50 Fun Facts About John Grisham

Which actor played young lawyer Mitch McDeere in the 1993 film of John Grisham's The Firm?

Tom Cruise signed on after the producers pitched him on the set of A Few Good Men. The Firm became the highest-grossing film made from a Grisham novel.

In John Grisham's The Pelican Brief, Darby Shaw's theory explains the assassination of two people holding which job?

Supreme Court justices Rosenberg and Jensen are the victims, and Shaw's brief blames an oil tycoon who wants to drill on marshland that shelters an endangered pelican.

Before law and bestselling novels, John Grisham dreamed as a boy of a professional career in which sport?

Baseball was his dream until he was 18, when a pitcher's beanball narrowly missed him and he quit. He later built a youth ballpark complex.

In John Grisham's Skipping Christmas, Luther and Nora Krank boycott the holidays after Blair Krank leaves to join what?

The Peace Corps sends Blair to Peru for a year, so Luther proposes swapping the holiday for ten days in the Caribbean. Tim Allen played him in Christmas with the Kranks.

Which actor played lawyer Jake Brigance in the 1996 film of John Grisham's first novel, A Time to Kill?

Matthew McConaughey was Grisham's pick: the author had casting approval and vetoed the director's first choice, Woody Harrelson. The role won an MTV breakthrough award.

In John Grisham's Rogue Lawyer, what does unconventional defense attorney Sebastian Rudd use as his law office?

A bulletproof van is his office, complete with Wi-Fi, a bar and leather chairs. His only employee is the heavily armed driver, who doubles as his bodyguard.

Which actress played law student Darby Shaw in the 1993 film of John Grisham's The Pelican Brief?

Julia Roberts ended a yearlong break from acting to take the part, and prepared by sitting in on law classes at Tulane University.

In John Grisham's The Firm, Mitch McDeere discovers that his generous new employer is secretly a front for whom?

A Chicago crime family, the Moroltos, launders money through the firm. Two colleagues die in a diving accident just days before Mitch starts work.

While practicing law and writing his first novel in the 1980s, John Grisham held which elected office?

State legislator was his role for seven years as a Mississippi Democrat. Bored with the routine of the capital, he gave up the seat in 1990.

In John Grisham's A Time to Kill, Jake Brigance defends Carl Lee Hailey, a father on trial for what?

Shooting his daughter's attackers at the courthouse is never in dispute, so Brigance argues insanity while the National Guard patrols the town.

John Grisham, long associated with Mississippi, was actually born in Jonesboro, a city in which neighboring state?

Arkansas was home only until he was four, when the Grishams settled in Southaven, Mississippi. His father worked construction and farmed cotton.

Jake Brigance practices law in which fictional Mississippi town, the setting of John Grisham's A Time to Kill?

Clanton became Grisham's home base on the page: he returned to it in The Last Juror, The Summons and The Reckoning.

Which John Grisham novel, filmed by the director of The Godfather with Matt Damon, follows rookie lawyer Rudy Baylor?

The Rainmaker pits Baylor, fresh out of law school, against an insurer that refused to pay for a dying young man's bone marrow transplant.

In John Grisham's The Firm, the law firm Bendini, Lambert & Locke has its offices in which Southern city?

Memphis also hosted most of the 1993 film's shoot, including a chase scene on a city monorail.

Which actress earned an Oscar nomination as lawyer Reggie Love in the 1994 film of John Grisham's The Client?

Susan Sarandon missed the Oscar but won the BAFTA for the role, opposite a young Brad Renfro, who was making his film debut.

Which John Grisham novel put a tobacco company on trial, though its 2003 film version switched to a gun maker?

The Runaway Jury lost its tobacco target on screen because The Insider had already told a similar story, so the widow in the film sues a firearms company instead.

Which 13-year-old hero of John Grisham's series for young readers hands out legal advice to his classmates?

Theodore Boone, the son of two lawyers, was inspired by Grisham's own child Shea, and the series opened with Kid Lawyer in 2010.

Which actor played Carl Lee Hailey, the father on trial, in the 1996 film of John Grisham's A Time to Kill?

Samuel L. Jackson earned a Golden Globe nomination for the role, in a cast that also gave Octavia Spencer her film debut.

Which John Grisham book, his first work of nonfiction, tells the true story of Ron Williamson of Ada, Oklahoma?

The Innocent Man follows Williamson through 11 years on death row until DNA evidence cleared him in 1999. Netflix made it a documentary series in 2018.

John Grisham won the first legal fiction prize named for which novelist, a former University of Alabama law student?

Harper Lee signed the copy of To Kill a Mockingbird that Grisham received as his prize for The Confession, a novel about a last-ditch death-row appeal.

Which John Grisham novel, his first big step outside legal thrillers, is set on a 1950s cotton farm?

A Painted House is told by seven-year-old Luke Chandler and draws on Grisham's own rural childhood. It first ran in installments in a magazine.

Which John Grisham novel opens with thieves stealing F. Scott Fitzgerald's manuscripts from Princeton's library?

Camino Island follows the trail of the stolen papers to a Florida resort town. Grisham and his wife hatched the plot on a long road trip.

Which John Grisham novel follows young lawyer Adam Hall as he fights to save his Klansman grandfather from execution?

The Chamber is named for the Mississippi gas chamber awaiting Sam Cayhall, who was played by Gene Hackman in the 1996 film.

Which John Grisham novel sends lawyer Nate O'Riley into Brazil's Pantanal to find missionary Rachel Lane?

The Testament begins when billionaire Troy Phelan signs a handwritten will, leaps from a balcony and leaves his fortune to one heir instead of his six children.

Which 2013 John Grisham novel brought back lawyer Jake Brigance, 24 years after A Time to Kill?

Sycamore Row has Brigance defending the handwritten will of a dying man who hanged himself and left 90 percent of his estate to his housekeeper.

Which 2023 John Grisham novel is a sequel to The Firm, catching up with Mitch McDeere fifteen years later?

The Exchange finds McDeere a partner at the world's largest law firm in Manhattan, where a lawsuit against the Libyan government pulls him back into danger.

In John Grisham's The Client, what secret does 11-year-old Mark Sway learn from a mob lawyer just before the man dies?

A murdered senator's burial place makes Mark a target for the mob and the FBI alike, so he hires Reggie Love for a token fee of one dollar.

John Grisham joined the board of which organization that uses DNA testing to clear wrongly convicted prisoners?

The Innocence Project was founded in 1992 by lawyers Barry Scheck and Peter Neufeld, and Grisham has testified before Congress on its behalf.

In John Grisham's The Firm, Mitch McDeere is recruited after finishing third in his class at which law school?

Harvard made McDeere a prize recruit, yet he picks a small tax firm that dangles a large salary, a new car and a low-interest mortgage.

Planning a career as a tax lawyer, John Grisham earned a Mississippi State University degree in which subject?

Accounting replaced his first major, economics, and the tax plan faded too: in law school his interest shifted to trial work.

Which John Grisham novel features three jailed former judges running a blackmail scam from a Florida federal prison?

The Brethren unknowingly hook a closeted congressman whom the CIA director is steering toward the presidency, and the agency scrambles to silence them.

Which John Grisham novel follows a teenage basketball player from South Sudan who wins a US college scholarship?

Sooley is the nickname of a teenager who lands at North Carolina Central after rebel troops ransack his village back home.

John Grisham's first short-story collection, published in 2009, is named after which fictional Mississippi setting?

Ford County is also home to Jake Brigance, and the collection's seven stories include Blood Drive, Fish Files and Quiet Haven.

Which Robert Altman thriller starring Kenneth Branagh grew from a John Grisham story never published as a novel?

The Gingerbread Man began as a manuscript Grisham had discarded. Branagh agreed to star only if a highly regarded director signed on too.

In John Grisham's The Whistler, Lacy Stoltz exposes a Florida judge taking bribes from a mob that skims money from what?

A tribal casino run by the Tappacola Nation serves as the mob's front for almost two decades, and the judge ends up with 25 years in prison.

In John Grisham's The Judge's List, investigator Lacy Stoltz suspects sitting judge Ross Bannick of being what?

A serial killer with a list of everyone who ever wronged him, Bannick is exposed by Jeri Crosby, whose father was among his victims 20 years earlier.

In John Grisham's The Broker, the CIA hides a freshly pardoned lobbyist under a new name in which Italian city?

Bologna is a trap: the CIA plans to sit back and see who kills Backman, hoping to learn who built a mysterious spy satellite system.

Which Gulf Coast city names John Grisham's 2022 saga of two boyhood friends on opposite sides of the law?

Biloxi sets Keith Rudy, who follows his father into prosecuting, against Hugh Malco, whose father runs the city's criminal underground.

In John Grisham's Playing for Pizza, third-string NFL quarterback Rick Dockery joins the Panthers of which Italian city?

Parma's Panthers pay Dockery a pittance after he throws three interceptions in 11 minutes for Cleveland and becomes unemployable at home.

The idea for John Grisham's first novel came in 1984 when he sat in on what at a Mississippi courthouse?

A girl's harrowing testimony so moved him that he began writing at five each morning before work, and the book took three years to finish.

Which actor played the investigative reporter who helps Darby Shaw in the 1993 film of John Grisham's The Pelican Brief?

Denzel Washington's thriller was screened privately for President Bill Clinton a week before its release, with Grisham in the audience.

Which director filmed two John Grisham novels in the 1990s, The Client and then A Time to Kill?

Joel Schumacher shot them either side of Batman Forever, and Roger Ebert called A Time to Kill the best film version of a Grisham novel.

Which Hollywood studio bought the film rights to John Grisham's The Firm before the manuscript had a publisher?

Paramount's offer came as a total surprise to Grisham: the story existed only as a manuscript, with no book deal in sight.

In John Grisham's The Street Lawyer, Michael Brock quits his big law firm to become an advocate for whom?

The homeless become Brock's cause after he is taken hostage and then discovers that his own firm illegally evicted tenants in the middle of winter.

Which Southern literary magazine did John Grisham revive with fresh financing in 1995, later serializing a novel in it?

Oxford American had stopped publishing when Grisham, who lived in the Mississippi town it is named for, secured the money to bring it back.

John Grisham's The Confession races to stop the execution of a wrongly condemned man on death row in which state?

Texas is only a week from executing Donte Drumm when the real culprit, Travis Boyette, finally decides to confess.

In John Grisham's A Time for Mercy, Jake Brigance defends teenager Drew Gamble, who has killed a man in which job?

A sheriff's deputy, Stuart Kofer had beaten Drew's mother unconscious that night, and Brigance is assigned a case that could send a boy to death row.

Which actress played law student Ellen Roark on Jake Brigance's defense team in John Grisham's A Time to Kill?

Sandra Bullock was paid $6 million for just five weeks of work on the 1996 film.

In John Grisham's The Last Juror, 23-year-old dropout Willie Traynor borrows from his grandmother to buy what?

The local newspaper costs him $50,000 after its aging editor drives it into bankruptcy, and Traynor becomes its owner and editor at 23.

In John Grisham's The King of Torts, which job does Clay Carter quit when a drug company's fixer offers him a fortune?

Public defender Clay Carter resigns to arrange secret payoffs for the drug maker, then recklessly burns through his new fortune chasing bigger lawsuits.