50 Fun Facts About Famous Bills

Bill Gates quit which university in 1975 to start Microsoft with his school friend Paul Allen?

Harvard gave Bill Gates an honorary doctorate in 2007, 32 years after he walked away without a degree. While there he met Steve Ballmer, who later ran Microsoft.

Bill Clinton played which instrument on The Arsenio Hall Show while running for president in 1992?

Saxophone was his instrument from school, where he won first chair in the state band's section. The late-night appearance is often credited with building his popularity among young voters.

Before he became TV's Science Guy, Bill Nye worked as a mechanical engineer for which company in Seattle?

Boeing used a part he invented, a hydraulic resonance suppressor tube fitted to its jumbo jets. He moonlighted as a comedian and quit in 1986 to write for a Seattle sketch show.

Nike co-founder Bill Bowerman made a new running shoe sole by molding rubber in which kitchen appliance?

Waffle iron ruined, shoe business made: Bowerman wrecked his wife's Belgian one around 1970 while testing the idea. The light, grippy tread led to Nike's Waffle Trainer in 1974.

In Groundhog Day, Bill Murray's weatherman relives the same February day in which Pennsylvania town?

Punxsutawney barely appears on screen, because the film was shot almost entirely in Woodstock, Illinois. Murray's character, Phil, shares a first name with the town's famous groundhog.

Wild Bill Hickok was shot dead during an 1876 poker game in a saloon in which gold-rush town?

Deadwood is where the dead man's hand got its name: Hickok is said to have held two pairs, black aces and eights. His killer, Jack McCall, was an unsuccessful gambler.

Which sharpshooter, billed as Little Sure Shot, starred in Buffalo Bill Cody's touring Wild West show?

Annie Oakley got the name from fellow performer Sitting Bull, and earned more than anyone in the troupe except Buffalo Bill himself. She stood just five feet tall.

In the 1976 Schoolhouse Rock! cartoon I'm Just a Bill, the singing roll of paper hopes to become what?

A law is what Bill finally becomes in the song, sung by jazz trumpeter Jack Sheldon. His bill would make school buses stop at railroad crossings.

Which actor plays Bill, the assassin boss hunted by Uma Thurman's Bride in the Kill Bill films?

David Carradine got the part after Quentin Tarantino rewrote it. Bill was first written for Warren Beatty, but the role grew to need more screen time and martial arts training.

Bill Fagerbakke, who played assistant coach Dauber on the sitcom Coach, became the voice of which SpongeBob character?

Patrick has been Fagerbakke's role since the series began, and in 2021 the dim-witted starfish got a spin-off of his own, in which Fagerbakke plays the lead.

Bill Russell won 11 NBA championships in 13 seasons as the center of which team?

Boston Celtics management made him player-coach for his last three seasons, the first Black head coach in NBA history. He won two of his titles while doing both jobs.

Bill Haley & His Comets' Rock Around the Clock took off after playing under the opening credits of which 1955 film?

Blackboard Jungle sent the song to the top of the Billboard chart for eight weeks. Haley's trademark kiss curl is said to have been styled to draw attention from his blind left eye.

Soul singer Bill Withers, who wrote Lean on Me, spent nine years in which branch of the US military?

Navy service is where Withers became interested in singing and writing songs, having enlisted at 17. His debut album cover shows him at his aircraft factory job, holding his lunch box.

After Bill Paxton's death in 2017, storm chasers spelled out his initials in tribute to his role in which film?

Twister cast Paxton as tornado hunter Bill Harding opposite Helen Hunt, and it became the second-highest-grossing film of 1996. The chasers drew the letters BP using the Spotter Network.

Bill Pullman plays President Thomas Whitmore, who leads the fight against alien invaders, in which 1990s blockbuster?

Independence Day was not his last term in office: Pullman played the president again in the TV comedy 1600 Penn. Nine years before it he was the hero Lone Starr in Spaceballs.

Bill Skarsgård, a son of Swedish actor Stellan Skarsgård, played which shape-shifting clown in the 2017 film It?

Pennywise earned Skarsgård nominations for a Saturn Award and an MTV Movie Award for Best Villain. His siblings Alexander, Gustaf and Valter all act as well, as he did from childhood.

Bill Nighy's face was hidden by computer-generated makeup when he played which Pirates of the Caribbean villain?

Davy Jones kept Nighy's performance but none of his face, as the principal villain of Dead Man's Chest in 2006. He returned to the part in the next film a year later.

Cartoonist Bill Watterson refused for years to license toys and T-shirts based on which newspaper comic strip?

Calvin and Hobbes stayed off official mugs and stickers because Watterson felt merchandise would devalue the characters. He ended the strip after ten years and returned to private life.

Bill Bryson's travel book A Walk in the Woods describes his attempt to hike which long American footpath?

Appalachian Trail miles beat them in the end: Bryson and the friend he calls Stephen Katz gave up on walking it end to end, and Bryson covered about 40 percent of the route.

Which future president drafted the amendments that became the US Bill of Rights, approved by Congress in 1789?

James Madison at first opposed adding a bill of rights at all, then agreed to support one to secure ratification and served as its author. Congress sent twelve amendments to the states.

Before his six Super Bowl wins with New England, Bill Belichick got his first head coaching job with which NFL team?

Cleveland Browns bosses hired him in 1991, after he had won two Super Bowls as an assistant to Bill Parcells. His coaching life began in 1975 with a job paying $25 a week.

Bill W. is the name members use for Bill Wilson, who co-founded which fellowship in Akron, Ohio, in 1935?

Alcoholics Anonymous grew from a failed business trip: tempted to drink in Akron, Wilson decided that staying sober meant helping another alcoholic, and was introduced to surgeon Dr. Bob Smith.

In Charles Dickens's Oliver Twist, the violent criminal Bill Sikes murders which character, his own girlfriend?

Nancy is killed because Sikes thinks she has betrayed him. On the run afterwards he tries to drown his dog, Bull's-eye, then slips from a rooftop and accidentally hangs himself.

In the Harry Potter books, Bill Weasley, a curse-breaker for Gringotts bank, marries which character?

Fleur Delacour first appears as the Beauxbatons champion in the Triwizard Tournament. Bill, the eldest son of Arthur and Molly Weasley, also joins the Order of the Phoenix.

Bill Cipher, a powerful interdimensional dream demon, is the main villain of which Disney Channel animated series?

Gravity Falls gives Bill the voice of Alex Hirsch, who also voices Grunkle Stan. In the closing Weirdmageddon episodes, a gang of demons under Bill's command is let loose on the town.

Which actor earned an Oscar nomination as Bill the Butcher, the gang leader in Martin Scorsese's Gangs of New York?

Daniel Day-Lewis took a part that Robert De Niro was once set to play. The character was inspired by William Poole, a real bare-knuckle boxer and Know Nothing leader.

Buffalo Bill is the nickname of the serial killer hunted by FBI trainee Clarice Starling in which thriller?

The Silence of the Lambs won all of the Big Five Oscars, only the third film to do so. Ted Levine played the killer, whose real name in the story is Jame Gumb.

In American tall tales, the cowboy hero Pecos Bill was raised as a feral child by which animals?

Coyotes brought him up until his long-lost brother convinced him, years later, that he was not one of them. His horse went by the name Widow-Maker.

Tap dancer Bill "Bojangles" Robinson danced with which child star in The Little Colonel and other 1930s films?

Shirley Temple and Robinson were the first interracial dance team in a Hollywood film, in 1935. His signature routine was the stair dance, which he tried and failed to patent.

Bill Medley, who had a 1987 hit duet with Jennifer Warnes, sang with Bobby Hatfield in which duo?

The Righteous Brothers were not related at all: Medley and Hatfield met through a musician who played in both their bands, and their first single was a song Medley wrote.

Bill Wyman, born William Perks, was the bass guitarist of which British rock band from 1962 to 1993?

The Rolling Stones kept the door open after he left: Wyman recorded with them again in 2023, thirty years on. He took up the bass after hearing one at a Barron Knights concert.

Bill Hader, a Saturday Night Live cast member for eight years, co-created which HBO dark comedy about a hitman?

Barry follows a depressed killer who trails a target into a Los Angeles acting class and finds a new sense of purpose. Hader played the lead and also wrote, produced and directed.

Bill Maher launched which HBO political talk show in 2003, a year after ABC dropped Politically Incorrect?

Real Time keeps the guest-panel format of Politically Incorrect, which began on Comedy Central before moving networks in 1997. On HBO, Maher and his guests are free to swear, which broadcast rules had barred.

Bill Bixby, star of My Favorite Martian, played Dr. David Banner in which 1970s CBS science-fiction drama?

The Incredible Hulk called its hero David Bruce Banner, though the Marvel comics of Stan Lee and Jack Kirby know him as Bruce. Bixby also starred in The Courtship of Eddie's Father.

Animator Bill Melendez, who directed A Charlie Brown Christmas, also provided the voice of which Peanuts character?

Snoopy's voice was Melendez reciting gibberish into a tape recorder, which was then sped up. He voiced the little bird Woodstock the same way, at a different speed.

Bill Finger was only credited in 2015 as co-creator of which superhero, long attributed to Bob Kane alone?

Batman made Kane rich and famous, while Finger died in obscurity and poverty in 1974. Kane admitted in private that Finger supplied 50 to 75 percent of the creativity.

Which Parks and Recreation actor won an Emmy for playing the reclusive survivor Bill in HBO's The Last of Us?

Nick Offerman, TV's Ron Swanson, appeared in a single episode, Long, Long Time, which follows Bill over twenty years. Critics overwhelmingly called it the best of the season.

In Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure, which actor plays Bill S. Preston opposite Keanu Reeves as Ted?

Alex Winter and Reeves hit it off while waiting to audition, finding a shared love of bass guitars and motorcycles. Their characters travel through history in a time machine shaped like a phone booth.

Basketball Hall of Famer Bill Walton attended more than 850 concerts by which band, starting in high school?

Grateful Dead fans called him Grateful Red and the World's Tallest Deadhead, and the band put him in its Hall of Honor in 2001. He first saw them play in 1967.

Bill Buckner's tenth-inning error at first base in Game 6 of the 1986 World Series helped which team win?

New York Mets batter Mookie Wilson hit the slow roller that got past Buckner. Red Sox fans, who blamed him for years, embraced him again after the team's 2004 title.

Bill Shankly, a Scot born in Glenbuck, took over as manager of which English football club in December 1959?

Liverpool won promotion to the First Division under Shankly, then three league championships and the UEFA Cup. The club captain of the day said he was the one who resurrected the club.

Bill Parcells, who coached the Giants to two Super Bowl wins, is known by which fishy nickname?

The Big Tuna dates from his stint as a Patriots assistant and nods to Charlie the Tuna, the naive cartoon fish of a StarKist commercial of the era.

Bill Walsh, who popularized the West Coast offense, won three Super Bowls in the 1980s as head coach of which team?

San Francisco 49ers fortunes turned when Walsh picked Notre Dame quarterback Joe Montana in the third round of the 1979 draft. Montana got his chance to start after a 59–14 loss to Dallas.

Bill France Sr. gathered drivers and mechanics at a Daytona Beach hotel bar in 1947 to found which racing body?

NASCAR was formally created in February 1948, after the talks at the Streamline Hotel's Ebony Bar. Big Bill later turned the reins over to his son, Bill France Jr.

Mandolin player Bill Monroe is called the father of which American music genre, named after his band?

Bluegrass got its name from Monroe's band, who were named for the grass of his home state, Kentucky. He took up the mandolin because his older siblings already played fiddle and guitar.

Jazz pianist Bill Evans played in Miles Davis's sextet on which landmark 1959 album?

Kind of Blue was recorded a year after Evans joined the sextet. Davis had been spotted in the audience at the Village Vanguard one day, listening to the young pianist play solo.

Drummer Bill Ward co-founded which heavy metal band with Ozzy Osbourne, Tony Iommi and Geezer Butler?

Black Sabbath started out under the name Earth before the band renamed itself. Ward played on the first eight albums, the run known as the Osbourne era.

Drummer Bill Berry left which rock band in 1997, two years after collapsing on stage, to become a farmer?

R.E.M. lost him to a quieter life: Berry had suffered a ruptured cerebral aneurysm during a 1995 show, recovered, and has made only sporadic reunions with the band since.

Astronaut Bill Anders took the famous Earthrise photograph on Christmas Eve 1968 during which space mission?

Apollo 8 made Anders, Frank Borman and Jim Lovell the first three people to leave low Earth orbit and travel to the Moon. He took the picture during one of their lunar orbits.

Bill Hewlett and Dave Packard started their electronics company in a small garage in which California city?

Palo Alto's Addison Avenue garage is now called the birthplace of Silicon Valley. A coin flip decided whose name came first, and Walt Disney Studios bought eight of their early oscillators.