One of the Hollywood celebrities that doesn’t use their true name when playing their most well-known roles is Michael J. Fox. Michael J. Fox is a well-known figure in the film industry thanks to his role as Marty McFly in the Back to the Future films.
Changing It Up
Movie actors frequently change their stage names because someone else has already claimed their name, but they also occasionally do it because they choose to go by a different moniker.
Behind It All
He actually goes by Michael A Fox and didn’t want to use Michael J Fox as his stage name because it sounded like “Michael, a fox.” By the way, the middle ‘A’ is actually for ‘Andrew,’ but he changed it to a ‘J’ to honor character actor Michael J. Pollard.
Michael J. Fox’s real name is so similar to his stage name that you might question why he even thought it was worthwhile to change it, but his justification is amazing. The Screen Actors Guild had another actor registered under the name Michael Fox, so the Back to the Future actor couldn’t simply use it as his name.