50 Fun Facts About Magnolia (1999 Film)

Which actor plays the former child champion known as Quiz Kid Donnie Smith in Magnolia?

William H. Macy got the role because the director felt he was scared of big emotional parts and wrote him a tearful one on purpose.

Which star won a Golden Globe for playing charismatic self-help guru Frank T.J. Mackey in Magnolia?

Tom Cruise sought out the director after admiring his previous film, and the rare supporting role also earned him an Oscar nomination.

In Magnolia, which television quiz show pits child prodigies against adults under host Jimmy Gator?

What Do Kids Know? is also the show that made Donnie Smith briefly famous as a boy, decades before the day the film covers.

In Magnolia, what does lovesick former quiz champion Donnie Smith plan to pay for with stolen money?

Dental braces are his way to impress a bartender who wears them, and the scheme ends with his own teeth smashed in a fall.

What does Los Angeles police officer Jim Kurring lose while chasing a suspect in Magnolia?

His gun vanishes during the chase, and after the storm of frogs it simply falls back out of the sky.

Magnolia's rain of frogs echoes a plague from which Bible book, flagged by hidden 8s and 2s?

Exodus 8:2 warns of a plague of frogs, yet the director says he had no idea of the Bible link when he first wrote the scene.

Which singer-songwriter's songs inspired Paul Thomas Anderson to write Magnolia and fill its soundtrack?

Aimee Mann has nine songs on the soundtrack album, and the director described his script as an adaptation of her songs.

In Magnolia, what role does Philip Seymour Hoffman's Phil Parma fill at dying Earl Partridge's bedside?

His nurse spends the day trying to reach the one person the dying man asks for, in a part written to be simple and caring.

How is self-help guru Frank T.J. Mackey related to dying producer Earl Partridge in Magnolia?

His son has shunned him for years, because Earl walked out and left the boy to care for his dying mother alone.

In Magnolia, Henry Gibson's barfly Thurston Howell shares his name with a millionaire from which sitcom?

Gilligan's Island had its own Thurston Howell, a castaway tycoon played by Jim Backus; the film's version needles Donnie Smith at a bar.

In Magnolia, quiz host Jimmy Gator and producer Earl Partridge are both dying of which disease?

Cancer also killed the director's own father, and much of the dying producer's material came from watching that happen.

Which two-time Oscar winner made his final film appearance as dying producer Earl Partridge in Magnolia?

Jason Robards nearly lost the part to a staph infection, and returned to it only after another veteran actor turned it down.

Which actress plays Linda Partridge, the guilt-stricken young wife of a dying producer, in Magnolia?

Julianne Moore had the part written for her, and agreed to go first when the nervous cast filmed its famous sing-along.

Which actor plays Jim Kurring, the lonely Los Angeles police officer looking for love in Magnolia?

John C. Reilly asked for a romantic part after years of playing heavies, and the character grew out of spoof police videos he shot with the director.

Which veteran character actor plays Jimmy Gator, the ailing quiz show host, in Magnolia?

Philip Baker Hall modelled the host on real television personalities such as Bob Barker and Arthur Godfrey.

Which 1997 ensemble hit gave Paul Thomas Anderson the clout to make Magnolia with final cut?

Boogie Nights was still being edited when he began jotting down ideas for the next film, first imagined as a small 30-day shoot.

In which part of the Los Angeles area do Magnolia's interlocking stories unfold?

San Fernando Valley was the point: the director said he wanted to make the area's all-time great epic movie.

During a quiz show taping in Magnolia, what do the adults refuse boy genius Stanley Spector?

A bathroom break is denied during the commercials, so he wets himself once the cameras roll again and later runs away.

In Magnolia, who took all the prize money Donnie Smith won as a child quiz champion?

His parents kept every dollar, one of several threads in the film about adults who exploit or fail their children.

Magnolia's closing song lost the Best Original Song Oscar to a number from which animated film?

Tarzan won with Phil Collins's You'll Be in My Heart, on a night when Magnolia left empty-handed despite three nominations.

Which song do Magnolia's scattered characters all sing along to in one celebrated sequence?

Wise Up was first recorded for an earlier film, and several nervous actors only sang after one of the leads agreed to go first.

Which Oscar-nominated song was written for Magnolia and plays over the film's ending?

Save Me got a music video shot on the film's own sets, with cast members asked to stay in place at the end of filming days.

Which British band's hits Goodbye Stranger and The Logical Song both feature in Magnolia?

Supertramp is the only band on the soundtrack album, which is otherwise the work of solo singers and the film's composer.

After the three-hour Magnolia, which far shorter Adam Sandler film did Paul Thomas Anderson make next?

Punch-Drunk Love was a deliberate reaction: he vowed to keep his next film to about 90 minutes and wrote it for Sandler.

Which Chicago critic gave Magnolia four stars and later added it to his Great Movies list?

Roger Ebert ranked it his second favourite film of 1999, behind Being John Malkovich, and came back to praise it again in a 2008 essay.

Magnolia's Frank Mackey actor first met Paul Thomas Anderson on the set of which Stanley Kubrick film?

Eyes Wide Shut had the star playing a repressed man, which the director believes made an outlandish, larger-than-life role appealing next.

Paul Thomas Anderson's Magnolia won the top prize at which major European film festival?

Berlin gave the film its Golden Bear at the festival's 50th edition, where a newspaper's reader jury also chose it as its winner.

Magnolia ends on which character glancing into the camera and smiling as a suitor talks?

Claudia Wilson smiles as Jim Kurring promises to make things work, and that smiling face was the first image the director had for the film.

In Magnolia, what does Donnie Smith climb while trying to return the money he stole?

A utility pole is his route to the roof because, after a change of heart, he finds he can no longer get back into the office.

Magnolia lost the Best Original Screenplay Oscar to which film that also won Best Picture that night?

American Beauty won for writer Alan Ball, beating a field of nominees that included Paul Thomas Anderson's script.

In Magnolia, what do the seminars run by motivational speaker Frank T.J. Mackey teach men?

Picking up women is his whole pitch, and much of his patter came from a tape of real seduction talk that the director transcribed.

In Magnolia, what brings police officer Jim Kurring to the apartment of the woman he then asks out?

A noise complaint follows her screaming row with her father and some very loud music, yet the smitten officer misses every sign of drug use.

Which actor beat Magnolia's Frank Mackey star to the Best Supporting Actor Oscar that year?

Michael Caine won for playing Dr. Wilbur Larch in The Cider House Rules, one of two awards that film took home.

What does Linda Partridge ask her dying husband's lawyer to change in Magnolia?

His will leaves her a fortune she no longer wants, because she married for money and then truly fell in love with him.

On a disturbance call in Magnolia, what does officer Jim Kurring find hidden in a woman's closet?

A dead body turns up in the closet, and a neighbourhood boy named Dixon then tries to tell him who the killer is.

Which renowned sleight-of-hand magician narrates the opening tales of coincidence in Magnolia?

Ricky Jay also plays a small on-screen role, and a book he wrote lies open in front of the young quiz contestant Stanley.

Magnolia's sprawling Los Angeles ensemble is often compared to which 1993 Robert Altman film?

Short Cuts also braids many Los Angeles lives together across roughly three hours, and the two films even share a leading actress.

Which Paul Thomas Anderson regular appears in Magnolia as a character who shares his own first name?

Luis Guzmán is credited simply as Luis, in the middle film of three he made with the director in five years.

Which studio granted Paul Thomas Anderson final cut on Magnolia before hearing any idea for the film?

New Line Cinema's production chief Michael De Luca made the deal blind, though studio and director later clashed over the poster and trailer.

Before he directed films, Paul Thomas Anderson held which job that he later worked into Magnolia?

Game show assistant was his job on a 1990 series that pitted teams of schoolchildren against adults, much like the film's fictional quiz.

Which actress plays Jimmy Gator's estranged, drug-addicted daughter in Paul Thomas Anderson's Magnolia?

Melora Walters had worked with the director since his 1996 debut feature, and a Variety critic called her performance here superlative.

Which American singer-songwriter wrote One, the song heard in a cover version as Magnolia opens?

Harry Nilsson released it in 1968, and the cover used in the film was first recorded for a 1995 tribute album to him.

Which composer wrote the score for Magnolia and earned a Grammy nomination for its album?

Jon Brion had already scored the director's debut feature, and went on to write the music for Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind.

Paul Thomas Anderson has said Magnolia is structured somewhat like which Beatles song?

A Day in the Life builds up note by note, drops away, then builds again, which is how he described the shape of the film.

The song Magnolia's cast sings together was first recorded for which 1996 film?

Jerry Maguire's director found the finished recording too big for its airport scene, and called leaving it out of the film heartbreaking.

Which British singer's hit Dreams does Donnie Smith play over and over for motivation in Magnolia?

Gabrielle took the song to number one in Britain in 1993, six years before the film turned it into a failed prodigy's pep talk.

Which young actor plays Stanley Spector, the child prodigy on the quiz show in Magnolia?

Jeremy Blackman was eleven when he made the film, and later sang lead for an indie electronic band called Pink Drink.

Which chronicler of unexplained events, thanked in Magnolia's end credits, inspired its rain of frogs?

Charles Fort filled his books with reports of frogs and fish falling from the sky, and one of them sits on a library table in the film.

Which veteran star declined a part in Magnolia after working with its director on his previous film?

Burt Reynolds said no even though their earlier collaboration had revived his career and brought him an Oscar nomination.

Which revered European director cited Magnolia as an example of the strength of American cinema?

Ingmar Bergman singled the film out in an interview with Jan Aghed, notable praise from the maker of The Seventh Seal.