Michael Kirk Douglas (born September 25, 1944) is an American actor and producer. He has received numerous accolades, including two Academy Awards, five Golden Globe Awards, a Primetime Emmy Award, the Cecil B. DeMille Award, and the AFI Life Achievement Award.
The elder son of Kirk Douglas and Diana Dill, Douglas received his Bachelor of Arts in Drama from the University of California, Santa Barbara. His early acting roles included film, stage, and television productions. Douglas first achieved prominence for his performance in the ABC police procedural television series The Streets of San Francisco, for which he received three consecutive Emmy Award nominations.
Michael Keaton announced plans to start going by his birth name professionally. If you were unaware, the 72-year-old Beetlejuice actor uses a stage name, which he is rumored to have selected from a phone book.
In a new interview, Michael addressed those rumors about how he landed on his name. He also revealed how he’d be getting credited on future projects. Keep reading to find out more… Michael‘s birth name is Michael Douglas, and he announced plans to change his professional name to Michael Keaton Douglas.
Why did he enter Hollywood using a stage name? The Screen Actors Guild doesn’t allow two people with the same name to be members, and Michael Douglas was already a member.
Speaking to People, the actor reflected on choosing Keaton as his last name. “I was looking through — I can’t remember if it was a phone book,” he said. “I must’ve gone, ‘I don’t know, let me think of something here.’ And I went, ‘Oh, that sounds reasonable.’” The star wanted to change his name for his 2023 movie Knox Goes Away, which he directed and starred in. “I said, ‘Hey, just as a warning, my credit is going to be Michael Keaton Douglas.’ And it totally got away from me.
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