40 Fun Facts About Famous People Named Dick

Dick Van Dyke's much-mocked Cockney accent comes from playing Bert the chimney sweep in which Disney musical?

Mary Poppins also gave Van Dyke a second, hidden part as the elderly chairman of the bank. A 2003 Empire magazine poll ranked his Cockney the second-worst accent in film.

Dick Cheney, who accidentally shot a fellow hunter on a 2006 quail hunt, was vice president to which US president?

George W. Bush had put Cheney in charge of finding him a running mate, then chose Cheney himself. Cheney had earlier run the Pentagon as defense secretary for Bush's father.

Which coffee chain takes its name from the chief mate of the whaling ship in Herman Melville's Moby-Dick?

Starbucks came from a list of names beginning with st. The founders liked Starbo, an old mining town on a map, and that put them in mind of Melville's steady first officer.

Decca Records executive Dick Rowe is remembered for turning down which band after a January 1962 audition in London?

The Beatles lost out to Brian Poole and the Tremeloes, who auditioned the same day and lived closer to London. Rowe later signed the Rolling Stones on a tip from George Harrison.

Dick Fosbury won gold at the 1968 Olympics by going over the bar backwards in which track and field event?

High jump was never the same again: at the next Olympics, 28 of the 40 competitors copied his back-first style, by then known as the Fosbury flop.

Which Ridley Scott film is based on Philip K. Dick's novel Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?

Blade Runner reached cinemas less than four months after its author died. He had been shown a reel of early footage, though, and came away backing the film completely.

Which wheezing, snickering dog is the sidekick of villain Dick Dastardly in the Hanna-Barbera cartoon Wacky Races?

Muttley laughs hardest when his master's schemes collapse, which is every time: the pair never win a single race. They later got their own spin-off about a squadron of flying machines.

Dick Grayson, a young circus acrobat taken in by Bruce Wayne, first fights crime under which superhero name?

Robin arrived in 1940, about a year after Batman, in a costume inspired by Robin Hood. Grayson outgrew the role in 1984 and became the adult hero Nightwing.

In English folklore, which animal makes the fortune of poor boy Dick Whittington, later Lord Mayor of London?

A cat is the hero of the tale: sold to a rat-infested country, it fetches a fortune. The real Whittington was a wealthy cloth merchant and moneylender who really did become Lord Mayor of London.

Dick Clark, nicknamed the world's oldest teenager, hosted which TV dance show for more than three decades?

American Bandstand went out nationally from 1957 and introduced rock and roll to many viewers. Clark also produced a New Year's Eve special from Times Square that carried his name.

Dick Wolf created which NBC drama that splits each episode between police investigators and courtroom prosecutors?

Law & Order launched in 1990 and grew into a franchise of spin-offs, led by Special Victims Unit. Wolf had learned the trade as a staff writer on Hill Street Blues.

Dick York and Dick Sargent both played Darrin, the mortal husband of nose-twitching Samantha, on which 1960s sitcom?

Bewitched swapped one Dick for another in 1969: Sargent replaced an ailing York and played the part for the final three seasons, opposite Elizabeth Montgomery.

Which actor played Dick Solomon, the alien High Commander posing as a physics professor in 3rd Rock from the Sun?

John Lithgow won three Emmy Awards for the part. His eldest son Ian was in the cast too, playing Leon, one of the professor's less successful students.

In which TV drama does advertising executive Don Draper hide the fact that he was born Dick Whitman?

Mad Men reveals the secret in flashbacks: Whitman swapped dog tags with a lieutenant killed beside him in the Korean War and came home under the officer's name.

Major Dick Winters led Easy Company, the American paratroopers followed in which HBO World War II miniseries?

Band of Brothers, created by Steven Spielberg and Tom Hanks, cast Damian Lewis as Winters. It follows the company from parachute training to the end of the war in Europe.

Dick Dale's surf-guitar version of Misirlou plays over the opening credits of which Quentin Tarantino film?

Pulp Fiction took the 1962 recording to a new audience. Dale was left-handed and played a right-handed guitar upside down, without restringing it.

Dick Scobee was the commander of which Space Shuttle when it was lost shortly after launch in January 1986?

Challenger had already carried Scobee into orbit once: he was its pilot on a 1984 mission that deployed one satellite and repaired another.

Hotel chef Dick Hallorann shares a telepathic gift with a young boy named Danny in which Stephen King novel?

The Shining is named for the psychic gift, which Hallorann calls shining. In Stanley Kubrick's 1980 film he is played by the musician and actor Scatman Crothers.

In hard-boiled crime fiction, the slang word dick, as in a private dick, means a person doing which job?

Detective is the sense behind the W. C. Fields comedy The Bank Dick, about a drunk hired to guard a bank after foiling a robbery by accident. British cinemas showed it as The Bank Detective.

Dick Button won two Olympic golds, the second as a Harvard student, then became a television analyst for which sport?

Figure skating had never seen a triple in competition until Button landed a triple loop at the 1952 Games. Four years earlier, aged 18, he had become the sport's youngest male Olympic champion.

Dick Fuld, nicknamed the Gorilla, was the last chief executive of which investment bank, bankrupt in September 2008?

Lehman Brothers went down with more than $600 billion in assets, the largest bankruptcy filing the United States had seen. Under Fuld it had posted 14 straight years of profit.

Dick Butkus, namesake of the award for football's best linebacker, spent his entire NFL career with which team?

The Chicago Bears took him third overall in 1965, beating the Denver Broncos of the rival AFL, who had drafted him too. He stayed until 1973.

Which actor directed the 1990 film Dick Tracy and starred as the comic-strip cop in the yellow overcoat?

Warren Beatty produced the film too, after directors including Steven Spielberg had come and gone. Al Pacino played crime boss Big Boy Caprice and Dustin Hoffman a henchman called Mumbles.

Spotted dick, the British steamed pudding dotted with currants or raisins, is traditionally made with which fat?

Suet is the hard fat found around the kidneys and loins of cattle and sheep. It also goes into jam roly-poly and Christmas pudding, and spotted dick usually arrives with custard.

Dick Hoyt pushed his son Rick, who had cerebral palsy, in a wheelchair through 32 runnings of which marathon?

Boston's starting line gained a bronze statue of the pair in 2013. They also finished Ironman triathlons, with Dick towing Rick in a boat through the swim.

Dutch artist Dick Bruna drew which simple storybook rabbit in 1955 after watching a real one on a family holiday?

Miffy is Nijntje in Dutch, the way a small child might say the word for little rabbit. Bruna said the Japanese character Hello Kitty was copied from her.

Dick King-Smith's novel The Sheep-Pig, about a piglet that learns to herd sheep, became which 1995 film?

Babe earned seven Oscar nominations, including Best Picture. King-Smith knew his subject: he had been a farmer for 20 years before turning to teaching and then to writing.

Dick Ebersol, later chairman of NBC Sports, recruited Lorne Michaels in 1975 to create which sketch comedy show?

Saturday Night Live got Ebersol back as executive producer from 1981 to 1985, the years of Eddie Murphy and Billy Crystal. He went on to produce NBC's Olympic broadcasts.

Dick Martin and Dan Rowan hosted which rapid-fire NBC sketch show that featured a young Goldie Hawn?

Laugh-In began as a one-off special in 1967 and did so well that NBC brought it back as a weekly series, taking the slot of The Man from U.N.C.L.E.

Thriller writer Dick Francis was the jockey on Devon Loch when the horse fell close to winning which 1956 race?

The Grand National slipped away from the Queen Mother, who owned Devon Loch. Francis turned to writing and produced more than forty bestselling crime novels set in the racing world.

In the Dick and Jane reading primers once used across American schools, what is the name of the pair's baby sister?

Sally was the baby of the family, which also had two pets, Spot and Puff, and a teddy bear named Tim. Catholic school editions renamed the three children Judy, John and Jean after saints.

Dick Vermeil coached which team, with former grocery clerk Kurt Warner at quarterback, to victory in Super Bowl XXXIV?

The St. Louis Rams had gone without a winning season since 1989 when Vermeil took over, ending his own 15 years away from the NFL. His Philadelphia Eagles had reached Super Bowl XV.

Dick Costolo, who once worked in improvisational comedy, was chief executive of which social network from 2010 to 2015?

Twitter first hired him as chief operating officer. After college he had turned down technology job offers to try improv, then spent eight years at Andersen Consulting.

Led Zeppelin's instrumental Moby Dick, from the album Led Zeppelin II, is built around a long solo by which band member?

John Bonham stretched the drum solo to as long as 30 minutes on stage while the others walked off. The studio version was pieced together by Jimmy Page from the drummer's jams.

Which F. Scott Fitzgerald novel follows psychiatrist Dick Diver and his wife Nicole on the French Riviera?

Tender Is the Night takes its title from the John Keats poem Ode to a Nightingale. The story mirrors the author's own marriage to Zelda, who struggled with mental illness.

Dick Rutan and Jeana Yeager flew which aircraft around the world in 1986 without stopping or refuelling?

Voyager was designed by Dick's brother Burt and stayed up for just over nine days. Dick reportedly sat at the controls without relief for almost the first three of them.

Dick Advocaat's Zenit Saint Petersburg won the 2008 UEFA Cup final by beating which Scottish club he had once managed?

Rangers had won a domestic treble in Advocaat's first season as their manager. Well over 100,000 of the club's fans travelled to Manchester for the final, which Zenit won 2-0.

Dick Powell, a crooner in 1930s musicals, became the first actor to play which private eye in Murder, My Sweet?

Philip Marlowe reached the screen in a film first previewed as Farewell, My Lovely, the title of Raymond Chandler's novel. It was renamed because audiences expected a Powell musical.

Dick Vitale called ESPN's first college basketball game in 1979, weeks after being fired as coach of which NBA team?

The Detroit Pistons had started the season 4-8 when the owner came to Vitale's house to break the news. The team had gone 30-52 in his only full season in charge.

In the Smothers Brothers' folk-comedy act, straight man Dick Smothers played which instrument beside Tom's guitar?

Double bass in hand, Dick played the sensible sibling while the elder Tommy acted clueless, and their folk songs usually collapsed into arguments.