Michael Keaton has been a Hollywood star for decades, but the 73-year-old actor now wants to be known by a different name. His real name is Michael Douglas, and he will now be known as Michael Keaton Douglas.
Back in the '70s, the Screen Actors Guild forbade him from using his real name, because the union already had a member named Michael Douglas (the famed actor of Wall Street and many other films). There was also a Mike Douglas, a talk show host.
"I was looking through — I can't remember if it was a phone book," Keaton told People about how he chose Keaton. "I must've gone, 'I don't know, let me think of something here.' And I went, 'Oh, that sounds reasonable.'"
When he directed the thriller Knox Goes Away earlier this year, he said that he wanted to go by Michael Keaton Douglas, but that he didn't make the request in time. He also goes simply by Michael Keaton in the new film Beetlejuice Beetlejuice.