50 Fun Facts About Fictional Characters

Which fictional spy is named after the American ornithologist who wrote Birds of the West Indies?

James Bond borrowed the name of a Philadelphia bird expert whose field guide Ian Fleming owned. Fleming, a keen birdwatcher, wanted a short, unromantic name for his hero.

Which film adventurer was named after an Alaskan Malamute owned by his creator, George Lucas?

Indiana Jones took his first name from the dog Indiana, who also inspired the look of Chewbacca. In early drafts the hero was called Indiana Smith.

Which superhero was created by a psychologist whose blood-pressure test led to the lie detector?

Wonder Woman's creator, William Moulton Marston, built a blood-pressure device that was crucial to the polygraph. His tests persuaded him that women could be more honest than men.

Which storybook bear was named after a Canadian black bear that lived at London Zoo?

Winnie-the-Pooh owes half his name to Winnie, an animal a Canadian army vet named after Winnipeg and left at the zoo. The Pooh half came from a friend's pet swan.

Which video game hero was named after the landlord of Nintendo of America's warehouse?

Mario was first a carpenter, because Donkey Kong is set on a construction site, and the English instructions called him Jumpman. The landlord's full name was Mario Segale.

Which fictional boy's copyright did J. M. Barrie give to London's Great Ormond Street Hospital?

Peter Pan has funded the children's hospital since 1929, when the playwright handed over the rights. UK law now lets it collect royalties on the story in perpetuity.

Which pirate captain did Johnny Depp model partly on Rolling Stones guitarist Keith Richards?

Jack Sparrow grew out of Depp's idea that 18th-century pirates were the rock stars of their day. Richards later appeared in two of the films as the character's father, Captain Teague.

Which cartoon character did Walt Disney create as a replacement for Oswald the Lucky Rabbit?

Mickey Mouse replaced a rabbit that Disney and Ub Iwerks had made for Universal Pictures. The first design looked much like Oswald, apart from the ears, nose and tail.

Which arcade character did designer Toru Iwatani base on a pizza with one slice removed?

Pac-Man also owes his look to kuchi, the Japanese character for mouth, which his designer rounded out and simplified. Lunch gave him only part of the idea.

Which comic book villain earned Academy Awards for both Heath Ledger and Joaquin Phoenix?

The Joker brought Ledger a posthumous supporting-actor prize, the first acting Oscar won for a superhero film. Phoenix followed with Best Actor for a 2019 film about the character.

Which fictional detective did his creator model on Joseph Bell, an observant Edinburgh surgeon?

Sherlock Holmes owes his method to Bell, whom Arthur Conan Doyle met in 1877 and served as a clerk at the Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh.

Hercule Poirot served in which country's police force before settling in England as a refugee?

Belgium gave Poirot his career before the First World War drove him to England. His name echoes two earlier fictional detectives, Hercules Popeau and Monsieur Poiret.

Which Star Wars villain was played on set by David Prowse but voiced by James Earl Jones?

Darth Vader got a second performer because George Lucas felt Prowse's West Country accent did not suit the part. Prowse had turned down the role of Chewbacca to play the villain.

Which animated sitcom father shares a first name with creator Matt Groening's real father?

Homer Simpson got a name Groening chose to amuse and slightly annoy his dad, though little else about the character came from him. Groening later called his own son Homer too.

What breed is Scooby-Doo, the cowardly cartoon dog who solves mysteries with Shaggy Rogers?

Great Dane features were drawn wrong on purpose: designer Iwao Takamoto gave Scooby a sloping chin, bow legs and a sloped back, the opposite of a prize-winning example of the breed.

Which Toy Story character was named in honor of the second person to walk on the Moon?

Buzz Lightyear honors Apollo 11's Buzz Aldrin, whose name the filmmakers thought was the coolest of any astronaut. Aldrin once pulled out the toy during a speech at NASA.

Which horror character did Bela Lugosi play on Broadway before starring in the 1931 Universal film?

Dracula was a part Lugosi already knew from the stage play, which helped him beat several other actors to the screen role. Universal paid $40,000 for rights to the novel and the plays.

Which superhero, created by Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster, first appeared in Action Comics No. 1?

Superman was dreamed up by two friends who met at Glenville High School in Cleveland, one an aspiring writer and the other an aspiring illustrator.

Which Muppet did Jim Henson first build from his mother's old coat and two ping pong ball halves?

Kermit the Frog was not yet a frog in 1955: the first puppet was a vague lizard-like creature, with the ball halves serving as its eyes.

Which color was Marvel's Hulk in his first comic, before printing problems led to a switch to green?

Gray was Stan Lee's pick because he found it scary and tied to no ethnic group, but the colorist could not keep the shade consistent. Some panels even came out green.

Which Lord of the Rings character did Andy Serkis bring to the screen through motion capture?

Gollum takes his name from the horrible swallowing noise he makes in his throat. Before the One Ring corrupted him he was known as Sméagol.

Which Star Wars character is voiced and puppeteered by Frank Oz, also the performer of Miss Piggy?

Yoda went to Oz because Jim Henson was busy with another project and recommended his Muppets colleague for the job.

Which fictional psychiatrist won Anthony Hopkins the Best Actor Oscar for The Silence of the Lambs?

Hannibal Lecter, as Hopkins played him, was named the greatest villain in American cinema by the American Film Institute in 2003. Hopkins returned to the part in two more films.

Which physicist's surname does chemistry teacher Walter White use as his alias in Breaking Bad?

Heisenberg is the name White gives when he walks into the lair of the dealer Tuco, and it grows into the reputation of a kingpin across the Southwestern drug trade.

Which fictional Scranton paper company employs Michael Scott in the American version of The Office?

Dunder Mifflin stands in for Wernham Hogg, the firm in the British original. The French and French Canadian remakes renamed the company again.

What is the home planet of the Time Lords, the Doctor's people in Doctor Who?

Gallifrey went unnamed for the first decade of the series: the planet was first mentioned by name in the 1973–74 serial The Time Warrior.

Which of the six main characters in the sitcom Friends works as a paleontologist?

Ross Geller was developed with David Schwimmer's voice in mind, which made Schwimmer the first of the six leads to be cast.

Which Star Trek officer, first played by Leonard Nimoy, has a human mother and a Vulcan father?

Spock is the son of Sarek and Amanda Grayson, and other Vulcan children bullied him for his mixed heritage. The part earned Nimoy three Emmy nominations.

What is the name of the hero the player controls in Nintendo's The Legend of Zelda games?

Link was so named because the hero was first meant to travel between past and future as the connection between them, creator Shigeru Miyamoto has said.

Which Pokémon species is the constant companion of trainer Ash Ketchum in the Pokémon anime?

Pikachu is an Electric-type whose red cheek sacs can generate large amounts of electricity. Ryan Reynolds is among the actors who have voiced it.

Which fictional scientist builds a living creature as a student at the University of Ingolstadt?

Victor Frankenstein is the maker, not the monster, though his creature is often mistakenly called by his surname. He was born to a Swiss family from Geneva.

Which small-town Alabama lawyer did Harper Lee base on her own father, Amasa Coleman Lee?

Atticus Finch shares more than a profession with Amasa Lee, who also represented black defendants in a highly publicized criminal trial. Gregory Peck won an Oscar in the role.

Which captain of the whaling ship Pequod wears an ivory leg after a white whale bit off his own?

Ahab's hatred costs him everything: Moby Dick finally drags him to his death beneath the sea and sinks the ship.

Which Jane Austen heroine turns down the first marriage proposal of the wealthy Mr Darcy?

Elizabeth Bennet had already refused Mr Collins, infuriating a mother who counted her the least dear of five daughters. She accepts Darcy only once she realises she loves him.

Which literary knight, served by squire Sancho Panza, attacks windmills he takes for giants?

Don Quixote's charge gave English the idiom tilting at windmills, which means attacking imaginary enemies.

To which feuding Verona family does Juliet belong in Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet?

Capulet is Juliet's house and Montague is Romeo's, and the play ends with the lovers' bodies discovered in her family's tomb.

Which boy reporter created by the cartoonist Hergé travels the world with his dog Snowy?

Tintin began as a challenge: the director of the newspaper where Hergé worked asked him for a new serial for its Thursday supplement for young readers.

Which unbreakable fictional metal reinforces the skeleton of the X-Men's clawed hero Wolverine?

Adamantium was forced on him as an unwilling test subject of the Weapon X program, and the villain Magneto later ripped it out of his body with magnetism.

Which J. D. Salinger narrator roams New York for a long weekend after his expulsion from Pencey Prep?

Holden Caulfield's school was loosely based on Valley Forge Military Academy, which Salinger himself had attended. The story unfolds in the days before Christmas.

Which Alien heroine, played by Sigourney Weaver, was originally conceived as a male character?

Ellen Ripley was rewritten as a woman early in production of the first film. The script had noted that the crew was unisex, with every part open to men or women.

Which P. G. Wodehouse character is the highly competent valet of idle young Londoner Bertie Wooster?

Jeeves is a valet, not a butler: he serves one man, whereas a butler runs a household and manages other servants.

Which private detective is the protagonist of Dashiell Hammett's novel The Maltese Falcon?

Sam Spade stars in only one full-length novel, first serialized in the pulp magazine Black Mask, and in four lesser-known short stories.

Which traveling salesman wakes one morning as a huge insect in Franz Kafka's The Metamorphosis?

Gregor Samsa is usually pictured as a cockroach in adaptations, but Kafka's German says only that he has become a monstrous vermin.

Which bombardier stationed on the island of Pianosa is the protagonist of Joseph Heller's Catch-22?

John Yossarian got his surname from Francis Yohannan, a wartime friend of Heller, who had himself flown as a bombardier from an island off Italy.

Which armored bounty hunter was revealed to be female only at the end of the first Metroid game?

Samus Aran was made female midway through development, after an unnamed team member suggested it and the team voted in favor. The manual called her male to protect the surprise.

Which family of round white trolls, said to resemble hippos, did Finnish author Tove Jansson create?

The Moomins live in a house in Moominvalley, and although their creator was Finnish, the books were originally published in Swedish.

What kind of house-sized body, known on Earth as B-612, is home to the Little Prince?

An asteroid with three tiny volcanoes, two active and one dormant or extinct, is where the prince tends a single rose.

Which French police detective created by Georges Simenon works from 36 Quai des Orfèvres in Paris?

Jules Maigret first took shape in 1929, when Simenon wrote three popular novels featuring the inspector while touring northern Europe by boat.

Which James Joyce character's day in Dublin on 16 June 1904 mirrors the wanderings of Odysseus?

Leopold Bloom began as the hero of a short story Joyce planned as the final piece of Dubliners, apparently based on a real Dubliner named Alfred Hunter.

Which scheming orphan is the main protagonist of William Makepeace Thackeray's novel Vanity Fair?

Becky Sharp twists the Victorian orphan story: rather than meekly making her way, she knows she wants fine clothes, money and a social position, and how to get them.