At age 10, Leonardo’s agent advised him to change his name to Lenny Williams in a move to improve his appeal for getting roles. The agent thought his name sounded too ethnic. In fact, the agent refused to sign Leo until he went along with the name change idea.
However, Leo continually refused the plea. He later tried to get representation by the agent and was finally accepted using his real name, as he’d wanted all along. Before he knew it, the “ethnic” name was taking him places, and he landed his role on the hit TV show, Growing Pains. And now – really – what would the world be without “Leonardo DiCaprio”?
