Michael Keaton plans to use birth name in his acting career

Michael Keaton attends a ceremony honoring Tim Burton with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame on Tuesday, Sept. 3, 2024, in Los Angeles. (Photo by Jordan Strauss/Invision/AP)

After 50 years, Hollywood actor Michael Keaton has decided that he would want to be addressed as Michael Keaton Douglas—a combo of his real name, Michael John Douglas, and his stage name for his future projects.

The “Beetlejuice” actor shared with People Magazine that when he started out, he had to find a new surname because both Michael Douglas and Mike Douglas had been taken and the Screen Actors Guild doesn’t allow its members to use the same name as other actors.

“I was looking through—I can’t remember if it was a phone book,” he shared about how he came up with the surname Keaton. “I must’ve gone, ‘I don’t know, let me think of something here.’ And I went, ‘Oh, that sounds reasonable.’”

The 73-year-old actor remarked that it has been a longstanding desire to use his birth name for his professional projects and was intending to start with his recent directorial effort, “Knox Goes Away,” but he “forgot” amid the stress of making the movie.

“I said, ‘Hey, just as a warning, my credit is going to be Michael Keaton Douglas.’ And it totally got away from me. And I forgot to give them enough time to put it in and create that. But that will happen,” explained the actor, whose name appears as Michael Keaton in his latest movie, “Beetlejuice Beetlejuice,” the follow-up to the hit 1988 comedy “Beetlejuice.”

Aside from Keaton, Emma Stone, who coincidentally starred alongside him in 2014’s “Birdman,” also previously announced her intention to return to her first name and be known as Emily Jean Stone.

“That would be so nice,” she told The Hollywood Reporter in an interview on April 24. “I would like to be Emily.” 

Over the years, many A-listers, including Katy Perry, Shania Twain, Gigi Hadid and Tina Fey, among others, have all changed their real names to make way for their stage names.