Re: Famous Jewish Name Changes in Hollywood

[Jim]

"Szaki" <sza...@comcast.net> wrote in message news:<vlH8d.75131$He1.54720@attbi_s01>...
> To gain acceptance in the days of the great melting pot in America and even
> today, popularity-concious performers often change their names to less
> Jewish sounding apelations. For example:
>
>
> Jack Benny from Ben Kubelsky
> Eddie Cantor from Israel Iskowitz
> George Burns from Nathan Birnbaum
> Ed Wynn from Isaiah Leopold
> Tony Curtis from Bernie Schwartz
> Kirk Douglas from Issur Danielovich
> John Garfield from Julius Garfinkle
> Peter Lowe from Laszlo Lowenstein
> Jill St. John from Jill Oppenheim
> Lauren Bacall from Betty Jane Persky
> Paul Muni from Muni Weisenfreund
> David Copperfield from David Kotkin
> Winona Ryder from Winona Horowitz
> Barry Manilow from Barry Alan Pincus

I'm amused by the fashion world's "Ralph Lauren". Was Lipshitz!

Jim

[Lincoln Spector]

My favorite story of a Hollywood-mandated name change:

By the time broadway actor Julius Garfinkle was brought out to Hollywood, he
was already going by Julius Garfield. But soon after he arrived he was
called in to Jack Warner's office to discuss his name. According to legend,
the conversation went something like this:

WARNER: You can't use the name Garfield. It sounds too Jewish. You need a
more American-sounding name.

GARFIELD: But there was a president named Garfield. You can't have anything
more American than the name of a president.

WARNER: Oh. I didn't realize there was a President Garfield. Well, maybe the
problem is with your first name, Julius. Let's change that. How about James
Garfield.

GARFIELD: But the president was James Garfield. You can't give an actor the
full name of a president. You wouldn't name an actor Abraham Lincoln.

WARNER: Of course not. Abraham is a Jewish name.

Lincoln (the name given to me by my parents; my Hebrew name, used in
religious services, is Abraham)

[Jim]

Jim wrote:

And lest we forget:

Rodney Dangerfield from Jacob Cohen

[discogail]

Vin Diesel.................Irving Desselwitz
Carrot Top..................Chaim Topllekrantz
Sarah Michelle Geller...........Ima Chana Plutz
Samuel L. Jackson...................Yossel L. Ben Yaakov

[Neill Massello]

discogail <disco...@hustle.com> wrote:

Whoopi Goldberg?

[Wull]

Liz ????? (the man in the plane crash)
Liz Fisher
Liz Burton
Liz Warner
Liz Fortensky

Wull

[Paskunia]

Wull <wma...@gt.rr.com> wrote in news:4164D107...@gt.rr.com:

>> Whoopi Goldberg?

Whoopi did the opposite- her given name was Caryn Johnson.

My OT contribution is Marion Levy, who became Paulette Goddard.

["MIDIcian" (tm)]

'nuff said (almost.)

Stan Rosenthal (which from my understanding, last name was changed by those
letting 'em in, when my grandparents imigrated in (half of which imigrated
on Ellis Island, the other half Galveston Island, from my understanding.)

[Stephen Cooke]

Back when Sesame Street was actually funny, there was a game show skit
where Guy Smiley asks Cookie Monster why they call him Cookie Monster
("Because I like to eat cookies," he answers with gusto).

Then CM asks Guy why they call him Guy Smiley, and he responds, "Because
the announcer can't pronounce my real name, Gary Lebeidowitz!"

swac

[Constance Noring]

John Kerry = John Kohn

[sirlan...@hotmail.com]

Mike Todd = Avrom Hirsch Goldbogen

[sirlan...@hotmail.com]

John Kerry = Schlomo Lipchitz

[Wull]

That was the name I could not think of the other
day when I mentioned L Taylor.

Wull

[how...@brazee.net]

On 6-Oct-2004, "Lincoln Spector" <Notr...@myemailaddress.com> wrote:

> GARFIELD: But the president was James Garfield. You can't give an actor
> the
> full name of a president. You wouldn't name an actor Abraham Lincoln.
>
> WARNER: Of course not. Abraham is a Jewish name.

In Isaac Asimov's autobiography, he describes how when he came from Russia
in his infancy, fellow Brooklyn Jews recommended that his parents change his
name. Some of them changed from Jewish names such as David to English
names such as Bernie.

The US has LOTS of Old Testament names, but apparently Europe doesn't,
outside of the Jewish communities.

[Frank R.A.J. Maloney]

<how...@brazee.net> wrote in message
news:ArHad.906$gy1...@newsread1.news.pas.earthlink.net...

[deletions]

> In Isaac Asimov's autobiography, he describes how when he came from Russia
> in his infancy, fellow Brooklyn Jews recommended that his parents change
> his
> name. Some of them changed from Jewish names such as David to English
> names such as Bernie.
>
> The US has LOTS of Old Testament names, but apparently Europe doesn't,
> outside of the Jewish communities.

Funny story. People do lose track of the Hebrew origins of popular names
like Michael, Elizabeth, Mary, Adam, and so forth.

I *think* a lot of the more outré Old Testament names (Hezekiah, Hephzibah,
Ezekiel, et al.) have been chosen by parents of the more Fundamentalist
flavors of Protestant Christianity, the ones that often emphasize the OT
texts in defining their beliefs. And I *think* that's at least historically
true for British Protestants as well as the American ones.

--
Frank in Seattle

___________

Frank Richard Aloysius Jude Maloney

"I leave you now in radiant contentment"
-- "Whistling in the Dark"

[BigB]

Woody Allen = Woodrow Allen Konigsberg
Mel Brooks = Melvin Kaminsky
Cyd Charisse = Tula Finklea
Samuel Goldwyn = Shmuel Gelbfleisch
Al Jolsen = Asa Yoelsen
Moe Howard = Moses Horwitz
Larry Fine = Lawrence Feinberg
Curly Howard = Jerome Horwitz
Shemp Howard = Shmuel Horwitz

Sylvia Sidney also changed her Jewish name, but I can't recall what it was
offhand

Sylvia Sidney also changed her Jewish name, but I can't recall what her
original name was

[Wull]

I think Doris Day was Doris Kapplehoff.

Wull

[Stephen Cooke]

On Thu, 16 Dec 2004, BigB wrote:

> Sylvia Sidney also changed her Jewish name, but I can't recall what it was
> offhand

Sophia Kosow

swac

[cope...@aol.com]

discogail wrote:
> Vin Diesel.................Irving Desselwitz
> Carrot Top..................Chaim Topllekrantz

we are ashamed of these. hopefully they're adopted.

[Mike O'Sullivan]

Wull wrote:
> I think Doris Day was Doris Kapplehoff.

C/be German, not necessarily Jewish.

[Wull]

You are correct Mike. I looked it up and she was
born Roman Catholic. I had read years ago that
she was Jewish.

Wull

[theresa]

When Seinfeld first started, Network execs decided it was
"too Jewish" and they believed this boded ill. Obviously
that wasn't the case, and I think the networks sell the
American Public short -- I don't think any of these people
needed to have changed their names.

[DylanBD]

All this is old news. Are there any recent stars to have de-Judaicized
their names? Anybody at all since 1970? Seems to me like the practice went
out with the old studio system.

"Wull" <wma...@gt.rr.com> wrote:
>> Wull wrote:
>> > I think Doris Day was Doris Kapplehoff.

Doris von Kappelhoff. Catholic. (are there Jewish "vons"?)

[John Harkness]

On Sat, 18 Dec 2004 19:50:49 GMT, "DylanBD" <dbryan...@yahoo.com>
wrote:

>All this is old news. Are there any recent stars to have de-Judaicized
>their names? Anybody at all since 1970? Seems to me like the practice went
>out with the old studio system.
>

Winona Ryder, nee Horowitz.

John Harkness

[Steven L.]

BigB wrote:

> Woody Allen = Woodrow Allen Konigsberg
> Mel Brooks = Melvin Kaminsky
> Cyd Charisse = Tula Finklea
> Samuel Goldwyn = Shmuel Gelbfleisch
> Al Jolsen = Asa Yoelsen
> Moe Howard = Moses Horwitz
> Larry Fine = Lawrence Feinberg
> Curly Howard = Jerome Horwitz
> Shemp Howard = Shmuel Horwitz

Jill St. John = Jill Oppenheim
Bert Lahr = Irving Lahrheim

--
Steven D. Litvintchouk
Email: sdli...@earthlinkNOSPAM.net

Remove the NOSPAM before replying to me.

[ELurio]

<< BigB wrote:

> Woody Allen = Woodrow Allen Konigsberg >><BR><BR>

Actually, Konigsberg's parents never named him Woodrow. His real name is Allan
Stewart
Konigsberg.

eric l.