50 Fun Facts About Famous Matthews

Matthew Perry, who played Chandler Bing on Friends, was a top-ranked junior player in which sport in Canada?

Tennis took up as much as ten hours of his day as a boy in Ottawa. His prospects faded at 15, when he moved to Los Angeles to live with his father and found the competition much tougher.

Matthew McConaughey won the Best Actor Oscar playing Ron Woodroof, a rodeo cowboy diagnosed with AIDS, in which film?

Dallas Buyers Club tells how the real Woodroof smuggled unapproved drugs into Texas to treat his symptoms. Co-star Jared Leto won Best Supporting Actor on the same night.

Matthew Broderick, who skipped school as Ferris Bueller in 1986, voiced which grown-up Disney lion eight years later?

Simba got his adult voice from Broderick, who recorded with another actor only once in three years on The Lion King. He first assumed the film was an American version of Kimba.

Matt Damon, born Matthew Paige Damon, won a screenwriting Oscar for Good Will Hunting with which childhood friend?

Ben Affleck was his schoolmate in Cambridge, Massachusetts, where Damon joked that their drama teacher gave his friend the biggest roles. Rumors that the pair had not written the script lingered for years.

Matthew the Apostle, traditional author of the New Testament's opening Gospel, held which job before following Jesus?

Tax collector Matthew was sitting at his customs post in Capernaum when Jesus called him. The Gospels of Mark and Luke tell the same story about a man they call Levi.

US Navy Commodore Matthew C. Perry used a show of naval force in the 1850s to open which country to trade?

Japan signed the Convention of Kanagawa with him in 1854, ending its long isolation. The Japanese called his smoke-belching steam warships the Black Ships.

Captain Matthew Webb became a Victorian celebrity in 1875 as the first person to swim across which stretch of water?

English Channel waters took him nearly 22 hours to cross, greased with porpoise oil and stung by a jellyfish on the way. He died eight years later attempting the rapids below Niagara Falls.

Matt Groening, born Matthew Abram Groening, followed The Simpsons with which animated series set in the 31st century?

Futurama follows Fry, a pizza delivery boy frozen for 1,000 years. Fox had pressed Groening for a new series, and he brought in Simpsons writer David X. Cohen to help develop it.

Dave Matthews, whose band formed in Charlottesville, Virginia, in 1991, was born in which country?

South Africa is where he was born, in Johannesburg, and he left after school to avoid military conscription. A Quaker and a pacifist, he ended up tending bar in Charlottesville.

Leeds-born Matthew Lewis made his name in the Harry Potter film series playing which Hogwarts classmate of Harry's?

Neville Longbottom went to Lewis, a fan of the books, after an open audition at a Leeds hotel and a screen test for director Chris Columbus.

Matt LeBlanc, born Matthew Steven LeBlanc, spent three years after his sitcom fame hosting which British motoring show?

Top Gear hired him in 2016 alongside Chris Evans, who stepped down after a single series. Before he landed the part of Joey in Friends, LeBlanc was reportedly down to his last eleven dollars.

Matt Murdock, a blind lawyer whose full name is Matthew Michael Murdock, protects Hell's Kitchen as which Marvel hero?

Daredevil was blinded in a childhood chemical accident that sharpened his other senses. Co-creator Bill Everett drew on his daughter, who was legally blind and had unusually keen hearing.

Solicitor Matthew Crawley, a distant middle-class cousin, suddenly becomes heir to an earl's estate in which drama?

Downton Abbey made him heir after the two men ahead of him in line died aboard the Titanic. Actor Dan Stevens decided to leave, so the character was killed off in the 2012 Christmas special.

Matt Stone, born Matthew Richard Stone, co-created which animated satire about four boys in a Colorado mountain town?

South Park is a real grassland basin in the Rocky Mountains, southwest of Denver. Stone and Trey Parker went on to co-create the Broadway musical The Book of Mormon.

A back injury ended Matt Smith's youth football career before he was cast as the eleventh lead of which BBC series?

Doctor Who cast him at 26, three years younger than Peter Davison had been in 1981. Smith, born Matthew Robert Smith, had captained Leicester City's youth team.

Matthew Fox played Jack Shephard, a surgeon who leads plane-crash survivors on a mysterious island, in which TV drama?

Lost was filmed mainly on Oahu, Hawaii, which helped make it one of the most expensive series on television. Fox had earlier played the eldest of five orphaned siblings in Party of Five.

Matthew Morrison played Will Schuester, a Spanish teacher who revives an Ohio school's show choir, in which series?

Glee followed his club, New Directions, at the fictional William McKinley High School in Lima. Morrison came from Broadway, where he was the original Link Larkin in Hairspray.

Royal Navy navigator Matthew Flinders led the first circumnavigation of which landmass, then known as New Holland?

Australia owes its name partly to Flinders, who preferred it to Terra Australis and applied it to the whole continent. He had earlier helped confirm that Tasmania is an island.

Matthew Henson, hired as Robert Peary's valet in 1887, joined the 1909 expedition that claimed to reach which place?

North Pole credit went to Peary, but Henson later said he was the first of the party to arrive. He mastered the Inuit language, and the Inuit called him Mahri-Pahluk.

Quarterback Matthew Stafford, first overall pick of the 2009 NFL draft, spent his first twelve seasons with which team?

Detroit Lions teams reached the playoffs three times with him at quarterback. Traded to the Los Angeles Rams in 2021, he led them to victory in Super Bowl LVI.

Matthew Macfadyen, Mr. Darcy in the 2005 film Pride & Prejudice, later played Tom Wambsgans in which HBO family drama?

Succession brought him two Primetime Emmys for the supporting role. He began a relationship with Keeley Hawes when the two co-starred in the spy drama Spooks.

Matthew Modine, who turned down the lead in Top Gun, played Private Joker in which Stanley Kubrick war film?

Full Metal Jacket made him its central character, a Marine in the Vietnam War. Modine rejected Top Gun because he felt its pro-military stance went against his politics.

Matthew Lillard, Stu Macher in Scream, played which Mystery Inc. member in the live-action Scooby-Doo films?

Shaggy stayed with him long after the two films. When Casey Kasem retired from the part in 2009, Lillard became the character's official animated voice.

Matthew Gray Gubler, a former fashion model, played the genius profiler Dr. Spencer Reid in which CBS crime drama?

Criminal Minds also let him direct several episodes. Gubler was scouted as a model while studying film at NYU and later interned for director Wes Anderson.

Matt Bellamy, born Matthew James Bellamy, formed which Grammy-winning rock band with schoolmates in Teignmouth, Devon?

Muse has Bellamy as its singer, guitarist, pianist and lyricist. The trio won Grammys for Best Rock Album with The Resistance and Drones.

Matthew Weiner wrote for The Sopranos before creating which drama about a 1960s New York advertising agency?

Mad Men began as a spec script that Weiner wrote after working on several sitcoms. It went on to win the Emmy for Outstanding Drama Series four years in a row.

Matthew Vaughn, producer of Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels, directed which spy film series that began in 2014?

Kingsman started as a comic book series that Vaughn co-created. Until 2002 he believed his father was the American actor Robert Vaughn.

The St Matthew Passion, a sacred oratorio written in 1727 for double choir and double orchestra, is by which composer?

Johann Sebastian Bach set the Gospel story to a German libretto by Picander. It is one of only two of his Passion settings to survive complete, alongside the St John Passion.

Hurricane Matthew, a Category 5 storm in 2016, caused its worst loss of life in which Caribbean country?

Haiti took the first landfall, on its Tiburon Peninsula, and suffered its worst disaster since the 2010 earthquake. The storm went on to strike Cuba later the same day.

Auston Matthews, the first overall pick of the 2016 NHL draft by Toronto, grew up in which warm-weather US state?

Arizona had its own NHL team, the Phoenix Coyotes, whose games he attended from the age of two. He asked to take up the sport shortly after his fifth birthday.

Cardiff-born Matthew Rhys won a lead actor Emmy in 2018 for playing Philip Jennings in which Cold War spy drama?

The Americans followed his earlier success as Kevin Walker in Brothers & Sisters. Rhys attended Welsh-medium schools and won a Welsh BAFTA for acting in his own language.

Matthew Lawrence, brother of actors Joey and Andrew, played one of three siblings in which 1993 Robin Williams comedy?

Mrs. Doubtfire brought its three screen siblings back together with Pierce Brosnan for a 25th anniversary reunion. Lawrence also starred with his real brothers in the sitcom Brotherly Love.

Matthew Quick quit teaching high school English to write which debut novel, filmed in 2012 with Bradley Cooper?

Silver Linings Playbook became a New York Times bestseller, and the film paired Cooper with Jennifer Lawrence. Quick had been a tenured teacher in Haddonfield, New Jersey.

Sir Matthew Pinsent, a long-time crewmate of Steve Redgrave, won four consecutive Olympic gold medals in which sport?

Rowing also brought him ten world championship golds. The BBC documentary Gold Fever tracked his coxless four crew as it prepared for the Sydney Games in 2000.

Matt Lucas, born Matthew Richard Lucas, created the sketch show Little Britain with which comedy partner?

David Walliams met him at the National Youth Theatre, and the pair later made the airport comedy Come Fly with Me. Lucas went on to co-host The Great British Bake Off.

Voice actor Matthew Mercer was the original Dungeon Master, from 2015, of which Dungeons & Dragons web series?

Critical Role grew into a company with Mercer as its chief creative officer. His voice roles include Levi Ackerman in Attack on Titan and Cole Cassidy in Overwatch.

Berkeley neuroscientist Matthew Walker wrote a 2017 popular science book explaining why humans need which activity?

Sleep is the subject of his first popular book, and of his day job. Walker founded and directs the Center for Human Sleep Science at the University of California, Berkeley.

The name Matthew reached English through Greek and Latin from a Hebrew name with which literal meaning?

Gift of the Lord is the sense of the Hebrew Mattityahu, which became Matthaios in Greek and Matthaeus in Latin. English has used the name since the Middle Ages.

Farmer Matthew Cuthbert and his sister Marilla ask an orphanage for a boy but are sent which heroine of a 1908 novel?

Anne Shirley arrives by mistake at their farm in Avonlea, on Prince Edward Island. Lucy Maud Montgomery built the plot on an old notebook entry about an orphan girl sent in place of a boy.

Birmingham manufacturer Matthew Boulton went into business with which Scottish engineer to build improved steam engines?

James Watt and Boulton installed hundreds of engines that let factories and mills mechanise. Boulton came into the business when Watt's earlier partner could not pay him a debt.

General Matthew Ridgway took command of all UN forces in Korea in 1951 after President Truman dismissed which general?

Douglas MacArthur was relieved in April 1951, and Ridgway was promoted to full general. Months earlier he had taken over the retreating Eighth Army and turned its morale around.

Matthew Vassar, who founded a women's college at Poughkeepsie, New York, in 1861, made his fortune in which trade?

Brewing was the family business, which he joined in 1810 as its bookkeeper. A niece who ran a local seminary encouraged him to spend his money on educating women.

Victorian poet Matthew Arnold, a schools inspector for 35 years, was the son of the headmaster of which English school?

Rugby School appointed his father, Thomas Arnold, as headmaster in 1828, and the family moved in. The younger Arnold was sent away to Winchester College but returned within a year.

Matthew Hopkins, the self-styled Witchfinder General, hunted accused witches across East Anglia during which conflict?

English Civil War turmoil framed his career from 1644 to 1647, though Parliament never granted him his title. He took his methods from King James I's book Daemonologie.

English winger Sir Stanley Matthews, who played top-flight football until 50, was the first winner of which award?

Ballon d'Or organisers named him their inaugural winner in 1956. Nicknamed the Wizard of Dribble, he is the only player to have been knighted while still playing football.

Sir Matt Busby, born Alexander Matthew Busby, managed which football club at the time of the 1958 Munich air disaster?

Manchester United had eight players killed in the crash, yet Busby rebuilt the side and won the European Cup a decade later. As a player he had turned out for rivals Manchester City and Liverpool.

Guernsey-born Matt Le Tissier, full name Matthew Paul Le Tissier, spent his whole professional career at which club?

Southampton fans nicknamed him Le God for his loyalty. He chose to play for England and scored 47 of the 48 penalty kicks he took.

Matt Mullenweg, born Matthew Charles Mullenweg, left college in Houston to build which open-source publishing software?

WordPress was already his project when he dropped out in 2004 for a job at CNET, which promised him time to work on it. He went on to found the company Automattic.

Jesse Spencer played Matthew Casey, the no-nonsense leader of Truck Company 81, in which NBC drama?

Chicago Fire gave him a running feud with Detective Hank Voight, who went on to lead the spin-off Chicago P.D. Casey rose from lieutenant to captain in the sixth season.

Matt Bomer, born Matthew Staton Bomer, played con artist Neal Caffrey in which USA Network series?

White Collar ran from 2009 to 2014 and marked a turning point in his career. His film debut had come in 2005 opposite Jodie Foster in the thriller Flightplan.