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I've always maintained my name will not define my films, my films will define my name. But I wish I was called Steve, or something else.

The Oscar nomination made me a recognizable name to other actors and people in general.

It's really good to have so distinctive a name as an actress. No one ever forgets it. My sister and brother are called Perdita and Rollo. Actually, my family calls me 'Hollyhocks.'

My father and Mary Pickford were the reigning stars of not just Hollywood but of the world. Well, to bear my father's name was hard enough, but to work in pictures to boot was pretty foolhardy. In fact, my father was totally against it. He thought I should be off getting a good education and go into some safe profession.

I don't think of myself as a movie star. I'm a movie worker. I come from a railroad family. I come from the corn.

Thomas Rhett Akins doesn't sound like a rock star name. I didn't leave Akins out to convince people my dad wasn't my dad. I've always been called Thomas Rhett.

My nickname is Bondy. But not because of the Bond films - it was my surname a long time before I did those.

My own aunt was Merle Oberon, so movie stardom was not a faraway mystery to me as a child: it was part of the family business.