50 Fun Facts About Death Becomes Her

Death Becomes Her was the first film to show which lifelike surface generated by computer?

Human skin was first computer generated here, for the shot where Madeline twists her neck back into place after a blow to the head.

Which garden tools do Madeline and Helen duel with in Death Becomes Her, leaving one star scarred?

Shovels were swung with such gusto that the actress playing Madeline accidentally cut her co-star's face, leaving a faint scar.

Which actress earned a Golden Globe nomination as vain star Madeline Ashton in Death Becomes Her?

Meryl Streep found acting opposite effects rigs so tedious that she vowed never to make another effects-heavy film.

Which Oscar winner for Cactus Flower plays jilted writer Helen Sharp in Death Becomes Her?

Goldie Hawn wore a fat suit made of a jelly-like material invented for the film, nicknamed flabbercast, for the scenes where Helen is 200 pounds heavier.

Which action star spent three hours a day in aging makeup as Ernest in Death Becomes Her?

Bruce Willis got the part only after the first choice dropped out over pay, and critics singled out his against-type comic turn.

How do Madeline and Helen end up after tumbling down steps at the close of Death Becomes Her?

Shattered into pieces on the sidewalk, the two are left as disembodied heads, and Helen asks where they parked the car.

The digital breakthroughs of Death Becomes Her fed into which Steven Spielberg film a year later?

Jurassic Park came from the same effects house a year later, and also shared the comedy's cinematographer, production designer and co-writer.

Death Becomes Her beat Batman Returns and Alien 3 to win which Academy Award?

Best Visual Effects went to a four-person team for Madeline's backwards head and the hole blown through Helen, and the same work won a BAFTA in Britain.

Which pop star's Taste video, co-starring Jenna Ortega, pays gory homage to Death Becomes Her?

Sabrina Carpenter and her co-star maim each other again and again and keep getting back up, a premise lifted from Madeline and Helen's feud.

Which hardware-store product does Ernest use to restore Madeline's color in Death Becomes Her?

Spray paint keeps both women presentable for decades, and slipping on a can of it is what sends them tumbling at the very end.

Which daughter of Ingrid Bergman plays potion seller Lisle von Rhuman in Death Becomes Her?

Isabella Rossellini, also the daughter of Italian director Roberto Rossellini, had broken through six years earlier in David Lynch's Blue Velvet.

Which director made Death Becomes Her between Back to the Future Part III and Forrest Gump?

Robert Zemeckis and his three stars all took lower salaries than usual in exchange for a share of the film's profits.

Which weapon does Madeline fire at Helen in Death Becomes Her, leaving a hole through her middle?

Shotgun raised, Madeline blasts Helen into a fountain, yet Helen stands up alive: proof that her rival drank the potion too.

In Death Becomes Her, drink reduces star plastic surgeon Ernest Menville to which line of work?

Mortician work, making the dead look presentable, turns out to be exactly the skill his wife needs once her own body can no longer repair itself.

How does Ernest try to kill Madeline in Death Becomes Her, only to see her rise with a twisted neck?

A push down the stairs breaks her neck, and when Ernest rushes her to the emergency room the staff can only declare her clinically dead.

In Death Becomes Her, what breaks Ernest's fall from Lisle's roof after he throws the potion away?

A swimming pool in Lisle's grounds saves him, so he escapes still mortal and goes on to a long, adventurous life with a second wife.

Michelle Williams, potion seller in the Death Becomes Her musical, found fame in which girl group?

Destiny's Child made her a star alongside Beyoncé and Kelly Rowland; on Broadway her Viola Van Horn replaced the film's Lisle von Rhuman.

Which reality competition built a runway challenge around Death Becomes Her in its seventh season?

RuPaul's Drag Race winner Jinkx Monsoon says the film inspired her to become a drag queen, and she later played Madeline in a stage parody.

In which California city do Madeline and Ernest share an unhappy mansion in Death Becomes Her?

Beverly Hills also supplied a real location, the city's Greystone Mansion, though the couple's own home was a set built on a soundstage.

In Death Becomes Her, which act by Madeline in 1978 turns her old friend Helen into a bitter rival?

Marrying her fiancé was part of a pattern: Helen warns Ernest beforehand that Madeline has seduced her past boyfriends too.

Which rock and roll legend turns up alive among Lisle's ageless party guests in Death Becomes Her?

Elvis Presley mingles with lookalikes of Marilyn Monroe, James Dean, Greta Garbo, Andy Warhol and Jim Morrison, all hinted to be Lisle's clients.

Which actor was first cast as Ernest in Death Becomes Her but left in a dispute over pay?

Kevin Kline reportedly asked for $3 million and the studio refused; Jeff Bridges and Nick Nolte were then considered before the part was recast.

Which comedian, whose sketch show launched The Simpsons, had her role cut from Death Becomes Her?

Tracey Ullman spent two days filming as a bartender who runs away to Europe with Ernest, an ending that was thrown out and reshot.

Which effects company founded by George Lucas created the twisted necks of Death Becomes Her?

Industrial Light & Magic mixed its digital shots with puppetry: eight animatronic Madelines were built to show her in different states of damage.

Which male model of the era appears in Death Becomes Her as one of Lisle von Rhuman's bodyguards?

Fabio Lanzoni, known simply as Fabio, was then at the height of his fame for posing on the covers of hundreds of romance novels.

Where is Helen sent in Death Becomes Her after seven years of brooding over Madeline's betrayal?

A mental hospital is where Helen finds her purpose: told by a therapist to erase Madeline from her life, she has a sudden, sinister epiphany.

Where is Madeline sent by mistake in Death Becomes Her while Ernest looks for a second doctor?

The morgue receives her zipped into a body bag, and Ernest has to free her before he can take her home.

Which Hollywood studio released Death Becomes Her and later backed its Broadway musical adaptation?

Universal bought the idea as a pitch from its two screenwriters and developed the script before any director or star was attached.

In Death Becomes Her, what is the title of the book Helen Sharp launches at a glamorous party?

Forever Young is a knowing title: Helen has secretly drunk the potion, which is why she turns up slim and radiant at 50.

In Death Becomes Her, how does Lisle von Rhuman prove to a doubtful Madeline that the potion works?

By healing a cut hand: Lisle nicks Madeline with a blade and dabs on a drop, the wound closes, and Madeline hurries to write the check.

Under Lisle's one condition in Death Becomes Her, what must potion drinkers do after ten years?

Vanish from public life is the rule, so that nobody grows suspicious of a client who never ages; Madeline hears it only as she writes her check.

Which Smash star earned a Tony nomination as Madeline in the Death Becomes Her musical?

Megan Hilty had already played Glinda in Wicked on Broadway, and her co-star as Helen was nominated in the very same Tony category.

The Death Becomes Her musical earned ten Tony nominations but won in which single category?

Best Costume Design went to Paul Tazewell, who had won an Oscar only months earlier for dressing the film version of Wicked.

In which city did the Death Becomes Her musical have its 2024 tryout before moving to Broadway?

Chicago hosted the tryout at the Cadillac Palace Theatre for about five weeks, and all four leads moved with the show to New York.

In Death Becomes Her, what does a stranger at a beauty clinic hand Madeline that leads her to Lisle?

A business card for Lisle von Rhuman comes from a man who overhears Madeline telling a technician that money is no object.

In Death Becomes Her, a depressed Helen is evicted from an apartment overrun with which animals?

Cats share the apartment Helen loses seven years after the wedding; by then she is broke, obese and fixated on Madeline.

Which chemical does Ernest inject into the clinically dead Madeline in Death Becomes Her?

Formaldehyde goes in by syringe once he has her home; Ernest takes her survival as a sign that the two of them should stay together.

Why was the first ending of Death Becomes Her, in which Ernest ran off with a bartender, reshot?

It felt too happy to the director, and test audiences disliked it as well, so a darker finale was filmed over three days in June 1992.

Which Tootsie director has an uncredited cameo as Madeline's doctor in Death Becomes Her?

Sydney Pollack plays the emergency room doctor who finds that Madeline has no heartbeat and promptly suffers a cardiac arrest of his own.

Which composer of the Back to the Future scores also wrote the music for Death Becomes Her?

Alan Silvestri has scored nearly every film by the same director since Romancing the Stone in 1984, Forrest Gump included.

Which Death Becomes Her co-writer went on to script Mission: Impossible and Spider-Man?

David Koepp rewrote several scenes at his leading lady's request, including Madeline's affair with a younger man, which she found unconvincing.

Madeline's mansion set in Death Becomes Her was partly inspired by which California landmark?

Hearst Castle inspired production designer Rick Carter, who built the mansion's interiors on a soundstage in Culver City.

Which future That '70s Show mom has a small early film role as a patient in Death Becomes Her?

Debra Jo Rupp had appeared in Big four years earlier and became sitcom mother Kitty Forman six years after this small part.

Madeline's flop musical in Death Becomes Her is adapted from which Tennessee Williams play?

Sweet Bird of Youth, a drama about a faded movie star, becomes the gaudy musical Songbird!, and the audience walks out mid-show.

Which original Wicked star was announced in 2017 as the lead of a planned Death Becomes Her musical?

Kristin Chenoweth was attached when the stage project was first reported, but the show took over six more years to arrive, with a different star.

Death Becomes Her opened at number one the same weekend as which film that later became a TV series?

Buffy the Vampire Slayer arrived the same weekend with Kristy Swanson in the title role, five years before its TV version, but could not beat Madeline and Helen.

To film Madeline's backwards head in Death Becomes Her, what did the actress wear over her own?

A blue bag hid her head as she walked backwards, so the effects team could swap in her face later, filmed as she was swiveled in a chair.

In Death Becomes Her, what plan does Helen first give Ernest for getting rid of his wife Madeline?

Send her car off a cliff, with a drugged Madeline at the wheel, is Helen's scheme; she rules out divorce because Ernest would lose all his money.

Death Becomes Her earned nine nominations, including Best Fantasy Film, at which genre ceremony?

The Saturn Awards gave it two wins from those nominations: one for its special effects and one for the actress who played Lisle.

In the Death Becomes Her musical, which object impales Helen during her fight with Madeline?

An umbrella runs Helen through on stage, while Madeline loses her head entirely before Ernest steps in to stop the fight.