Wednesday, November 02, 2016

Classic Hollywood Actors Name Game


The Celebration of Classic Hollywood hosted by Rose at An Old-Fashioned Girl has begun!  I will be contributing a review of the wonderful James Stewart western Destry Rides Again later this week, but I thought I'd also create a game, so here it is!

As we all know, entertainers often change their names to something more pronounceable or interesting or, well, non-dorky.  They still do this today, though less often than back during the days of classic Hollywood that we're celebrating.  So here are the real names of ten famous actors, and their stage names.  Your job is to match them up.  For instance, Doris Von Kappelhoff changed her name to Doris Day when she became an actress, and so on.  Have fun!  I'll post the answers on Monday.

Real Names

1.  Archibald Leach
2.  John Carter
3.  Virginia McMath
4.  Issur Demsky
5.  Frances Gumm
6.  Betty Perske
7.  Marion Morrison
8.  Norma Mortenson
9.  Roy Scherer
10.  Ruby Stevens

Stage Names

A.  Rock Hudson
B.  Lauren Bacall
C.  Cary Grant
D.  Judy Garland
E.  Kirk Douglas
F.  Marilyn Monroe
G.  Ginger Rogers
H.  Charlton Heston
I.  Barbara Stanwyck
J.  John Wayne

P.S. Don't feel bad if this is hard!  If I hadn't looked all these up, I would only know about half of them.

P.P.S. NO CHEATING!!!

P.P.P.S.  You can play whether you're participating in the blog party or not!

19 comments:

  1. I know these!!! I...just can't think of what they are.
    Um, I know this is wrong but:
    3=F
    1=E
    5=D I know this one for sure!!
    7=J
    6=G
    That's all I'm going to guess. Thanks for the game!

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  2. Replies
    1. But you're interested in learning! That's something :-)

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  3. I don't know any of these, but now I want to look them all up. They are so radically different. I know some actors have stage names now too, but they often are a nickname or middle name or changed spelling (Shau/Sean Bean).

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    Replies
    1. Livia, too funny! Yes, they're very different. While I was looking these up, Facebook advertised an article on some junk site about modern actors who had changed their names, and I was astonished at how many still do!

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  4. Oh my gosh. Cary Grant is not Cary Grant's real name. My world, it is upside down.

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    Replies
    1. Emma Jane, yup. Now, sometimes actors do eventually change their names legally -- John Wayne did, I know. So his name really was John Wayne... but that wasn't the name he was born with.

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  5. 1-c
    5-d
    6-b
    7-j
    8-f
    10-i

    That means 3 has to be g and I'm going to guess that 9 is a, 2 is e, and 4 is h :)

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  6. 1)Cary Grant
    2)Charlton Heston
    3)Barbara Stanwyck
    4)Kirk Douglas
    5)Ginger Rogers
    6)Lauren Bacall
    7)John Wayne
    8)Marilyn Monroe
    9)Rock Hudson
    10)Judy Garland

    Some I knew and others I had to think what real name might connect with their stage name.

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  7. WOW I had nooo idea there were sooo many 'screen names' with 'real names' behind actors. This is so tricky. :-P

    I know at least one:
    Judy Garland's real name is Frances Gumm (5/D)
    Was Ginger Rogers Betty Perske? Just a wild guess. I was going to make loads of wild guesses but I'm going to spare myself the embarrassment.
    Can't wait for the answers, though! :-)

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  8. I'm pretty sure Cary Grant is Archibald Leach and John Wayne is Marion Morrison, but beyond that I have no clue.

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  9. Yeah... the only one I know for sure is Cary Grant's....

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    Replies
    1. I figured I should throw a few in that many people would know, like him, John Wayne, and Judy Garland :-)

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  10. What an amazing idea for a game!!!

    At first glance I didn't know any of these but then the knowledge collected by many hours on random Wikipedia pages started to kick in;)

    1-C
    3-G
    5-D?? (that one's a complete guess)
    7-J
    8-F

    The rest I don't know, but I look forward to the answers:)

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  11. I know is John Wayne = Marion Morrison because I remember learning that and thinking it was weird one of the manliest men on film had a girly name :D

    Marilyn Monroe would be Norma Mortenson?

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  12. I know them all... Well, truth is I knew 9, and by elimination got the 10th. If you had put Virginia Mc Math up there by itself I would have had to cheat.

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  13. I skipped over the answers post because I wanted to try my hand at this. Okay, the ones I know:

    Archibald Leach = Cary Grant
    Marion Morrison = John Wayne
    Betty Perske = Lauren Bacall
    Norma Mortenson = Marilyn Monroe

    Guesses? I'm going to go with Ruby Stevens/Barbara Stanwyck, Frances Gumm/Judy Garland...and I kinda have a feeling that Charlton Heston is either John Carter or Roy Scherer. Would that make Kirk Douglas Issur Demsky?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Elisabeth, you get 7! Charlton Heston is John Carter.

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