10 Hollywood Actors Names You Don't Really Know

Real Name: Nicolas Coppola

Back in the early 80s when Nicolas Kim Coppola was making his film debut in Amy Heckerling’s Fast Times at Ridgemont High he became the brunt of his castmates jokes who teased him about his connection to his uncle, uber-famous Godfather and Apocalypse Now director Francis Ford Coppola.

That’s the only film you’ll ever see him credited as Nicolas Coppola as to avoid any further insinuations that nepotism was afoot and to strike out on his own with an identity separate to his Uncle Francis he soon after changed his name and thus the force of nature that is Nicolas Cage was born – a moniker partly inspired by experimental composer John Cage and partly by Marvel Comics superhero Luke Cage.

Funnily enough, despite his claims of wanting to distance himself from his uncle, Cage went on to audition for a part in Coppola’s The Outsiders (he lost out to Matt Dillon) and later nabbed roles in Rumble Fish and Peggy Sue Got Married. So maybe a bit of nepotism isn’t such a bad thing after all, Nic?