Any female performers who share a last name with their husband?
March 30, 2014 1:04 PM Subscribe
I've noticed that female performers tend to keep the surname they were born with, if they don't come up with a whole new artist name entirely. They hardly ever take their husband's name. Please help me find a decent list of exceptions. I am looking for answers in two categories:
1. Women who started as performers, then changed their last names when they got married.
2. Women who got married and took their husbands' last names, then embarked on successful performance careers.
Bonus points for women from the above cases whose husbands aren't famous themselves.
Important: I am not interested in cases where the actress creates a hyphenation of her maiden name and her husband's name, like Farrah Fawcett-Majors, Jada Pinkett Smith, or Pamela Anderson Lee. Unfortunately those are the only ones I can think of!
Camille Grammer from Real Housewives of Beverley Hills
posted by saradarlin at 1:13 PM on March 30, 2014
posted by saradarlin at 1:13 PM on March 30, 2014
For category 1, I'd guess that SAG/Equity stage name rules (as well as having a consistent name across your career) plays a part.
There's a decent list for category 2 here.
posted by holgate at 1:14 PM on March 30, 2014 [1 favorite]
There's a decent list for category 2 here.
posted by holgate at 1:14 PM on March 30, 2014 [1 favorite]
Roseanne Barr was "Roseanne Arnold" while she was married to Tom.
posted by Knappster at 1:15 PM on March 30, 2014 [7 favorites]
posted by Knappster at 1:15 PM on March 30, 2014 [7 favorites]
Katie Lee Gifford?
Does Martha Stewart count as a performer?
posted by ArbitraryAndCapricious at 1:18 PM on March 30, 2014
Does Martha Stewart count as a performer?
posted by ArbitraryAndCapricious at 1:18 PM on March 30, 2014
Mary Beth Hurt took (and kept) her first husband William's surname.
posted by Knappster at 1:20 PM on March 30, 2014
posted by Knappster at 1:20 PM on March 30, 2014
Susan Sarandon. Cyd Charisse.
posted by Iris Gambol at 1:23 PM on March 30, 2014 [1 favorite]
posted by Iris Gambol at 1:23 PM on March 30, 2014 [1 favorite]
Jessica Biel became Jessica Timberlake after she married Justin Timberlake.
posted by waldo at 1:23 PM on March 30, 2014
posted by waldo at 1:23 PM on March 30, 2014
Jessica Hynes was professionally known as Jessica Stevenson before her marriage.
posted by featherboa at 1:29 PM on March 30, 2014 [3 favorites]
posted by featherboa at 1:29 PM on March 30, 2014 [3 favorites]
Jessica Stevenson became Jessica Hynes five years after marrying non-performer Adam Hynes.
posted by Knappster at 1:29 PM on March 30, 2014 [2 favorites]
posted by Knappster at 1:29 PM on March 30, 2014 [2 favorites]
Linda McCartney.
posted by dotgirl at 1:40 PM on March 30, 2014 [2 favorites]
posted by dotgirl at 1:40 PM on March 30, 2014 [2 favorites]
Quite a lot of celebrity women actually legally change their names when they get married, even if they continue to bill themselves under their old stage names or use a hyphenated stage name. As an example, legally, Jennifer Garner changed her last name to Affleck, but she's still billed as Jennifer Garner, and Sarah Michelle Gellar changed her legal name to Sarah Michelle Prinze a few years ago, but is still billed under Gellar.
posted by jacquilynne at 1:42 PM on March 30, 2014 [3 favorites]
posted by jacquilynne at 1:42 PM on March 30, 2014 [3 favorites]
Phylicia Ayers-Allen (mom on the old Cosby Show) → Phylicia Rashad after her marriage to Ahmad (sp) Rashad.
posted by ROU_Xenophobe at 1:55 PM on March 30, 2014 [6 favorites]
posted by ROU_Xenophobe at 1:55 PM on March 30, 2014 [6 favorites]
Susan Sarandon.
Beyonce called her last tour the Mrs. Carter Tour, though that's a bit of a stretch.
posted by jeather at 2:05 PM on March 30, 2014
Beyonce called her last tour the Mrs. Carter Tour, though that's a bit of a stretch.
posted by jeather at 2:05 PM on March 30, 2014
Jamie-Lynn Sigler (a.k.a. Meadow Soprano) was briefly married and legally and professionally changed her name to Jamie-Lynn DiScala. She was credited for at least 1 season of Sopranos as Jamie-Lynn DiScala. She & her husband later divorced and she returned to using her maiden name. I assume she also legally changed it back as well.
posted by pecanpies at 2:31 PM on March 30, 2014 [3 favorites]
posted by pecanpies at 2:31 PM on March 30, 2014 [3 favorites]
Patty Loveless. She took on her first husband's name of Lovelace, but she spelled it Loveless to distance herself from actress Linda Lovelace. Also, it's a marvelous name for a country singer.
posted by mochapickle at 2:36 PM on March 30, 2014 [1 favorite]
posted by mochapickle at 2:36 PM on March 30, 2014 [1 favorite]
Melissa Fumero née Gallo of Brooklyn Nine-Nine fame.
posted by infinitewindow at 2:44 PM on March 30, 2014
posted by infinitewindow at 2:44 PM on March 30, 2014
Victoria Beckham
posted by mani at 3:05 PM on March 30, 2014 [2 favorites]
posted by mani at 3:05 PM on March 30, 2014 [2 favorites]
I favorited Phylicia Ayers-Allen / Phylicia Rashad because I remember her name changing on the opening credits of "The Cosby Show".
posted by epj at 3:17 PM on March 30, 2014 [1 favorite]
posted by epj at 3:17 PM on March 30, 2014 [1 favorite]
If this list could include Japanese performers, Yumi Matsutoya (aka Yuming) is probably the most famous example of this here. She began her career as Yumi Arai and had hit records (including an early hit called "Hikokigumo," which was used last year as the theme song of Studio Ghibli's The Wind Rises), then married producer Masataka Matsutoya.
posted by misozaki at 3:17 PM on March 30, 2014 [1 favorite]
posted by misozaki at 3:17 PM on March 30, 2014 [1 favorite]
Christine McVie.
Jenna Elfman.
Portia de Rossi is now Portia DeGeneres.
posted by ApathyGirl at 3:56 PM on March 30, 2014
Jenna Elfman.
Portia de Rossi is now Portia DeGeneres.
posted by ApathyGirl at 3:56 PM on March 30, 2014
Any female performers who share a last name with their husband?
Meg White. But he took her name.
posted by The corpse in the library at 4:43 PM on March 30, 2014 [6 favorites]
Meg White. But he took her name.
posted by The corpse in the library at 4:43 PM on March 30, 2014 [6 favorites]
Best answer: Lily Allen changed her professional name to her husband's name, but has since changed it back, apparently because her record company killed the name change. I suspect that's pretty common.
posted by pie ninja at 4:45 PM on March 30, 2014 [2 favorites]
posted by pie ninja at 4:45 PM on March 30, 2014 [2 favorites]
The British folk-rock singer Linda Thompson started her career as Linda Peters and kept her ex-husband's name after they split.
posted by theBigRedKittyPurrs at 5:42 PM on March 30, 2014
posted by theBigRedKittyPurrs at 5:42 PM on March 30, 2014
Beyonce called her last tour the Mrs. Carter Tour, though that's a bit of a stretch.
Actually, both she and Jay-Z changed their last names to Knowles-Carter.
posted by quiet coyote at 6:14 PM on March 30, 2014
Actually, both she and Jay-Z changed their last names to Knowles-Carter.
posted by quiet coyote at 6:14 PM on March 30, 2014
Susan Saradon was born Susan Tomalin, and has used her first husband's name throughout her career.
posted by padraigin at 6:34 PM on March 30, 2014
posted by padraigin at 6:34 PM on March 30, 2014
Roseanne Barr became Roseanne Arnold
posted by mama penguin at 6:57 PM on March 30, 2014
posted by mama penguin at 6:57 PM on March 30, 2014
Astrud Gilberto
Gloria Estefan
Gwen McCrae
Chaka Khan
Donna Summer and Sister Rosetta Tharpe used altered versions of their former husbands' names as their stage names.
posted by hydrophonic at 8:29 PM on March 30, 2014
Gloria Estefan
Gwen McCrae
Chaka Khan
Donna Summer and Sister Rosetta Tharpe used altered versions of their former husbands' names as their stage names.
posted by hydrophonic at 8:29 PM on March 30, 2014
Debrah Farentino took her husband, James Farentino's name. She was Debbie Mullowney when we were in high school.
posted by agatha_magatha at 10:45 PM on March 30, 2014
posted by agatha_magatha at 10:45 PM on March 30, 2014
Quite a lot of celebrity women actually legally change their names when they get married, even if they continue to bill themselves under their old stage names or use a hyphenated stage name. As an example, legally, Jennifer Garner changed her last name to Affleck, but she's still billed as Jennifer Garner, and Sarah Michelle Gellar changed her legal name to Sarah Michelle Prinze a few years ago, but is still billed under Gellar.
Maureen Lipman has written about not being able to fly because some unknowing assistant booked her tickets under Maureen Lipman - the name the world knows her by - while the legal name on her passport is Maureen Rosenthal because she took the name of her playwright husband, Jack Rosenthal.
I've worked in arts administration (although mostly not for big names) and this is really common. (The name thing, not messing up the flights.)
posted by the latin mouse at 12:14 AM on March 31, 2014
Maureen Lipman has written about not being able to fly because some unknowing assistant booked her tickets under Maureen Lipman - the name the world knows her by - while the legal name on her passport is Maureen Rosenthal because she took the name of her playwright husband, Jack Rosenthal.
I've worked in arts administration (although mostly not for big names) and this is really common. (The name thing, not messing up the flights.)
posted by the latin mouse at 12:14 AM on March 31, 2014
Cher was known as Cher Bono back in the day. And later, Cher Allman.
posted by Serene Empress Dork at 1:52 AM on March 31, 2014 [1 favorite]
posted by Serene Empress Dork at 1:52 AM on March 31, 2014 [1 favorite]
Lucy Lawless
posted by PlantGoddess at 3:57 AM on March 31, 2014
posted by PlantGoddess at 3:57 AM on March 31, 2014
I've noticed that female performers tend to keep the surname they were born with, if they don't come up with a whole new artist name entirely. They hardly ever take their husband's name.
Are you talking legally, or as they are credited? Because of the way SAG works, it's probably a lot easier for women who want to change their legal name to keep their performance name.
posted by spaltavian at 6:31 AM on March 31, 2014
Are you talking legally, or as they are credited? Because of the way SAG works, it's probably a lot easier for women who want to change their legal name to keep their performance name.
posted by spaltavian at 6:31 AM on March 31, 2014
Ronnie Spector
posted by neat graffitist at 6:41 AM on March 31, 2014
posted by neat graffitist at 6:41 AM on March 31, 2014
Response by poster: Thanks for all the great answers, people! I must admit that I didn't think about the situation that spaltavian and others mentioned, in which the performer uses a different legal name from her stage name. I also didn't realize how the SAG and record companies could be partially responsible for this.
I remain primarily interested in cases where the performer changes her "known performance name" to that of her husband, especially when said husband is not famous himself. And now I'm realizing, I'm even more interested in the very few cases where the couple didn't eventually divorce.
posted by oxisos at 11:58 AM on March 31, 2014
I remain primarily interested in cases where the performer changes her "known performance name" to that of her husband, especially when said husband is not famous himself. And now I'm realizing, I'm even more interested in the very few cases where the couple didn't eventually divorce.
posted by oxisos at 11:58 AM on March 31, 2014
Jenna Elfman
posted by saradarlin at 9:03 PM on March 31, 2014
posted by saradarlin at 9:03 PM on March 31, 2014
They've been married for almost 20 years, I think, but Nancy Walls took her husband Steve Carell's name 5 or so years ago.
posted by getawaysticks at 7:21 AM on April 1, 2014
posted by getawaysticks at 7:21 AM on April 1, 2014
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posted by thelonius at 1:13 PM on March 30, 2014