‘The Young and the Restless’ Star Eric Braeden Said Changing His Name Was 1 of the ‘Most Painful Decisions’ He’s Ever Made
While daytime television fans have surely heard the name Eric Braeden before, as Braeden has portrayed Victor Newman on The Young and the Restless for the past four decades. However, these fans probably would not bat an eye if the name Hans Gudegast was mentioned.
Indeed, most Y&R fans are simply unaware that Eric Braeden’s given name is Hans Gudegast. Read on to learn more about Braeden’s upbringing and why the 81-year-old actor decided to change his name when making it to Hollywood.
How Eric Braeden went from living in a German village to Hollywood
Hans Gudegast was born in the small German village of Bredenbek in the spring of 1941. The little boy would cheat death before even reaching the age of four. As the young boy had been born in Germany during the midst of World War II, violence was all around.
According to IMDb, on January 30, 1945, little Hans Gudegast was one of the civilians aboard the MV Wilhelm Gustloff, a German-armed military transport ship that was evacuating German civilians and military refugees across the Baltic Sea.
The ship was ultimately sunk by the Soviet submarine S-13. An estimated 9,000 people died, according to Britannica, which marked the largest loss of life in a single ship sinking in history. Somehow, little Hans Gudegast made it out alive.
After cheating death and living an otherwise uneventful childhood, Gudegast packed his back when he turned 18 years old and headed to the States. Of this decision, he later told CBS, “I saw America as a land of opportunity, but also as the land of adventure, the land of cowboys and Indians.”
After arriving in New York via ocean liner, Gudegast headed to Galveston, Texas, to meet up with his cousin, Dr. Maren Bakker. After working for his cousin for a short time at a medical school lab, Gudegast moved to Missoula, Montana, to attend the University of Montana on a track and field scholarship.
The painful process of choosing a new name to better fit into the Hollywood scene
While at the University of Montana, Gudegast made a documentary of his journey of conquering the Salmon River, or the “River of No Return,” in Idaho. After making the documentary, he decided to head to Los Angeles to find a distributor for his film. Gudegast soon fell in love with the city and stayed to pursue his own acting career.
After just a few months in Hollywood, Gudegast landed a number of acting roles. According to IMDb, throughout the 1960s, he appeared in shows like Combat!, Mission Impossible, The Virginian, and The Rat Patrol. By 1970, Gudegast began to feel the pressure from Hollywood to get rid of his German name and change it to something that would be more marketable and appealing to an American audience.
According to CBS, it was when Gudegast landed the starring role in the film Colossus: The Forbin Project, where he would be the first German actor to play an American in a major Hollywood film, that the studio seriously began to pressure him to change his name.
The decision was painful for Gudegast, but he knew anglicizing his professional name was what was best for his acting career. Hans Gudegast eventually landed on the name of Eric Braeden. Of this decision, he told CBS,
“Eric is a family name, and Braeden is from the name of my village in Germany. Changing my name was one of the most painful decisions I’ve ever made, so I needed to choose a name that I could still identify with.”
Becoming one of the most iconic soap actors of all-time
Daytime television fans will undoubtedly recognize the name Eric Braeden. A decade after changing his name to appease Hollywood, Braeden landed the role of Victor Newman on the CBS soap The Young and the Restless. Braeden has maintained his role as the business mogul since 1980. In 1998, Braeden won a Daytime Emmy for his portrayal of the character.
What may be more impressive is that Braeden is still portraying Victor Newman at 81-years-old. In 2020, Braeden celebrated his 40th work anniversary with The Young and the Restless and is still going strong today. From cheating death as a boy to becoming one of the most iconic soap actors of all time, Eric Braeden has lived a very eventful life over the last 81 years.
