Some actors' real names and why they changed them...

- Red Buttons began life as Aaron Chwatt. The idea for his new identity came from his red hair and the 48 buttons on his bellboy uniform.

- Michael Caine was born Maurice Micklewhite and took his stage name from an ad for the film The Caine Mutiny.

- Gary Cooper started out as Frank Cooper but was persuaded to change his name to that of his agent's home town of Gary, Indiana.

- Michael Crawford was known as Michael Dumble-Smith until he took his stage name from a passing Crawford's Biscuits delivery truck.

- Bette Davis was plain Ruth Davis until she decided to name herself after Balzac's Cousin Bette.

- Doris Day scrapped Doris von Kapellof on the advice of bandleader Barney Rapp, for whom she had sung "Day After Day."

- Nicolas Cage started life as Nicholas Coppola but changed it to distance himself from his uncle, director Francis Ford Coppola. He chose Cage from the comic book character Luke Cage, Power Man.

- Judy Garland wisely abandoned Frances Gumm in favor of something more romantic. She borrowed her first name from the Hoagy Carmichael song "Judy" and took her surname from Chicago theater critic Robert Garland. The necessity to change her name had been brought about by an early billing which called the 11-year-old "Frances Glumm."

- Cary Grant changed his name from Archibald Leach and took the name "Cary" from Cary Lockwood, the character he played in the stage comedy Nikki.

- Rock Hudson was advised by his agent to change his name from Roy Sherer. The agent consulted an atlas to come up with a compound of the Rock of Gibraltar and New York State's Hudson River.

- Zeppo Marx was christened Herbert Marx but was known as "Zeppo" because his birth coincided with the first Zeppelin.

- Zero Mostel was born Samuel Joel Mostel but was nicknamed "Zero" on account of his appalling school grades.

- Luke Perry started out as Coy Luther Perry III but chose Luke from his favorite movie, Cool Hand Luke, which he had first seen at the age of five.

- Omar Sharif was Michael Shalhoub until he took "Omar" from second World War hero General Omar Bradley and "Sharif" from the Arab word for nobility, sherif.

- Sigourney Weaver was born Sunan Weaver but chose her distinctive first name from a character in the novel The Great Gatsby.

- Oprah Winfrey was a mistake. Her name was supposed to be the biblical "Orpah" but the midwife spelled it wrong on the birth certificate.

- Michael York began as Michael Johnson until he took the stage name from York cigarettes.