While perusing the IMDB, I ran across this cool bit of trivia:
DIRECTOR TRADEMARK (John Landis): (prison number): Louis’ (Dan Aykroyd’s) prison number [in Trading Places] is 74745058, which is the same prison number as Jake Blues (John Belushi) in The Blues Brothers (1980), also starring Aykroyd.
Let’s make a list of interesting bits of trivia!
In the “In A Pickle” episode of The Magic School Bus, Miss Frizzle’s prison uniform number was 24601.
THX 1138 references throughout the Star Wars series, if your interested.
Frank Oz, famed muppeteer, appeared in both Trading Places and Blues Brothers as well. He was the police officer who was bribed to find PCP in Akroyd’s jacket in Trading Places, and the prison official returning Belushi’s property when he was being released. “One Timex watch, broken. One prophylactic, unused. One, soiled.”
No sets were built for the Bullitt.
https://www.flickr.com/photos/brizzlebornandbred/21600938020
Rosebud was was the sled.
He was also the test proctor in “Spies Like Us”, also with Dan Aykroyd.
Come on, man! How 'bout some spoiler tags?
In Moon Warriors (1992), Sea Wayne of Little Shrimp Village was played by Hoi Wai, a female killer whale who lived at Ocean Park, Hongkong. Hoi Wai passed away in 1997. Her performance and kung fu skills in this film remain impressive and unique in cinema.
In Planes, Trains, and Automobiles, in the scene where the cop pulls them over and impounds their car, if you’re observant you might notice that he’s a Wisconsin State Trooper. Except Wisconsin is not on their route from Saint Louis to Chicago. This isn’t an error. They filmed a whole scene where the pair discover they had driven too far and were now in Wisconsin, but it got cut out for time.
Actor John Cazale appeared in only 5 full length motion pictures before dying of lung cancer.
All 5 films were nominated for Best Picture (Oscar). Three of them won.
Duncan “Dean” Parkin’s appeared as an actor in only two movies – War of the Colossal Beast and The Cyclops.
His entire acting career consisted on playing one-eyed, mentally clouded giants in Bert I. Gordon movies.
There have been two movies made of the Christian apocalyptic book Left Behind.
Both were directed by different men with the uncommon first name “Vic”.
Vic Sarin directed the one in 2000. Vic Armstrong directed the 2014 one.
While filming The Godfather,
Dick Shawn of The Producers and It’s a Mad Mad Mad Mad World fame, died right on stage during a performance. He was doing a stand-up act in which it didn’t seem unusual (at first) for him to lay motionless on his face, but after a few minutes, somebody checked on him…
In A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum, there were so many flies around during filming (including conspicuously visible on-screen in the final cut) they ended up starring in the closing credits.
Along the same lines, Tommy Cooper, British stand-up comedian but also occasional movie actor (most notably in The Plank, a 1967 near-silent comedy), collapsed and died on stage on live TV. As this was broadcast you can (still, I believe) find it on Youtube if you feel so inclined, but I’m not going to link to it. As in Dung Beetle’s example, it was taken by the audience to be part of the act.
You do hear old troupers saying that it’s the way they would want to go.
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ETA -just to confirm, that link is to a Wiki page, not to video.
The 1931 Dracula, which made Bela Lugosi famous, and the 1979 Dracula, which made Frank Langella famous, were both based on the stage play, adapted from Bram Stoker’s novel by Hamilton Deane and John L. Balderston. Lugosi and Langella had both played the role on Broadway.
In the 1963 Cleopatra, starring Elizabeth Taylor, the queen is attended by two servants named Iras and Charmian. These characters were based on characters in Shakespeare’s play Antony and Cleopatra.
Also in It’s a Mad Mad Mad Mad World, they wouldn’t let the aging Spencer Tracy work more than a couple of hours a day, because they didn’t want him to get sick or worse. However, he’d get bored and testy from sitting around with nothing to do the rest of the day, so they got Dick Shawn and Jonathan Winters to entertain him with riffing and improv. Tracy was impressed with how excellent and funny an actor could be without disciplined rehearsal, so besides being entertained, he tried loosening up a bit during his takes. You can see it a little bit when he interacts with William Demarest.