Michael Keaton: 25 Interesting Facts About The Actor's Life And Career

Anybody who has seen just a handful of the best Michael Keaton movies can tell you that the actor is one of the most unique and versatile talents of his time or, perhaps, of all time. For instance, in 1988, he put his high-energy comedic skills on full display as the title role of the Beetlejuice cast and, just one year later, proved himself to be one of the best actors to play Batman by showing his quieter and more reserved side in Tim Burton’s DC movie classic.

There are even more details about the beloved Academy Award nominee to be impressed by. Take a look at the following 25 intriguing Michael Keaton facts below — starting with the truth about his name.

Michael Keaton’s Actual Last Name Is Douglas

It is not uncommon for actors to adopt a stage name when they join the Screen Actor’s Guild, but in the case of Michael Keaton, it was necessary to avoid being confused with two other noted celebrities. As Keaton revealed to Stephen Colbert on The Late Show in 2017, he was born in 1951 in Pittsburgh as Micheal Douglas — a name he shares with the Academy Award-winning actor, as well as long-time talk show host, Mike Douglas. However, he still uses his legal name on a regular basis, such as when he books a limo to meet him at the airport and comes face-to-face with a driver who expected to pick up the star of Wall Street and the Ant-Man movies.

He Worked As Prop Handler For Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood

Keaton’s very first acting credit is Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood, for which he appeared in three episodes in the mid-1970s. However, as a CBS Sunday Morning profile mentions, his contribution to the classic children’s program, hosted by the late Fred Rogers, precedes his time in front of the camera as his first gig in the industry was working in the prop department for PBS.

He Starred On A Mary Tyler Moore-Led Variety Show With David Letterman

Before breaking into movies, one of Keaton’s first major TV gigs was a short-lived variety show hosted by the legendary Mary Tyler Moore that was aptly titled, The Mary Tyler Moore Hour. One of his fellow co-stars was none other than future late night TV host David Letterman. The two old friends bonded over this time in their careers during Keaton’s final appearance on Letterman’s version of The Late Show, for which he brought an “embarrassing” clip of them performing a dance number with Moore.

He Had A Brief Stand-Up Comedy Career Early On

Considering the many hilarious performances he is known for, it is easy to believe that one of the actor’s earliest jobs was performing stand-up comedy. He discussed this on The Ellen DeGeneres Show, recalling how his love for comedy convinced him to give stand-up a shot in New York in the early 1980s. However, when he started to get more acting roles soon after, he realized that was his true passion and began committing to that full time.

Keaton Used Bruce Springsteen’s “Tenth Avenue Freeze Out” To Get Into Character For Night Shift

The film that kickstarted Keaton’s career into movie star territory was the 1982 comedy, Night Shift — also one of the first movies directed by Ron Howard — which follows a pair of after-hours morgue attendants (Henry Winkler and Keaton) who help a struggling sex worker (Shelley Long) and her colleagues by becoming their new “love brokers.” An article on GoldenGlobes.com reveals that Keaton prepared for his audition to play the scene-stealing Bill “Billy Blaze” Blazejowski by playing Bruce Springsteen’s 1975 hit, “Tenth Avenue Freeze-Out” — a method he adopted on set, too.

Keaton Turned Down Splash For Mr. Mom

Keaton had a chance to work with Ron Howard again on Splash, which he confirmed during a 2012 interview for Grantland. However, he could not remember if he was offered Tom Hanks’ role as a man in love with a mermaid (Daryl Hannah) or as the characters’s brother, played by John Candy. Anyway, Keaton wound up passing on the 1984 fantasy rom-com in favor of what would be his leading role in the John Hughes-penned 1983 comedy, Mr. Mom, as a family man tasked with household duties when he gets fired and his wife (Teri Garr) re-enters the workforce.

Keaton Claimed There Were “Huge Johnny Dangerously Fans” At The Vatican

While appearing on Today to promote 2015’s Spotlight, Keaton was told by Savannah Guthrie that the Vatican was surprisingly supportive of the Best Picture Oscar winner, which is based on the true story of the Boston Globe’s investigation into abuse cases kept hidden by Catholic Church. That prompted the actor to mention how he once met people at the Vatican who admired his work as the title role of the underrated 1984 movie, Johnny Dangerously. He does not go much deeper into it, but I would love to hear more of the story, especially considering how the mobster movie spoof features Dom DeLuise in a somewhat mocking portrayal of the Pope.

Keaton Was Heavily Involved With Creating Betelgeuse’s Look

Keaton’s next great titular role in a comedy was in his first of several great Tim Burton movies, 1988’s Beetlejuice, as the crude and grotesque bio-exorcist Betelgeuse — which the actor is reprising for the upcoming sequel — whose creation also involved many of his own ideas. He explained to Charlie Rose in 2014 how Burton’s description of the character existing “in all times and all spaces” convinced him he should have a wardrobe that spans decades, hair like he “stuck [his] finger in an electrical outlet,” rotten teeth, and moldy skin.

Beetlejuice’s Afterlife Waiting Room Was Keaton’s Idea

Keaton’s work with Beetlejuice’s makeup and wardrobe department was just one of his contributions to the beloved horror-comedy movie from behind the camera. According to an oral history about the film for CBC Radio, it was the actor’s idea to design the afterlife as some sort of “unemployment office,” which led to the creation of the waiting room that ghostly couple Adam (Alec Baldwin) and Barbara Maitland (Geena Davis) must journey to.

Keaton’s Clean And Sober Performance Earned Him The Role Of Batman

In the same year Beetlejuice came out, Keaton followed his successful string of comedies by surprising audiences with a leading role in a serious drama from director Glenn Gordon Caron called Clean and Sober. According to an article published in El País, it was actually his performance there as a fast-talking, hot shot real estate agent seeking treatment for his drug addiction that convinced producer Jon Peters that he would would be the perfect choice for his upcoming Batman movie, to which director Burton agreed.

Adam West’s Batman Was Keaton’s Only Exposure Before Being Approached For The Role

Keaton’s performance as the lead of 1989’s Batman cast and in the 1992 sequel is absolutely nothing like that of his predecessor, Adam West, whose famously lighter portrayal of the “Dark Knight” is known for many laugh-out-loud moments on the 1960s TV show and its theatrically released spin-off. Yet, as Keaton revealed to Marc Maron on his podcast, WTF, that iteration of the vigilante was all the actor knew when Burton asked him to read for the role.

Fans Were Against Keaton’s Batman Casting

Agreeing to play a character as iconic as Batman, typically, comes complete with a healthy dose of intense premature backlash from fans — a phenomenon that is certainly not lost on Michael Keaton. According to Uproxx, thousands of fans wrote letters expressing their disapproval of the actor playing Bruce Wayne, citing his primarily comedic reputation. Of course, they would end up eating the words, and years of demand for his return to the role would pay off when he appeared in 2023’s The Flash.

Keaton Was Completely Unable To Hear While Wearing Batman’s Cowl

I hope that when Keaton reprised the character in The Flash — which was full of callbacks to his Batman movies — they gave him a suit that did not obstruct his hearing. According to an interview with NPR, the actor ran into that problem on the set of Batman while in full costume, on top of already being claustrophobic. Smartly, Keaton channeled these isolating circumstances into his performance as the tormented vigilante.

Keaton Accidentally Spoiled A Batman Plot Twist On Late Night

Especially when it comes to new superhero movies, actors are very strictly instructed to avoid mentioning crucial plot details, but because those kinds of films were few and far between when Batman came out, no one thought to warn Keaton before he went on Late Night to promote the flick. In response to Letterman asking what Jack Nicholson’s Joker did to ruffle his feathers, he happened to mention how — SPOILER ALERT — Bruce eventually finds out that the criminal killed his parents, before realizing he was “kind of blowing the plot.” Luckily that did not prevent the blockbuster from becoming the most popular movie of the year.

Keaton Requested Less Dialogue In Batman Returns

When he reprised the role of Batman in Tim Burton’s controversial sequel, Batman Returns, screenwriter Daniel Waters wanted to give the hero a larger presence, which included more dialogue. However, as the writer revealed in a DVD featurette from 2005 called Batman Returns Heroes: Batman, the actor pushed back on this idea, believing that the less his character said, the better.

Keaton Hated The Batman Forever Script

Val Kilmer would assume the role of Batman when director Joel Schumacher took over the franchise after Burton left, and Keaton followed soon after. The actor pulled no punches when revealing to THR that he passed on a third outing because, in his eyes, the Batman Forever script “sucked.” He also highly disagreed with the late filmmaker’s intent to make the Dark Knight’s story much lighter than the previous installments.

Keaton Hasn’t Seen A Batman Movie All The Way Through Since Leaving The Role

In 1998, when Conan O’Brien asked Keaton how he felt about the live-action Batman movies since Returns, he could not give a fair answer because he only got to see bits and pieces of 1995’s Batman Forever and 1997’s Batman & Robin. As he revealed on Huff Post Live in 2015 when asked about his thoughts on Ben Affleck assuming the role, he never got around to watching Christopher Nolan’s Dark Knight trilogy all the way through, despite seeing enough to praise Christian Bale’s acting chops and late Oscar winner Heath Ledger’s Joker portrayal.

George Clooney Almost Played Jack Frost Before Keaton Stepped In

One of Keaton’s successors to his superhero role — for the aforementioned Batman & Robin — was Academy Award winner George Clooney, who actually was the first choice to play one of Keaton’s later roles. In 1997, Variety reported that the former ER cast member dropped out of the title role of the holiday movie Jack Frost, leaving Keaton to step in, but only after the Jim Henson company had modeled the snowman Jack is reincarnated into after Clooney. In a TikTok, David Hopping points out the similarities between the puppet and previously chosen actor.

Keaton Was Approached To Reprise Ray Nicolette In Out Of Sight Before Jackie Brown Was Finished

One of the only other characters Keaton would play more than once is FBI agent Ray Nicolette — a role he initially tried convincing Quentin Tarantino not to cast him as for 1997’s Jackie Brown, until he conceded. However, he seemed to enjoy it enough to reprise him for another Elmore Leonard adaptation, Out of Sight. In fact, according to the crime thriller’s DVD commentary (via Film School Rejects), director Steven Soderbergh called Tarantino asking to see footage of Keaton from then then-unfinished Jackie Brown before asking Keaton to come in for a cameo, which he did for no charge.

Keaton Almost Played Jack On Lost

It was not until recently when Keaton made his big return to TV on the acclaimed miniseries, Dopesick, but it could have been sooner if he agreed to star on Lost as Jack Shepherd. As revealed by THR, J.J. Abrams told the actor that his character was originally meant to die by the end of the first episode, which intrigued him, until the idea was scrapped and Keaton, not having interest in committing to a series, dropped out, allowing Matthew Fox to step in.

A Man Near The Birdman Set Showed Keaton His Beetlejuice Tattoo Without Recognizing The Actor

Keaton was never desperate for a comeback when he gave his Oscar-nominated performance as an actor desperate for a comeback in 2014’s Birdman, but his public image might have been in some need of a revival based on one encounter from the set of the Best Picture-winner that he recalled on The Graham Norton Show.

A crew member pulled the actor aside and brought him to a man who rolled up his sleeve to reveal an incredibly detailed tattoo resembling his character from Beetlejuice, which impressed Keaton immensely, while the tattoo’s owner just stood there unfazed. After the stranger took off, it struck Keaton that the man never realized he was showing his tattoo to the man who played Betelgeuse.

Michael Keaton Screened Birdman At His Home For Friends, Including Jack Nicholson

While promoting Birdman on Jimmy Kimmel Live, Keaton recalled a screening of Alejandro Gonzalez Iñárritu’s dazzling satire that he hosted at home for celebrity guests that included his Batman co-star, Jack Nicholson. He revealed that he was especially keen on hearing the Academy Award-winning legend’s thoughts on the movie — having known he used to screen his own movies for friends in the past — and, luckily, Nicholson was impressed.

Keaton Messed With Tom Holland By Quoting Batman On The Spider-Man: Homecoming Set

Keaton would make his first, long-awaited return to the comic book movie genre in a whole different role from a whole different universe (the MCU’s Vulture — one of the best Spider-Man movie villains yet), but, apparently, still had Batman on the brain. Tom Holland told ComicBookMovie.com that his Spider-Man: Homecoming co-star liked to jokingly taunt him by quoting his 1989 hit at every given opportunity.

Before Making Dopesick, Keaton Lost A Nephew To Drugs

When he accepted his SAG Award for leading the Dopesick cast as a doctor addicted to OxyContin, Keaton revealed that he had a personal connection to the Hulu miniseries’ fact-based subject matter, having lost his own nephew to drugs. According to a subsequent article by The Independent, the actor’s 34-year-old relative, Michael Douglas Scichilone, passed away in 2016 following an addiction to fentanyl and heroin.

Keaton Partnered With A Construction Company To Develop Environmentally Friendly Building Solutions In Pittsburgh

While being profiled for 60 Minutes in 2021, Keaton revealed that, in addition to acting, he is passionate about being a Pittsburgh native and the environment. These two interests motivated him to invest in a company called Nexii, with the intent to create greener solutions for construction of a plant built in his hometown.

Michael Keaton is the kind of actor I never tire of seeing onscreen. After collecting these behind-the-scenes facts, he sounds like a pretty good guy offscreen, too.