50 Fun Facts About Austin Powers

What is Austin Powers' middle name?

Danger is literally his middle name: the clerk returning his 1960s belongings reads out "Danger Powers", turning the old action-hero boast into paperwork.

Which musician wrote "Soul Bossa Nova", the instrumental used as the Austin Powers theme?

Quincy Jones wrote and recorded the instrumental long before the films, and its second life as Austin's theme earned him a cameo as himself in Goldmember.

Who directed all three Austin Powers films?

Jay Roach is the husband of Bangles singer Susanna Hoffs, who played beside Myers in Ming Tea, the mock-1960s band where the Austin character began.

Which Star Wars star plays the group therapist counselling Dr. Evil and Scott in the first Austin Powers film?

Carrie Fisher plays the therapist, and her group session is quickly derailed by Dr. Evil's account of his own bizarre childhood.

What is Austin Powers' cover job in swinging London?

Fashion photographer is his cover, the same one Dean Martin's screen spy Matt Helm hid behind in the 1960s films that helped inspire Austin.

In the first Austin Powers film, what does Dr. Evil want attached to the heads of his sharks?

Laser beams were the plan, but sharks had gone on the endangered species list while he was frozen, so his staff could only offer ill-tempered sea bass.

Dr. Evil is chiefly a parody of which James Bond villain?

Ernst Stavro Blofeld is the template, white lap cat included, and Myers credited Donald Pleasence's take on him in You Only Live Twice.

What is the name of Dr. Evil's hairless cat?

Mr. Bigglesworth went into the cryogenic capsule a long-haired white Persian and came out bald, his fur lost to an error in the thawing.

What breed is the bald cat that plays Dr. Evil's pet after the pair are thawed out?

A Sphynx named Ted Nude-Gent played the bald pet, whose missing fur the film blames on a fault in the thawing process.

Who plays Austin's love interest Vanessa Kensington in the first film?

Elizabeth Hurley plays Vanessa, daughter of Austin's 1960s sidekick Mrs. Kensington, who is assigned to help him adjust to the 1990s.

Who plays Austin's exposition-heavy handler, Basil Exposition?

Michael York's Basil waves away the second film's time-travel paradox: he tells a cross-eyed Austin, and then the audience, not to worry about it and just enjoy themselves.

Who plays Dr. Evil's second-in-command, Number Two?

Robert Wagner's Number Two cares more for the business than the evil: in the first film's finale he turns on his boss and offers Austin a business proposition instead.

Which actor plays the younger Number Two in the second Austin Powers film?

Rob Lowe won the part with an impression: his take on the older henchman's actor made Myers crack up on a golf course, and the script arrived with Lowe's name already on it.

Who plays Dr. Evil's rebellious son, Scott Evil?

Seth Green plays Scott, the one sane voice in the lair, who keeps asking why nobody simply shoots Austin instead of staging an elaborate death.

Who plays Dr. Evil's henchwoman, Frau Farbissina?

Mindy Sterling plays the screaming Frau as a send-up of Rosa Klebb, the stern SPECTRE officer in From Russia with Love.

In the first Austin Powers film, what does Dr. Evil threaten to detonate in the Earth's core?

A nuclear warhead, hijacked from the breakaway republic of Kreplachistan, is to be drilled down to the core so that volcanoes erupt all over the world.

What are Dr. Evil's female android assassins called?

Fembots are built to be irresistible, but Austin out-seduces them with a striptease until their systems overload and their heads explode.

In the second Austin Powers film, Dr. Evil names his Moon weapon after which real rock band?

The Alan Parsons Project gets the honour because a Dr. Parsons invented the device, and Scott has to point out that the name already belongs to a prog rock band.

In the second film, what does Dr. Evil steal from Austin by travelling back to the 1960s?

His mojo, defined in the film as the libido or life force, is extracted from his frozen body in 1969, and in 1999 Austin feels it vanish mid-seduction.

In the second Austin Powers film, what does Dr. Evil name his one-eighth-size clone?

Mini-Me becomes the favourite at once, and Dr. Evil's actual son Scott spends two films competing with a nearly silent clone for affection.

Which actor plays Dr. Evil's tiny clone in the Austin Powers sequels?

Verne Troyer broke into films as the stunt double for the infant in Baby's Day Out, years before the clone role made him famous.

Which comedy star plays Dr. Evil's henchman Mustafa in the first two Austin Powers films?

Will Ferrell's Mustafa is tipped into a fire pit for failing his boss, then keeps calling up that he is still alive, only very badly burned.

Which character did Mike Myers add to his roster of roles in the second Austin Powers film?

Fat Bastard's thick Scottish voice is one Myers reused: he later pushed to re-record all of Shrek's lines in a similar accent.

Which agent helps Austin in the 1969 storyline of the second Austin Powers film?

Felicity Shagwell is a CIA agent, played by Heather Graham, who gets Austin out of an assassination attempt at his London pad and then joins his mission.

Which Madonna song from the second Austin Powers film's soundtrack won a Grammy in 2000?

Beautiful Stranger won the Grammy for best song written for a film, and in its video Myers turns up in character as Austin to watch Madonna sing in a club.

Which real director is filming a Hollywood version of Austin's life in the opening of Austin Powers in Goldmember?

Steven Spielberg plays himself: the opening action sequence turns out to be his film set, with Tom Cruise cast as Austin.

Which former child star plays the undercover agent with a distracting facial mole in Austin Powers in Goldmember?

Fred Savage plays Number Three, a mole inside Dr. Evil's organisation who also has a large mole on his face, which Austin cannot stop mentioning.

Which pop star plays Foxxy Cleopatra in Goldmember?

Beyoncé's Foxxy sends up the blaxploitation heroines of the 1970s, with a name borrowed from Pam Grier's Foxy Brown.

Which veteran actor plays Nigel Powers, Austin's dad, in Goldmember?

Michael Caine's Nigel spoofs his own 1965 spy Harry Palmer from The Ipcress File, whose thick horn-rimmed glasses had already inspired Austin's.

The title villain Goldmember is from which country?

The Netherlands is his home, which sets up Nigel Powers' line that he hates only two things: people intolerant of other cultures, and the Dutch.

To settle a title dispute, Goldmember's makers agreed to run trailers for which Bond film?

Die Another Day trailers ran with the film as the price of peace: MGM had objected that the title sat too close to Goldfinger and got it pulled from early publicity.

Which film in the Austin Powers trilogy earned the most at the worldwide box office?

The Spy Who Shagged Me took more in its opening weekend in North America than the first film had earned there in its entire run.

In the Austin Powers films, what is Dr. Evil's legitimate corporate front called?

Virtucon grew into a multibillion-dollar business under Number Two during the 30 years its owner spent frozen, leaving the deputy keener on profits than on world domination.

In the first Austin Powers film, which henchman of Dr. Evil attacks by throwing his shoe?

Random Task sends up Goldfinger's Oddjob, swapping the steel-brimmed bowler for a shoe, which leaves Austin with a lump and the complaint: who throws a shoe?

Dana Carvey claimed the Dr. Evil voice and pinky gesture were lifted from his impression of whom?

Lorne Michaels was both men's boss at Saturday Night Live, and Carvey says nobody in the cast impersonated him until he did, pinky at the mouth and all.

In Austin Powers in Goldmember, Dr. Evil's new lair sits behind which Los Angeles landmark?

The Hollywood Sign hides the lair where he tells his staff he will travel back to 1975 to recruit the villain of the title.

In the first Austin Powers film, Dr. Evil escapes into orbit in a rocket shaped like which restaurant chain's mascot?

Bob's Big Boy is the rocket's disguise, and the statue drifts back into view in the sequel, where a spacewalking astronaut radios Houston that they have a problem.

Myers said the Austin Powers character was a tribute to whom?

His father, a Liverpool-born salesman, raised him on James Bond and Peter Sellers, and Myers wrote the film while taking stock of that influence after his death in 1991.

In the second Austin Powers film, which US city is home to Dr. Evil's present-day headquarters?

Seattle fits because Number Two had put the organisation's money into a small local coffee company, so the lair doubles as the world headquarters of Starbucks.

In the second Austin Powers film, Dr. Evil and his son Scott air their grievances on which daytime TV host's show?

Jerry Springer plays himself, and the reunion goes the way of most of his episodes: Dr. Evil charges a fellow guest and sets off an on-air brawl.

Goldmember reveals that Dr. Evil's real first name is what?

Dougie is the name Nigel Powers uses when he reveals that Austin and his arch-enemy are twin brothers, separated as babies by a car explosion.

In Austin Powers in Goldmember, Dr. Evil's Scottish henchman has taken up which profession in Tokyo?

Sumo wrestler is his new trade when Austin and Foxxy track him down, and by the closing scene the Subway diet has left him thin but hung with loose skin.

In the second Austin Powers film, what vehicle serves as Austin's time machine?

A Volkswagen New Beetle is the Ministry of Defence's time machine, and it carries him from the 1990s to his old London pad in 1969.

In the first Austin Powers film, what ransom does Dr. Evil settle on after his first figure proves too small?

$100 billion is where he lands after Number Two points out that $1 million, his first idea, is small change when their front company alone makes $9 billion a year.

Which comedy star did Mike Myers first want to play Dr. Evil in the Austin Powers films?

Jim Carrey was keen but the shoot clashed with Liar Liar, which left Myers, who had not planned on multiple roles, to play the villain himself.

Lenny Kravitz covered which Guess Who song for the second Austin Powers film's soundtrack?

American Woman put Heather Graham, the film's leading lady, in Kravitz's video, and his label reissued his album 5 with the cover added.

Which star plays Goldmember in the Austin Powers film-within-a-film Austinpussy?

John Travolta takes over the role in the closing scene, when Goldmember's arrest turns out to be playing on a cinema screen with Austin in the audience.

What is the name of Goldmember's 1975 roller disco club in New York?

Studio 69 is where Austin, sent back to 1975, finds his old flame Foxxy Cleopatra working undercover on the villain's trail.

In Austin Powers in Goldmember, Dr. Evil names his tractor beam after which drugstore product?

Preparation H is a name he picks with no idea it belongs to a hemorrhoid cream, so Scott's sniggering through the briefing leaves him baffled.

Myers created Austin for the faux-'60s band Ming Tea with Susanna Hoffs and which musician?

Matthew Sweet and Hoffs performed around Los Angeles with Myers in character, and it was his wife Robin who told him to turn the swinger into a film.