50 Fun Facts About Famous Jimmys

Before entering politics, Jimmy Carter left the Navy's submarine service to run a family farm growing which crop?

Peanuts were his first business too: as a teenager he grew and sold them on an acre of his father's land. Weeks before his inauguration he put the family firm in the hands of trustees.

Which rapper first found fame as Jimmy Brooks, a basketball star in the teen drama Degrassi: The Next Generation?

Drake landed the part at 15, after a school friend's father, an acting agent, found him the role. He played Jimmy from 2001 to 2008 while recording his first mixtapes.

Jimmy Kimmel has kept up a mock feud since 2005 with which actor, whom he pretends to bump from every show?

Matt Damon was simply the first A-list name to pop into Kimmel's head at the end of a weak show. Both men have since said that the feud is a joke.

Jimmy Stewart's character in the 1950 comedy Harvey insists that his best friend is an invisible, six-foot-tall what?

Rabbit is only half of it: Harvey is a púca who stands six feet three and a half inches tall. Stewart took a share of the film's profits for playing his friend.

Jimmy Donaldson, who went viral in 2017 with a video of himself counting to 100,000, uses which YouTube name?

MrBeast was first MrBeast6000. The almost day-long counting video was his breakthrough, and his productions quickly became more extravagant.

Jimmy Hoffa, who vanished from a Detroit-area restaurant parking lot in 1975, had been president of which labor union?

Teamsters members never got him back as leader: President Nixon cut short his prison sentence on condition that he stay out of union management until 1980. He was declared dead in 1982.

After the 2014 Winter Olympics, Jimmy Fallon succeeded Jay Leno as host of which long-running NBC talk programme?

The Tonight Show made Fallon its sixth permanent host, five years after he took over NBC's later talk slot and 16 after he joined Saturday Night Live.

Jimmy Page, known for playing his guitar with a bow, founded which band when the Yardbirds broke up?

Led Zeppelin gave Page a second place in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, after the Yardbirds. He had begun as a London session guitarist, hired as insurance on other acts' records.

Country singer Jimmy Dean, who had a 1961 hit with Big Bad John, founded a company in 1969 selling which food?

Sausage was not his only brush with a fortune: Jim Henson offered him 40% of his puppet company in thanks for a TV break, and Dean said no.

Jimmy Wales co-founded Wikipedia, whose name borrows wiki, a word meaning quick, from which language?

Hawaiian reached the web by bus: programmer Ward Cunningham named the first wiki site after the Wiki Wiki Shuttle that runs between Honolulu airport's terminals.

Malaysian designer Jimmy Choo, a favourite of Princess Diana, made his name handcrafting which fashion item?

Shoes ran in the family: his father, a shoemaker, taught him the craft, and he finished his first pair, some slippers, at the age of 11.

Jimmy Buffett's devoted fans, who filled his concerts in loud tropical shirts and feathered hats, go by which nickname?

Parrotheads got the name at a 1985 concert, coined by a bandmate after Buffett remarked on the crowd's costumes. Their children are known as parakeets.

Which actor plays Jimmy McGill, the small-time lawyer who becomes Saul Goodman in the Breaking Bad franchise?

Bob Odenkirk earned six lead-actor Emmy nominations for Better Call Saul without a win. A scheduling clash once kept him off Breaking Bad, which led the writers to invent Mike Ehrmantraut.

Jimmy Olsen, the young photojournalist who can summon Superman with a signal watch, works for which newspaper?

Daily Planet readers were not the first to learn his name: the character was introduced as Jimmy Olsen on The Adventures of Superman radio show in April 1940, before the comics named him.

Jimmy Doolittle led 16 B-25 bombers off the aircraft carrier USS Hornet in April 1942 to strike which capital city?

Tokyo suffered only minor damage and all 16 aircraft were lost, so Doolittle expected a court-martial. He was promoted two grades and given the Medal of Honor instead.

Which actor plays Jimmy Dugan, the washed-up slugger who manages a women's baseball team in A League of Their Own?

Tom Hanks plays him as a cynical former Cubs star in charge of the Rockford Peaches. The team's home games were filmed at a real ballpark, League Stadium in Huntingburg, Indiana.

Jimmy Carter won which award in 2002 for his work after the presidency, including a centre promoting human rights?

Nobel Peace Prize judges honoured the work of the Carter Center, set up after he left the White House. He was also a longtime volunteer with the housing charity Habitat for Humanity.

Boy genius Jimmy Neutron built himself a robot dog, named for a real scientist, that answers to which name?

Goddard honours the physicist Robert H. Goddard. The mechanical pet can fly, and when told to play dead he self-destructs, then rebuilds himself.

Jimmy John Liautaud was 19 when he used a $25,000 loan from his father to open a shop selling which food?

Sandwiches were his second choice: he wanted a hot dog stand until he learned the loan would not cover one. If the shop had failed, the deal was that he would join the Army.

Record executive Jimmy Iovine co-founded a headphone company, later sold to Apple for $3 billion, with which rapper?

Dr. Dre was signed to Interscope, the label Iovine co-founded. Iovine had started out cleaning a recording studio, then engineered sessions for John Lennon and Bruce Springsteen.

Jimmy Butler sold $20 cups of coffee from his hotel room in the 2020 NBA bubble while starring for which team?

Miami Heat fans saw Butler lead them to the NBA Finals that year, and again in 2023 as an eighth seed. The hotel-room hustle became a real coffee brand a year later.

Quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo spent his first four NFL seasons in New England as the backup to which star passer?

Tom Brady's four-game Deflategate suspension in 2016 gave Garoppolo his first starts. He left with two Super Bowl rings earned as an understudy.

Jimmy Johnson coached which NFL team to back-to-back Super Bowl wins before a public falling-out with owner Jerry Jones?

Dallas Cowboys wins made Johnson the first head coach to take both a college national championship and a Super Bowl. Jones then said that any coach could have won with that team.

Jimmy Connors was engaged to which fellow tennis star when both won Wimbledon singles titles in 1974?

Chris Evert also partnered Connors to a Grand Slam final as a pair. The engagement ended in 1975, and after two brief reconciliations they parted for good.

Jimmy Fallon co-hosted Weekend Update on Saturday Night Live from 2000 to 2004 beside which of the show's writers?

Tina Fey stayed at the desk when Fallon left for a film career in 2004, and with his replacement she formed the segment's first two-woman anchor team.

Jimmy Stewart's George Bailey is rescued on Christmas Eve by which guardian angel in It's a Wonderful Life?

Clarence is an angel second class who has gone 200 years without winning his wings, and saving George is his chance to earn them.

Robert De Niro's Jimmy Conway, modelled on real gangster Jimmy Burke, appears in which Martin Scorsese crime film?

Goodfellas only got its funding once De Niro agreed to play Conway. The character's surname was the real gangster's own birth name.

Which rapper plays Jimmy Smith Jr., a Detroit hopeful trying to launch a hip-hop career, in the 2002 film 8 Mile?

Eminem and two co-writers won the Academy Award for Best Original Song for the film's anthem. Seventeen years later he performed it at the Oscars in a surprise appearance.

Jimmy Valmer, a schoolboy stand-up comedian who walks with forearm crutches, appears in which animated series?

South Park first met him in 2001 as a newcomer from a neighbouring town, and he has been a recurring character ever since. A 2021 special gave him a late-night talk show of his own.

Brothers Billy and Jimmy Lee fight the Black Warriors gang to rescue Marian in which 1987 arcade brawler?

Double Dragon named its heroes after two idols: Billy borrows from Bruce Lee and one of his film roles, and Jimmy is a nod to the rock guitarist Jimmy Page.

Which actor won an Oscar as Jimmy "Popeye" Doyle, the hard-nosed narcotics detective of The French Connection?

Gene Hackman played Doyle again in a 1975 sequel, and the character ranks 44th among the heroes on the American Film Institute's list of screen heroes and villains.

Jimmy Smits plays which Star Wars senator from Alderaan, the man who becomes Princess Leia's adoptive father?

Bail Organa brought Smits back for Rogue One in 2016, eleven years after Revenge of the Sith. On television he is known for the police drama NYPD Blue and the political drama The West Wing.

Jimmy Durante gave his final film performance as the narrator of which 1969 animated Christmas special?

Frosty the Snowman was an old friend: Durante had been one of the first people to record the song in 1950, and he sang it again for the cartoon.

Which guitarist fronted a New York club band called Jimmy James and the Blue Flames before moving to London in 1966?

Jimi Hendrix formed the group during a Greenwich Village residency, with future Spirit guitarist Randy California in the line-up. In London a new band, the Experience, was built around him.

Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis, a production duo once fired by Prince, made the 1986 album Control with which singer?

Janet Jackson's breakthrough won the duo a Grammy, and they went on to produce a run of her number-one albums. Prince had sacked them after a blizzard made them miss a tour date.

Songwriter Jimmy Webb wrote Wichita Lineman and Galveston, both hits for which country-pop singer?

Glen Campbell sang on the first record Webb ever bought, at the age of 14. The two later met while making a General Motors commercial.

Reggae star Jimmy Cliff returned to the charts in 1993 with which cover, recorded for the bobsled comedy Cool Runnings?

I Can See Clearly Now was Johnny Nash's song, and Cliff's version went to number one in France. Two decades earlier he starred in The Harder They Come, Jamaica's first major commercial film.

Mountaineer Jimmy Chin co-directed which Oscar-winning documentary about Alex Honnold's ascent of Yosemite's El Capitan?

Free Solo reunited him with Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi, his co-director on Meru. Chin is a climber himself, and in 2006 he was part of the first successful American ski descent of Everest.

Detective Jimmy McNulty, played by Dominic West, chases drug crews in which city in the HBO drama The Wire?

Baltimore's best-known fictional detective was cast from a strange audition tape: with no one to read with, the English actor recorded his own lines and left silent gaps for the replies.

British comedian Jimmy Carr hosted which Channel 4 panel show from 2005, with Sean Lock among its team captains?

8 Out of 10 Cats took its questions from opinion polls and statistics. From 2012 Carr also fronted a long-running spin-off that crosses it with the daytime quiz Countdown.

Jimmy Valvano, the coach known as Jimmy V, led which underdog school to the 1983 NCAA men's basketball title?

NC State's last-second win sent Valvano running around the court looking for somebody to hug. Ten years later, in the final months of his life, he launched the V Foundation for Cancer Research.

England striker Jimmy Greaves, injured in the group stage, lost his 1966 World Cup place to which hat-trick hero?

Geoff Hurst came in for the quarter-final, scored the only goal against Argentina and kept the place. Substitutes were not yet allowed, so Greaves could only watch the final.

Jimmy White, nicknamed the Whirlwind, reached six world championship finals and lost every one of them in which sport?

Snooker's great nearly-man modelled his attacking game on Alex Higgins, known as the Hurricane, and says that is the only reason he became the Whirlwind.

Sean Penn won a Best Actor Oscar as Jimmy Markum, a grieving Boston father, in which Clint Eastwood crime drama?

Mystic River earned six Oscar nominations and a second acting win, for Tim Robbins in support. It is based on a 2001 novel by Dennis Lehane.

Rock band Jimmy Eat World, named after a crayon drawing made during a family squabble, formed in 1993 in which US state?

Arizona's city of Mesa was home, and 25 years after their first show the band marked the date with a surprise gig at a small club in Phoenix.

Jimmy Ruffin's younger brother David sang lead for which Motown group, which had also considered Jimmy for the job?

The Temptations took David on in January 1964, and Jimmy stayed solo. Two years later he scored his signature hit, What Becomes of the Brokenhearted.

Jimmy Morales, who rose to fame in a TV comedy series with his brother, became president of which country in 2016?

Guatemala's 50th president found fame beside his brother Sammy in Moralejas, a comedy series whose title means Morals. He held office until 2020.

Jimmy Porter, an educated young man who runs a sweet stall, is the central figure of which 1956 John Osborne play?

Look Back in Anger gave the 1950s a label: a press release called its author an angry young man, and the phrase came to stand for a whole movement in British theatre.

Glasgow-born singer Jimmy Barnes became one of Australia's best-selling artists as the frontman of which rock band?

Cold Chisel put Barnes, born James Swan, into the ARIA Hall of Fame in 1993, and he was inducted a second time in his own right in 2005.

Bandleader Jimmy Dorsey, whose brother Tommy played trombone, was known for alto saxophone and which other instrument?

Clarinet was his instrument on the original 1930 recording of Georgia on My Mind. The brothers' shared band split in 1935, when Tommy stormed off after an onstage row.