40 Fun Facts About Famous Aarons

Hank Aaron hit his 715th home run in April 1974 to pass which slugger's long-standing career record?

Babe Ruth had held the record for decades, and Aaron chased it while a secretary helped him sort thousands of letters a week, hate mail and death threats among them.

Aaron Burr, who killed Alexander Hamilton in an 1804 duel, was serving as vice president under which US president?

Thomas Jefferson and Burr tied in the electoral vote of 1800, so the House of Representatives had to choose which of the two running mates got the top job.

Aaron Paul won three Emmy Awards for playing small-time drug dealer Jesse Pinkman in which AMC crime drama?

Breaking Bad ended in 2013, but Paul came back to the part six years later for the Netflix sequel film El Camino.

Quarterback Aaron Rodgers was named MVP of Super Bowl XLV after leading which team past the Pittsburgh Steelers?

Green Bay Packers fans watched Rodgers sit for three seasons as Brett Favre's backup before he took over as the starter in 2008.

In the Book of Exodus, Aaron acts as spokesman before Pharaoh for which younger brother who spoke poorly?

Moses complained that he could not speak well, so Aaron did the talking when the pair first confronted the Egyptian king about freeing the Israelites.

Elvis Aaron Presley bought which 18-room Memphis mansion in 1957 and is now buried in its Meditation Garden?

Graceland opened as a museum in 1982, but its upstairs has stayed closed to visitors out of respect for the Presley family.

Aaron Samuels is the classmate Cady Heron falls for in which 2004 teen comedy written by Tina Fey?

Mean Girls grew out of a self-help book about teenage cliques, Queen Bees and Wannabes, which Fey pitched to producer Lorne Michaels as a film.

Aaron Sorkin won the Oscar for Best Adapted Screenplay for which 2010 David Fincher film about Facebook's founding?

The Social Network was adapted from Ben Mezrich's non-fiction book The Accidental Billionaires, and Sorkin followed it with scripts for Moneyball and Steve Jobs.

Pop singer Aaron Carter began performing at age seven, soon after his older brother Nick helped form which boy band?

Backstreet Boys gave Aaron his first solo spot when he was nine, as the opening act at their Berlin concert in March 1997.

Aaron Kosminski, a Polish barber committed to an asylum in 1891, was named by a 2014 book as which unidentified killer?

Jack the Ripper was tied to Kosminski by DNA from a shawl said to have been left at a murder scene, a finding other scientists criticised for mistakes.

Yankees slugger Aaron Judge hit 62 home runs in 2022 to beat which player's 61-year-old American League record?

Roger Maris had hit 61 in 1961, and Judge drew level against the Toronto Blue Jays before passing him in the Yankees' second-to-last game of the regular season.

Aaron Eckhart played district attorney Harvey Dent, who turns into which scarred Batman villain, in The Dark Knight?

Two-Face had been played by Tommy Lee Jones in Batman Forever, a colorful version that Eckhart and director Christopher Nolan agreed to ignore.

Aaron Taylor-Johnson broke through in the 2009 biopic Nowhere Boy, playing the teenage years of which future Beatle?

John Lennon was the part that introduced the actor to the film's director, Sam Taylor-Wood, whom he married in 2012, adding her surname to his own.

TV producer Aaron Spelling gave his daughter Tori a starring role in which teen drama that began in 1990?

Beverly Hills, 90210 ran for a decade and helped Spelling into the Guinness record books for more than 3,000 hours of television produced.

Aaron Copland won the Pulitzer Prize for Music for which 1944 ballet created with choreographer Martha Graham?

Appalachian Spring includes variations on the Shaker tune Simple Gifts, and Copland won the prize in the same week as the ballet's New York premiere.

Which actor won the 2016 Tony Award for Best Actor in a Musical as Aaron Burr in Broadway's Hamilton?

Leslie Odom Jr. backed out of a leading television role in State of Affairs so that he could play Burr in the musical's early workshops.

In the Book of Exodus, the Israelites press Aaron into making which idol while their leader is away on Mount Sinai?

A golden calf was cast from the gold earrings the people handed over, and Aaron then built an altar in front of it and announced a feast.

Former prosecutor Aaron Hotchner, known as Hotch, is unit chief of an FBI profiling team in which CBS drama?

Criminal Minds wrote Hotch out abruptly in its twelfth season, after the actor who played him was dismissed over an on-set altercation with one of the writers.

Fifth-grader Jesse Aarons loses a footrace to his new neighbor at the start of which Katherine Paterson novel?

Bridge to Terabithia grew out of a real tragedy: the best friend of Paterson's young son was struck and killed by lightning at the age of eight.

Quarterback Aaron Rodgers spent two weeks in April 2021 as guest host of which long-running TV quiz show?

Jeopardy was familiar ground: Rodgers had won its celebrity edition in 2015, beating an astronaut and a Shark Tank investor to earn $50,000 for charity.

Aaron Burr was arrested in 1807 over an alleged plot to found his own country and tried for which crime?

Treason needs two witnesses to the same overt act, and Chief Justice John Marshall found the prosecution had not proved one, so the jury acquitted Burr.

Actor Aaron Paul, later the voice of Todd in BoJack Horseman, was a contestant in 2000 on which TV game show?

The Price Is Right did not go his way: playing under his birth name, he lost his pricing game and then overbid on his Showcase by $132.

Aaron Sorkin followed his comedy Sports Night by creating which White House drama that ran from 1999 to 2006?

The West Wing was conceived in 1997, when Sorkin turned up unprepared to a lunch with a television producer.

In the Book of Numbers, Aaron's rod buds and blossoms overnight and bears which ripe nuts as proof of his priesthood?

Almonds grew only on Aaron's staff out of one rod from each of the Twelve Tribes, marking the tribe of Levi as the one chosen to serve as priests.

Aaron Ramsey, who scored Arsenal's winner in two FA Cup finals, helped which nation reach the Euro 2016 semi-finals?

Wales had made Ramsey its youngest ever captain at 20, and at the Euros his four assists earned him a place in the Team of the Tournament.

Aaron, a recruiter who brings Rick Grimes's survivors to the Alexandria Safe-Zone, is a character in which zombie drama?

The Walking Dead introduced Aaron in the comics as its first openly gay character, and he goes on to be the longest-surviving member of that community.

Aaron Davis, the uncle of Miles Morales, takes on which masked identity in Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse?

The Prowler is voiced in the animated film by Mahershala Ali, while Donald Glover plays the same uncle in the live-action Spider-Man: Homecoming.

Aaron Dessner of The National produced and co-wrote which surprise 2020 Taylor Swift album, a Grammy Album of the Year?

Folklore began when Swift approached Dessner in April 2020, during the pandemic, and the pair went on to make its sister album Evermore later that year.

Which actor earned an Oscar nomination for his film debut as altar boy Aaron Stampler in the 1996 thriller Primal Fear?

Edward Norton landed the part after the studio's first choice turned it down, having found the script problematic.

Hank Aaron signed his first professional contract in 1951 with which Negro American League team, staying three months?

Indianapolis Clowns games showed off the teenager so well that telegrams arrived with offers from two major league clubs, the Giants and the Braves.

A student named Aaron is sent to the principal's office in the viral Substitute Teacher sketch from which comedy show?

Key & Peele took the name Aaron from one of Jordan Peele's childhood friends, and the duo had not planned to post the sketch online at all.

Cartoonist Aaron McGruder created which comic strip that began as a webcomic in 1996 and became an Adult Swim series?

The Boondocks also ran briefly in The Diamondback, the University of Maryland's newspaper, and reached 160 papers when it was syndicated in 1999.

Aaron Swartz, a co-author of the RSS 1.0 web feed format at 14, merged his start-up Infogami with which site in 2005?

Reddit and Infogami were both young Y Combinator firms, and Swartz helped rewrite the site's code in Python before it was sold to Condé Nast in 2006.

Aaron Montgomery Ward launched his mail-order business in 1872, shipping to rural customers by rail from which city?

Chicago still honors Ward as the protector of Grant Park, which he campaigned to keep as open public land on the lakefront.

Aaron the Moor, secret lover of Tamora, Queen of the Goths, is the scheming villain of which early Shakespeare tragedy?

Titus Andronicus ends with Aaron sentenced to be buried chest-deep and left to die of thirst and starvation.

Aaron Neville had Grammy-winning hits with the duets Don't Know Much and All My Life, sung with which star?

Linda Ronstadt cut four duets with Neville for her 1989 album Cry Like a Rainstorm, Howl Like the Wind, and then produced his 1991 album Warm Your Heart.

Golfer Tommy Aaron won his only major in 1973 at which tournament, five years after a famous scorecard error there?

The Masters of 1968 slipped away from Roberto De Vicenzo when Aaron wrote a 4 instead of a 3 on his playing partner's card, costing the Argentine a playoff.

Boxer Aaron Pryor, nicknamed The Hawk, twice beat which Nicaraguan great who was chasing a title at a fourth weight?

Alexis Argüello lost their first fight in the fourteenth round before 23,800 people at Miami's Orange Bowl, and years later was elected mayor of Managua.

Aaron Copland won his Academy Award for scoring which 1949 William Wyler drama starring Olivia de Havilland?

The Heiress, adapted from the Henry James novel Washington Square, brought Copland the award after three of his earlier scores had only been nominated.

Aaron Tveit won a Tony Award for originating the lead role of Christian in which Broadway adaptation of a 2001 film?

Moulin Rouge made Tveit the sole nominee in his Tony category, in a part first created on screen by Ewan McGregor.