Buster Keaton
Born Joseph Frank Keaton - at six months he fell down a flight of stairs without being injured; after hearing of it, fellow vaudevillian Harry Houdini christened him Buster
◄ IMDb Polls
Poll: Actors Who Go by Their Nicknames
The following actors are credited by their nicknames, but we're not just talking about Bill for William or Jenny for Jennifer, or going by a middle name. These nicknames go a step further and were bestowed as children or young adults.
Which of these actors' nicknames do you think is the coolest?
Want to talk about it? Click here!
* Someone using a stage name like Lady Gaga or Bono also don't qualify
Make Your Choice
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Bing Crosby
Born Harry Lillis Crosby - a friend began calling him Bing after a comic strip character named Bingo -
Cyd Charisse
Born Tula Ellice Finklea - as a child her brother couldn't say sister; it just came out as Sid and she changed the spelling when she started performing -
Redd Foxx
Born John Elroy Sanford - while Foxx is a stage name, he was called Redd as a young man due to his red hair; his friend Malcolm X even called him Chicago Red in his autobiography -
Peter Sellers
Born Richard Henry Sellers - before he was born, Sellers' parents had a stillborn child named Peter; his parents began calling him Peter as a child -
Rip Torn
Born Elmore Rual Torn, Jr. - Rip is a family name, shared by generations of men from the Torn family -
Beau Bridges
Born Lloyd Vernet Bridges III - his parents were reading Gone with the Wind when he was born and they quickly began calling him Beau after Ashley Wilkes' son -
Chevy Chase
Born Cornelius Crane Chase - his grandmother called him Chevy after an English song, The Ballad of Chevy Chase -
Spike Lee
Born Shelton Jackson Lee - his mother called him Spike from infancy because of his toughness -
Judge Reinhold
Born Edward Ernest Reinhold, Jr. - at just two weeks old, his father noticed he looked very stern, so thereafter he was called Judge -
Skeet Ulrich
Born Bryan Ray Trout - his Little League coach called him Skeeter after a mosquito because he was so small; Ulrich is the name of his first stepfather -
Scoot McNairy
Born John Marcus McNairy - his father called him Scooter starting around age two because he would scoot around on his butt -
Miley Cyrus
Born Destiny Hope Cyrus - her father called her Smiley as a kid; it morphed into Miley as she grew -
Maisie Williams
Born Margaret Constance Williams - she is called Maisie after character of the same name from The Perishers comic strip
