50 Fun Facts About Mrs. Doubtfire

Who plays Daniel Hillard, the divorced dad who becomes Mrs. Doubtfire?

Robin Williams plays Daniel and also produced the film through Blue Wolf, the company he ran with his then wife Marsha Garces Williams.

Who directed Mrs. Doubtfire?

Chris Columbus directed it in 1993 and went on to direct the first two Harry Potter films, Philosopher's Stone and Chamber of Secrets.

Mrs. Doubtfire is based on a 1987 novel by which English author?

Anne Fine wrote Madame Doubtfire, published in 1987 and retitled Alias Madame Doubtfire in the United States; Fine later served as the UK Children's Laureate from 2001 to 2003.

What is Daniel Hillard's job at the start of the film?

Voice actor: in the opening scene Daniel is dubbing a cartoon bird, quits when the script has it smoke, and later uses his voices to sabotage Miranda's nanny applicants over the phone.

What are the names of the three Hillard children?

Lydia, Chris and Natalie are 14, 12 and 5, played by Lisa Jakub, Matthew Lawrence and Mara Wilson.

What is Mrs. Doubtfire's first name?

In Anne Fine's novel she is Iphigenia and Scottish; the film's version is English and takes her surname from a newspaper headline.

Where does Daniel get the surname 'Doubtfire'?

A newspaper headline reading 'Police doubt fire was accidental' catches his eye while he is inventing the character on the phone to Miranda.

Who plays Miranda Hillard?

Sally Field plays Miranda; she had already won two Best Actress Oscars, for Norma Rae in 1980 and Places in the Heart in 1985.

Who plays Stu Dunmeyer, Miranda's handsome new boyfriend?

Pierce Brosnan plays Stu, the rich new man in Miranda's life, two years before he debuted as James Bond in GoldenEye.

Who transforms Daniel into an old woman with makeup and prosthetics?

His brother Frank and Frank's partner Jack, played by Harvey Fierstein and Scott Capurro, run the makeup studio where Daniel tries several looks before settling on the nanny.

How long did the Mrs. Doubtfire makeup take to apply each day?

Four hours a day went into the latex face, wig and body suit designed by Greg Cannom's team; Williams sometimes wandered off set in character without being recognised.

How do Lydia and Chris discover that Mrs. Doubtfire is their father?

They catch him standing up to urinate in the bathroom; once he explains, they agree to keep his secret so they can keep seeing him, and Natalie is left out.

At the restaurant, what does Daniel secretly put on Stu's jambalaya, knowing his allergy?

Cayenne pepper, which Stu is allergic to; when he chokes, a guilty Daniel performs the Heimlich and his mask slips off, exposing him to Miranda.

Why is Daniel at the same restaurant as Miranda's birthday party that night?

He is meeting a TV executive about a show: station boss Jonathan Lundy wants to discuss a new children's programme, so Daniel keeps switching between his suit and the costume.

What is the name of the children's TV show Daniel ends up hosting as Mrs. Doubtfire?

Euphegenia's House is the show Lundy gives him; Miranda watches an episode at the end and decides that the children were happier with 'her' around.

In which city is Mrs. Doubtfire set and filmed?

San Francisco: the Hillard house is a real Victorian in Pacific Heights, and the film's station, school and restaurant scenes were all shot around the Bay Area.

What is the address of the Hillard family house, which became a fan memorial in 2014?

2640 Steiner Street, at the corner of Broadway in Pacific Heights; fans left flowers and tributes on its steps after Williams's death in August 2014.

Which legendary animator directed the 'Pudgy and Grunge' cartoon Daniel is voicing in the opening scene?

Chuck Jones, the Looney Tunes director behind Bugs Bunny and Road Runner classics, animated the opening cartoon; Daniel quits when the script has the bird start smoking.

Where was the famous jambalaya dinner scene filmed?

Bridges in Danville, California, an East Bay restaurant, stood in for the upscale city venue where Miranda's birthday dinner goes wrong.

Which Oscar did Mrs. Doubtfire win?

Best Makeup: Greg Cannom, Ve Neill and Yolanda Toussieng took the award at the 66th Academy Awards in March 1994, the film's only nomination.

Which Golden Globes did Mrs. Doubtfire win?

Best Motion Picture (Musical or Comedy) and Best Actor for Williams, both at the 51st Golden Globes in January 1994; critics were lukewarm, with Roger Ebert wondering how the family could fail to recognise him.

Which film beat Mrs. Doubtfire to become the highest-grossing film of 1993 worldwide?

Jurassic Park, Steven Spielberg's dinosaur blockbuster, topped 1993 with more than $900 million worldwide, roughly double what Mrs. Doubtfire earned in second place.

What was Mrs. Doubtfire's approximate production budget?

$25 million was the budget; against that it grossed $441 million worldwide, including $219 million in North America, making it the year's second-biggest film.

How did the director capture the cast's reactions to the star's improvising?

Multiple cameras at once, documentary-style, so the actors' genuine reactions to Williams's riffs were caught in the same take; the director said they shot so much improvisation they ran out of film.

What did the director say about the NC-17 cut that online articles claimed existed in 2021?

Enough outtakes for an R cut, but NC-17 is absurd was the gist of the director's reply; Williams improvised so much that the outtakes filled hundreds of boxes, and Mara Wilson also debunked the rumour.

What does Daniel, as Mrs. Doubtfire, throw at Stu's head by the pool?

A lime: at the club pool Daniel lobs one at the back of Stu's head, then deadpans that it was 'a run-by fruiting'.

Who is the court liaison whose surprise visits to Daniel's flat force quick costume changes?

Mrs. Sellner, played by Anne Haney, is the court liaison assigned to Daniel's case; her visit catches him half-dressed as the nanny, so he keeps changing between rooms.

Which Aerosmith song plays while Mrs. Doubtfire dances with the vacuum cleaner?

Dude (Looks Like a Lady), Aerosmith's 1987 hit, plays while Mrs. Doubtfire vacuums the living room and dances with the hose.

Which actress plays Daniel's nosy neighbour Gloria Chaney in a subplot cut from the final film?

Polly Holliday, best known as Flo on the sitcom Alice, played the neighbour; her subplot was cut, as were a spelling-bee argument between the parents and a confrontation after the restaurant.

Which TV station's studios in Oakland were used for the station scenes?

KTVU, the Fox affiliate at Jack London Square in Oakland, lent its studios; Daniel works in the shipping department there until station boss Lundy spots him playing with props.

Where does Daniel live after the divorce, in the film's Bay Area geography?

Above Danilo Bakery on Green Street, in North Beach; Daniel's cramped flat is where the court liaison's visits force him to switch between himself and the nanny.

Who began developing a Mrs. Doubtfire sequel in 2001 that was eventually scrapped?

Bonnie Hunt was hired to write the sequel in 2001; rewrites began in 2006 because Williams disliked the plot, and the project was shelved that December.

How long after its cinema release did Fox put Mrs. Doubtfire out on VHS?

Five months: the tape arrived on April 26, 1994, while the film remained in cinemas after its late-November 1993 opening.

Mrs. Doubtfire was the last non-Disney Thanksgiving box office winner until which 2000 film?

How the Grinch Stole Christmas, Ron Howard's Jim Carrey film, took Thanksgiving 2000; every Thanksgiving winner in between, from The Santa Clause to Toy Story 2, was a Disney release.

What does Daniel plunge his face into to replace his ruined mask for the court liaison?

A cream cake: with the latex mask squashed by a truck on the street below, Daniel smears his face with frosting to greet the court liaison, and it melts into his tea.

What does the judge grant Miranda at the custody hearing after Daniel's deception is exposed?

Sole custody, with supervised visits for Daniel is the ruling, pending a psychological evaluation; Miranda later relents and lets him collect the children every afternoon.

Who originated the role of Daniel Hillard in the Mrs. Doubtfire stage musical?

Rob McClure originated Daniel and earned a Tony nomination for it; Broadway previews began in March 2020 and were shut down by the pandemic after three performances.

Which songwriting brothers wrote the score for the Mrs. Doubtfire musical?

Karey and Wayne Kirkpatrick, the brothers behind Something Rotten!, wrote the music and lyrics; Karey also co-wrote the book with John O'Farrell.

Where did the Mrs. Doubtfire musical have its world premiere in December 2019?

The 5th Avenue Theatre, Seattle hosted the premiere in December 2019, with the run extended into January 2020 by popular demand before the Broadway transfer.

Which Broadway house hosted the Mrs. Doubtfire musical?

Stephen Sondheim Theatre on West 43rd Street; previews began on March 9, 2020, days before Broadway went dark, and the show finally opened there in December 2021.

The star of Mrs. Doubtfire first found fame playing which TV alien?

Garry Marshall cast him as Mork in a 1978 Happy Days episode before Mork & Mindy ran for four seasons.

Where did the film's star begin performing stand-up in 1976?

The Holy City Zoo, San Francisco, a tiny Clement Street club where he started by tending bar in 1976, the year he left Juilliard; he had been born in Chicago in 1951.

The film's director made which two Christmas hits immediately before it?

Home Alone and Home Alone 2 were his two Christmas-set hits of 1990 and 1992; before directing, he had written Gremlins and The Goonies for Steven Spielberg.

Which two screenwriters adapted Anne Fine's novel into the Mrs. Doubtfire screenplay?

Randi Mayem Singer and Leslie Dixon share the screenplay credit; Dixon had written Outrageous Fortune and Overboard, and Williams improvised around their script at length.

Which opera aria does Daniel perform for the cartoon parakeet in the opening scene?

Largo al factotum, Figaro's aria from Rossini's The Barber of Seville, is what Daniel belts out for the bird before the script turns to cigarettes and he quits.

How long does the judge give Daniel to find a job and a home?

Three months is the judge's deadline for Daniel to find steady work and a suitable home, after which custody will be reviewed; Miranda meanwhile advertises for a housekeeper.

Which composer wrote the score for Mrs. Doubtfire?

Howard Shore wrote the score, two years after The Silence of the Lambs and a year before Ed Wood, long before his Lord of the Rings trilogy.

How much did Mrs. Doubtfire take in its three-day opening weekend in November 1993?

$20.4 million over the Friday-to-Sunday frame, after a Wednesday opening on November 24, 1993; it beat Addams Family Values and A Perfect World to number one and finished with $441 million worldwide.

Which Elf screenwriter was hired in 2014 to write a Mrs. Doubtfire sequel?

David Berenbaum, who wrote Elf, was hired in April 2014; Williams and the original director were expected to return, but the project ended with Williams's death that August.

What does Mrs. Doubtfire say killed her late husband Winston?

A Guinness truck: Mrs. Doubtfire tells Stu that Winston was fond of the drink and 'it was the drink that killed him', then adds that he was hit by a Guinness truck.