Laura, that is so easy to check. Well done you for outing Mr (du) Beke! Mind you it is an unusual name.
Silly Anton!
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Would love to say I outed him, but I think it's referring to all the people who emailed and searched him. I just passed the message on 
I'm going to be catty and say I'm surprised he's only 43 
I suppose it's not really any of our business if he wants to change his name!
I suppose it's not really any of our business if he wants to change his name!
Yeah surely there are more important issues then what Anton's calling himself. Clearly he doesnt want to be known as Tony so people should really leave it at that, surely it cant actually be considered 'news' anymore. Whatever he's calling himself Anton is Anton and thats all that matters <3
Originally Posted by katie_p:
“I'm going to be catty and say I'm surprised he's only 43
I suppose it's not really any of our business if he wants to change his name!”
“I'm going to be catty and say I'm surprised he's only 43
I suppose it's not really any of our business if he wants to change his name!”
Can't always believe Wikepedia - after all, it claims Len Goodman is 65! That means he has lost 3 years somewhere along the way!! Not that I blame Wiki - Len himself claims he was born in 1942!
As for Tony-cum-Anton - even he seems to be getting confused!
First he was Tony (Anthony) Beke;
then he became Anton du Beck,
now he seems to be Anton du Beke!!!
[I blame the BBC!!!!!!]
Originally Posted by elizabethjo:
“No he was Tony Beke at first, his father's name was Beke.
He decided to change his name when at a competition a long time ago the presenter announced him as Anton Du Beke for a joke. Everyone wondered who on earth it was coming onto the floor and then fell about laughing when they realised who it was. After that he decided he liked it and kept it.”
“No he was Tony Beke at first, his father's name was Beke.
He decided to change his name when at a competition a long time ago the presenter announced him as Anton Du Beke for a joke. Everyone wondered who on earth it was coming onto the floor and then fell about laughing when they realised who it was. After that he decided he liked it and kept it.”
Yup this is true - my parent used to compete and were there whent his happened. My Dad told me about it when he first saw Tony on SCD.
He said he asked Tony afterwards about it as he used to speak to him a bit,Tony said that he was sick of foreigh couples always coming over and winning and thought that the judges saw his name, knew he was English and makred him lowed. So for a joke decided to dance as 'Anton de Beck'.
Anyway he won the competition and has never gone back to Tony Beke.
And yes - all the other dancers on SCD laugh about it because it's a widely known story in the dancing circles.
Just been reading this thread and was amused by it
I do not suppose it really matters what he calls himself.
I do like Anton as a performer he does make me laugh and he is a great ballroom dancer. I think in the future he will go in to presenting as he seems fairly good at this.
I do not suppose it really matters what he calls himself.
I do like Anton as a performer he does make me laugh and he is a great ballroom dancer. I think in the future he will go in to presenting as he seems fairly good at this.
Why are we being so mean to Anton? It's hardly unusual for performers to change their names/have a stage name. Although a few people insist on this thread on calling him Tony, I doubt that was what he was christened/named - it's simply a diminutive of Anthony just as Anton can be. So let him call himself what he wants.
Originally Posted by missfrankiecat:
“Why are we being so mean to Anton? It's hardly unusual for performers to change their names/have a stage name. Although a few people insist on this thread on calling him Tony, I doubt that was what he was christened/named - it's simply a diminutive of Anthony just as Anton can be. So let him call himself what he wants.”
“Why are we being so mean to Anton? It's hardly unusual for performers to change their names/have a stage name. Although a few people insist on this thread on calling him Tony, I doubt that was what he was christened/named - it's simply a diminutive of Anthony just as Anton can be. So let him call himself what he wants.”
Exactly. Anthony being shortened to Anton is no different to Matthew being Matt yet no one picks on that.
Originally Posted by missfrankiecat:
“Why are we being so mean to Anton? It's hardly unusual for performers to change their names/have a stage name. Although a few people insist on this thread on calling him Tony, I doubt that was what he was christened/named - it's simply a diminutive of Anthony just as Anton can be. So let him call himself what he wants.”
“Why are we being so mean to Anton? It's hardly unusual for performers to change their names/have a stage name. Although a few people insist on this thread on calling him Tony, I doubt that was what he was christened/named - it's simply a diminutive of Anthony just as Anton can be. So let him call himself what he wants.”
I never actually noticed that before. I have no problem with him changing his name, at first I just thought it was weird he was denying it, but when I thought about it its not that weird for Anton. He probably does get annoyed if people keep asking him about it.
Originally Posted by missfrankiecat:
“Why are we being so mean to Anton? It's hardly unusual for performers to change their names/have a stage name. Although a few people insist on this thread on calling him Tony, I doubt that was what he was christened/named - it's simply a diminutive of Anthony just as Anton can be. So let him call himself what he wants.”
“Why are we being so mean to Anton? It's hardly unusual for performers to change their names/have a stage name. Although a few people insist on this thread on calling him Tony, I doubt that was what he was christened/named - it's simply a diminutive of Anthony just as Anton can be. So let him call himself what he wants.”
Agree with you there
Originally Posted by missfrankiecat:
“Why are we being so mean to Anton? It's hardly unusual for performers to change their names/have a stage name. Although a few people insist on this thread on calling him Tony, I doubt that was what he was christened/named - it's simply a diminutive of Anthony just as Anton can be. So let him call himself what he wants.”
“Why are we being so mean to Anton? It's hardly unusual for performers to change their names/have a stage name. Although a few people insist on this thread on calling him Tony, I doubt that was what he was christened/named - it's simply a diminutive of Anthony just as Anton can be. So let him call himself what he wants.”
That's because that is the name we have always known him by, and the name we call him when we are speaking to him face-to-face!
(He was Christened Anthony, but it was always shortened to Tony).
Originally Posted by whiplashed:
“Exactly. Anthony being shortened to Anton is no different to Matthew being Matt yet no one picks on that.”
“Exactly. Anthony being shortened to Anton is no different to Matthew being Matt yet no one picks on that.”
They might start to if he changed his name to Matt Du Cutliere (or something) ..... and then denied that he done so!!
Originally Posted by kaycee:
“That's because that is the name we have always known him by, and the name we call him when we are speaking to him face-to-face! ”
“That's because that is the name we have always known him by, and the name we call him when we are speaking to him face-to-face! ”
Oh come off it - he's been known as Anton for at least a decade now, so you're a bit out of date. I'm amazed he speaks to 'we' face to face if 'we' insist on calling him something else but then he has such good manners.
Originally Posted by missfrankiecat:
“Oh come off it - he's been known as Anton for at least a decade now, so you're a bit out of date. I'm amazed he speaks to 'we' face to face if 'we' insist on calling him something else but then he has such good manners.”
“Oh come off it - he's been known as Anton for at least a decade now, so you're a bit out of date. I'm amazed he speaks to 'we' face to face if 'we' insist on calling him something else but then he has such good manners.
”
Unless you happen to be fat in which case he is probably thinking you should be shot
Originally Posted by missfrankiecat:
“Oh come off it - he's been known as Anton for at least a decade now, so you're a bit out of date. I'm amazed he speaks to 'we' face to face if 'we' insist on calling him something else but then he has such good manners.”
“Oh come off it - he's been known as Anton for at least a decade now, so you're a bit out of date. I'm amazed he speaks to 'we' face to face if 'we' insist on calling him something else but then he has such good manners.
”
Well pardon me, missfrankiecat, but some of us have actually known him for a lot longer than a decade.
Originally Posted by katie_p:
“Unless you happen to be fat in which case he is probably thinking you should be shot”
“Unless you happen to be fat in which case he is probably thinking you should be shot
”
That is such an old arguement seriously! Its quite worrying that you have to drag stuff up that must have happened a year ago now just cos you want to find something else to slag him off over. Its quite sad really that people cant move on
Maybe that was a bit below the belt of me
I guess I just don't really buy the 'English gentleman' image Anton has. It's not really to do with the 'fat people should be shot' thing, I just find he comes over a bit fake. But I have never met him so I suppose I should reserve judgement.
I guess I just don't really buy the 'English gentleman' image Anton has. It's not really to do with the 'fat people should be shot' thing, I just find he comes over a bit fake. But I have never met him so I suppose I should reserve judgement.
I guess I can sort of see where you're coming from as to his tv personality, katie, but I met both him and Erin recently, and they are as wonderful as you could want them to be. I honestly couldn't think of a bad word to say about either of them. But I'm willing to accept a bit of bias on my part 
Originally Posted by fondantfancy:
“Anthony and Anton are so much nicer names than Tony.
Anton just suits him.
”
“Anthony and Anton are so much nicer names than Tony.
Anton just suits him.
”
I think so, too. he has a perfect right to call himself what he wants, and whatever his original name was is not important.
Originally Posted by laurab88:
“While former Strictly Come Dancing partner Esther Rantzen claims he has tampered with his name to make it sound more interesting, Anton is having none of it.
"That's rubbish" he scoffs. "Who told you that? My mother's Spanish and my father's Hungarian, so it's hardly suprising I'd have an unusual name"”
“While former Strictly Come Dancing partner Esther Rantzen claims he has tampered with his name to make it sound more interesting, Anton is having none of it.
"That's rubbish" he scoffs. "Who told you that? My mother's Spanish and my father's Hungarian, so it's hardly suprising I'd have an unusual name"”
I really did laugh at Anton awarding himself this casual bull****. So I'll call him Eeyore then- that's unusual. Fair's fair!
Anyway, he can rename himself whatever he likes. I used to be called Dirk Diggler but I got a lot of... unwelcome attention...
Originally Posted by lynxmale:
“I really did laugh at Anton awarding himself this casual bull****. So I'll call him Eeyore then- that's unusual. Fair's fair!
Anyway, he can rename himself whatever he likes. I used to be called Dirk Diggler but I got a lot of... unwelcome attention...”
“I really did laugh at Anton awarding himself this casual bull****. So I'll call him Eeyore then- that's unusual. Fair's fair!
Anyway, he can rename himself whatever he likes. I used to be called Dirk Diggler but I got a lot of... unwelcome attention...”
I think he has denied it for so long that he is never now going to climb down and admit it.
I guess he would rather put up with the digs from fellow professionals than go public.
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