To the public, the actor and comedian Jamie Foxx has always been Jamie. But his birth name was Eric Marlon Bishop, which couldn't be any more different from his stage moniker.
And to be fair, his stage name does fit him. Even Foxx's daughter, Corinne, has adopted her dad's famous surname for her own career. It's not surprising though; the two are pretty close.
But why did Eric Bishop decide to become Jamie Foxx in the first place?
He's had a pretty interesting acting career, and his success can't exactly be attributed to the name he chose. But Jamie's early foray into comedic work helped shape his decision to change his name.
The story goes, notes The Times, that Eric Bishop was always funny growing up, but he didn't set foot on a stage until someone dared him to do stand-up comedy. And while his birth name was probably just fine for most types of acting work, comedy required a particular strategy.
Jamie recalled that he originally chose his new first name because it was "ambiguous." The as-yet-inexperienced comedian happened to notice that female comedians were often called up first. Selecting a gender-neutral name meant he may have better odds at heading up first. But it also meant no one could really be biased against him because they wouldn't know his gender ahead of time.
It's a bit of an interesting conundrum, especially for women who've struggled to be taken seriously while carrying a more feminine name. Diving into research on name biases is a pretty involved pastime. But Jamie was suitably "androgynous," and so it went.
In Foxx's case, he selected a first name he felt he could live with but would help ensure he had a simpler time of fighting against any biases. As for the last name, there's another story there.
The Independent quoted Foxx as saying that he chose his surname in tribute to Redd Foxx, the headlining comedian from 'Sanford and Son.' And though he might've thought, early on his career, that he had some big shoes to fill, it turns out that Foxx made his name his own.
In chatting with The Independent, Foxx explained that part of the reason he was so fantastic in the film 'Ray' was that his grandmother, who could barely afford to raise him, insisted he take piano lessons as a child.
It was that rough childhood -- complete with being essentially abandoned by his birth parents (his grandmother's adopted daughter and her boyfriend) -- that helped shape Jamie Foxx into the man he is today. And he probably doesn't regret any of it -- especially choosing the name that would carry him through to significant fame and fortune.
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