10 Hollywood Actors Names You Don't Really Know

Real Name: Maurice Micklewhite

Not a lot of people know this, but Michael Caine was actually born with the delightfully Dickensian-sounding name of Maurice Micklewhite. Early on in his career, when he was working mostly in theatrical productions, he went by the stage name Michael Scott.

Upon joining the British actors' union Equity, he discovered there was another actor with the name Michael Scott and had to quickly come up with a new alias. After spotting a cinema advertising its run of The Caine Mutiny which just so happened so star one of his all-time favourite actors Humphrey Bogart, he settled on the surname Caine … although he did briefly consider the name Michael Mutiny too.

Up until 2016, Caine was still legally known as Maurice Micklewhite but officially changed his name to Michael Caine by deed poll to avoid confusion when handing over his passport at airport security checks.

Plus, "My name is Maurice Micklewhite" doesn’t quite have the same ring to it.