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Celebrity Pseudonyms

01:00 Fri 06th Apr 2001 |

A 'Star' Is Packaged,� Not Born.

Celebrities get so much media coverage that their names end up on the tip of our tongues - or at least what we think are their names.

But by the time the PR people, marketeers, studio chiefs, agents and record company chiefs have had their say, the humble little kid who set out on the route to stardom will have gone through a makeover, personality coaching, and very often a name change to bring that extra sparkle.

Masters of the art of re-packaging up and coming talent were the Hollywood moguls who turned the soft-sound Marion Morrison into the world's favourite cowboy, John Wayne and plain Emanuel Goldenbery� into legendary tough-guy Edward G Robinson.

It was a policy adopted through all walks of public life - sometimes in order to give sex appeal, and also to hide ethnic roots at a time when nations viewed outsiders with suspicion.

These days the policy has become so widespread that many stars are trying to turn back the clocks - not least the cellophane wrapped Spice Girls who were carefully presented to the world as Posh Spice, Baby Spice, Sporty Spice and so on ; now they are vehement about being dubbed by their real names - Victoria Beckham, Emma Bunton,�Melanie Chisholm and so on.

Here is an Answerbank Quiz on some classic changes of identity to see if you really know the names that go with the faces.

Hollywood

Sirens:
Camille Javal
Lucielle le Sueur
Maria Magdalene Von Losch

Twinkle Toes:
Frederick Austerlitz
Virginia McMath

Heroes and Villains:
James Byron
Issur Danielovitch
Maurice Micklethwaite
William Pratt

Which Marx brother was born Adolph
If Michael Douglas's real name is Michael Douglas - then who did the other Michael Douglas become

Music:

Mary Isabel Catherine Bernadette O'Brien
Mary Louise Ciccone
Steveland Morris Hardaway
Declan McManus
Georgias Kyriacos Panayiotou
Gordon Matthew Sumner
Paul Hewson
Reginald Kenneth Dwight
Roberta Joan Anderson
Virginia Pugh


Authors:

David John Moore Cornwall
Cecil Lewis Troughton Smith
Hector Hugo Monro
Eric Arthur Blair
Francoise Quoires
Josef Teodor Konrad Korzeniowski

The good, the bad and the ugly

Agnes Gonxha Bojaxhiu
Lev Bronstein
Jan Ludvik Hoch

Sports:

Edson Arantes do Nascimento
Rocco Marchegiano
Cassius Marcellus Clay
Walker Smith

If you want to know the answers, click here

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