50 Fun Facts About Million Dollar Baby

Million Dollar Baby won Clint Eastwood his second Best Director Oscar; which of his westerns had won him the first?

Unforgiven. His mother sat in the audience both times: "She was only 84 then," he told the 2005 ceremony, before thanking her, at 96, for her genes.

Million Dollar Baby brought Hilary Swank her second Best Actress Oscar; which film had won her the first?

Boys Don't Cry. Accepting that first Oscar she forgot to thank her husband, so in 2005 she thanked him first, saying she liked to think she learned from past mistakes.

Who plays Eddie 'Scrap-Iron' Dupris in Million Dollar Baby?

Morgan Freeman. The part won him his first Oscar after three losing nominations, and he narrates the whole story, just as he had in The Shawshank Redemption.

What is the name of Frankie Dunn's boxing gym in Million Dollar Baby?

The Hit Pit. Scrap lives in a room at the gym and keeps it clean, and he lets Maggie go on training there after closing time.

What job does Maggie Fitzgerald have when she first turns up at Frankie's gym in Million Dollar Baby?

Waitress. She has waited tables since she was 13, and she eats customers' leftovers so she can pay six months of gym dues in advance.

Why does Frankie first turn Maggie away in Million Dollar Baby?

He doesn't train girls, he tells her, adding that "tough ain't enough" and that at 31 she is too old to start. She wins him over by simply refusing to leave.

Which fighter leaves Frankie for rival manager Mickey Mack in Million Dollar Baby?

'Big Willie' Little. Tired of Frankie turning down title shots, he signs with Mack and wins the championship, and only then does Frankie agree to take on Maggie.

What Gaelic nickname does Frankie have embroidered on Maggie's robe in Million Dollar Baby?

Mo Cuishle. Crowds across Europe take the words up as a chant at her fights, while Frankie teasingly refuses to tell her what they mean.

In Million Dollar Baby, what does Frankie finally tell Maggie that the nickname on her robe means?

"My darling, my blood" is how Frankie puts it, moments before he grants her wish to die. The Irish phrase behind it, a chuisle mo chroí, literally means "pulse of my heart".

What does Maggie buy her mother with her boxing winnings in Million Dollar Baby?

A house. Her mother is angry rather than grateful: she complains that it will cost her her welfare checks and tells Maggie that people back home laugh at her.

Where does Maggie's $1 million title fight take place in Million Dollar Baby?

Las Vegas. Frankie had turned the same fight down once already, without even telling Maggie; the champion was known as the dirtiest fighter in the ranks.

What is the ring name of the champion Maggie fights for the world title in Million Dollar Baby?

The Blue Bear. Billie Osterman, a former prostitute from East Berlin, is known as the dirtiest fighter in the ranks, and she fouls Maggie through the first two rounds.

Which real-life Dutch boxer and kickboxer plays Billie Osterman in Million Dollar Baby?

Lucia Rijker. Billed in the press as the most dangerous woman in the world, she was also one of the film's boxing advisers and sparred with Hilary Swank herself.

How is Maggie paralysed during her title fight in Million Dollar Baby?

A punch after the bell. The champion hits her from behind as she turns for her corner, and Maggie falls onto the stool set out for the break and breaks her neck.

What do Maggie's family do before visiting her in hospital in Million Dollar Baby?

Tour Disneyland and Universal Studios. Frankie learns they have been in town a week "visiting Woody and Mickey" and tells them to go and change before she sees them.

How does the paralysed Maggie try to end her own life in Million Dollar Baby?

She bites her tongue, hoping to bleed to death. When doctors stitch it she tears the stitches out, so they pad her tongue and sedate her.

What does Frankie inject to end Maggie's life in Million Dollar Baby?

Adrenaline. Scrap's narration says the single shot held enough to do the job a few times over, because Frankie didn't want her going through this again.

Million Dollar Baby's narration turns out to be a letter from Scrap to whom?

Frankie's daughter. Katie has sent back every letter her father wrote, marked "Return to sender", so Scrap writes to tell her what kind of man he really was.

Which Irish poet does Frankie read throughout Million Dollar Baby, and recite to Maggie in hospital?

W. B. Yeats. Frankie makes a show of translating "The Lake Isle of Innisfree" from the Gaelic for her, although Yeats wrote his poems in English.

Which future Marvel star plays boxer Shawrelle Berry in Million Dollar Baby?

Anthony Mackie. His Shawrelle is the gym bully, who batters the harmless Danger in the ring and is promptly knocked out for it by Scrap.

Who plays 'Danger' Barch, the would-be boxer, in Million Dollar Baby?

Jay Baruchel. After the gym bully beats him bloody, Scrap tells Danger that anybody can lose one fight, and in the last scene he walks back in repeating the line.

Who plays Maggie's selfish mother Earline in Million Dollar Baby?

Margo Martindale. Her Earline tells Maggie to find a man and live proper, because people back home hear about her boxing and laugh.

Who wrote the screenplay for Million Dollar Baby?

Paul Haggis. A television writer just fired from a show he had created, he wrote the script on spec, with no studio attached, and earned an Oscar nomination for it.

Million Dollar Baby is adapted from which book?

Rope Burns: Stories from the Corner. Its author was about 70 when the collection, his first book, came out in 2000 after years of rejection slips.

Like Frankie Dunn, the author of the book behind Million Dollar Baby spent years in boxing doing which job?

Cutman. Jerry Boyd, who wrote as F.X. Toole, spent more than twenty years stopping fighters' bleeding between rounds, and he died in 2002, before the film was made.

In Million Dollar Baby, what does Frankie tell Maggie "the rule" is?

Always protect yourself. Asked for the rule, Maggie first guesses "Keep my left up", and after her injury she blames herself for having forgotten it.

Million Dollar Baby producer Albert S. Ruddy had won his first Best Picture Oscar three decades earlier for which film?

The Godfather. Clint Eastwood was the presenter who handed Ruddy that Oscar in 1973, and 32 years later the two of them collected Best Picture together.

Why does Frankie have to pay rival managers to give Maggie fights early in her career in Million Dollar Baby?

She knocks everyone out, usually in the first round, so no manager will risk a fighter against her. In the end Frankie has to move her up a weight class.

When Maggie's nose is broken mid-fight in Million Dollar Baby, what does Frankie do?

Snaps it back into place. He warns her she has about twenty seconds before the bleeding starts again, so Maggie goes straight out and ends the fight.

Which Brooklyn gym trained Hilary Swank for Million Dollar Baby?

Gleason's Gym. Swank rode the subway there six days a week, went from half a pull-up to eleven, and thanked "everyone at Gleason's" from the Oscar stage.

What did Hilary Swank hide from Clint Eastwood while training for Million Dollar Baby?

A dangerous staph infection. A blister on her foot became infected within 48 hours, but she kept quiet, reasoning that boxers get injured and keep pushing through it.

In Million Dollar Baby, Maggie asks Frankie to do for her what her father once did for which animal?

His German shepherd, Axel. When the dog could no longer walk, her father carried him to the truck and drove into the woods, and came home alone with a shovel in the back.

Who beat Million Dollar Baby's Clint Eastwood to Best Actor?

Jamie Foxx, who won for playing Ray Charles in Ray. Foxx was up for two acting Oscars that night and lost the other one, for a supporting role, to Million Dollar Baby.

Clint Eastwood's Best Director win for Million Dollar Baby handed which filmmaker his fifth defeat in the category?

Martin Scorsese. Eastwood, at 74 the oldest winner the category had seen, kept him waiting two more years, until The Departed finally brought Scorsese the award.

Which film led the field with eleven nominations at the Oscars where Million Dollar Baby won Best Picture?

The Aviator. It also took home the most statuettes that night, five, yet lost both Best Picture and Best Director to Million Dollar Baby.

Who hosted the 2005 Oscar ceremony at which Million Dollar Baby won Best Picture?

Chris Rock. It was his first time as host, and producer Gil Cates said he chose him simply because "he just makes me laugh", not to chase younger viewers.

Hilary Swank's Million Dollar Baby win made her two-for-two as a Best Actress nominee, like which earlier star?

Vivien Leigh. Only a handful of actresses had gone two for two, and on stage Swank called herself "just a girl from a trailer park who had a dream".

Which group protested against the ending of Million Dollar Baby in early 2005?

Disability rights activists. Groups such as Not Dead Yet picketed cinemas, arguing that the ending treated a life with paralysis as one not worth living.

Which critic called Million Dollar Baby 'a masterpiece, pure and simple' and named it the best film of 2004?

Roger Ebert. His four-star review refused to say where the story goes, because he would not spoil "the deepest secrets of life and death".

Which film beat Million Dollar Baby to the Oscar for Best Adapted Screenplay?

Sideways. Its co-writer Alexander Payne was also nominated for Best Director that night, where he in turn lost to Million Dollar Baby.

Maggie Fitzgerald, the heroine of Million Dollar Baby, comes from which American region?

The Ozarks. Maggie says that if boxing fails she may as well go home to the Missouri hills, find a used trailer and buy a deep fryer and some Oreos.

Mike Colter, who plays Big Willie in Million Dollar Baby, later starred as which Marvel hero?

Luke Cage. In the film Colter's Big Willie fights his way to a world title; a decade later the actor became Marvel's hero with unbreakable skin in Jessica Jones and Luke Cage.

Maggie's relatives finally arrive at the hospital in Million Dollar Baby accompanied by whom?

A lawyer. They want her to sign her assets over to them, and Maggie, holding the pen in her mouth, lets it drop and orders them all out.

The screenwriter of Million Dollar Baby directed which film to the Best Picture Oscar the next year?

Crash. He had written both scripts on spec after losing his television job, so two unsold screenplays ended up as consecutive Best Picture winners.

What did Scrap's final fight cost him, something Frankie still blames himself for in Million Dollar Baby?

The sight in one eye. Frankie was in his corner that night and urged him to quit; 23 years on, he still thinks he should have stopped the fight.

In Million Dollar Baby, Maggie beats the British champion in which city, where the crowd first chants her nickname?

London. She walks out in the green silk robe Frankie has just given her, and the Irish fans in the crowd take up the Gaelic words on its back as a chant.

Which dessert does Frankie Dunn crave throughout Million Dollar Baby, as long as it's homemade?

Lemon meringue pie. Maggie takes him to a roadside diner she used to visit with her father, and after one bite Frankie says he can die and go to heaven.

What becomes of Frankie after he helps Maggie die at the end of Million Dollar Baby?

He vanishes without a word. Scrap waits at the gym, but Frankie never comes back and leaves no note, and Scrap can only hope he has found some peace.

Frankie Dunn's rundown boxing gym in Million Dollar Baby is in which city?

Los Angeles. The story ends there too: after her injury Frankie has Maggie moved to a rehabilitation centre in the city and sits with her every day.

Besides directing, co-producing and starring, what else did Clint Eastwood do on Million Dollar Baby?

Composed the score. His music earned a Golden Globe nomination, and one leading critic praised it as a score that "always does what is required and never distracts".