Night Music

 I think most people are aware John Wayne’s real name was Marion Robert Morrison, that Marilyn Monroe was born Norma Jean Mortensen, and that Cary Grant was really Archibald Alec Leach. But did you know Cher is short for Cheryl Sarkisian and Sonny was really Salvatore Phillip Bono? Vin Diesel’s real name – Mark Sinclair – makes him sound like such a milquetoast. So does Whoopi Goldberg’s (Caryn Elaine Johnson) and Elton John’s (Reginald Kenneth Dwight). Post Malone sounds like the kind of guy who’d cover himself with tattoos. Austin Richard Post does not. When Katy Perry started her singing career, she adopted her mother’s maiden name, because Kate Hudson was already taken. David Tennant changed his name from David McDonald at age sixteen, because there was already a British actor by that name. Albert Brooks’ parents named him Albert Lawrence Einstein in 1947, even though the other Albert Einstein had been world-famous since 1919.