99 Fun Facts About The Big Lebowski

Which pair of filmmakers wrote, directed and produced The Big Lebowski?

Joel and Ethan Coen wrote, directed and produced The Big Lebowski, their follow-up to Fargo, with Joel credited as director and Ethan as producer.

What do the enforcers do to the Dude's rug before realising they have the wrong Lebowski?

Urinate on it: one of the two thugs does, and because the rug 'really tied the room together', the Dude calls on the other Jeffrey Lebowski to ask for a replacement, which sets the whole plot going.

Which real-life film producer and Seattle Seven member was the main inspiration for the Dude?

Jeff Dowd, a film producer and promoter who had belonged to the Seattle Seven, was already known as 'The Dude' when the Coens met him over the distribution of Blood Simple; Jeff Bridges copied his slouch for the part.

Whose love of guns and the armed forces did the Coens fold into Walter Sobchak?

Filmmaker John Milius, a gun enthusiast who never served in the forces, kept inviting the Coens out to his house to look at his firearms; they never went, but his manner went straight into Walter.

The actress playing Maude in The Big Lebowski said the role was based on artist Carolee Schneemann and which avant-garde figure?

Yoko Ono was one model for Maude; the other, Carolee Schneemann, 'worked naked from a swing', which is how Maude makes her entrance, flying over a canvas in a harness to paint it.

Which actor did the Coens originally consider for the role of the Dude?

Mel Gibson was considered for the Dude before Jeff Bridges took the part; Bridges himself hesitated, worried that playing a pot-smoking slacker would set a bad example for his daughters.

Where did most of the Dude's wardrobe come from?

Jeff Bridges' own closet supplied most of the Dude's wardrobe: he picked the clothes out with the film's costume staff and, since they were his anyway, simply wore them home after each day's shooting.

Why did the Coens swap the Dude's scripted Chrysler for a Ford Torino?

It was too small for a co-star: the script gave the Dude a Chrysler LeBaron, as his real-life model had owned, but the burly actor cast as Walter could not fit in it, so a Ford Torino took its place.

Which actor plays Walter Sobchak?

John Goodman plays Walter Sobchak, the hot-headed Vietnam veteran; the Coens wrote the part for him and put the film off until he had a break from making Roseanne.

Why does Walter say he cannot bowl on Saturdays?

He is shomer Shabbos: Walter converted to Judaism for his ex-wife Cynthia and keeps the Sabbath, so he will not drive, handle money or roll from Friday sundown to Saturday night.

Which actor plays Donny, the bowling partner Walter keeps telling to shut up?

Steve Buscemi plays Donny, a part the Coens wrote for him; he has said he did not want it at first, because he 'couldn't figure why anyone would want to be this guy'.

How does Donny die?

A heart attack during the nihilist fight: while Walter bites off a nihilist's ear in the bowling-alley parking lot, Donny clutches his chest, collapses and dies.

What do the Dude and Walter put Donny's ashes in, rather than pay for an urn?

A coffee can serves as the urn because the funeral home's cheapest receptacle costs more than they will pay; when Walter scatters the ashes from a cliff over the Pacific, the wind blows them straight back over the Dude.

Which actress plays Maude Lebowski?

Julianne Moore plays Maude Lebowski, the millionaire's avant-garde artist daughter; she was sent the script while making The Lost World: Jurassic Park and shot all her scenes in just two weeks.

Why does Maude sleep with the Dude in The Big Lebowski?

To conceive a child, and she picks the Dude because she wants a father who will take no part in raising it; the Stranger's closing words confirm there is 'a little Lebowski on the way'.

Who plays Brandt, the Big Lebowski's obsequious assistant?

Philip Seymour Hoffman plays Brandt, the fawning, giggling aide who walks the Dude past his employer's wall of photographs; David Cross had also auditioned for the part.

Which actress plays Bunny Lebowski, the millionaire's young wife who is 'apparently kidnapped'?

Tara Reid plays Bunny Lebowski, the trophy wife who greets the Dude while painting her toenails by the pool and turns out to have simply driven to Palm Springs without telling anyone.

What does the envelope from the kidnappers contain, supposedly from Bunny?

A severed toe with green nail polish arrives as proof the kidnappers mean business; Walter is unimpressed, insisting he can get you a toe by three o'clock this afternoon, with nail polish.

What does the Dude find in his recovered car that leads him to a teenager's house?

A sheet of homework with a schoolboy's name on it sends the Dude and Walter to his door; it really happened to a friend of the Coens, who found a child's homework in his own stolen car.

Whose Corvette does Walter smash with a crowbar outside Larry's house in The Big Lebowski?

A neighbour's: Walter takes the sports car for the boy's and sets about it to make him talk, and its real owner comes out and wrecks the Dude's own car in revenge.

Which musician plays one of the German nihilists in The Big Lebowski?

Flea, the Red Hot Chili Peppers bassist, plays one of the nihilists who set fire to the Dude's car outside the bowling alley and demand the ransom money.

Who plays Jesus Quintana, the purple-clad rival bowler?

John Turturro plays Jesus Quintana; the Coens built the character around a flamboyant role Turturro had played in Mi Puta Vida at New York's Public Theater in 1988.

Which cover of 'Hotel California' accompanies Jesus Quintana's entrance?

The Gipsy Kings' Spanish-language rumba cover of 'Hotel California' plays as Jesus Quintana licks his bowling ball and struts down the lane in purple.

Who plays the Stranger, the cowboy narrator who chats with the Dude at the bar?

Sam Elliott plays the Stranger, introduced over 'Tumbling Tumbleweeds'; he was on set for only two days, and spent much of that time on take after take of his closing speech to the camera.

Which pornographer, played by Ben Gazzara, drugs the Dude's drink?

Jackie Treehorn, the Malibu pornographer played by Ben Gazzara, spikes the Dude's drink at his beach house, sending him into the bowling dream sequence and then out onto the road in a daze.

The Dude's drugged dream sequence in The Big Lebowski is staged in the style of which Hollywood choreographer?

Busby Berkeley's kaleidoscopic 1930s musical numbers are the model: chorus girls in bowling-pin headdresses form patterns as the Dude floats down the lane, all shot in a converted aircraft hangar.

Which Bob Dylan song plays over the opening titles of The Big Lebowski?

'The Man in Me', from Bob Dylan's 1970 album New Morning, plays over the opening credits as bowlers roll, and returns during the Dude's first dream sequence.

Which Dude line reportedly persuaded Allen Klein to license 'Dead Flowers' to The Big Lebowski?

When the Dude said 'I hate the fuckin' Eagles, man!' at a screening, Allen Klein, who controlled the Rolling Stones' 'Dead Flowers' and had wanted $150,000, stood up and said 'That's it, you can have the song'.

What kind of music accompanies the German nihilists in The Big Lebowski?

Techno-pop in the Kraftwerk manner follows the German nihilists around; their old band is even called Autobahn, after a Kraftwerk album, and its record sleeve parodies another.

Which composer, the Coens' regular collaborator since Blood Simple, wrote the score for The Big Lebowski?

Carter Burwell wrote the score, as he has for nearly every Coen film; the songs around it were gathered by T Bone Burnett, who took the unusual credit of 'musical archivist'.

How did The Big Lebowski fare in US cinemas?

Modest takings: it made under $20 million in the United States and Canada on a $15 million budget, and its cult following only came later, once it had left cinemas.

What does Walter's 'ringer' briefcase contain at the ransom drop?

His dirty underwear — 'the whites' — fills the ringer Walter swaps for the million-dollar briefcase, planning to hand the kidnappers the decoy and keep the money.

Lebowski Fest, the fan festival of bowling and costumes, began in 2002 in which Kentucky city?

Louisville natives Will Russell and Scott Shuffitt launched Lebowski Fest there in 2002, and about 150 fans turned up; it grew into a travelling festival held in more than a dozen cities.

What is the official name of the religion Dudeism, founded in 2005?

The Church of the Latter-Day Dude is Dudeism's formal name, a play on the Latter-day Saints; journalist Oliver Benjamin founded it from Chiang Mai, Thailand, as a laid-back modern form of Taoism.

By its own count, roughly how many priests had Dudeism ordained worldwide by May 2017?

450,000 is the church's own estimate of the priests it had ordained online by May 2017; its annual Day of the Dude falls on March 6, the date the film opened in American cinemas.

Who chose The Big Lebowski for the National Film Registry in 2014?

The Library of Congress added the film to its registry in 2014; Roger Ebert, who in 1998 judged it no match for Fargo, had already put it on his Great Movies list in 2010.

The 2019 Big Lebowski spin-off The Jesus Rolls remakes which French film starring a young Gérard Depardieu?

Going Places (Les Valseuses), Bertrand Blier's 1974 film about two drifters on a crime spree, gave The Jesus Rolls its plot and, at first, its name: the remake was called Going Places until it was retitled.

The Big Lebowski's structure is loosely modelled on the detective fiction of which author?

Raymond Chandler was the model: the Coens wanted a story that wanders from one part of Los Angeles to the next with, as Joel put it, a hopelessly complex plot that is ultimately unimportant.

How long did principal photography take, in and around Los Angeles in early 1997?

Eleven weeks: principal photography began in January 1997 and wrapped in April in and around Los Angeles, with the bowling sequences taking three of those weeks.

Jeff Bridges reprised the Dude for which beer brand's Super Bowl LIII commercial in 2019?

Stella Artois was the brand: Bridges first teased the comeback with a five-second clip of the Dude and a passing tumbleweed, captioned 'Can't be living in the past, man. Stay tuned'.

Who was the cinematographer on The Big Lebowski?

Roger Deakins, the Coens' regular cinematographer, lit the night exteriors with an orange sodium-vapour look instead of conventional blue moonlight, linking the gritty scenes to the dream sequences.

At which American festival did The Big Lebowski have its world premiere in 1998?

Sundance, in Park City, Utah, hosted the premiere at its Eccles Theater in January; the film reached American cinemas on March 6, a date its fans now mark every year as the Day of the Dude.

The Coens wrote The Big Lebowski at around the same time as which of their films?

Ethan said the Dude-Walter dynamic grew out of the scenes between Barton Fink and Charlie Meadows; Fargo got made in the meantime.

All the bowling scenes in The Big Lebowski were shot over three weeks at which alley?

Hollywood Star Lanes, on Santa Monica Boulevard, gave the film three weeks of shooting; in 2002 the school district took over the site and built an elementary school where the lanes had been.

In The Big Lebowski, Larry Sellers's father wrote for which TV western that Walter reveres?

Branded, the 1965 western starring Chuck Connors as a cavalry officer falsely branded a coward, is the show Walter credits to Arthur Digby Sellers before grilling his silent son about the money.

Peter Exline, a partial model for the Dude, played which sport before the Coens made it bowling?

Softball: Exline played in an amateur softball league, but the Coens switched the sport to bowling because its social setting lets players sit, drink and smoke 'while engaging in inane conversation'.

Which actor passed on the 'Big' Lebowski role, not wanting to play an American?

Anthony Hopkins turned the Big Lebowski down, having no wish to play an American; after a long search the part went to David Huddleston, a veteran of Blazing Saddles, within a month of filming.

Landlord Marty dances to which piece in The Big Lebowski?

Pictures at an Exhibition, by Mussorgsky, accompanies the dance 'cycle' that Marty asks the Dude to come and give him notes on, in the same breath as a reminder that the rent is due.

John Lautner, whose Sheats-Goldstein Residence plays the pornographer's house in The Big Lebowski, trained under which architect?

Frank Lloyd Wright took Lautner on in the 1930s as one of his first Taliesin apprentices; Lautner's hillside house in Los Angeles passes in the film for a beach pad in Malibu.

Which cocktail, which surged in popularity after The Big Lebowski, is the Dude's drink of choice?

White Russian is no Russian invention: the mix of vodka, coffee liqueur and cream is named only for its vodka.

What does the camera follow across Los Angeles in The Big Lebowski's opening scene?

A tumbleweed drifts across the city and ends up on the beach, set to a 1930s cowboy song chosen as the theme of the film's narrator.

Anelosimus biglebowski and Anelosimus dude, both named in 2006, are African species of which animal?

Spiders from Tanzania carry the names; their genus is prized by scientists because it contains more highly social species than any other group of its kind.

The Los Angeles bowling alley filmed for The Big Lebowski was seized in 2002 to build what?

An elementary school now stands on the site, taken by the school district through eminent domain; money from the shoot had paid for the alley's electronic scoring, replacing paper score cards.

Which blockbuster, already in its twelfth week, far out-earned The Big Lebowski's opening weekend?

Titanic was three months into its run when the bowling comedy opened to just $5.5 million, a start so weak that the film was first written off as a flop.

What does the Dude call the animal that nihilists toss into his bath in The Big Lebowski?

A marmot is the weapon of the German nihilists, who walk into his home while he is soaking to demand the ransom money.

Which dictator appears briefly in The Big Lebowski, played by professional lookalike Jerry Haleva?

Saddam Hussein was the only part Jerry Haleva ever played on film: a political lobbyist by trade, he was hired for his resemblance in several movies, including both Hot Shots! comedies.

Adam Bertocci's 2010 parody retells The Big Lebowski in the language and style of which writer?

William Shakespeare was the model for Two Gentlemen of Lebowski, which went from an online post to a sold-out New York stage run within three months and then into print.

Which band gives the Dude his musical signature in The Big Lebowski, with two songs in the film?

Creedence Clearwater Revival were in the script from the start: Run Through the Jungle and Lookin' Out My Back Door both play, while every other main character got a sound of their own.

Dudeism, inspired by The Big Lebowski, promotes a modern form of which Chinese philosophy?

Taoism is the core, blended with ideas from the Greek philosopher Epicurus; the church even rewrote the Tao Te Ching using dialogue and scenes from the film.

In The Big Lebowski, the Dude lives in a ramshackle bungalow in which Los Angeles neighbourhood?

Venice is where two thugs burst in at the start, never stopping to wonder why a supposed multi-millionaire would live in such a run-down beach bungalow.

What is the Dude buying in The Big Lebowski as a president speaks on the supermarket television?

Half-and-half is his only purchase, while on the screen the president threatens military force, a stance Walter soon copies in a dispute over a ruined rug.

What does Walter accuse the Big Lebowski of when he hauls the millionaire out of his wheelchair?

Faking his paralysis is the charge, and Walter is wrong again: the old man crumples to the floor, his condition entirely real.

Where do Walter and the Dude scatter Donny's ashes, only for an updraft to blow them back?

A cliff above the Pacific hosts the farewell, which Walter derails by turning his eulogy into a speech about comrades lost in Vietnam before the ashes coat the Dude.

In The Big Lebowski, what do the German nihilists do to the Dude's car outside the bowling alley?

Set it on fire is the answer: the nihilists torch the battered car and demand the ransom anyway, until Walter takes on all three of them at once.

Which future country legend sings lead on the First Edition song in the Dude's bowling dream?

Kenny Rogers fronted the First Edition on Just Dropped In, a single recorded in 1967 that reached the American top five long before his solo country hits.

Which film reunited The Big Lebowski's lead actor with its soundtrack producer and won him an Oscar?

Crazy Heart cast him as a fading country singer and brought the Best Actor award, with songs shaped by the producer who had assembled the Dude's soundtrack.

The Big Lebowski was delayed while its future leading man filmed which Walter Hill Western?

Wild Bill kept him busy while another lead was tied to a sitcom, so the film-makers shot Fargo first and came back to the bowling comedy afterwards.

Which critic upgraded The Big Lebowski to full marks in 2010 and added it to his Great Movies list?

Roger Ebert first rated it a likeable but lesser comedy; twelve years later he decided the plot barely mattered and praised its visual style and eccentric performances.

The limited 10th-anniversary DVD of The Big Lebowski came in packaging shaped like what?

A bowling ball held each individually numbered copy in 2008; an earlier gift set had come with a bowling towel and collectible coasters.

What do ardent fans of The Big Lebowski call themselves, a name also given to a DVD gift set?

Achievers is also the title of a documentary about Lebowski Fest, the travelling fan convention where the faithful bowl in costume.

For The Big Lebowski's spinning shots down the lane, the camera was mounted on something like what?

A barbecue spit was the film-makers' own description of the rig, which turned the camera as it was dollied down the lane; the view from inside the thumb hole was computer-generated.

Which shape recurs across The Big Lebowski, from the bowling alley's neon to both dream sequences?

Stars began as free-form neon laid over the bowling alley by the production designer and spread from there, down to the ones the Dude sees when he is knocked out.

Which screen legend was the film-makers' ideal choice to play the wheelchair-using Big Lebowski?

Marlon Brando was the dream casting for one of the hardest parts to fill, which was settled only about a month before filming began.

Where had Bunny Lebowski actually been during her supposed kidnapping in The Big Lebowski?

Visiting friends in Palm Springs is all it was: Bunny had left without telling anyone, and her nihilist friends seized the chance to squeeze her husband for money.

According to Maude, what does the supposedly wealthy Big Lebowski actually live on?

An allowance from her is his only income, because the fortune was her late mother's; that is why he quietly raids the family charity.

What is the title of the imaginary film that forms the Dude's second dream in The Big Lebowski?

Gutterballs is the mock erotic film he dreams after his drink is spiked, in which a dancing Dude woos Maude amid chorus lines choreographed by Bill and Jacqui Landrum.

What does the Dude listen to on his Walkman in his free time in The Big Lebowski?

Old bowling games are on the cassette: he lies on his rug in headphones replaying a 1987 league play-off, until intruders arrive and knock him out.

Which character actor, who also played Santa Claus on film, has the title role in The Big Lebowski?

David Huddleston, a veteran of more than 140 screen productions, led Santa Claus: The Movie in 1985 and had earlier appeared in Blazing Saddles.

Which Swedish actor plays Uli Kunkel, leader of the German nihilists in The Big Lebowski?

Peter Stormare is known for switching nationalities on screen: a German here, an Italian in The Brothers Grimm and a Frenchman in Chocolat.

Which style of beard did the directors insist that Walter Sobchak wear in The Big Lebowski?

A chin strap, which the film-makers also called the Gladiator, beat the beard the actor wanted; he came round because it suited Walter's flattop haircut.

In what kind of converted building were the Dude's dream sequences filmed for The Big Lebowski?

An airplane hangar housed the fantasy scenes, which were lit to look crisp, monochromatic and bright in deliberate contrast to the seedy light of the Dude's apartment.

Night scenes in The Big Lebowski replace the usual blue movie moonlight with which colour of light?

Orange imitates sodium street lamps, and the cinematographer used it as a visual bridge between the gritty everyday scenes and the stylised fantasies.

How did the actor playing the Dude make himself look stoned before scenes in The Big Lebowski?

By rubbing his eyes until they were bloodshot in a corner of the set, once the directors had agreed that his character probably smoked on the way over.

In which Los Angeles County city does the wealthy philanthropist of The Big Lebowski's title live?

Pasadena is home to the other Jeffrey Lebowski, whose mansion the Dude visits to demand a replacement for his ruined rug.

Which actor plays Da Fino, the private detective who tails the Dude in The Big Lebowski?

Jon Polito was a regular for the film's directors, appearing in five of their films, among them Miller's Crossing as the Italian gangster Johnny Caspar.

Which British actor plays Knox Harrington, Maude's art-world hanger-on in The Big Lebowski?

David Thewlis got a character who was added late in the writing purely to liven up a scene heavy with exposition; he later played Remus Lupin in the Harry Potter films.

Which future Arrested Development actor auditioned to play Brandt, the Big Lebowski's assistant?

David Cross tried out for the eager-to-please assistant years before playing Tobias Fünke; at the time he was writing and performing sketch comedy on HBO.

Under which invented name are The Big Lebowski's directors credited as its co-editor?

Roderick Jaynes is a fictional British film editor whose name the pair use whenever they cut their own work; the alias has even been nominated for an editing Oscar.

Whose cover of the Rolling Stones song Dead Flowers plays over The Big Lebowski's closing credits?

Townes Van Zandt's version comes from his covers album Roadsongs; the Texas songwriter died on New Year's Day 1997, the month the film began shooting.

Which producer picked the songs for The Big Lebowski and asked to be credited as music archivist?

T Bone Burnett turned down the title of music supervisor because it sounded like management, and went on to build the soundtrack of O Brother, Where Art Thou? for the same directors.

Which US Army general was floated as a non-actor choice to play the Big Lebowski?

Norman Schwarzkopf appeared on a list of public figures considered for the millionaire, alongside the televangelist Jerry Falwell, before a professional actor was hired.

The porn kingpin's beach party in The Big Lebowski was designed around which ancient theme?

Inca was the brief given to the production designer, who was asked for a very Hollywood party with a sacrificial feel, complete with oiled-down waiters.

Which singer, once of the band 'Til Tuesday, has a cameo among The Big Lebowski's German nihilists?

Aimee Mann is credited as the girlfriend of the nihilist Franz; a year later her songs formed the backbone of Paul Thomas Anderson's Magnolia.

After its American festival premiere, The Big Lebowski screened at which European film festival?

Berlin showed the comedy in February 1998, weeks before it reached American cinemas, where it opened on about 1,200 screens.

Dudeism was founded by the journalist Oliver Benjamin while he was based in which Asian country?

Thailand was his base, in the northern city of Chiang Mai; clergy ordained through the church's website have since officiated legal weddings in some American states.

Dudeism's annual holy day, the Day of the Dude, falls on the anniversary of what?

The film's US release on March 6 is the date followers observe, honouring a comedy that drew mixed reviews and thin crowds when it first opened.

Lebowskia, a genus named in honour of The Big Lebowski's creators, is an extinct group of what?

Conifers of the genus were described in 2007 from 270-million-year-old fossils found in Texas; the first species was named Lebowskia grandifolia.

Which Texas country singer plays Smokey, the bowler Walter pulls a pistol on in The Big Lebowski?

Jimmie Dale Gilmore co-founded the Flatlanders with Joe Ely and Butch Hancock; gentle, pacifist Smokey is often called his most memorable acting role.

What have the makers of The Big Lebowski said they will never make, despite approving a spin-off?

A sequel is off the table, they have said; they let a co-star borrow one character for a film of his own but took no part in making it.