40 Fun Facts About Famous Jacobs

Jacobus, the Latin form of Jacob, also gave English which other common boys' name by way of Old French?

James grew out of a Late Latin variant, Jacomus, which is why the apostles called James in English Bibles are named Jacob in the original Greek.

John Jacob Astor IV, among the richest men in the world, was the wealthiest passenger lost aboard which ocean liner?

RMS Titanic sank on her maiden voyage in 1912. He helped his pregnant wife Madeleine into Lifeboat 4 and stayed behind on deck.

Jacob became the most popular boys' name in the United States in 1999, ending the long reign of which name?

Michael had ranked first every year but one since 1954. Jacob then stayed on top through 2012.

In Dickens's A Christmas Carol, which dead business partner visits Ebenezer Scrooge on Christmas Eve bound in chains?

Jacob Marley has been dead for seven years when the story opens, and he warns Scrooge that three more spirits are on their way.

In the Book of Genesis, Jacob buys the birthright of which older twin brother for a bowl of stew?

Esau sold his rights as firstborn for red lentil pottage, and Genesis ties that colour to his other name, Edom, which means red.

Which comic book artist, born Jacob Kurtzberg, co-created Captain America, the Hulk and the Fantastic Four?

Jack Kirby created Captain America with Joe Simon in 1940, then helped launch the Avengers, Thor and the X-Men for Marvel in the 1960s.

Which actor played Jacob Black, the Quileute shapeshifter who rivals Edward Cullen, in the Twilight Saga films?

Taylor Lautner took his first karate class at six and won several junior world championships before he turned to acting.

Which Australian actor played the Creature in Guillermo del Toro's Frankenstein after breaking out in Euphoria?

Jacob Elordi earned an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor for the part, years after he first became known in Netflix's The Kissing Booth films.

Which Canadian actor starred opposite Brie Larson in Room as a child and later voiced Pixar's Luca?

Jacob Tremblay became the youngest nominee for the Screen Actors Guild's supporting actor award for Room, then played Auggie Pullman in Wonder.

Jake Gyllenhaal, born Jacob Benjamin Gyllenhaal, won a BAFTA as a supporting actor in which film?

Brokeback Mountain paired him with Heath Ledger as two cowboys in love, and Ang Lee's drama also brought him an Academy Award nomination.

After wrestling a mysterious stranger until daybreak, the biblical patriarch Jacob was given which new name?

Israel then became the name of a whole people: each of his twelve sons is counted as the forefather of one of its tribes.

Which South African president resigned in 2018 under pressure from his own party, the African National Congress?

Jacob Zuma stepped down as another no-confidence vote loomed in Parliament, and Cyril Ramaphosa replaced him the next day.

In Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, No-Maj factory worker Jacob Kowalski seeks a bank loan to open what?

A bakery is his dream, and Newt Scamander secretly leaves him a case of silver Occamy eggshells to fund it after his memories of magic are erased.

Twins Jacob and Evie Frye fight to free Victorian London from Templar control in which video game series?

Assassin's Creed Syndicate, the 2015 entry, lets players switch between the hot-headed brother, a brawler, and his stealthier sister.

Which American fashion designer became creative director of Louis Vuitton in 1997 while still running his own label?

Marc Jacobs was also the youngest designer to receive the Council of Fashion Designers of America's Perry Ellis Award for new talent, in 1987.

Jacob Grimm collected German fairy tales such as Hansel and Gretel with which younger brother?

Wilhelm Grimm co-wrote the fairy tales, while the sound-shift rule that linguists call Grimm's law was formulated by his older brother.

Which pitcher won back-to-back National League Cy Young Awards with the Mets in 2018 and 2019?

Jacob deGrom played shortstop until his junior year of college, and the Mets did not draft him until the ninth round.

Which English musician went viral with split-screen YouTube covers and won Grammys for each of his first four albums?

Jacob Collier's cover of a Stevie Wonder song caught the attention of Quincy Jones and Herbie Hancock, who befriended him in 2014.

Comedian Rodney Dangerfield, born Jacob Cohen, landed his breakout film role in which 1980 ensemble comedy?

Caddyshack cast him as a boorish, newly rich golfer, and his album from the same year won the Grammy Award for Best Comedy Album.

The Jacob, a piebald British breed that most commonly grows four horns, is which kind of farm animal?

Sheep of this breed were kept for centuries as ornamental park animals on large estates, and their dark-and-white fleece is prized by hand spinners.

Jacob's Creek, named after a stream in South Australia's Barossa Valley, is a widely exported brand of what?

Wine grapes have grown beside the creek since 1847, when Bavarian immigrant Johann Gramp planted his first vines on its banks; the brand itself arrived in 1976.

Which Conservative politician's old-fashioned manner saw him dubbed the Honourable Member for the 18th century?

Jacob Rees-Mogg was raised largely by the family nanny, who later looked after his own children too; he went on to be Leader of the House of Commons.

Which Honolulu-born actor plays Ned Leeds, the best friend of Peter Parker, in Marvel's Spider-Man films?

Jacob Batalon was born to Filipino parents and later took the title role in the Syfy series Reginald the Vampire.

Which English actor played Grey Worm in Game of Thrones and records music under the name Raleigh Ritchie?

Jacob Anderson's Grey Worm commanded the Unsullied army of Daenerys Targaryen; he then took the lead as Louis in AMC's Interview with the Vampire.

In Sara Gruen's Depression-era novel, veterinary student Jacob Jankowski hops a passing train and finds work with what?

A circus takes him on in the depths of the Great Depression; Robert Pattinson played him in the 2011 film of the novel, Water for Elephants.

Which activist wrote The Death and Life of Great American Cities and fought Robert Moses over Greenwich Village?

Jane Jacobs helped stop the Lower Manhattan Expressway, was arrested at a 1968 hearing on it, and then took up the same fight in Toronto.

Which actress played Britta Perry, the dropout and would-be psychologist, in the NBC sitcom Community?

Gillian Jacobs went on to star as Mickey in the Netflix romantic comedy Love and to voice Atom Eve in the animated series Invincible.

Which Danish-born reporter exposed New York's slums in the 1890 photo book How the Other Half Lives?

Jacob Riis was one of the first photographers to adopt flash, after reading in 1887 that even the darkest corner could now be pictured.

Which painter won national fame at 23 with the 60-panel Migration Series about Black Americans moving north?

Jacob Lawrence found his subjects in everyday Harlem, where his mother had enrolled him in after-school art classes to keep him busy.

Which favourite son of the biblical Jacob was given a coat of many colours and sold into slavery by his brothers?

Joseph rose to be Pharaoh's second-in-command, and it was through him that the whole family later moved to Egypt to escape a famine.

Reno tailor Jacob Davis invented riveted work trousers and shared the 1873 patent with which San Francisco merchant?

Levi Strauss was the dry goods wholesaler who sold him his cloth, and the copper rivets were there to strengthen pockets and seams.

Jacob's Pillow, a summer festival founded by Ted Shawn in the Berkshires of Massachusetts, is devoted to which art form?

Dance came to the hilltop farm in 1931, when the modern-dance pioneer bought it as a retreat; the site is now a National Historic Landmark District.

Sculptor Jacob Epstein carved the monument over which Irish writer's grave in Père Lachaise Cemetery in Paris?

Oscar Wilde's tomb was only his second commission. It was paid for by an anonymous donation of £2,000 and took about nine months to carve.

Which Swedish chemist discovered selenium and devised the letter symbols, such as O and Fe, still used for the elements?

Jacob Berzelius also gave chemistry the words catalysis, isomerism and allotropy, and he was the first to isolate silicon.

Katherine Paterson won the 1981 Newbery Medal for which novel about rival twin sisters growing up on the Chesapeake Bay?

Jacob Have I Loved takes its title from a verse in Romans about the biblical brothers, fitting a narrator who feels her sister is the favourite.

Which Polish-born mathematician wrote and presented the 13-part 1973 BBC documentary series The Ascent of Man?

Jacob Bronowski made the series as a science counterpart to Kenneth Clark's art history landmark Civilisation, and he died a year after it aired.

Jacob Bertrand played Eli Moskowitz, a fighter better known by the nickname Hawk, in which Netflix series?

Cobra Kai picks up the Karate Kid story decades on, and he had studied taekwondo for four years before he was cast.

Manhattan's main convention center honors which Republican who sat in the US Senate from 1957 to 1981?

Jacob Javits was a liberal Republican often at odds with his own party; he opposed the Vietnam War and drafted the War Powers Resolution.

In the Book of Genesis, the fleeing Jacob dreams of angels climbing up and down what, set between earth and heaven?

A ladder is the traditional wording, though the Hebrew can also mean a staircase; he marked the spot by standing his stone headrest up as a pillar.

American army officer Jacob Schick patented an early version of which grooming device and founded a company to sell it?

Electric razor development was paid for by his earlier invention, a shaver that loaded its blades from a clip like a repeating rifle.