Lynda Hirsch on Soaps

Q: I noticed on the Daytime Emmys that the actress who plays Brenda on "General Hospital" changed her last name. Why? Also, have many actors changed their names during their careers? — Roberto, Oakland, Calif.

A: Vanessa Marcil, who returns to "GH" in early August, changed her last name because she just got married. The actress and Carmine Giovinazzo, who plays Detective Danny Messer on "CSI: NY," married recently. Marcil decided to hyphenate her name. It is a twist for Marcil: When she was engaged to her "GH" co-star Tyler Baker (Nikolas), she wanted him to change his last name to hers. The actor demurred, but he did change his name. He became Tyler Christopher.

As for other actors changing their names, in the 1950s and 1960s, actors' real names were changed by the studios, which felt that the audience would not connect with an ethnic or hard-to-pronounce name. So there were names like Troy Donahue (Merle Johnson Jr.), Tab Hunter (Andrew Kelm) and Rip Torn (Elmore Rual Torn Jr.). Roy Scherer became Rock Hudson. His agent thought he needed a hipper moniker. He spun a globe and took the Hudson River and the Rock of Gibraltar. Voila, Rock Hudson.

In an interesting switch, going from an old Hollywood type is Portia de Rossi, whose real name is Mandy Rogers.

"Bold and Beautiful's" John McCook (Eric) was one of the last contract players under the old Warner Bros. system where actors were paid a weekly salary and assigned to their projects or loaned out.

That system is long gone. Jack Warner, the renowned crusty head of the studio, told McCook to change his name. The Screen Actors Guild has a rule that no two actors can have the same name. When McCook went down to SAG, he was told his recommended name was taken. He went to Warner, who asked, "What is it?" McCook explained. Warner replied, "You're the Irish kid. Your real name sounds perfectly Irish to me. Keep it." McCook noticed that Warner was looking at a list of names. When a new actor came in, he simply looked on the list, and that was the actor's new name.

Some actors choose to change their name or add their marital name to the mix. When Lisa Brown (Iva, "As the World Turns"; Nola, "Guiding Light") married her onscreen "GL" love interest Tom Nielsen (Floyd), she added his name to hers. In fact, during the switch, I had done an interview with her. I did not know there was a name change. I got a call from the show's head PR agent and was told Brown wanted only to be known as Lisa Brown Nielsen. When the couple divorced eight years later, she dropped her married name.

One of the strangest name changes was Steven Fletcher (Brad Vernon, "One Life to Live"), when he changed his name to Steven Blizzard. The reason? He had made a bet with his co-star Nana Visitor (birth name: Nana Tucker). At the time, there was a fad called bumper hugging. A person would run toward the back of a moving and try to jump on the bumper. Sounds like fun ... not. Fletcher was unable to grab onto the bumper. The punishment for losing the bet was changing his last name to Blizzard.

To find out more about Lynda Hirsch and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate web page at www.creators.com.

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