Tom Cruise’s Real Name And 15 Other Made-Up Hollywood Monikers

Tom Cruise’s name is back on the marquee with Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning playing Impossible Mission Agent Ethan Hunt for presumably the final time. Cruise, however, is not the star’s birth name — just a part of it.

The idea of an actor performing under a stage name is as old as the movie business itself. Mary Pickford’s real name was Gladys Marie Smith, Boris Karloff was born William Henry Platt and John Wayne’s real name was Marion Robert Morrison.

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Other Hollywood stars have simply gone by their middle names. Orson Welles’ birth name was George Orson Welles; Gregory Peck’s real name was Eldred Gregory Peck. Robert Redford was born Charles Robert Redford Jr. and Bette Davis went by a variation of her middle name, Ruth Elizabeth Davis.

Among the modern movie actors who go by their middle name are Brad Pitt, born William Bradley Pitt, Ashton Kutcher, born Christopher Ashton Kutcher and Reese Witherspoon, whose real name is Laura Jean Reese Witherspoon. Other actors who go by their middle names include Jason Sudeikis, born Daniel Jason Sudeikis and Chace Crawford, whose birth name is Christopher Chace Crawford.

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Topher Grace’s first name, meanwhile, is just a shortened version of his real first name, Christopher.

Tom Cruise is part of the actor’s real name but he’s never been billed by it in a movie. Others like Nicolas Cage, did go with his birth name for one feature film (Fast Times at Ridgemont High) before taking the surname of one of his favorite Marvel Comics characters, Luke Cage, according to Biography.

Here’s a look at Cruise and other modern movie stars’ made-up monikers.

Tom Cruise (Thomas Cruise Mapother IV)

Michael Keaton (Michael Douglas)

Vin Diesel (Mark Sinclair)

Meg Ryan (Margaret Mary Emily Anne Hyra)

Nicolas Cage (Nicolas Coppola)

Natalie Portman (Neta-Lee Hershlag)

Demi Moore (Demetria Gene Guynes)

Jamie Foxx (Eric Marlon Bishop)

Sigourney Weaver (Susan Alexandra Weaver)

Ben Kingsley (Krishna Pandit Bhanji)

Helen Mirren (Ilyena Mironov)

Michael Caine (Maurice Joseph Micklewhite)

Winona Ryder (Winona Laura Horowitz)

Tina Fey (Elizabeth Stamatina Fey)

Whoopi Goldberg (Caryn Elaine Johnson)

Olivia Wilde (Olivia Jane Cockburn)

Tom Cruise’s Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning opens in theaters worldwide on Friday.

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