119 Fun Facts About Movie Stars

Which actor turned down the role of Neo in The Matrix before it went to Keanu Reeves?

Will Smith passed on Neo after the Wachowskis' pitch and made Wild Wild West (1999) instead; he later said the effects they described made no sense to him.

Which actor was born Archibald Alec Leach in Bristol, England, in 1904?

Cary Grant was born Archibald Alec Leach in Horfield, Bristol, on 18 January 1904; he adopted the name Cary Grant when Paramount signed him in 1931.

Which actor is the most-nominated male performer in Oscar history, with 12 nominations?

Jack Nicholson's 12 nominations run from Easy Rider (1969) to About Schmidt (2002); he won for One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, Terms of Endearment and As Good as It Gets.

Which future Hollywood star worked for a circus lion tamer as a teenager?

Christopher Walken spent a summer in his mid-teens as a circus lion tamer's assistant, going into the ring with an elderly lioness named Sheba.

Which actress has won the most Academy Awards for Best Actress?

Katharine Hepburn won Best Actress four times: Morning Glory (1933), Guess Who's Coming to Dinner (1967), The Lion in Winter (1968) and On Golden Pond (1981).

Which actor set a Guinness record for most stunts by a living actor with CZ12?

Jackie Chan earned two Guinness World Records for Chinese Zodiac (CZ12, 2012): most stunts performed by a living actor and most credits, 15, on one film.

Which actor was born Maurice Joseph Micklewhite in London in 1933?

Michael Caine was born Maurice Joseph Micklewhite at St Olave's Hospital, Rotherhithe, in 1933; he took his stage surname from a poster for The Caine Mutiny.

Which actor became the youngest Best Actor Oscar winner, aged 29, for The Pianist?

Adrien Brody was cast by Roman Polanski after the director saw Harrison's Flowers; he won a second Best Actor Oscar for The Brutalist.

Which Hollywood star flew B-24 Liberator combat missions in World War II and retired from the Air Force Reserve a brigadier general?

James Stewart flew out of East Anglia and stayed in the Air Force Reserve until 1968, making him the highest-ranking actor in American military history.

Who was the first Black actor to win the Academy Award for Best Actor, for Lilies of the Field?

Sidney Poitier won Best Actor for Lilies of the Field at the 1964 ceremony; his 1959 nomination for The Defiant Ones had made him the first Black Best Actor nominee.

Which star of Die Hard was born in West Germany?

Bruce Willis was born in Idar-Oberstein, West Germany, on 19 March 1955, to a German mother from Kassel and an American soldier father.

Which Oscar-winning actor turned down a drama scholarship in 1955 to enlist in the U.S. Air Force?

Morgan Freeman turned down a partial drama scholarship from Jackson State University in 1955 and served four years in the U.S. Air Force as a radar repairman.

Which actress took over as M, James Bond's boss, in GoldenEye (1995) and played the part in eight films?

Judi Dench played M from GoldenEye (1995) through Skyfall (2012), with a final video cameo in Spectre (2015), succeeding Robert Brown in the role.

Which classic Hollywood actress famously said, 'I want to be alone'?

Greta Garbo says 'I want to be alone' as the ballerina Grusinskaya in Grand Hotel (1932); she later told LIFE she had only ever said 'I want to be let alone.'

Which action star ran for governor of California and won in a recall election?

Arnold Schwarzenegger won the 2003 California recall election, defeating Governor Gray Davis. He served as governor from 2003 to 2011.

Which actor headlined DC's Green Lantern in 2011 before finding his biggest success as Marvel's Deadpool?

Ryan Reynolds headlined Green Lantern (2011), a box-office flop, then reprised Wade Wilson from X-Men Origins: Wolverine (2009) in Deadpool (2016).

Which actor won consecutive Best Actor Oscars in the 1990s?

Tom Hanks won Best Actor for Philadelphia (1993) and Forrest Gump (1994), the second man to go back-to-back after Spencer Tracy in 1937 and 1938.

Which film was not one of James Dean's three starring feature films?

The Wild One (1953) starred Marlon Brando. Dean died at 24 and became the first actor to receive a posthumous Best Actor nomination, then the only one to receive two.

Truman Capote wanted which actress, not Audrey Hepburn, to play Holly Golightly?

Truman Capote wanted Marilyn Monroe as Holly Golightly and George Axelrod's script was shaped for her, but Monroe declined on her acting coach's advice and Audrey Hepburn was cast.

Which actor's real name is Carlos Irwin Estévez?

Charlie Sheen was born Carlos Irwin Estévez. His father is actor Martin Sheen (born Ramón Estévez), and his brother Emilio Estevez uses the family name.

Which actor refused the Best Actor Oscar for The Godfather via Sacheen Littlefeather?

Marlon Brando refused the 1973 Best Actor Oscar for The Godfather to protest Hollywood's treatment of Native Americans, sending activist Sacheen Littlefeather to decline on his behalf.

Which actor took his tough stage name while bouncing at the New York nightclub Tunnel?

Vin Diesel, born Mark Sinclair, adopted the name while working as a bouncer at the Manhattan nightclub Tunnel; friends called him 'Diesel' for his nonstop energy.

Denzel Washington's first Oscar win was for Best Supporting Actor in which film?

In Glory (1989) Denzel Washington played Private Trip, a defiant formerly enslaved Union soldier; his Best Actor win came 12 years later for Training Day.

Which actor played the title character in seven James Bond films?

Roger Moore played Bond seven times, from Live and Let Die (1973) to A View to a Kill (1985), the most of any actor in the Eon series.

Leonardo DiCaprio finally won his first Best Actor Oscar for which film?

After years of nominations, Leonardo DiCaprio won his first Best Actor Oscar for The Revenant (2015), directed by Alejandro González Iñárritu.

Which actress starred in both Thelma & Louise and A League of Their Own?

Geena Davis earned a Best Actress Oscar nomination as Thelma in Thelma & Louise (1991) and played Rockford Peaches catcher Dottie Hinson in A League of Their Own (1992).

Sylvester Stallone wrote the screenplay for which film that earned him a Best Actor nomination?

Sylvester Stallone wrote the screenplay for Rocky (1976) and starred in it, earning Oscar nominations for both Best Actor and Best Original Screenplay.

Which Oscar-winning actress earned a Harvard psychology degree in 2003, cutting back on acting to do it?

Natalie Portman graduated from Harvard with a psychology degree in 2003, taking only a small role in Cold Mountain that year; she said she would rather be smart than a movie star.

Which actress played Minn-Erva in Captain Marvel and then Sersi in Eternals?

Sersi is one of the Eternals, the film's title race. Chan's earlier Kree role was a supporting part in Carol Danvers' Starforce unit.

Which classic Hollywood star was nicknamed 'The King of Hollywood'?

Clark Gable was crowned 'King of Hollywood' (with Myrna Loy as queen) in a 1938 Ed Sullivan newspaper poll; he appeared 16 times on Quigley's Top Ten Money Making Stars poll.

For which film did Audrey Hepburn win an Oscar, a Golden Globe and a BAFTA for one performance?

In Roman Holiday (1953) Audrey Hepburn played Princess Ann, who escapes for a night out in Rome with Gregory Peck's reporter; William Wyler cast her off a London screen test.

Which actor passed on the lead role in The Shawshank Redemption because he was committed to Waterworld?

Kevin Costner turned down Andy Dufresne because he was committed to Waterworld (1995); Tom Hanks also passed, for Forrest Gump, and Tim Robbins took the role.

Which actor starred in both Schindler's List and Taken?

Liam Neeson got Schindler's List after Spielberg saw him in Anna Christie on Broadway in 1993; fifteen years later the Luc Besson-scripted Taken made him an action star.

Which actor reportedly gained nearly 60 pounds to play boxer Jake LaMotta?

Robert De Niro gained approximately 60 pounds to play the older, out-of-shape Jake LaMotta in Raging Bull (1980), winning the Best Actor Oscar for the role.

Which actress holds the record for the most Golden Globe nominations of any performer?

Meryl Streep had 34 Golden Globe nominations and eight competitive wins by 2024, the most nominations of any performer, alongside a record 21 Oscar acting nominations.

Which star helped break the Hollywood blacklist by crediting Dalton Trumbo on screen for Spartacus (1960)?

Kirk Douglas, who produced Spartacus through his company Bryna Productions (named for his mother), insisted blacklisted writer Dalton Trumbo be credited under his own name rather than a pseudonym.

Which action star took up martial arts while stationed at Osan Air Base as a U.S. Air Force policeman?

Chuck Norris joined the U.S. Air Force in 1958 and, posted to Osan Air Base in South Korea as an Air Policeman, began studying Tang Soo Do; he later founded the style Chun Kuk Do.

Which actress was discovered while arguing with a Hollywood Boulevard bank teller?

Charlize Theron was spotted by talent agent John Crosby when a Hollywood Boulevard bank teller refused a check from her mother; he gave her his card, and she later won Best Actress for Monster.

Which actor did Guinness World Records name the highest-grossing actor of all time in 2011?

Guinness World Records named Samuel L. Jackson the highest-grossing actor of all time in 2011, when his films had taken about $7.4 billion, driven by Star Wars, Jurassic Park and Marvel roles.

Which actress was born Frances Ethel Gumm in Grand Rapids, Minnesota, in 1922?

Judy Garland was born Frances Ethel Gumm on 10 June 1922; the Gumm Sisters vaudeville act adopted the name Garland in 1934, a year before MGM signed her.

Which actress played Clarice Starling in The Silence of the Lambs?

Jodie Foster played FBI trainee Clarice Starling in The Silence of the Lambs (1991), winning the Best Actress Oscar for the role. Julianne Moore took over the role in the sequel Hannibal.

Which actor won Best Actor Oscars for Hannibal Lecter and, 29 years later, The Father?

Anthony Hopkins won Best Actor for The Silence of the Lambs (1991) and again for The Father (2020), 29 years apart; at 83 he became the category's oldest winner.

Which actor voiced both Darth Vader and Mufasa?

James Earl Jones provided the iconic voice for Darth Vader in the original Star Wars trilogy and Mufasa in The Lion King (1994), two of cinema's most recognizable vocal performances.

Which actress became the first Black woman to win the Best Actress Oscar, for playing a struggling widow in Monster's Ball?

Halle Berry won for Monster's Ball (2001); two years earlier she had played Dorothy Dandridge, the first African American woman nominated in the category.

Which actor studied chemical engineering at university before switching to acting?

Dolph Lundgren earned a master's in chemical engineering at the University of Sydney in 1982, bouncing at a King's Cross nightclub on the side, then won a Fulbright scholarship to MIT in 1983.

Which actor's 1995 arrest in a Los Angeles vice operation produced a notorious celebrity mugshot?

Hugh Grant was arrested with sex worker Divine Brown on Sunset Boulevard in June 1995, weeks before Nine Months, his first Hollywood studio film, opened; his career barely suffered.

Who was the first star paid a $1 million fee for a single film?

Elizabeth Taylor demanded $1 million to play Cleopatra (1963) and Fox agreed, adding a percentage of the gross; the film's long, troubled production pushed her earnings far higher.

Which actor played Marvel's blind hero Daredevil in 2003 and, more than a decade later, DC's Batman?

Ben Affleck, a lifelong comics fan who wrote a foreword for Kevin Smith's Guardian Devil, later called Daredevil the only film he regretted making.

Which actor stayed in character throughout My Left Foot, requiring crew to carry and feed him?

Daniel Day-Lewis stayed in his wheelchair as Christy Brown between takes on My Left Foot (1989), so crew lifted him over cables and spoon-fed him; the role won his first Best Actor Oscar.

Which actress was the first to be paid $20 million for a film, for Erin Brockovich (2000)?

Julia Roberts won Best Actress for Erin Brockovich (2000), the film that made her the first actress paid a $20 million fee; the real Brockovich was a legal clerk who took on PG&E.

Which 1940s screen star co-invented a frequency-hopping guidance system for torpedoes?

Hedy Lamarr and composer George Antheil patented a frequency-hopping radio guidance system for torpedoes in 1942; she was inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame in 2014.

Which actor did the American Film Institute rank the greatest male screen legend in 1999?

Humphrey Bogart topped the AFI's 1999 list of male screen legends, ahead of Cary Grant and James Stewart; Casablanca, The Maltese Falcon and The African Queen all made its 1998 greatest-films list.

Which James Bond actor won his only Oscar for playing a Chicago cop in The Untouchables?

Sean Connery's only Oscar was Best Supporting Actor for The Untouchables (1987), where he played veteran Chicago beat cop Jim Malone, mentor to Kevin Costner's Eliot Ness.

Who first won Oscars as both producer and performer for the same film, Nomadland?

Frances McDormand won Best Picture as a producer of Nomadland (2020) and Best Actress for it, her third after Fargo and Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri.

Which Australian actor was the first to win a posthumous Best Actor Oscar, for Network?

Peter Finch died in January 1977, two months before the ceremony; his widow Eletha accepted his Best Actor Oscar for Network's raging anchorman Howard Beale.

Which actor won a posthumous Oscar for playing the Joker in The Dark Knight (2008)?

Heath Ledger died in January 2008, six months before The Dark Knight opened; his parents and sister accepted his Best Supporting Actor Oscar at the 2009 ceremony.

At age ten, who became the youngest person to win a competitive Oscar, for Paper Moon?

Tatum O'Neal was 10 when she won Best Supporting Actress for Paper Moon (1973), playing Addie Loggins opposite her real father Ryan O'Neal, the youngest competitive Oscar winner.

Who became the oldest acting Oscar winner at 82 for Beginners, a record since broken?

Christopher Plummer won Best Supporting Actor for Beginners at 82, playing a widower who comes out as gay; Anthony Hopkins took the oldest-winner record at 83 in 2021.

Who won Best Actress Oscars for La La Land and Poor Things?

Emma Stone plays a reanimated woman in Yorgos Lanthimos's Poor Things and an aspiring actress in La La Land, and produced the former.

Who won Best Supporting Actress for playing Katharine Hepburn in The Aviator?

Cate Blanchett won Best Supporting Actress as Katharine Hepburn in Martin Scorsese's Howard Hughes biopic The Aviator (2004), then Best Actress for Blue Jasmine (2013).

Which actress won a Best Actress Oscar and a Worst Actress Razzie on consecutive nights?

Sandra Bullock collected the Worst Actress Razzie for All About Steve in person on 6 March 2010 and won Best Actress for The Blind Side the next night.

Which child star later served as United States ambassador to Ghana and to Czechoslovakia?

Shirley Temple Black served as U.S. ambassador to Ghana (1974-76) and to Czechoslovakia (1989-92), where she witnessed the Velvet Revolution, and was Chief of Protocol under Gerald Ford.

Which actress, fresh from a Best Actress Oscar for The Country Girl, retired at 26 to marry Monaco's Prince Rainier III?

Grace Kelly made three films with Alfred Hitchcock before the 1956 wedding swapped Hollywood for her duties as Princess of Monaco.

Which Western star was born Marion Robert Morrison in Winterset, Iowa?

John Wayne was born Marion Robert Morrison in Winterset, Iowa, in 1907; the nickname Duke came from his childhood Airedale of that name, and he never legally changed his name.

At 21, who became the youngest Best Actress Oscar winner, for Children of a Lesser God?

Marlee Matlin was 21 when she won Best Actress for Children of a Lesser God (1986), her film debut, becoming the first deaf performer to win an Oscar.

Who was the first actress to win two consecutive Best Actress Oscars, in 1936 and 1937?

Luise Rainer won Best Actress for The Great Ziegfeld (1936) and The Good Earth (1937), the first performer to win acting Oscars in consecutive years; she died in 2014 aged 104.

Who is the only performer to win three Academy Awards for Best Supporting Actor?

Walter Brennan won Best Supporting Actor for Come and Get It (1936), Kentucky (1938) and The Westerner (1940), three wins in five years no other supporting actor has matched.

Which actress became the first Black woman to complete the EGOT, in 2002?

Whoopi Goldberg's EGOT: a Grammy (1986), the Best Supporting Actress Oscar for Ghost (1991), then a Daytime Emmy and a Tony as a producer of Thoroughly Modern Millie, both in 2002.

Who became the first Hispanic woman to win an Academy Award, for West Side Story (1961)?

Rita Moreno won Best Supporting Actress as Anita in West Side Story (1961), a role Chita Rivera had originated on Broadway; she completed an EGOT in 1977.

Who was the first performer to win an Oscar for a non-English-language role, in Two Women?

Sophia Loren won Best Actress as Cesira, a widow fleeing wartime Rome with her daughter, in Vittorio De Sica's Two Women (1960), the first acting Oscar for a non-English-language performance.

Who is the only Best Actor Oscar winner for a non-English-language performance?

Roberto Benigni won for Life Is Beautiful and famously climbed over the seats on his way to the stage.

Who won the Best Actress Oscar for playing singer Édith Piaf in La Vie en Rose (2007)?

Marion Cotillard won Best Actress as Édith Piaf in La Vie en Rose (2007), the first acting Oscar for a French-language performance; the film drew more than five million admissions in France.

Who became the first Asian Best Actress Oscar winner, as laundromat owner Evelyn Quan Wang in Everything Everywhere All at Once?

Michelle Yeoh was also the first Malaysian ever nominated for an Oscar; the 2022 film brought both firsts at once.

Which former child actor, Short Round in Temple of Doom, won an Oscar in 2023?

Ke Huy Quan, who also played Data in The Goonies, left acting for two decades to work as a stunt choreographer and assistant director before winning Best Supporting Actor for Everything Everywhere All at Once.

Who became the first Irish-born performer to win the Best Actor Oscar, for Oppenheimer?

Cillian Murphy won Best Actor for Oppenheimer (2023), his sixth film with Christopher Nolan but his first lead; Daniel Day-Lewis, an Irish citizen, was born in London.

Which actress completed the EGOT in 2023 with a Grammy for narrating her memoir?

Viola Davis won the 2023 Grammy for the audiobook of her memoir Finding Me, completing an EGOT; her Oscar came for Fences (2016), a role she had already won a Tony for on Broadway.

Which Black Panther actress was born in Mexico City, where her father was lecturing?

Lupita Nyong'o was born in Mexico City in 1983 while her father taught there; she won Best Supporting Actress for 12 Years a Slave (2013), her first feature after the Yale School of Drama.

Which action star did the splits between two reversing trucks in a 2013 Volvo commercial?

Jean-Claude Van Damme performed his 'Epic Split' between two reversing Volvo trucks in a 2013 commercial; born Jean-Claude Van Varenberg in Brussels in 1960, he began Shotokan karate at ten.

Who had to pass on playing Indiana Jones because of his commitment to TV's Magnum, P.I.?

Tom Selleck had been cast as Indiana Jones, but CBS would not release him from Magnum, P.I., so Harrison Ford took Raiders of the Lost Ark; a 1980 actors' strike then delayed Magnum anyway.

Which Alien star was born Susan Alexandra and took a new first name from The Great Gatsby?

Sigourney Weaver, born Susan Alexandra Weaver in 1949, chose 'Sigourney' at 14 from a minor character in The Great Gatsby; she has three Oscar nominations, one as Ellen Ripley in Aliens.

Which Back to the Future star revealed in 1998 that he had Parkinson's disease?

Michael J. Fox was diagnosed in 1991, aged 29, and went public in 1998; the Michael J. Fox Foundation he launched in 2000 has funded more than a billion dollars of Parkinson's research.

Who co-wrote, produced, directed and starred in Citizen Kane as his very first film?

Orson Welles was 25 when Citizen Kane (1941) opened; RKO had shelved his Heart of Darkness and The Smiler with the Knife first, and Hearst's newspapers refused to mention the finished film.

Which silent star, nicknamed 'America's Sweetheart', co-founded United Artists in 1919?

Mary Pickford founded United Artists in 1919 with Charlie Chaplin, D. W. Griffith and Douglas Fairbanks, whom she married the next year; she won Best Actress for Coquette (1929).

Whose 1982 exercise video, the first of 23, became the best-selling VHS tape of its era?

Jane Fonda's Workout (1982) sold more than 17 million copies and was credited with driving early VCR sales; she had already won Best Actress for Klute (1971) and Coming Home (1978).

At 80, who became the oldest Best Actress Oscar winner, for Driving Miss Daisy (1989)?

Jessica Tandy was 80 when she won Best Actress for Driving Miss Daisy (1989), her first Oscar, four decades after originating Blanche DuBois in A Streetcar Named Desire on Broadway in 1947.

Which star of From Here to Eternity began his career as a circus acrobat?

Burt Lancaster toured as a circus acrobat with partner Nick Cravat in the 1930s, used the skills in Trapeze (1956), and won Best Actor for Elmer Gantry (1960).

Which actor, who won Best Actor for Gandhi, was born Krishna Pandit Bhanji in Yorkshire?

Ben Kingsley was born Krishna Pandit Bhanji in Snainton, Yorkshire, in 1943, to a Gujarati-descended doctor father; he took the stage name early in his career and won Best Actor for Gandhi (1982).

Which action star competed for England as a diver at the 1990 Commonwealth Games?

Jason Statham dived for England at the 1990 Commonwealth Games in Auckland and spent 12 years on the national squad before Guy Ritchie cast him in Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels (1998).

Who won Miss Israel in 2004, then spent two years as an IDF combat trainer?

Gal Gadot's mother entered her in the pageant without telling her; the IDF stint as a combat trainer came after the crown.

Which martial arts star won multiple Chinese national wushu championships before acting?

Jet Li won five Chinese national wushu championships in the 1970s; at eleven he toured the United States with the national team and performed for President Nixon at the White House.

Which Oscar winner co-founded a food company in 1982 that gives all profits to charity?

Paul Newman and writer A. E. Hotchner launched Newman's Own in 1982 with a salad dressing, giving all after-tax profits to charity; Newman also raced cars and finished second at Le Mans in 1979.

Who received the very first Academy Award for Best Actor, presented in 1929?

Emil Jannings, born in Switzerland, won the first Best Actor award for The Last Command and The Way of All Flesh; he later made propaganda films in Nazi Germany.

Which Spanish actor won an Oscar as the assassin Anton Chigurh in No Country for Old Men?

Javier Bardem won Best Supporting Actor as Anton Chigurh in No Country for Old Men (2007), the first Spanish actor to win an Oscar; his pageboy haircut became a running joke on the awards circuit.

Which actor was elected mayor of Carmel-by-the-Sea, California, in 1986?

He served two years, earning $200 a month, which he donated to the town's youth center.

Which silent comedian's deadpan expression earned him the nickname 'The Great Stone Face'?

Buster Keaton smiled and laughed in his early Roscoe Arbuckle shorts; the unsmiling persona came later, alongside stunts like the falling house front in Steamboat Bill, Jr. (1928).

Which star's screen persona, the Tramp, made him a worldwide icon of the silent era?

Charlie Chaplin first wore the Tramp's bowler hat, cane and baggy trousers at Keystone in 1914 and kept the character until Modern Times (1936).

Which actress won the Best Supporting Actress Oscar for Vicky Cristina Barcelona (2008)?

Penélope Cruz won Best Supporting Actress as the volatile ex-wife María Elena in Vicky Cristina Barcelona (2008); her Best Actress nomination for Volver two years earlier had been the first for a Spanish actress.

Which Australian actress won Best Actress for playing Virginia Woolf in The Hours (2002)?

Nicole Kidman won Best Actress as Virginia Woolf in The Hours (2002), wearing a prosthetic nose; she shared Berlin's Silver Bear for the role with co-stars Meryl Streep and Julianne Moore.

Who played King Mongkut 4,625 times on stage and won an Oscar for the 1956 film version?

Yul Brynner played the King of Siam 4,625 times on stage and won Best Actor for the 1956 film of The King and I; he shaved his head for the role and kept the look for life.

Which actor finally won Best Actor for The Revenant, after five unsuccessful Oscar nominations?

Leonardo DiCaprio played a fur trapper mauled by a grizzly bear and left for dead by his companions. His earlier losses included The Aviator, Blood Diamond and The Wolf of Wall Street.

Which working carpenter was cast as Han Solo after reading lines with the Star Wars hopefuls?

Harrison Ford was hired by George Lucas only to feed lines to actors auditioning for Star Wars, and won the part himself. He had taken up carpentry to support his wife and two sons when acting roles dried up.

Which star of The Matrix and John Wick was born in Beirut, Lebanon?

Keanu Reeves was a successful ice-hockey goalkeeper at school in Toronto before acting. His mother is English, from Essex, and his father is from Hawaii.

Which actress became the second-youngest Best Actress winner at 22, for Silver Linings Playbook?

Jennifer Lawrence was Forbes's highest-paid actress in the world in 2015 and 2016, on $52 million and then $46 million. She also won the Golden Globe and SAG Award for the role.

Which actor won Oscars for Glory and for playing rogue detective Alonzo Harris in Training Day?

Denzel Washington played a defiant ex-slave Civil War soldier in Glory, and his Training Day win came more than a decade later. It made him the second Black actor to win Best Actor.

Which actor rode the outside of an Airbus A400M in flight for Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation?

Tom Cruise later broke his right ankle jumping between buildings on Mission: Impossible – Fallout, halting production for about seven weeks. The A400M take-off was flown eight times before the shot was right.

Which Australian actor's 17 years as Wolverine set a Guinness record for a live-action Marvel superhero?

Hugh Jackman hosted the 2009 Oscars, and lost 15 pounds for Les Misérables to earn his first nomination. That Guinness record has since been overtaken.

Which actor shrank to 121 pounds for The Machinist, then built up to 220 to play Batman soon after?

Christian Bale won a supporting Oscar for The Fighter, playing the former boxer Dicky Eklund. The Machinist script described his character as 'a walking skeleton'.

Which actor won Best Supporting Actor as stuntman Cliff Booth in Once Upon a Time in Hollywood?

Brad Pitt had already won an Oscar as a producer of 12 Years a Slave six years earlier. Booth is the laid-back stunt double of a fading TV cowboy star.

Which actor lost 52 pounds to play failed comedian Arthur Fleck in Joker, winning Best Actor?

Joaquin Phoenix was born Joaquin Rafael Bottom in San Juan, Puerto Rico, to parents who were missionaries for the Children of God cult. The family travelled the Caribbean and South America.

Which comedian, who broke out as the alien Mork on Happy Days, won an Oscar for Good Will Hunting?

Robin Williams recorded about 30 hours of largely improvised tape as the Genie in Aladdin, impersonating dozens of celebrities. The Mork guest spot spun off into Mork & Mindy.

Which San Francisco-born martial artist played Kato in The Green Hornet before Enter the Dragon?

Bruce Lee died six days before Enter the Dragon opened in July 1973, only months after finishing it. The Green Hornet ran for a single season, from 1966 to 1967.

Which actress, the first Black Oscar winner, had to sit at a segregated table at the 1940 ceremony?

Hattie McDaniel won for playing Mammy in Gone with the Wind, but Jim Crow laws kept her away from the film's Atlanta premiere. She and her escort were placed at a table for two by the far wall.

Which British comic played the US President, an RAF officer and the title role in Dr. Strangelove?

Peter Sellers was also meant to play the bomber pilot Major Kong, but he sprained his ankle and Slim Pickens took over. His three roles were Group Captain Mandrake, President Muffley and Strangelove himself.

Which actor was nominated for two films in the same year, winning Best Actor for Scent of a Woman?

Al Pacino's other 1993 nomination was for Glengarry Glen Ross; he had already lost four Best Actor races, starting with Serpico. He was the first man with two nominations in one year to win for the lead.

Which actor was nearly 30 when cast as college graduate Benjamin Braddock in The Graduate?

Dustin Hoffman was less than six years younger than Anne Bancroft, who played his seducer Mrs. Robinson. He was still short of his 30th birthday when he auditioned.

Which Malcolm in the Middle dad won four Emmys as chemistry teacher Walter White in Breaking Bad?

Bryan Cranston also won a Tony for playing Lyndon B. Johnson in the play All the Way. His Emmys came in 2008, 2009, 2010 and 2014.

Which sitcom star became the first woman to run a major TV studio, the one that made Star Trek?

Lucille Ball's I Love Lucy pioneered filming before a live studio audience with more than one camera. Desilu also made The Untouchables and Mission: Impossible.

Which actor died in a Porsche crash at 24 after three starring roles, earning two posthumous Oscar nods?

James Dean is the only actor with two posthumous acting nominations, for East of Eden and Giant. His third film was Rebel Without a Cause.

Which actor got nicotine poisoning from $20,000 of cigars playing Winston Churchill in Darkest Hour?

Gary Oldman spent 200 hours in the makeup chair under 14 pounds of silicone rubber, and won Best Actor for it. He is also Sirius Black in the Harry Potter films.