100 Fun Facts About The Silence of the Lambs

Before his arrest, Hannibal Lecter of The Silence of the Lambs practised which branch of medicine?

Psychiatry: one of his former patients is the link to the killer the FBI is hunting, a lead he feeds the trainee sent to question him.

Who plays FBI trainee Clarice Starling in The Silence of the Lambs?

Jodie Foster lobbied for the role as soon as she had read the novel, even phoning the screenwriter mid-draft, while the director first wanted someone else.

Which actor did Demme first approach to play Hannibal Lecter before Anthony Hopkins?

Sean Connery got the script first because he was the bigger box-office name; Demme recalled that word came back he found it disgusting, which freed him to cast Hopkins.

Who was Demme's first choice to play Clarice Starling?

Michelle Pfeiffer had just starred in his Married to the Mob, but she turned the part down, later saying the subject matter made her nervous.

What did Hopkins reportedly ask his agent when told a script called The Silence of the Lambs was coming?

'Is it a children's story?' was his reply, and ten pages into the script he rang his agent back to say it was the best part he had ever read.

Hopkins once said Lecter's voice blended HAL 9000, Katharine Hepburn and which American writer?

Truman Capote was in the mix he gave Empire magazine in 1991; thirty years later he told GQ that the story about borrowing Hepburn's voice was not true.

The craftsman who made Lecter's famous muzzle for The Silence of the Lambs usually supplied which customers?

Hockey goalies: Ed Cubberly cut the design from the lower half of an old fibreglass goalie mask, added bars over the mouth and left the material its raw colour.

Which film was the last before The Silence of the Lambs to win the 'Big Five' Oscars?

One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest swept them at the 1976 ceremony. The Silence of the Lambs matched it despite opening in February, 13 months before its own Oscar night.

Which animated film lost Best Picture to The Silence of the Lambs?

Beauty and the Beast, the first animated nominee for the top Oscar, had been shown unfinished at the New York Film Festival, with only about 70% of its animation complete.

In The Silence of the Lambs, what does Buffalo Bill send down the well to his captive?

Lotion, to rub on her skin: he gives the order calling his captive 'it', and she later fights back by seizing his dog as a hostage.

Who wrote the Oscar-winning screenplay for The Silence of the Lambs?

Ted Tally got the job after Harris gave him an early copy of the novel, and he kept writing unpaid when the star who was meant to direct it walked away.

Which actor planned to direct and star in The Silence of the Lambs before withdrawing from the project?

Gene Hackman had bought the rights jointly with the studio, then pulled out over the story's violence; by one account his daughter read the book and told him not to make it.

Which studio released The Silence of the Lambs on Valentine's Day 1991?

Orion Pictures filed for bankruptcy protection that December, so the studio was already broke when its film swept the Oscars the following March.

Where was most of The Silence of the Lambs filmed?

Around Pittsburgh for most of the shoot, though the FBI also opened its real academy at Quantico to the crew.

What is Buffalo Bill's real name in The Silence of the Lambs?

Jame Gumb answers the door to Starling as 'Jack Gordon' at the very moment the FBI's raid team is storming an empty house in another state.

Which real killer's trick of faking an injured arm to lure victims did Harris borrow for Buffalo Bill?

Ted Bundy wore a fake cast and asked women to help him move things; Buffalo Bill copies the ploy, asking his target to help load a chair into his van.

Which real criminal's basement pit inspired the design of Buffalo Bill's well?

Gary M. Heidnik held six women captive in a pit under his Philadelphia house while leading church services upstairs as a self-styled bishop.

In the film The Silence of the Lambs, what kind of insect does Buffalo Bill leave in his victims' throats?

A death's-head moth: Lecter reads it as a symbol of change, the transformation the killer wants for himself.

Lecter's false name for the killer, 'Louis Friend', is an anagram of what?

Iron sulfide is fool's gold, Lecter's way of telling Starling the tip was worthless.

In The Silence of the Lambs, which US city is Lecter flown to for a meeting with a senator?

Memphis is where the senator's daughter was abducted; Lecter is flown there on the promise of a prison transfer and hands her a false name for the killer.

In The Silence of the Lambs, what does Lecter use to slip his handcuffs?

A piece of a pen: the hospital director left it in Lecter's cell while telling him Starling's offer was a fake, and Lecter later used it to get free and attack his two guards.

In The Silence of the Lambs, which doctor runs the Baltimore hospital where Lecter is held?

Dr. Frederick Chilton is still on Lecter's mind at the end: the escaped killer phones Starling while watching him step off a plane, and says he is having an old friend for dinner.

Who plays Jack Crawford, Starling's FBI boss, in The Silence of the Lambs?

Scott Glenn prepared with the FBI, listening to a recording made by two real killers, and later admitted he may have gone a shade too far with his research.

In The Silence of the Lambs, the lambs Starling failed to save were on a relative's farm in which state?

Montana: she ran away from the farm after finding the spring lambs being slaughtered, and ended up in an orphanage.

In The Silence of the Lambs, what was the job of Starling's late dad, killed when she was ten?

Police officer: a small-town marshal, he was shot answering a robbery, a memory Starling trades to Lecter for help, after he had guessed her dad was a coal miner.

How does Buffalo Bill stalk Starling at the climax of The Silence of the Lambs?

With night-vision goggles he follows her through the blacked-out basement, but the click of his revolver being cocked gives him away and she fires at the sound.

Buffalo Bill's first victim, whose home gives Starling the breakthrough, worked as what?

A tailor: her sewing room shows Starling that the killer sews too, and is cutting his victims' skin into a suit for himself.

Which cult song plays during Buffalo Bill's infamous mirror scene?

'Goodbye Horses' by Q Lazzarus reached the director by taxi: the story goes that the singer was driving a New York cab when she picked him up and played him her demo.

Who composed the score for The Silence of the Lambs, recorded by the Munich Symphony Orchestra?

Howard Shore wrote it to go unnoticed inside the film, keeping the orchestra in its lowest registers for a constant sense of dread.

Lecter's famous line about a census taker mentions liver, fava beans and what?

A nice Chianti: it is his warning shot when Starling pushes an FBI questionnaire at him, and he sends her away with a hissing slurp.

Which 1986 film was the first to put Thomas Harris's Dr. Lecter on screen?

Manhunter adapted the novel Red Dragon with Brian Cox as the doctor; sixteen years later the same book was filmed again under its own title, with Hopkins in the role.

Which producer lent the makers of The Silence of the Lambs the Hannibal Lecter character for free?

Dino De Laurentiis owned the character through his own Lecter film, which had lost money, so he never read the new novel and waved the rights through; he later called it a big mistake.

Who replaced the original Starling actress in the 2001 sequel Hannibal?

Julianne Moore got the part after Ridley Scott ran the choice past Hopkins, who had acted with her in Surviving Picasso and gave his blessing.

Who played the disfigured Mason Verger in Hannibal (2001)?

Gary Oldman asked for a prominent credit, was refused and left, then came back asking for no credit at all, and plays the part unrecognisable under prosthetics.

Which actor played FBI agent Will Graham in the 2002 prequel Red Dragon?

Edward Norton inherited a role William Petersen had played sixteen years earlier, when the same novel was first filmed under another title.

Who played Hannibal Lecter in NBC's Hannibal (2013-15)?

Mads Mikkelsen played him for three seasons, until NBC dropped the series as its audience slid to a series low.

Who played the young Lecter in the 2007 prequel Hannibal Rising?

Gaspard Ulliel's film exists because its producer said he told Thomas Harris he would make a young-Hannibal story with or without him, so Harris wrote the novel and the script.

The 2021 CBS series Clarice, starring Rebecca Breeds as the Silence of the Lambs agent, is set when?

Between the film and Hannibal: it opens in 1993, a year after Buffalo Bill, and a tangle over character rights meant it could never so much as mention Lecter.

Thomas Harris said Hannibal Lecter grew out of a doctor he met as a young reporter in which place?

A prison in Mexico: Harris took the courteous doctor for one of the staff until the warden told him on the way out that the man was a surgeon locked up for murder.

In Thomas Harris's novels, Hannibal Lecter is born into the nobility of which country?

Lithuania: the prequel novel shows him as a boy there in the Second World War, when starving looters kill his sister, the trauma it offers as the making of him.

Ted Levine, who played Buffalo Bill, is also known for playing Captain Stottlemeyer on which series?

Monk made Ted Levine a lawman, a long way from what Buffalo Bill first brought him: he has said that for a time he was offered little but killers.

Hopkins won his second Best Actor Oscar, aged 83, for which 2020 film?

The Father won him the night's final award in an upset over the late Chadwick Boseman; Hopkins was not there, and sent his thanks by video from Wales the next day.

Before The Silence of the Lambs, the actress playing Clarice Starling had won her first Oscar for which film?

The Accused relaunched her: producers had doubted the former child star, who auditioned for the part after a run of flops that followed her years at Yale.

Which B-movie producer, who gave Demme his first directing jobs, plays the FBI Director in The Silence of the Lambs?

Roger Corman was often cast by directors he had launched: he also turns up in The Godfather Part II and Apollo 13, and again for Demme in Philadelphia.

Which prize did Thomas Harris's novel The Silence of the Lambs win?

The Bram Stoker Award comes from the Horror Writers Association, yet the same thriller also won the Anthony Award, given at the mystery world's annual convention.

Which post-punk band's song 'Hip Priest' plays as Starling enters Buffalo Bill's house?

The Fall recorded it for the 1982 album Hex Enduction Hour, and singer Mark E. Smith reworked it six years later as the glam-rock 'Big New Prinz'.

Which film festival gave Demme a shared best-director prize for The Silence of the Lambs in February 1991?

Berlin screened it in competition when it was already in US cinemas: the film had opened there on 14 February, the day before the festival began.

Which FBI profiler, later the author of Mindhunter, showed the actor playing Jack Crawford around Quantico?

John E. Douglas ran the FBI's serial-crime unit and was Thomas Harris's model for Crawford, so the actor was shadowing the man he was about to play.

As of 2026, the real house used as Buffalo Bill's home operates as what?

Vacation rental: fans can book the whole house, and because the film's pit was a studio set, the owner had Tom Savini's effects team build a replica in the basement.

What did Britain's film censors do to the 18 certificate of The Silence of the Lambs for its 2017 re-release?

Lowered it to 15: the BBFC's Craig Lapper said viewers had not gone numb so much as grown used to serial killers as a stock figure of crime drama.

The skull on the Silence of the Lambs poster is formed by seven nude women, after a photograph with which painter?

Salvador Dalí posed beside the seven models in Philippe Halsman's photograph In Voluptas Mors. The film's designers tucked a small version of that image into the poster.

The Silence of the Lambs became the first Best Picture winner in which genre, first nominated only in 1974?

Horror had its first Best Picture nominee in The Exorcist, but no film of the kind had won until this one took all five top awards.

Which Oscars host was hauled on stage in Hannibal Lecter's mask at the ceremony The Silence of the Lambs swept?

Billy Crystal was hosting for the third year running and had planned a bungee jump for his entrance before settling on the mask.

Which habit of the eyes did Anthony Hopkins all but give up to play Hannibal Lecter in The Silence of the Lambs?

Blinking was nearly cut from the performance: Hopkins played Lecter still and staring, and said the idea did not come from Charles Manson, as some assumed.

What is the name of Buffalo Bill's dog, which his captive seizes as a bargaining chip in The Silence of the Lambs?

Precious is the one creature Buffalo Bill dotes on, so holding her hostage in the pit is the only leverage his prisoner ever gets.

Which screen killer ranks second, right behind Hannibal Lecter, on the American Film Institute's list of film villains?

Norman Bates of Psycho is the runner-up, with Darth Vader third. Clarice Starling placed sixth among the heroes on the same list.

After killing two guards during his escape, how does Hannibal Lecter leave the building in The Silence of the Lambs?

In an ambulance is how Lecter gets away: he dresses in a dead guard's uniform and face and lets himself be driven out as a casualty.

Which director's company, Amblin Entertainment, passed on The Silence of the Lambs as out of character for him?

Steven Spielberg's Amblin turned the project down, and Jonathan Demme then signed on after reading only the novel, since the script was unfinished.

Anthony Hopkins, the Hannibal Lecter of The Silence of the Lambs, was born in Port Talbot in which country?

Wales also produced his boyhood hero Richard Burton, who grew up near the same town and whom Hopkins met at 15.

Which director of Alien and Gladiator took over from Jonathan Demme for the 2001 sequel Hannibal?

Ridley Scott made Hannibal a year after Gladiator, once Demme had declined to return over the story's increased gore.

In the final scene of The Silence of the Lambs, Hannibal Lecter phones Clarice Starling during which celebration?

Her graduation party at the FBI Academy is interrupted by the call, which Lecter makes from an unnamed tropical location.

Which Scottish actor, later Logan Roy in Succession, was the first to play Hannibal Lecter on screen, in 1986?

Brian Cox played the part five years before Anthony Hopkins, in a thriller whose poor box office let the makers of the 1991 film borrow the character for nothing.

Which Tom Hanks drama did Jonathan Demme direct two years after The Silence of the Lambs, earning its star an Oscar?

Philadelphia was one of the first major films to address the AIDS crisis, and Demme was moved to make it by a friend's illness.

In The Silence of the Lambs, which senator's daughter does Buffalo Bill abduct, setting off a race to save her?

Catherine Martin is the daughter of Senator Ruth Martin, and her kidnapping is what pushes the FBI to offer Lecter a deal it never means to honour.

Hannibal Lecter's first clue in The Silence of the Lambs sends Clarice Starling to a jar hidden in what kind of place?

A storage locker holds the preserved remains of Benjamin Raspail, a former patient of Lecter's, and the find ties Lecter to the Buffalo Bill case.

Which 1991 blockbuster beat The Silence of the Lambs to the Best Sound Oscar and outgrossed every film that year?

Terminator 2 won four Oscars at the ceremony, all in technical categories, while JFK took the editing prize the thriller was also up for.

Which Wisconsin grave robber, also a model for Leatherface, helped inspire Buffalo Bill in The Silence of the Lambs?

Ed Gein made keepsakes from bodies he dug up near Plainfield, a case that became notorious when the authorities uncovered it in 1957.

What does Hannibal Lecter ask for in return for helping the FBI find Buffalo Bill in The Silence of the Lambs?

A transfer elsewhere is Lecter's price, to get away from the hospital's director, and the first offer Starling brings him is a fraud arranged by her boss.

The Silence of the Lambs, released in February 1991, was the first Best Picture winner already out where by Oscar time?

On home video from October 1991, it became the most rented tape in the United States months before the ceremony.

At the climax of The Silence of the Lambs, which sound tells Clarice Starling where Buffalo Bill is standing?

His revolver being cocked gives him away, and Starling spins and fires at the sound, killing him before he can shoot.

In the 2001 sequel Hannibal, in which European city is Hannibal Lecter hiding as a curator under a false name?

Florence is where Lecter poses as a curator called Dr. Fell, until a letter he sends Starling gives investigators a scent to trace.

Before The Silence of the Lambs, Jonathan Demme directed Stop Making Sense, a 1984 concert film of which band?

Talking Heads were filmed over four nights at Hollywood's Pantages Theatre while touring their album Speaking in Tongues.

Anthony Hopkins was offered Hannibal Lecter on the strength of playing a London doctor in which David Lynch film?

The Elephant Man cast Hopkins as the surgeon who takes in Joseph Merrick, a far gentler doctor than the one Demme wanted him for.

Which US institution chose The Silence of the Lambs for preservation in its National Film Registry in 2011?

Library of Congress selections run to as many as 25 films a year, each judged culturally, historically or aesthetically significant.

Jonathan Demme's trademark close-ups, used all through The Silence of the Lambs, have the actors do what?

Look into the camera is the rule: Demme's characters face the lens directly at crucial moments, a style that went on to inspire directors such as Wes Anderson.

The 2005 stage parody Silence!, an unauthorized send-up of The Silence of the Lambs, takes what theatrical form?

A musical by Jon and Al Kaplan, it hands its title number to a chorus of lambs and reached Off-Broadway in 2011.

In the 2001 sequel Hannibal, which animals does the vengeful Mason Verger breed to eat Hannibal Lecter alive?

Giant hogs turn on their owner instead: Verger's own attendant shoves him into the pen, while Lecter carries the wounded Starling out unharmed.

While the FBI raids an empty house in Illinois, in which state does Clarice Starling find Buffalo Bill's real home?

Ohio is the state of Belvedere, the town of the killer's first victim, and Starling is there asking questions when she knocks on his door alone.

Clarice Starling of The Silence of the Lambs tells Hannibal Lecter she grew up in a small town in which state?

West Virginia is where Starling spent her first ten years, before she was sent to a cousin's ranch and then to a Lutheran orphanage.

In The Silence of the Lambs, which fellow inmate of Hannibal Lecter is found dead soon after harassing Clarice Starling?

Miggs is found dead after swallowing his own tongue, apparently talked into it by Lecter as punishment for his rudeness.

In The Silence of the Lambs, Jack Crawford leads which arm of the FBI, the one that recruits trainee Clarice Starling?

Behavioral Science Unit agents profile serial offenders, and its chief pulls Starling out of training to sit down with Lecter.

What is the official pretext for Clarice Starling's first visit to Hannibal Lecter in The Silence of the Lambs?

A psychological survey is her cover story, but the real aim is his insight into Buffalo Bill, and Lecter turns dismissive once he works that out.

Which actress, later director of Eve's Bayou and Harriet, plays Clarice Starling's friend in The Silence of the Lambs?

Kasi Lemmons plays fellow trainee Ardelia Mapp, and six years later made her directing debut with Eve's Bayou.

Which actress, later Dr. Erica Hahn on Grey's Anatomy, plays Buffalo Bill's captive in The Silence of the Lambs?

Brooke Smith played the kidnapped senator's daughter, and years later said she was shocked when Grey's Anatomy wrote her surgeon out of the show.

Which singer of the hit Wicked Game appears as a SWAT commander in The Silence of the Lambs?

Chris Isaak had already taken a bit part in Demme's Married to the Mob, and later starred in Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me.

Which Night of the Living Dead director has a cameo as one of Hannibal Lecter's jailers in The Silence of the Lambs?

George Romero, whose 1968 debut shaped the modern zombie film, went uncredited for his moment on screen.

Which romantic-comedy star turned down playing Clarice Starling in The Silence of the Lambs over its gruesome themes?

Meg Ryan was Demme's next call after his first choice passed, and Laura Dern was also discussed, though the studio doubted she was bankable.

Which 1934 Frank Capra comedy first won the 'Big Five' Oscars that The Silence of the Lambs later swept?

It Happened One Night starred Clark Gable and Claudette Colbert, and its sweep went unrepeated for more than forty years.

Which star of Schindler's List plays the killer Francis Dolarhyde in the 2002 Hannibal Lecter prequel Red Dragon?

Ralph Fiennes plays a murderer nicknamed the Tooth Fairy, whose back carries a tattoo of a William Blake painting.

Which actor played FBI boss Jack Crawford in NBC's Hannibal, winning a Saturn Award for season two?

Laurence Fishburne acted opposite his then wife, Gina Torres, who played the character's terminally ill wife on the show.

Which Goodfellas star plays Justice Department official Paul Krendler in the 2001 sequel Hannibal?

Ray Liotta's character meets one of the grisliest ends in the series, fed a piece of his own brain at Lecter's dinner table.

Which Chicago Tribune critic, Roger Ebert's television partner, gave The Silence of the Lambs a rare bad review?

Gene Siskel also panned Unforgiven, another Best Picture winner, while Ebert later added Demme's film to his list of Great Movies.

Which Boston Public actor plays the asylum director who holds Hannibal Lecter in The Silence of the Lambs?

Anthony Heald played the same preening doctor again eleven years later, in the prequel Red Dragon.

Which actor from The Wire plays Barney, Hannibal Lecter's jailer at the asylum, in The Silence of the Lambs?

Frankie Faison has appeared in more screen adaptations of the Lecter novels than any other actor, four films in all.

Which Pushing Daisies creator developed the NBC series Hannibal, pairing Hannibal Lecter with FBI profiler Will Graham?

Bryan Fuller mapped out seven seasons and meant to reach the events of the 1991 film in the fifth, but NBC cancelled the show after three.

The closing scene of The Silence of the Lambs, set in an unnamed tropical spot, was shot on Bimini in which country?

Bahamas streets in Alice Town, on Bimini, stood in for the nameless place from which Lecter makes his last phone call.

Which cinematographer shot The Silence of the Lambs and later filmed The Sixth Sense for M. Night Shyamalan?

Tak Fujimoto shot eleven films with Demme, and decades on supervised the 4K scan used for the film's Ultra HD release.

A scene in the FBI Director's office in The Silence of the Lambs was filmed in the office of which Labor Secretary?

Elizabeth Dole lent her Washington office to the production, and the FBI went further, opening its academy to the crew and letting staff play bit parts.

Which Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers song is heard in both Fast Times at Ridgemont High and The Silence of the Lambs?

American Girl failed to chart in the United States as a 1977 single, yet grew into one of Petty's most popular songs and a staple of classic rock.

Which actress from Hitchcock's Marnie plays the senator whose daughter is kidnapped in The Silence of the Lambs?

Diane Baker was Lil Mainwaring in the 1964 Hitchcock film, and the senator marked her return to the big screen.