Michael Keaton Reveals Plans to Use His Real Name For Future Credits

Michael Keaton is gearing up for a highly anticipated return to the screen with Tim Burton’s Beetlejuice Beetlejuice, set to release this weekend. The film, featuring a star-studded cast, is projected to be a commercial hit. However, for fans of Keaton, this sequel might mark the final appearance of the actor under his well-known stage name, which he adopted at the start of his career in 1978.

In a recent interview, Keaton hinted that he might change his name, suggesting this could be the last time he is credited as “Michael Keaton.”

In an interview with People magazine, Michael Keaton revealed plans to change his official acting credit to something that reflects his birth name, Michael Douglas. At the start of his career, he couldn’t use his birth name due to its association with another actor with the same name Michael Douglas, and even a talk show host named Mike Douglas. Keaton announced that moving forward, he will adopt a new stage name combining both his birth and stage names: Michael Keaton Douglas.

Sharing about how he came up with the name Michael Keaton, he mentioned that after going through the list of choices for changing his last name, he chose one that looked perfect to him at the time. He told the publication, “I was looking through — I can’t remember if it was a phone book. I must’ve gone, ‘I don’t know, let me think of something here.’ And I went, ‘Oh, that sounds reasonable’.”

The actor added that he wanted to do this for his new directorial credit on Knox Goes Away. He also stars in the film and mentioned that he is seeing to it that the new credit is added in time. In Knox Goes Away, Keaton is a contract killer whose heartfelt aim is to reunite with his son before he dies of Alzheimer’s illness. The cast includes James Marsden, Suzy McKinnon, Marcia Gay Harden, Al Pacino and others.

Meanwhile, his latest film, Beetlejuice Beetlejuice is the sequel to the 1988 supernatural comedy Beetlejuice. It also stars Winona Ryder, Jenna Ortega, Willem Dafoe, Monica Bellucci and Justin Theroux. The film also premiered at the Venice Film Festival this year.