49 Fun Facts About The Green Mile

Which was the first published novel by Stephen King, author of The Green Mile?

Carrie: King threw his opening pages in the bin, but his wife Tabitha fished them out, read them and urged him to keep going.

How was The Green Mile novel originally published?

In six monthly paperback volumes: King wanted the suspense of the old serials, where no reader could skip ahead to the ending and everyone had time to guess at the next twist.

Stephen King modelled the original release of The Green Mile on the practice of which Victorian novelist?

Charles Dickens: King put out the opening of the story before he knew how it would end, which bound him to finish it while readers could not peek ahead.

In Stephen King's The Green Mile, what gives the death row block its nickname?

The linoleum on the floor: most prisons called the walk to the electric chair the Last Mile, but this one's faded lime-green floor earned it a name of its own.

What is the name of the prison where the story takes place?

Briar Ridge is the mental hospital Percy is bound for; Trapingus County is where the murders happened.

In The Green Mile, what part does Toot-Toot, the old trustee who sells snacks, play when the guards rehearse an execution?

The condemned man: strapped into the chair, Toot-Toot cracks vulgar jokes until every guard is laughing except Paul, who orders them to take it seriously.

Paul doubts John Coffey could have planned the crime he was convicted of, partly because Coffey is unable to do what?

Tie a simple knot: yet at his trial the prosecution argued he had silenced the family's watchdog and carefully planned the whole crime.

In The Green Mile, what crime was John Coffey convicted of?

Raping and murdering two young girls: he was found holding their bodies, but he had really been trying to bring them back to life.

In The Green Mile, what does the guard Percy Wetmore do to Del's pet mouse, Mr. Jingles?

Stomps on him: Del's pet looks dead, but John Coffey urgently asks for the body and revives the mouse.

In The Green Mile, what does the guard Brutus Howell call the mouse before Del names him Mr. Jingles?

Steamboat Willie: the mouse peers into each cell as though searching for someone, and Paul later decides it had been waiting for Del all along.

In The Green Mile, why must guards tolerate the cruel Percy Wetmore?

He is the nephew of the governor's wife: to be rid of him, Paul lets Percy run an execution on the promise that he then moves to a job at a mental hospital.

In The Green Mile, how does the guard Percy Wetmore sabotage Del's execution?

He leaves the electrode-cap sponge dry: it is revenge on Del, who had mocked Percy for wetting himself in fright.

In The Green Mile, what illness is Warden Hal Moores' wife Melinda dying of?

An inoperable brain tumour: to reach her, the guards smuggle John Coffey out of the prison so that he can try to heal her.

In The Green Mile, which ailment of Paul Edgecombe's does John Coffey cure first?

A urinary tract infection: John Coffey absorbs it into his own body, then breathes it out as a swarm of black insects.

In The Green Mile, how does John Coffey learn that Wild Bill Wharton is the real killer?

Wharton grabs his arm: so John Coffey holds on to the sickness he draws out of the warden's wife and pours it into Percy, who then shoots Wharton dead.

In The Green Mile, which Wild West figure does the killer Wild Bill Wharton prefer to be named after?

Billy the Kid: calling himself Will Bonney, Wharton was hired to help paint the victims' family barn shortly before the crime.

In The Green Mile, how does Wild Bill Wharton fool the guards on his arrival?

He acts dazed and drugged: once the guards lead him onto E Block, he suddenly attacks the guard Dean Stanton and tries to strangle him to death.

In The Green Mile, why does John Coffey refuse the black hood at his execution?

He is afraid of the dark, yet he is ready to die, because he is tired of the cruelty and pain he feels in the world.

In the film of The Green Mile, how does the elderly Paul Edgecomb regard his unnaturally long life?

As a punishment: having outlived everyone he loved, Paul sees his long life as the price of sending John Coffey, a miracle of God, to his death.

In Stephen King's novel The Green Mile, how does Paul's wife Janice die in 1956?

In a bus accident: on the day she dies, Paul believes he glimpses the ghost of John Coffey standing in the shadows near the wreck.

In The Green Mile, which death row inmate was convicted of killing a man in a fight over boots?

Arlen Bitterbuck: as his body is taken away, the guard Percy mocks the dead man to his face, telling him he hopes hell is hot enough for him.

In King's novel The Green Mile, what becomes of the inmate Arthur 'The President' Flanders?

Commuted to life in prison: yet 12 years after John Coffey's execution, he is murdered by another inmate.

Who wrote and directed the 1999 film of Stephen King's novel The Green Mile?

Frank Darabont: at 20, before he had worked a day in films, he wrote to King asking to film one of his short stories, and King let him have the rights for a dollar.

In 2001, which film director criticised The Green Mile's John Coffey as a 'magical Negro' character?

Spike Lee: fresh from his own satire Bamboozled, he asked students why Black characters given such powers only ever use them for the benefit of white people.

Who plays the death row guard Paul Edgecomb in the 1999 film The Green Mile?

Tom Hanks: Stephen King had already pictured him in the role, so the author was delighted when the director cast him as Paul.

Why did Tom Hanks not also play the elderly Paul Edgecomb, as originally planned?

Character actor Dabbs Greer took the part in his final film role, at 82.

Which Armageddon star did Michael Clarke Duncan credit with getting him his audition for The Green Mile?

Bruce Willis: on hearing of the casting call for the role, he contacted the director himself to recommend his Armageddon co-star.

Which basketball star has said he turned down the role of John Coffey in the film The Green Mile?

Shaquille O'Neal: he said he did not want to play a Black prisoner in the old South, then called it the right decision because Michael Clarke Duncan did far better than he could have.

Which actor played the unhinged killer Wild Bill Wharton in the 1999 film The Green Mile?

Sam Rockwell: the film-makers had at one point considered Josh Brolin for the part, before Rockwell took on the violent killer.

Who played the sadistic guard Percy Wetmore in the 1999 film The Green Mile?

Doug Hutchison: his Percy ends up catatonic and locked away in Briar Ridge, the very mental hospital where he had angled for a job.

In The Green Mile, what do the guards name the made-up attraction where Del's pet mouse will supposedly perform?

Mouseville: Brutal invents it to calm Del's worry over who will keep Mr. Jingles, but Percy waits until Del is strapped into the chair to tell him no such place exists.

Barry Pepper, a death row guard in The Green Mile, played which sniper in Saving Private Ryan?

Jackson: the God-fearing marksman is killed along with most of the squad in the film's climactic defence of the bridge at Ramelle.

In the film The Green Mile, which Fred Astaire musical does John Coffey watch as his last request?

Top Hat: the director wanted this musical so badly that he moved the story from the novel's 1932 to 1935, the year of its release.

Who composed the score for the 1999 film The Green Mile?

Thomas Newman: his father Alfred had given John Williams early breaks, and Williams returned the favour by letting young Thomas orchestrate Darth Vader's death scene in Return of the Jedi.

Which film narrowly beat The Green Mile on its opening weekend in December 1999?

Toy Story 2: yet over the full week, The Green Mile came out on top, taking $23.9 million to the Pixar film's $22.1 million.

In The Green Mile, what does Del teach his pet mouse Mr. Jingles to fetch?

A wooden spool: after the mouse vanishes, Paul and Brutal find his old hiding place in the ceiling, littered with coloured splinters of it and smelling of peppermint candy.

What certificate did the BBFC give The Green Mile, despite the distributor asking for a 15?

The BBFC cited 'strong horror' and refused to reconsider, saying giving in would cost it its independence.

Stephen King called the film The Green Mile the first R-rated version of what?

A Hallmark Hall of Fame production: though he found the film a little soft, King said he was delighted with it, being a sentimentalist at heart.

Which TV role is The Green Mile's Dabbs Greer best remembered for?

Reverend Alden on Little House on the Prairie: despite a career spent in supporting parts, he insisted that every character actor, in their own little sphere, is the lead.

In King's novel The Green Mile, at which nursing home does the elderly Paul write down his story?

Georgia Pines: Mr. Jingles, the mouse from death row, is still alive there 64 years later, thanks to the power John Coffey passed into him.

In The Green Mile, what do the guards do with Percy while they smuggle John Coffey out?

Put him in a straitjacket: they lock him in the padded restraint room, telling him to reflect on what he did to Del.

In King's novel The Green Mile, what does Melinda Moores give John Coffey after he heals her?

A St. Christopher necklace: she gives it in gratitude, but the sickness he drew out of her soon leaves John Coffey weak and in terrible pain.

In The Green Mile, where do the guards Paul and Brutus transfer after John Coffey's execution?

Juvenile corrections: after what they had witnessed, neither man felt he could take part in another execution.

In which US state did the 1999 film The Green Mile shoot at an old state prison?

Tennessee: the old Nashville penitentiary, closed since 1992, hosted many film shoots, until a tornado left the building severely damaged in 2020.

In The Green Mile, what nickname do the guards use for the prison's electric chair?

Old Sparky: real prisons in many states used that nickname, but Louisiana, where the film is set, called its chair Gruesome Gertie and hauled it by truck from one parish jail to the next.

In King's novel The Green Mile, which friend at the nursing home reads the elderly Paul's written account?

Elaine: when the nursing home worker Brad Dolan bullies Paul, she threatens to have him fired, using her grandson's political influence.

Before fame, Michael Clarke Duncan, The Green Mile's John Coffey, worked as a bodyguard for which actor?

Will Smith: Duncan quit bodyguard work in 1997, after the rapper The Notorious B.I.G., another star he had protected, was killed.

The actor who played Percy Wetmore in The Green Mile earlier played the killer Eugene Victor Tooms on which series?

The X-Files: the mutant killer squeezes through narrow ducts to take his victims' livers, then hibernates for years at a time.

The Green Mile's writer-director was born in a 1959 refugee camp in France to parents from which country?

Hungary: his parents had fled Budapest when the 1956 revolution failed, and they carried him on to America while he was still an infant.