Ash Adams - Professional Name Change in 1996

Professional Name Change in 1996

In 1996, Adams decided to start using the longtime nickname of "Ash" professionally in place of Jason. The switch came about as a result of increasing confusion among viewers, fans, Screen Actors Guild officials and others in the media between certain credits of his and those of a newer, up-and-coming actor, Jason Leland Adams (to whom he is not related). When the latter Adams entered the SAG for the first time, he immediately had to register his middle name of Leland in from the start since the former Jason Adams already existed in their rolls. However, despite the fact that the first Jason Adams had already been a known face in Hollywood for the past decade, announcements of new projects with the newer Jason (Leland) Adams in the cast automatically led people to think it was the first Jason, since not all casting sources adhered to the proper SAG listing of the newer Jason's name. The situation became even more convoluted when other records began erroneously listing the first Jason Adams' middle name as being Leland, when in fact it never was. Finally, the original Jason Adams decided to ease the madness by dropping his real first name altogether, and becoming Ash Adams. This was presumably also a kind gesture to Jason Leland Adams, as he was thus now allowed to bill himself however he wanted (he has since dropped the "Jason" from his professional name as well, now going by J. Leland Adams).

For the most part, the public confusion and credits mix-up between the two actors has been long over, with the exception of a few movie and TV credits that, up until recently in 2008, still interchanged some between Ash Adams and J. Leland Adams, on the Internet Movie Database. It was thanks to the efforts of Ash Adams himself for getting his Ryan's Hope credits in particular removed from the IMDb resume of J. Leland Adams. For the record, if one visits the Ryan's Hope listing on IMDb, both Adamses will still be listed as having played John Reid Ryan from 1986–1989, but of course only Ash did. J. Leland Adams did not make his first on-screen appearance in a project until 1994.