24601 was Jean Valjean’s prisoner number in Les Miz.
I’d heard it was Tony Curtis.
Of all the people involved in making the movie O Brother Where Art Thou?, only Tim Blake Nelson had read Homer’s Odyssey (which is the story the movie is loosely based on). He has a degree in the classics from Brown University, and he was a neighbor of Joel Coen.
Viggo Mortensen was a last-minute replacement for Stuart Townsend in the role of Aragorn in the Lord of the Rings films; after filming had begun, Peter Jackson realized that Townsend was too young for the role. Mortensen wasn’t familiar with the books, but accepted the role at the urging of his son, who was a Middle-Earth fan. Mortensen familiarized himself with the story by reading the book on the flight to New Zealand.
Vigo was once married to X’s Exene Cervenka, featured in the film The Decline of Western Civilization
I don’t know if it counts as movie trivia but I just found out today that Nehemiah Persoff is still alive at the age of 100. I believe he’s the last living member of that movie’s cast.
As an addendum - his son Henry had a speaking role in “The Two Towers”, as a young Rohirrim recruit. He’s anxious & terrified about the upcoming battle, and is advised by Aragorn “There is always hope”.
Looked it up. Some people think this guy (still photo from Deliverance) is Ed O’Neill. I guess there is a slight resemblance, but most obviously the nose is all wrong.
Yeah, that is NOT close. At all. Hair is wrong, nose is wrong, eyes are wrong, ears are too high. I wonder if people who think that’s him even recognize themselves in the mirror.
Here’s a still from 1980’s “The Dogs of War” where he looks shockingly similar to-- Ed O’Neill: https://movieboozer.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/07/EdONeill.jpg
Thanks. Never heard of this.
Um, what are you saying? Isn’t that Ed in The Dogs of War?
Another one that got shot down recently: Denzel Washington did not make his film debut in Death Wish. He was listed as an uncredited cast member on IMDB for years.
The film did have early roles for some popular actors: Jeff Goldblum made his movie debut as a violent thug. Christopher Guest played a NYPD patrolman, and Olympia Dukakis also appeared briefly as a cop.
Reminds me of André the Giant; according to Cary Elwes, André always had an undercover member of the NYPD follow him around whenever he was visiting the city. The officer was there to warn people in case the Giant toppled over while drunk, which had happened before and trapped a bystander.
The script for Taxi Driver contained a stage direction that read simply, “Travis looks in the mirror.”
While doing so, Robert Deniro ad libbed the entire “You talkin’ to me?” scene, which of course became the film’s most-remembered line.
A113 is a longstanding inside joke referencing a room at Cal Arts.
The North Avenue Presbyterian Church depicted in Disney’s The North Avenue Irregulars really did lose its charter at some point after Rev. Hill took on the local numbers running racket. The church was purchased and restored by Hall of Fame pitcher Mariano Rivera and his wife Clara, who is a Pentecostal minister.
Deniro may have been inspired by this scene from The Twilight Zone:
The German motorcyclist Steve McQueen kills in The Great Escape was Steve McQueen himself.
I’ve always wondered what the Germans would have done to a POW who kills one of their own while attempting an escape. I doubt they’d just send him back to camp, especially after the *Kugel *Order was issued.
In The Empire Strikes Back, just after Luke lands on Cloud City, he briefly encounters Leia and Chewbacca, who are being led away from the carbon-freezing chamber to Darth Vader’s shuttle by Imperial troops. As Leia cries out, “it’s a trap!”, she’s dragged off by a blonde-haired Imperial officer.
That officer was played by Jeremy Bulloch, who also played the bounty hunter Boba Fett in the film (whose face was never seen, due to wearing a helmet).
In The Godfather: Part II, Troy Donahue plays Merle Johnson. Donahue’s real name? Merle Johnson (Jr.).
I believe DCnDC’s point was that O’Neill was recognizable even in his early films. So if he had been in Deliverance he would be more obviously recognizable than the actor who’s pictured.