Irv Weinstein, though.

 

There used to be a music reviewer for Guitar World magazine named Mordechai Kleidermacher. I always thought that was a badass name, as far as Jewish names go ...

 

It's not a "fake name", it's a part of your work. It has nothing to do with credibility. Changing your last name to make it easier to say or spell so it's not confusing to viewers (or listeners or readers) does not hurt credibility. It's just how you want people to know you.
I know writers that use a different last name in print...or use initials for a first name. Same case goes with women who started in the biz with their maiden name and then get married, does it hurt their credibility that they remain the same last name on-air, but off-air change their last name to their husbands?

 

Remember Dave Thomas and the Rocketship 7 gang well. Was Clip Smith his real name?

 

Nicholas Picholas: also a fake name.

 

Does anybody know if Gilbert Gottfried's name is legit? A quick scan of his wikipedia entry makes no mention of a stage name, but I find that hard to believe.

 

Often though, TV anchors have changed their names to sound ethnic and make them more desirable to those who hire and are looking for diversity.

I can't remember exact instances, but have read of cases where an anchor has taken a mother's Latino maiden name of grandfather's Asian surname.

 

Ah, yes, I was a co-worker of that columnist when Hamilton went on a diatribe on his show and called the columnist a name that also refers to small twigs and (in shortened version) is British slang for a cigarette. It raised a local media tempest for a few days.

For the record, what the columnist did is mention in one of the media columns how Joe McDonnell and Doug Krikorian, who were doing a radio show for KMPC that was Hamilton's competition, had signed off a show one day with "Good night, Paul Mahan, wherever you are," but never gave any indication on who Paul Mahan actually was.

 

Back in the mid to late 80s, Dyan Cannon was on The Tonight Show and she and Johnny Carson were talking about the real names of movie stars.
Johnny offers up this — "Did you know Cary Grant's real name was Archibald Leach?"
Dyan just batted her eyes and smiled. "No, I didn't know that."
It took Johnny a second or two before he realized that of course she knew Cary Grant's real name.
He then quickly apologized, and she got a laugh out of it.
In case you're wondering, Cary Grant married a young and way hot Dyan Cannon.

 

If what was always implied about Grant and cowboy movie star Randolph Scott was to be believed, Cannon was one helluva beard ...