50 Fun Facts About Owen Wilson

Owen Wilson voices which red race car, the cocky rookie hero of Pixar's Cars films?

Lightning McQueen is named not for Steve McQueen, as many assume, but for Pixar animator Glenn McQueen, who died in 2002.

Which director was Owen Wilson's college roommate in Texas and co-writer of his first three scripts?

Wes Anderson kept casting him long after the pair stopped writing together, in films from The Darjeeling Limited to The French Dispatch.

In 2018, hundreds of fans gathered in which Australian city to say "wow" in unison like Owen Wilson?

Melbourne's Federation Square hosted the mass "wow", and a copycat event was soon planned in front of Toronto's CN Tower.

Which part of his face did Owen Wilson break twice as a teenager, once in a high school fight?

His nose took the second break in a football game with friends, and he has joked that it probably would not have been anything special anyway.

Which actor was Owen Wilson's partner in Wedding Crashers and again in The Internship?

Vince Vaughn also co-wrote and produced The Internship, an idea he had after watching a 60 Minutes segment on a tech firm's work culture.

In Zoolander, Owen Wilson plays which rising star who unseats Derek as the top male model?

Hansel humiliates Derek in a runway walk-off, a scene in which Wilson's real brother Andrew plays his corner man.

Which martial arts star plays the imperial guard opposite Owen Wilson's outlaw in Shanghai Noon?

Jackie Chan's guard is named Chon Wang, a deliberate sound-alike for the Western star John Wayne.

In Marvel's Loki, Owen Wilson plays which agent, an investigator of dangerous time criminals?

Mobius is based in the comics on Mark Gruenwald, a longtime Marvel writer, and his fellow managers were drawn as lookalike clones.

Which nickname did the press give the comedy circle of Owen Wilson, Will Ferrell and Jack Black?

The Frat Pack label spread after a USA Today story in 2004; Entertainment Weekly had been calling the same actors the Slacker Pack.

In Around the World in 80 Days, Owen Wilson and his brother Luke make a cameo as which pair of inventors?

The Wright brothers are met testing a prototype flying machine, Owen as Wilbur and Luke as Orville, and their plans later help the hero finish his journey.

Owen Wilson was born in which Texas city, the hometown he shares with two actor brothers?

Dallas was home to all three Wilson boys, whose father worked in advertising and ran a public television station.

Owen Wilson's mother, Laura Wilson, made her name in which art form, publishing books on the American West?

Photography became her career in 1979, when Richard Avedon hired her to assist on In the American West; she travelled with him for six years finding subjects.

Which actress played Owen Wilson's love interest in Wedding Crashers and his fiancée in Midnight in Paris?

Rachel McAdams was the last lead cast in Wedding Crashers, chosen after the director auditioned more than 200 actresses for the part.

Which actor plays the Treasury Secretary and father of the bride in Owen Wilson's comedy Wedding Crashers?

Christopher Walken was the director's choice for Secretary Cleary; the studio had pushed for a more comedic name such as Burt Reynolds.

In Pixar's Cars, the race car voiced by Owen Wilson is stranded in which forgotten Route 66 town?

Radiator Springs boomed until an interstate bypassed it, and the stranded racer has to repave its main road before he is allowed to leave.

Which screen legend's last non-documentary film role was voicing the mentor of Owen Wilson's race car in Cars?

Paul Newman's Doc hides three Piston Cup trophies in his garage; the part was the actor's last non-documentary film role before he retired in 2007.

In Night at the Museum, Owen Wilson's Jedediah is a tiny diorama figure who comes to life as what?

A cowboy from the American frontier display, he feuds with Steve Coogan's miniature Roman general Octavius; Wilson took the part without a screen credit in the first film.

In Marley & Me, Owen Wilson's newspaper columnist adopts an unruly puppy of which dog breed?

Labrador retriever Marley ages 14 years across the story, so the production used 22 different yellow dogs to play him.

In Midnight in Paris, which novelist offers to show Gertrude Stein the novel by Owen Wilson's character?

Ernest Hemingway, played by Corey Stoll, makes the offer in a 1920s café; the film's time-travel scenes echo his Paris memoir A Moveable Feast.

In The Internship, Owen Wilson plays a laid-off salesman competing for a job at which tech company?

Google let the crew film at its real headquarters for five days, though Georgia Tech's campus doubled for the Googleplex in most scenes.

In the family drama Wonder, which actress plays the wife of Owen Wilson's character and mother of Auggie?

Julia Roberts and Wilson play Isabel and Nate Pullman in the adaptation of R. J. Palacio's novel, with Jacob Tremblay as their son.

Which actor plays the admiral trying to rescue Owen Wilson's downed airman in Behind Enemy Lines?

Gene Hackman reportedly noticed Wilson in the comedy Shanghai Noon and recommended him for the lead in the war film.

In which disaster film does Owen Wilson play Oscar, a geologist on the oil-drilling crew sent into space?

Armageddon gives him an early exit: his shuttle is struck by debris and crashes on its approach, killing most of those aboard.

Which rapper plays the informant Huggy Bear opposite Owen Wilson in the film of Starsky & Hutch?

Snoop Dogg's Huggy Bear is an underworld boss in this version, grudgingly going undercover to help the two detectives crack a drug case.

Which actor co-wrote The Darjeeling Limited and stars in it as a brother of Owen Wilson's character?

Jason Schwartzman shares the script credit with Roman Coppola and the director, and also leads Hotel Chevalier, the short that acts as the film's prologue.

Which actor plays the oceanographer who may be the father of Owen Wilson's character in The Life Aquatic?

Bill Murray's Zissou is both a parody of and a tribute to the French diving pioneer Jacques Cousteau, to whom the film is dedicated.

In Loki, Owen Wilson's agent learns his original-timeline self, Don, makes a living selling which vehicles?

Jet skis are Don's trade: the season two episode Science/Fiction shows him as a single father of two, and he returns in the series finale.

Which rock star plays himself as judge of the walk-off with Owen Wilson's character in Zoolander?

David Bowie filmed the cameo in September 2000, and his entrance comes with a freeze-frame and a burst of his own 1983 hit Let's Dance.

Shanghai Knights sends Owen Wilson's outlaw Roy O'Bannon across the Atlantic to which Victorian city?

London lets the sequel fold in a young pickpocket who turns out to be Charlie Chaplin and a Scotland Yard inspector named Artie Doyle.

In Drillbit Taylor, three high schoolers hire Owen Wilson's homeless drifter to do which job?

Bodyguard is a stretch: Drillbit poses as a martial arts expert and mercenary while secretly planning to rob the boys and buy a ticket to Canada.

In The Big Year, Owen Wilson, Steve Martin and Jack Black play rivals competing in which hobby?

Birdwatching's Big Year is a race to identify the most species in North America in one calendar year; Wilson plays the record holder, roofing contractor Kenny Bostick.

Owen Wilson fronted a £20 million British advertising campaign for a retailer of which product?

Sofas from the chain Sofology were the pitch, and the Hollywood star returned for a second run of adverts two years after the first.

Which actor took over the agent role in Tropic Thunder that Owen Wilson had originally been cast to play?

Matthew McConaughey stepped in as agent Rick Peck after Tom Cruise gave up the part to play a studio boss instead and Wilson, cast next, dropped out of the film.

In the streaming comedy series Stick, Owen Wilson plays a washed-up former professional in which sport?

Golf is all his character Pryce Cahill has left: now a club salesman and coach, he stakes his comeback on mentoring a 17-year-old prodigy.

Which filmmaker cast Owen Wilson as a screenwriter who slips into the 1920s in Midnight in Paris?

Woody Allen saw the fantasy take more than $150 million worldwide on a $17 million budget, and it brought Wilson a Golden Globe nomination for the lead.

Which actress played Owen Wilson's wife in Marley & Me and co-starred with him again in She's Funny That Way?

Jennifer Aniston plays Jenny Grogan in the adaptation of John Grogan's best-selling memoir; the pair later reunited for director Peter Bogdanovich.

Owen Wilson co-wrote which school comedy but appears in it only briefly, in a photograph?

Rushmore was meant, its writers said, to have a slightly heightened reality, like a Roald Dahl children's book.

In which film does Owen Wilson play Eli Cash, a novelist who grew up next door to a family of prodigies?

The Royal Tenenbaums makes him the best friend of faded tennis player Richie, a part played by his real brother Luke.

Owen Wilson's only Academy Award nomination, shared with his college roommate, came in which category?

Best Original Screenplay is his one Oscar nod; as an actor, his nominations have come from the Golden Globes and the Screen Actors Guild instead.

In Meet the Parents, Owen Wilson's Kevin, Pam's wealthy ex-fiancé, builds what for her sister's big day?

An altar built by hand is the carpenter-investor's gift, until Greg drops a cigarette while chasing the family cat on the roof and sets it on fire.

In the animated time-travel comedy Free Birds, Owen Wilson voices Reggie, who is what kind of bird?

A turkey pardoned by the US president, Reggie is dragged back to the first Thanksgiving on a mission to take his kind off the holiday menu.

Which former James Bond actor helps Owen Wilson's on-screen family flee a coup in the thriller No Escape?

Pierce Brosnan plays Hammond, a British traveller implied to be a government operative; the film was first announced under the title The Coup.

Owen Wilson was expelled from high school as a teenager for cheating in which math subject?

Geometry was the class; he finished at a military school instead and later studied English at university, leaving without a degree.

Owen Wilson attended a military institute in which state after being expelled from his high school?

New Mexico Military Institute, in Roswell, also counts hotel founder Conrad Hilton and football star Roger Staubach among its former cadets.

Which singer acted opposite then-boyfriend Owen Wilson in the 1999 thriller The Minus Man?

Sheryl Crow plays an ill-fated drifter in the film, while Wilson, better known for comedies, stars as a serial killer.

Which actress plays the newlywed wife who takes in Owen Wilson's jobless best man in You, Me and Dupree?

Kate Hudson's comedy drew a tongue-in-cheek letter from Steely Dan, who complained that its houseguest took his name from their song Cousin Dupree.

Which actor has starred alongside Owen Wilson in Zoolander, Starsky & Hutch and Night at the Museum?

Ben Stiller first hired him as a director, giving him a small part in The Cable Guy after admiring his debut film.

Which singer-actress starred with Owen Wilson in both the jungle thriller Anaconda and the rom-com Marry Me?

Jennifer Lopez made the two films 25 years apart; in the second she is a pop superstar who impulsively marries his math teacher, a stranger holding a sign.

Which comedy star plays the famous boxer who goes undercover with Owen Wilson's secret agent in I Spy?

Eddie Murphy's fighter is civilian cover for the mission, which is to stop a gun runner from selling a stolen stealth bomber.

Which crime comedy, expanded from a short film of the same name, gave Owen Wilson his first feature role?

Bottle Rocket was the acting debut of both Owen and his brother Luke, and Martin Scorsese later named it one of his ten favourite films of the 1990s.