Michael Keaton is back on the big screen in Tim Burton’s “Beetlejuice,” which is aiming to cross the $100 million mark in its opening weekend at the domestic box office. The long-awaited sequel could be the last time Oscar-nominated actor Michael Keaton is officially credited, his stage name since he began his career in 1978.
Talk to People's Magazine In a new cover story, Keaton says he plans to change his official acting credentials to something closer to his birth name, Michael Douglas. Keaton couldn’t use his real name when he was getting his Screen Actors Guild card in the late 1970s because there was already a Michael Douglas in Hollywood (and a very well-known one, at the time). He went by the name “Mike Douglas,” a talk show host.
“I was looking in the phone book, and I don't remember if it was a phone book or not,” Keaton said of finding his last name on stage. “I must have been like, 'I don't know, let me think of something here.' And I said, 'Oh, that sounds reasonable.'”
Keaton stated that he wanted to use a combination of the two names as his official acting name: Michael Keaton Douglas. He revealed that he had wanted to use this name in his film “Knox Goes Away”, in which he also starred, but had forgotten about it.
“I said, ‘Hey, as a warning, my credit is going to be Michael Keaton Douglas.’ And it just completely slipped my mind,” Keaton said. “And I forgot to give them enough time to put it together and create it. But it’s going to happen.”
Keaton starred in “Knox Goes Away” as a hitman trying to patch things up with his son before dementia takes hold. The supporting cast included James Marsden, Suzy MacKinnon, Marcia Gay Harden and Al Pacino. Varieties review: “Knox Goes Away is a silky, engaging thriller directed by its star. In addition to being a detective thriller that grips you as a detective thriller should, it may be one of the best dramas about dementia I’ve ever seen… As a thriller about a hired killer, Knox Goes Away, in my opinion, surpasses even David Fincher’s carefully crafted but somewhat hollow The Killer. That’s because Keaton, in every scene, blends execution with humanity.
No matter what happens with his career, fans may see Michael Keaton Douglas in the closing credits. Beetlejuice, starring Michael Keaton, officially opens in theaters on September 6 from Warner Bros.
