50 Fun Facts About Nicolas Cage

Which singer won the Best Actress Oscar for starring opposite Cage in Moonstruck (1987)?

Cher won as Loretta, an Italian-American widow who agrees to marry one man and then falls for his estranged younger brother, played by Cage; the film took three Oscars in all.

In Con Air (1997), which actor plays Cyrus 'The Virus' Grissom, the convict who hijacks Cage's flight home?

John Malkovich's Cyrus, who boasts that his last evaluation found him insane, leads the takeover; Steve Buscemi and Ving Rhames play fellow convicts, and John Cusack the marshal on the ground.

Which famous director is Nicolas Cage's uncle?

Francis Ford Coppola is the brother of Cage's father, August, and gave his nephew small early parts in Rumble Fish and The Cotton Club.

What did Nicolas Cage's father, August, do for a living?

Literature professor at California universities was his day job; he is also credited with creating the Tactile Dome, a pitch-dark maze at San Francisco's Exploratorium that visitors feel their way through.

Which 1982 teen comedy gave Cage his big-screen debut, in a tiny part as a burger-joint worker?

Fast Times at Ridgemont High still billed him under his family name; to escape his famous uncle's shadow he soon took a new surname, borrowed from the Marvel hero Luke Cage.

In which 1983 romantic comedy, loosely based on Romeo and Juliet, was Cage first credited as 'Nicolas Cage'?

Valley Girl was also his first lead: he plays Randy, a Hollywood punk who wins a San Fernando Valley teenager away from her jock boyfriend.

For the 1984 film Birdy, Cage lost weight and had what done to play a wounded soldier?

Two teeth pulled out helped him feel the injuries of Al, a soldier sent home with his face in bandages who tries to coax his silent friend Birdy, played by Matthew Modine, out of a military hospital.

In which 1986 fantasy comedy directed by his uncle did Cage play Kathleen Turner's husband Charlie Bodell?

Peggy Sue Got Married sends Turner's unhappy wife from her 25-year school reunion back to 1960, where she can relive her youth and decide all over again whether to marry Charlie.

Which filmmaking duo made Raising Arizona (1987), with Cage as a baby-snatching ex-convict?

The Coen brothers followed their dark thriller Blood Simple with this comedy, in which a childless couple steal one of a furniture tycoon's quintuplets.

In Moonstruck (1987), Cage plays Ronny Cammareri, a hot-tempered man with what job?

Baker Ronny lost a hand in a bread slicer and blames his brother Johnny, who distracted him, which is why the two have not spoken for five years.

In Vampire's Kiss (1989), Cage replaced a scripted raw egg by eating what for real?

A live cockroach was Cage's own unscripted addition; his character, a New York literary agent who comes to believe he is turning into a vampire, was only meant to swallow an egg.

Which David Lynch film starring Cage as Sailor Ripley controversially won the 1990 Palme d'Or?

Wild at Heart has Cage play Sailor as a conscious Elvis imitation, even breaking into 'Love Me Tender'; at Cannes its top prize was greeted with cheers and boos alike.

Cage won the Academy Award for Best Actor for which 1995 film?

Leaving Las Vegas was made as a low-budget independent film on Super 16, with director Mike Figgis grabbing scenes on the Strip without closing it; Cage also won the Golden Globe.

What is the occupation of Ben Sanderson, the alcoholic Cage plays in his Oscar-winning role?

Hollywood screenwriter Ben is fired, takes his severance cheque and sets out to drink himself to death; to prepare, Cage spent two weeks binge-drinking and studied footage of himself drunk.

In The Rock (1996), Cage's FBI chemist Stanley Goodspeed breaks into which prison?

Alcatraz has been seized by a rogue general aiming nerve-gas rockets at San Francisco, so the FBI sends in its chemist with Sean Connery's old convict, the only man ever to escape the island.

In Con Air (1997), Cage plays Cameron Poe, an honourably discharged member of which military unit?

Army Rangers veteran Poe kills a drunk who attacks him and his pregnant wife, serves eight years, and is flying home on parole when the other convicts seize the plane.

What is Nicolas Cage's terrorist character called in Face/Off (1997)?

Castor Troy's face is surgically swapped onto FBI agent Sean Archer, so Cage spends most of the film playing the hero trapped behind his enemy's face.

City of Angels (1998), with Cage as an angel who falls for Meg Ryan, is a loose remake of which German film?

Wings of Desire, Wim Wenders's film about an angel who gives up immortality for a trapeze artist, was moved from Berlin to Los Angeles, and the remake's soundtrack launched the Goo Goo Dolls' hit Iris.

Which director cast Cage as a corrupt detective in the 1998 thriller Snake Eyes?

Brian De Palma opens the film with a showpiece Steadicam shot that seems to run unbroken for minutes, trailing Cage's detective through an Atlantic City arena before a shooting.

Which director's 1999 New York City paramedic drama Bringing Out the Dead starred Cage as Frank Pierce?

Martin Scorsese reunited with Taxi Driver writer Paul Schrader for the film, based on a novel by Joe Connelly, who had himself worked as a New York paramedic.

The Family Man (2000), Cage's road-not-taken comedy, is often compared to which Christmas classic?

It's a Wonderful Life is turned inside out here: the rich bachelor's life is the real one, and the glimpse he is shown is the warm family he gave up, with Téa Leoni as the wife he never married.

In which 2002 film did Cage play twin brothers Charlie and Donald Kaufman?

Adaptation credits the fictional twin Donald Kaufman as co-writer alongside the real Charlie Kaufman, who wrote himself and an invented brother into the script; Spike Jonze directed.

The 2002 film in which Cage plays twin brothers is built around which Susan Orlean book?

The Orchid Thief gave Charlie Kaufman writer's block, so he wrote himself and his struggle into the script; Chris Cooper won an Oscar as the orchid poacher John Laroche.

In Matchstick Men (2003), Cage's con artist has Tourette syndrome and which other condition?

Obsessive-compulsive disorder leaves Roy barely able to face an open door, and it is his psychiatrist who makes the phone call that leads him to Angela, a teenager presented as the daughter he never knew he had.

In National Treasure (2004), the treasure map is hidden on the back of which document?

The Declaration of Independence is stolen by Cage's own hero, Ben Gates, who decides the only way to protect it is to take it before a rival treasure hunter can.

In Lord of War (2005), Cage plays Yuri Orlov, who makes his fortune in what trade?

Arms dealing takes off for Yuri, a Ukrainian immigrant, when the Soviet Union collapses and its arsenals reach the black market, with a general in his own family ready to sell.

Which poorly reviewed 2006 remake starring Cage failed to make back its $40 million budget?

The Wicker Man, a remake of the 1973 British film, took just $38.8 million worldwide, but the scene of Cage tormented by bees found a second life as the internet meme 'Not the bees!'

In Ghost Rider (2007), Cage plays Johnny Blaze, who sells his soul while working as what?

Motorcycle stuntman Johnny signs away his soul at 17 to cure his father's cancer; the father is cured, then dies in a stunt crash the next day, and the Devil later claims Johnny as his bounty hunter.

Which German director made Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans (2009) with Nicolas Cage?

Werner Herzog insisted his film was no remake of Abel Ferrara's earlier Bad Lieutenant; Ferrara was publicly furious about the project.

In Kick-Ass (2010), Cage plays an ex-cop turned costumed vigilante known by what name?

Big Daddy is Damon Macready, who trains his 11-year-old daughter Hit-Girl as a fellow vigilante, even shooting her at close range in a bulletproof vest to toughen her up.

In which 2013 animated hit does Cage voice Grug, the father of the family?

The Croods took about $587 million worldwide; it began years earlier as a stop-motion project at Aardman, with a story co-written by John Cleese, before DreamWorks made it in computer animation.

In Mandy (2018), Cage's Red and a cult member duel with what?

Chainsaws clash like swords as Red, a lumberjack, hunts the cult that killed his girlfriend Mandy; the film premiered at Sundance in January 2018.

In Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse (2018), Cage voiced which alternate-universe hero?

Spider-Man Noir comes from a black-and-white 1930s universe; Cage modelled the voice on Humphrey Bogart's films, and returned to the character in the 2026 live-action series Spider-Noir.

In Pig (2021), Cage plays Rob Feld, a former Portland chef living as a reclusive forager of what?

Truffles are sniffed out by his beloved foraging pig; when she is kidnapped, the hermit has to go back to the Portland restaurant world he walked away from.

Who plays the billionaire superfan in The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent (2022)?

Pedro Pascal plays Javi, who pays a cash-strapped Cage, playing a fictional version of himself, $1 million to be guest of honour at his birthday in Mallorca.

In the 2023 horror comedy Renfield, Cage plays which literary character?

Count Dracula is played as the boss from hell: Nicholas Hoult's Renfield, his long-suffering servant, joins a support group for people in codependent relationships to find the nerve to leave him.

In Dream Scenario (2023), Cage's Paul Matthews, who turns up in strangers' dreams, is a professor of what?

Evolutionary biology is his field, and what he really wants is credit for a book about ants; instead he becomes famous for drifting uselessly through other people's dreams.

In which 2024 horror hit does Cage play a Satanic serial killer?

Longlegs was sold with coded messages, billboards bearing a phone number and trailers that kept Cage's look out of sight, then earned well over $100 million on a budget of about $10 million.

Whom did Cage marry in 2002, filing for divorce within four months?

Lisa Marie Presley, Elvis's only child, married Cage in Hawaii that August; the divorce he filed for in November took nearly a year and a half to finalise, far longer than the marriage had lasted.

What Superman-inspired name did Cage and his wife Alice Kim give their son, born in 2005?

Kal-El is Superman's Kryptonian birth name; Cage, a lifelong fan, had once been cast as the Man of Steel himself in Tim Burton's Superman Lives, which was cancelled before filming.

Which comic, stolen from Cage in 2000, turned up in a California storage locker in 2011?

Action Comics #1, the 1938 debut of Superman, had already brought Cage an insurance payout by the time it resurfaced; a copy believed to be the same one sold later that year for $2.16 million.

In 2006 Cage bought Schloss Neidstein, a medieval castle in which country?

Germany's Schloss Neidstein, in the Upper Palatinate, was Cage's for only three years: he sold it in 2009, as he did Midford Castle, the English home he had bought in 2007.

In 2007 Cage co-created a comic book called Voodoo Child, published by Virgin Comics, with whom?

His son Weston, then a teenager, shared the creator credit; Mike Carey scripted the series, about a boy revived by a voodoo priest in the 1800s who resurfaces in post-Katrina New Orleans.

What name has Nicolas Cage given to his acting style, meant to unleash the imagination without restraint?

Nouveau Shamanic, he says, is about feeding the imagination until you feel you are being a character rather than acting one; the name nods to Brian Bates's idea that acting began with ancient shamans.

What was the title of Cage's 2002 directorial debut, starring James Franco as a male prostitute?

Sonny follows a young man who comes home from military service to early-1980s New Orleans hoping to leave the trade his mother raised him in; Cage gave himself a small role as a character called Acid Yellow.

Which Tiger King figure was Cage set to play in a series announced in 2020 and scrapped in 2021?

Joe Exotic's moment had passed, Cage said when the drama was dropped: Amazon felt the material had become 'past tense' because the project took so long to come together.

Which legendary NFL coach and broadcaster did Cage sign to play in an Amazon MGM film in 2024?

John Madden is played by Cage in David O. Russell's film about the coach's part in creating the Madden NFL video game, with Christian Bale as Raiders owner Al Davis.

Whom did Cage marry in 2019, filing for an annulment four days later?

Erika Koike opposed the annulment, in which Cage said he had been too intoxicated to understand what he was doing, so he settled for a divorce that a Nevada judge granted within months.

Cage gave a seven-figure donation to which organisation to help rehabilitate former child soldiers?

Amnesty International said his $2 million would set up a fund paying for shelters, medical care and counselling to help some of the world's 300,000 child soldiers return to ordinary life.

Whom did Cage sue for $20 million in 2009, blaming him for his financial ruin?

His business manager, whom he had just fired, was accused of failing to pay his taxes on time and steering him into risky property deals, forcing Cage to sell major assets at a loss.