48 Random Fun Facts About Hollywood And Celebrities That You Might Not Know
Ahh, Hollywood — the place where dreams either fail spectacularly or come true in the best possible way. While some may focus more on random celebrity facts to enrich their knowledge, it’s important to know one or two things about the place they live and work in. Any new rising and ambitious person might ask an interesting question — why is it important to know one or two facts about Hollywood and celebrities too?
The reason is simple — if you are there, you should know what you are talking about. Nobody wants to work with a person who doesn’t know the interesting facts about the center of entertainment. As far as Hollywood is concerned, the place is rich with history and details. After all, it’s where the greatest movies in cinema history were made. Some of the random facts that you might encounter about this place might involve the tourist-loved Hollywood Walk of Fame. It’s a place dotted with celebrity names. On the other hand, you might want to catch up on some image-changing celebrity weird facts. They vary in their strangeness, as do we all, and some of them even might involve legendary actors and actresses. It might be useful to pick out the most interesting ones and mention them the next time you are in Los Angeles with your friends.
As far as random fun facts about these two things go, you don’t have to look for them on IMDB or Wikipedia ’cause we decided to compile some of the best ones for your convenience. From the Hollywood sign to how Hal Roach boosted creativity in his writers’ room, be sure to upvote the facts you liked the most. On the other hand, if you have your own fun facts about celebrities and Hollywood that you would like to share, you can do so in the comments below.
This post may include affiliate links.
Music changes over time, so it’s important to recognize this evolution through awards, especially the big ones. The first rap song to win an Oscar for Best Original Song was “Lose Yourself” by Eminem. However, instead of attending the ceremonies like every other nominee, Eminem fell asleep while watching cartoons with his daughter at home.
Rowan Atkinson is not only the face behind Mr. Bean, the childhood hero of many children and adults, but also quite an intelligent comedian. Not only did he receive top grades in his A classes, but he got a master’s degree in electrical engineering. So, if his acting career were to take a dip, he would have something to go back to.
Rowan is a comedic genius... I mean, have you seen Blackadder? Not the Nine O'Clock News? And... and... the list is considerable!
Yoda is strange creature with his complex speaking abilities. The Cookie Monster is funny with the jokes it says. Miss Piggy is a diva star that uses French phrases to sound more fancy. What do these three have in common? They were all voiced by the talented Frank Oz, who you might recognize from the movie "Knives Out."
Charlie Chaplin might have been eager to make fun of the German dictator, Hitler, but Hollywood wasn’t too keen to do so. When he presented a plan for a movie that mocked the dictator to Hollywood producers, they weren’t too eager to finance it. So Chaplin decided to produce it himself.
Being a brilliant actress is one thing, but almost making it into a US archery Olympics team is maybe an even more important achievement. Upon taking up the activity in her 40s, Geena Davis came close to making the United States Olympic archery squad in 1999. In the US, she got ranked as the 13th-best female athlete.
She's also a member of Mensa; she's quite intelligent on top of everything else. She's great!
Elvis Presley might be the king of rock ’n’ roll, but his style is much more memorable. Greaser clothes, cool-guy attitude, and shoe polish-filled black hair? Elvis Presley, known for his iconic black hair, was blond. He used shoe polish to darken his hair to look more handsome to the audience.
In 2005, Benedict Cumberbatch got kidnapped in South Africa. When their car tire exploded as they were traveling at night, they had to stop at the side of a road. At that moment, they were surprised by armed guys. The situation was resolved when Cumberbatch handed over the money and bank cards he had.
“Whoopi Goldberg,” the name known around the world, is made up. Caryn Elaine Johnson, who named herself Whoopi Goldberg for the Hollywood business, came up with the surname because it sounded “Jewish” enough for the industry. The “Whoopi” part pays tribute to the whoopee cushion.
The Oscars ceremonies happen every year and can catch the eyes of the whole world. However, not a lot of people know why they got created. Due to actors and writers asking for more money for their work, Hollywood producers decided to calm them down by giving them awards. The first ceremony took place in 1929.
Phobias are natural and vary in severity and the subject of the fear. When talking about Nicole Kidman, her phobia involves the innocent butterfly. Known as lepidopterophobia, the fear of butterflies and moths is common. So, if you get scared around these flying creatures, you share one thing with Kidman.
Whitney Houston was not only a pop singer and actress in movies like "The Bodyguard," but she also dabbled in the production side of Hollywood. Whitney Houston served as a producer for "The Princess Diaries" movies. She also helped produce the 1997 "Cinderella" live-action movie, where she had a role.
Ooh, I love that version of Cinderella! Probably my favorite 😁
Bryan Cranston wasn’t always the comedian and drama actor we know today, ’cause at one point, he was a suspect in a homicide case. While working in Florida, the staff at a restaurant Cranston and his brother were working at joked about “taking care” of the chef. When they left town, the chef passed away and they thus became suspects for the police.
i need someone to see what the case was called and if it was solved. please and thank you.
Celebrities flex their muscles to other people by outbidding on the important stuff. While some do so in donations, Leonardo DiCaprio and Nicolas Cage decided to bid on the same Mongolian dinosaur skull. Cage got it for $276,000 but had to return it to Mongolian authorities when they said it was stolen.
Writing is a complex process, no matter if you’re a novice or a veteran of Hollywood, so it’s no wonder some screenwriters sometimes suffer from writer’s block and are beaten by ideas. So, Hal Roach, a Hollywood filmmaker, usually brought a drunkard or an insane man that would spew random ideas in his writers’ room.
Some "Friends" fans might have noticed that there was something wrong with Chandler’s right hand. For those that might not know, Matthew Perry is missing a part of his middle finger in real life. According to some sources, Perry lost it when he was three. The cause was a car door slam.
A wonky eye is a common sight, but what about a finger? The pinky finger of Denzel Washington is inherently misshapen. The actor’s pinky has been dislocated so frequently that it periodically slips out of its place every time he moves his hand. Luckily, this hasn’t impacted his acting abilities.
A joke landed the legendary comedian Bill Murray under the scrutiny of the law. According to reports, Murray got arrested in 1970 for carrying 10 pounds of an illegal substance, nicknamed “grass,” at an airport. Jokingly, he said he was carrying a bomb, a ticket counter employee heard it, and US Marshals then inspected his bag. Murray got a sentence of five years’ probation.
At 22 years old, Angelina Jolie tried to hire a hitman that would make her “disappear” in a bad and wrong way. Luckily, the person she tried to hire was kind enough to refuse the job and instead offered her some help. Jolie claimed that the hitman convinced her to live, but said if she still wanted to go through with it, to call him two months later.
The Apollo 11 crew sent shockwaves when they successfully landed on the moon and managed to return. To commemorate this occasion, Hollywood decided to give the three astronauts stars of the Walk of Fame. Their “stars” are unique because their names got written on a moon symbol.
Writing is a process that can vary in length. Probably the majority of writers take years to create a single song, while others can do it in just a few minutes. Lady Gaga, one of the most prominent pop singers and songwriters, belongs to the minority for the most part. She was able to write “Just Dance” (with RedOne) and “Born This Way” each in just ten minutes.
So do Travis Tritt and Freddie Mercury. Tritt wrote “Here’s A Quarter” in 25 minutes on Mercury wrote “Crazy Little Thing Called Love” in 10!
One of the more iconic things about Hollywood might be the sign itself. While it just stands on the hill these days, during and after the 1920s, the sign was lit up using thousands of light bulbs. The person whose job was to change the burned-out light bulbs lived near the sign in a cabin.
“Hollywood accounting” describes the creative method the entertainment industry uses to inflate expenditures so that the studio pays fewer taxes on the profits. "Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix," for example, reported a loss of $167 million on paper. Why? $212 million worth of distribution fees.
Ask a Mathematician what is 2+2, they will tell you it's 4... Ask an Accountant was is 2+2, they will ask you "what do you want it to be?"
Everything costs something in Hollywood, even a star on the Walk of Fame. First of all, you need to be a celebrity (duh), and then you have to pay the price of around $50,000 (prices change over time). Some of the money goes to the long-term maintenance of the star, while the rest goes into its making and placing.
Hannah Montana was everywhere — on pencil cases and in tattoo form. The initials of Hannah Montana got permanently tattooed on Stephen Baldwin’s body. Because Miley knew his daughter loved the program, she suggested that he get a tattoo of the letters HM so that he could make an appearance on the show. Sadly, he didn’t get the cameo.
Bond, James Bond. Created in 1953 by Ian Fleming, the character has been portrayed by multiple actors, like Sean Connery, Pierce Brosnan (born the same year as Bond’s creation), and others. But, born in 1968, Daniel Craig is the only actor to have played the part who was born after the character was initially created in 1953.
The Hollywood Walk of Fame pays tribute to multiple art forms, not only film. So it’s no wonder some celebrities were able to get multiple stars during their careers. Frank Sinatra, for example, is known to have gotten three stars. He has separate stars for his music, movie, and television work.
Hollywood in movies and other media seems so modern and technologically advanced, so it might surprise you to know that there is an instance of Morse code used in this place. The Capitol Records Tower has a blinking light on top of it that, when translated from Morse code, spells out “Hollywood.”
Middle names are sometimes more memorable than the first names given to us by our parents. Angelina Jolie uses her middle name at the end, while Ashton Kutcher uses his at the start. Ashton is originally his middle name, and Christopher is his first one. Thus, his full name is Christopher Ashton Kutcher.
Well, I moved from Quebec to Ontario in Canada and in Quebec you give the middle names first, then the first name. In Ontario, it's the opposite. We had a good laugh when my youngest son kept being called like his grandfather his whole high school years by his teachers and he kept writing his first name on his tests.
"Saturday Night Live" and "Friends" were (and are) two of the most memorable comedy sources that left a mark on television comedy. Jennifer Aniston had the choice between the two of them. Before she portrayed Rachel, Aniston met with the "SNL" creator Lorne Michaels about a possible job in the show, but she declined.
No one can deny that fighters are some of the strongest celebrities in Hollywood. For this reason, Muhammad Ali, a prominent boxer and probably one of the best in history, got a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. However, since Ali said he didn’t want his name to get walked on, his star was placed on a wall.
Muhammad Ali didn't want his namesake walked on and defiled due to him being Muslim.
Thomas Edison did a lot to create Hollywood and the entertainment business we know today. Of course, he did it unintentionally. Since he held the patents for the kinetographic camera and kinetoscope in New Jersey, filmmakers were forced to flee west to Los Angeles, where they could escape the patent enforcement, thanks to the judges there.
Sometimes, a failure or two could lead to some of the best titles in television history. "The Kids in the Hall" got its name mainly from an old Hollywood action of blaming young writers for bad punchlines and jokes. However, “kids in the hall” also refers to the bad kids that got sent to the hallway out of the class.
Bigfoot! While a minority believes in its existence, the majority tries to hide the facts about the Sasquatch. Well, Rob Lowe, the star of "Parks and Recreation," is in the minority, with some hard facts. While hanging around the Ozark mountains, Lowe claims he saw an ape-like creature, presumably Bigfoot himself.
No one is trying to 'hide the facts'. What facts? There is insufficient evidence. No fossil record. No current bones, bodies, scat, hair, tools, or decorative artifacts. There would have to be a large enough group to provide a healthy and diverse gene pool for reproduction, and a group that size would be unable to remain hidden. Video and photo evidence is questionable and anecdotal reports do not qualify as evidence.
Chuck Norris has become quite an icon in the entertainment industry. One of the most powerful beings on earth and overall the best fighter that memes have ever created, he might be well known for his deeds, but few know him by his real name. The “Chuck” part is not part of his real name. Norris’s real first name is Carlos.
Before becoming the father of Hollywood, H. J. Whitley was just an owner of a big plot of land. It’s hard to determine how “Hollywood” came to exist. Some sources say that the name comes from an estate in Illinois. Others claim that the name comes from the words “hauling wood.” Either way, the name stuck and is used even today.
The Hollywood sign didn’t always spell the name of the neighborhood. When it was created, the sign spelled HOLLYWOODLAND (not to be confused with the 2006 movie of the same name). Over the years, as the region became the icon of cinema, the LAND part got dropped, leaving only Hollywood.
Here’s a link to a picture from 1924, when the sign still said “Hollywoodland”: https://rarehistoricalphotos.com/hollywood-sign-old-photographs/
James Cameron, the bravest pioneer, and explorer of the sea, is a director and screenwriter of some of the best movies that Hollywood has ever produced, including the high-budget "Titanic." While he could have financed the movie himself, he sought the help of Hollywood for a single reason — Cameron wanted to dive into the real Titanic shipwreck.
It’s not an overstatement to say that Brad Pitt is one of the most versatile actors in Hollywood. He can act on a train and in Hollywood. From a casino thief to a secret fight club organizer, Pitt became famous when his breakthrough role as a young drifter in the Ridley Scott movie "Thelma & Louise" got him recognized in the landscape of Hollywood.
Charlie Sheen was a bad boy, metaphorically and literally. Kelly Preston was wounded by Charlie Sheen when they were engaged. Various accounts of what occurred are inconsistent, and she needed stitches in her arm. Kelly claimed in a now-deleted 2011 TMZ video that he had accidentally shot her, but Charlie claimed in 2016 that she did that to herself on her own.
Ghosts are not the only ones that interact with celebrities — aliens do too, and they do it with style. Fran Drescher thinks she got kidnapped by aliens who decided to put a chip in her arm. Drescher claims that her husband also got kidnapped by the extraterrestrials.
Even celebrities are not safe from the hand of justice. Tim Allen, known for his role in the "Home Improvement" series, was arrested for possessing some illegal substances before he became a world-renowned actor. In 1978, Allen got caught with 1.4 pounds’ worth of substances. Since he snitched on the dealers, he avoided life in prison.
Hollywood and Los Angeles are known for their movie-making history, but they started the entertainment industry in 1910, with the first movie shot entirely there. With the movie "In Old California," the region kicked off the movie-making industry. Only 17 minutes long, this short film was directed by D. W. Griffith, who later created "Birth Of A Nation."
The US film entertainment industry started on the east coast not in California. There were 5 initial studios. Most films were very short and more of a audience spectacle than anything narrative. When some filmmakers began making longer narrative films (still under 20 minutes) the majority of the established film industry did not believe an audience would want to sit through that. The studio that lasted was because they bet on longer films. The industry itself moved to California because of weather as well as California being anti-union and therefor having cheaper labor. There was also the Edison patent racketeering thing. France was actually the leading film industry until the 1st world war shut down production. Film reel was literally melted down to provide supplies for the war effort because entertainment films, once seen, were thought to have little value. However even in the US studios didn't keep their early silent films on reel either. Partially because they weren't thought....
Few of us are lucky enough to live in a house with one or two siblings, but for Dennis Rodman, several were not enough. Rodman once claimed that he had 46 brothers and sisters. Rodman’s father came out to say that he had 29 kids. A high number of siblings to play basketball with for the future NBA star.
Money drives the world around and speaks louder than words in the entertainment industry, especially in Hollywood. This is one reason why Eva Mendes became an actress in the first place. At first, she planned to become a nun, but as she grew up and the meaning of money grew, she ditched her dream and decided to pursue acting.
When Leighton Meester was born, her mother was incarcerated by the law. She got detained for attempting to use a criminal organization to import illegal substances from Jamaica into the US. Leighton stayed with her grandparents for the first few months of her infancy after living in a halfway house.
The average person has two nipples to their name, but some have even more. Chandler Bing from the series "Friends" has three, and Harry Styles has four nipples on his body. Former member of the boy band One Direction, Styles has a condition of polythelia, which is a common thing.
Ghost! Believe it or not, some people claim they’ve seen ghosts for themselves, and others even claim to have partaken in sexual activities with them! Kesha went on Conan O’Brien’s show and claimed she had slept with a ghost. She would later go on to host "Conjuring Kesha."
The rise of fanboys of Ryan Gosling and the roles he takes up has been growing for the past decade. While they usually talk about him, Ryan Cabrera took it a notch further and got a tattoo of the actor. However, Cabrera got it by playing tattoo roulette with his friend, where they had to pick what the other would get.
The little intro sentences before the actual fact on most of the list submissions on this post are driving me crazy!
The whole thing is rather shabbily written and the facts are, at best, underwhelming and, at worst, dubious.
Load More Replies...
The little intro sentences before the actual fact on most of the list submissions on this post are driving me crazy!
The whole thing is rather shabbily written and the facts are, at best, underwhelming and, at worst, dubious.
Load More Replies...