Nicolas Cage has spent more than four decades as one of Hollywood’s most distinctive presences \u2014 an Oscar winner, a box office star, and a performer whose range has stretched from “Leaving Las Vegas” to “National Treasure” to “Adaptation.” He has also, for most of that career, been carrying a name that was not legally his own. Until last year.<\/p>\n
Cage, born Nicolas Kim Coppola on Jan. 7, 1964, is the nephew of filmmaker Francis Ford Coppola and the cousin of director Sofia Coppola. When he began his career in the early 1980s, he adopted the stage name “Nicolas Cage” \u2014 inspired by Marvel Comics’ Luke Cage and composer John Cage \u2014 to avoid the advantages and expectations that came with the Coppola name. He was first credited as Nicolas Coppola in the 1982 film “Fast Times at Ridgemont High.” Every credit since has read “Nicolas Cage.”<\/p>\n
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In a recent interview with Variety<\/a>, promoting his upcoming series “Spider-Noir” and the theatrical film “Madden,” Cage disclosed that what had been a professional name for more than 40 years is now his \u00a0legal name<\/a>. The disclosure answered a question many had assumed was long settled.<\/p>\n The reason he gave was characteristic Cage \u2014 candid, quotable, and entirely his own. “I am Nick Cage. I changed my name legally last year,” he told Variety. “I’m Nick Cage in life, and I’m Nick Cage on camera. ‘Tis better to be the patriarch of my own little \u00a0family<\/a> than the clown cousin on the margins of someone else’s, so I decided I’m going to bring it on and be ‘Cage.'”<\/p>\n Discover more<\/span><\/p>\n Download Reference Apps<\/span><\/p>\n Explore Name Books<\/span><\/p>\n Book Concert Tickets<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n <\/ins><\/div>\n It was a line that landed immediately \u2014 and made people look back at a decision made 40 years ago in an entirely new light.<\/p>\n The story of how Nicolas Coppola became Nicolas Cage is one of the most telling decisions in Hollywood history. As a teenager in the early 1980s, Cage was sent to live with his uncle Francis Ford Coppola and the director’s wife Eleanor for a year in Napa Valley, California, after his parents divorced. He was put into a local school, felt out of place, and watched his grades collapse. The experience shaped him \u2014 but so did the name.<\/p>\n When he began working on film sets, the Coppola connection followed him everywhere. “People would not stop saying things like, ‘<\/p>\n BookMovie Tickets<\/p>\n \n I love the smell of Nicolas in the morning,’<\/p><\/blockquote>\n![](\"\/\/image-2.apost.com\/media\/articletranslation\/2026\/06\/02\/08\/7b9a55d2fe751a6bd61d1d2df0304d20_500x1.jpg\")
Nicolas Cage, Sofia Coppola (2002) (IMAGO \/ Rideaux-PicturePerfect)<\/span><\/p>\n
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