Daily Blog – John E. Johnson, Jr. – April 18, 2008: HOW DO MOVIE STARS MAINTAIN AN IDENTITY?

We all know that many stars don’t use their real names.

Charlton Heston was actually John Carter.

John Wayne was born Marion Morrison (I can understand why he changed it!)

Cary Grant was originally Archibald Leach (another no-brainer).

My question is how they maintain the concept of self, when they were born with one name, see another name in the phone book, and the character they play in a movie is a third name.

So, John Carter, known as Charlton Heston in life, known as Moses on the set.

Marion Morrison, known as John Wayne in life, known as Tom Doniphon on the set (The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance, 1962).

It would be interesting to know how many actors see psychiatrists because they don’t know who the &*%$ they really are.