Michael Keaton's Real Name Is Michael Douglas. Now, After Decades in Showbiz, He’s Going to Start Using It (Exclusive)

Mar. 15, 2025

As Hollywood legend has it, whenMichael Keatonwas pursuing a show business career in the 1970s, he picked his stage name out of a phone book.

He couldn’t use his birth name, Michael Douglas, since theScreen Actors Guildprohibits members from using another member’s professional name.

The union already had a Michael Douglas (the futureWall StreetOscar winner) and a Mike Douglas (the talk show host). So he became Michael Keaton.

Asked about the phone book story, Keaton tells PEOPLE he’s not quite sure how he opted for the moniker that’s appeared on dozens of movie posters.

“I was looking through — I can’t remember if it was a phone book,” says Keaton, 72, raising those famously expressive eyebrows at times as he talks. “I must’ve gone, ‘I don’t know, let me think of something here.’ And I went, ‘Oh, that sounds reasonable.’”

Michael Keaton on the cover of PEOPLE.

And while the name “Keaton” has served him well, he’d like to go back to using a hybrid of his birth name and stage name — Michael Keaton Douglas — on professional projects.

He intended to do it on his most recent directorial effort,Knox Goes Away, a dramatic thriller released earlier this year, but he “forgot” amid the stress of making the movie.

“I said, ‘Hey, just as a warning, my credit is going to be Michael Keaton Douglas.’ And it totally got away from me. And I forgot to give them enough time to put it in and create that. But that will happen,” continues Keaton, whose name appears as Michael Keaton in his latest movie,Beetlejuice Beetlejuice, the follow up to the hit 1988 comedyBeetlejuice.

In the cover story, Keaton — who also appears in the dramedyGoodrich, out in October — reflects on his rise from humble beginnings to movie star.

The youngest of seven children born to George Douglas, a civil engineer, and Leona, a homemaker, Keaton says his childhood spent in the Pittsburgh suburbs was “fantastic,” even though his parents had modest means.

“I was always entertaining. Because when you’re the youngest, you have a built-in audience. And they were receptive,” he says. “I realized I could make people laugh and get out of trouble or get into trouble.”

Michael Keaton in ‘Beetlejuice Beetlejuice.'.Courtesy of Warner Bros. Pictures

Courtesy of Warner Bros. Pictures

It wasn’t until he dropped out of Ohio’s Kent State University as a young man that he began acting in earnest.

He landed a part in a local production of David Rabe’s dark comedySticks and Bones, and a newspaper critic took notice. “Someone said, ‘Hey, nice review.’ I had no idea what he was talking about,” recalls Keaton.

It would take several years of odd jobs— including breaking down sets and lighting shows at a PBS station for $2 per hour — before Keaton got his break in the 1979 sitcomWorking StiffsoppositeJim Belushi. It was canceled after one season.

It’s an understatement to say things worked out for Keaton.

In the 1980s he made a name for himself as a go-to comedic actor, thanks to turns in movies likeNight ShiftoppositeHenry WinklerandMr. Momwith Teri Garr before starring in films likeBeetlejuiceandBatman, which sent his career into the stratosphere.

Michael Keaton and Mila Kunis in ‘Goodrich.'.Courtesy

Courtesy

More recently, he’s racked up many accolades: Keaton earned a Best Actor Oscar nomination for playing a washed up actor trying to revive his career in 2014’sBirdman, andhe won an Emmy, a Golden Globe and a Screen Actors Guild Award for his work as a doctor dealing with the opioid crisis in the 2021Hulu limited seriesDopesick.

And while it’s an honor to be nominated, it’s really nice to win. “It’s fun for sure,” says Keaton. “I don’t downplay that stuff.”

Beetlejuice Beetlejuiceis in theaters Friday, Sept. 6.

For more on Michael Keaton, pick up the new issue of PEOPLE.

source: people.com