60 Fun Facts About Rosemary's Baby

In what year was the film Rosemary's Baby released?

It opened on June 12 and finished second only to The Lion in Winter in Film Daily's year-end critics' poll.

Who wrote and directed the 1968 film?

It was his American debut. He read the galleys in one night and finished a 272-page screenplay in about three weeks, lifting much of the dialogue straight from the book.

Which author wrote the 1967 novel the film is based on?

It was only his second book, after A Kiss Before Dying; he later wrote The Stepford Wives, The Boys from Brazil and the play Deathtrap.

Who plays Rosemary Woodhouse in the 1968 film?

Her only prior feature credits were a supporting part in Guns at Batasi and the unreleased A Dandy in Aspic; her fame came from a TV soap and a headline-making marriage.

Who plays Rosemary's actor husband, Guy Woodhouse?

He was himself an acclaimed independent director; Polanski suggested him after they met in London.

Which cast member won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for the film?

Her Minnie Castevet also won the Golden Globe. She was 72, had co-written Adam's Rib, and would soon play Maude in Harold and Maude.

What is the name of the Gothic New York building the Woodhouses move into?

Their friend Hutch warns them the building has a history of witchcraft and murder; in the novel he even suggests they take a place elsewhere.

Which real Manhattan building provided the exteriors for the film's fictional Gothic residence?

Levin had modeled his fictional building on it. Twelve years later John Lennon was shot dead outside its 72nd Street entrance.

What is the surname of Rosemary's elderly, meddlesome next-door neighbors?

Polanski sketched how he pictured the supporting characters so casting directors could match faces to drawings; veterans Sidney Blackmer and a future Oscar winner got the parts.

The foul-smelling pendant Minnie gives Rosemary as a good-luck charm supposedly contains what?

Rosemary first admired it on Terry, the young woman the neighbors had taken in; later a receptionist's remark about the doctor's odour of the same stuff tips her off.

What dessert does Minnie bring the couple on the night they plan to conceive?

Rosemary complains of a chalky 'under-taste' and secretly throws most of it away, which is why she half-wakes during what follows.

When Rosemary phones Donald Baumgart, the actor who mysteriously went blind, whose voice answers?

Farrow was not told who would read the lines; she recognized the voice but could not place it, and Polanski kept her genuine confusion in the scene.

Which producer, famous for gimmicky low-budget horror, bought the film rights before the novel was published?

The studio let him produce but not direct. He appears in a cameo as the man waiting outside the phone booth Rosemary is using.

Hutch's cryptic dying message to Rosemary says that the name is what?

He sends the message with a book on witchcraft, via his friend Grace Cardiff, after briefly regaining consciousness from his coma.

Rearranging her neighbour Roman's name, Rosemary uncovers which reputed Satanist?

The 2014 miniseries kept the same anagram but turned him into a Parisian billionaire who eats women's hearts.

Which veteran actor plays Dr. Abraham Sapirstein, the obstetrician the neighbors insist Rosemary use?

He and Sidney Blackmer had appeared together decades earlier in the 1934 pre-Code film This Man Is Mine.

When Rosemary finally sees the child, what does Roman say to explain how it looks?

He then explains that the child is not Guy's son but Satan's, and that her 'dream' on baby night was real.

Which studio released the film?

Studio head Robert Evans lured Polanski over with the script for Downhill Racer, knowing he was a ski buff, but slipped the novel's galleys in with it.

According to François Truffaut, which director was offered the film first and declined?

Evans instead pursued Polanski, whose European films he admired, hoping this would be his American debut.

Who was the first choice to play Guy Woodhouse but turned the part down?

Jack Nicholson was briefly considered next, before Polanski proposed the actor-director he had met in London.

Along with Tuesday Weld, whom did Polanski originally want for the lead role?

He had pictured a robust, girl-next-door Rosemary; Robert Evans pushed for a bigger name, and Farrow's waif-like look won out.

Midway through filming, the star was served divorce papers on set by a lawyer for which husband?

He had demanded she give up acting when they wed. Evans talked her out of quitting by showing her a rough cut and promising an Oscar nomination.

Which Polish jazz musician composed the film's score, including the lullaby 'Sleep Safe and Warm'?

He had scored Polanski's Knife in the Water and The Fearless Vampire Killers; Farrow herself sings the wordless lullaby over the opening titles.

Which piano piece is heard being practiced by a tenant throughout the film, improving as time passes?

The steadily improving playing is a quiet way of marking how many months of Rosemary's pregnancy have gone by.

When the star walked into real Fifth Avenue traffic for a scene, who operated the handheld camera?

He reassured her that 'no one's going to hit a pregnant woman' and followed her into the traffic because he was the only one willing to do it.

Thanks to Polanski's habit of shooting up to fifty takes, how far over its $1.9M budget did the film run?

By November 1967 the shoot was three weeks behind schedule; it still ended up a huge hit, grossing over $33 million worldwide.

In 2010, The Guardian ranked the film the second-greatest horror film ever, behind which movie?

Levin's novel and Polanski's film are often credited with kicking off the demonic-horror boom that produced The Exorcist and The Omen.

What was the title of the 1976 made-for-TV sequel?

It premiered as the ABC Friday Night Movie on October 29, 1976, and follows the son from age eight to the birth of his own first child.

Who played Rosemary in the 1976 television sequel?

She had been considered for the role in the 1968 film that went to Farrow; Ray Milland took over as Roman.

Sam O'Steen, who directed the 1976 sequel, had held which job on the original film?

Only one actor from the original returned for it, reprising Minnie Castevet.

Who starred as Rosemary in the 2014 NBC miniseries?

Agnieszka Holland directed the two-part, four-hour adaptation, which many critics felt was stretched to fill its two timeslots.

Unlike every earlier version, the 2014 miniseries moved the story to which city?

Rosemary and Guy leave New York after a miscarriage; the coven's Satanist billionaire keeps the Steven Marcato name.

What is the title of the 2024 prequel film?

Natalie Erika James directed; it premiered at Fantastic Fest and went straight to Paramount+ and digital on September 27, 2024.

The 2024 prequel expands the story of which minor character from the original film?

She is played as an injured Broadway dancer known as 'the girl who fell', with Dianne Wiest as Minnie.

Who plays the young dancer at the center of the 2024 prequel?

Jim Sturgess plays the Broadway producer Alan Marchand and Kevin McNally plays Roman.

How does the young woman the neighbors took in off the street die early in the film?

Her death frees up both her tannis-root pendant and, it turns out, her role in the coven's plans.

How many copies did Levin's novel sell, making it the best-selling horror novel of the 1960s?

Its success is credited with launching the mass-market horror boom that carried Stephen King and Peter Straub in the 1970s.

Before settling on the Devil, Levin briefly considered making the baby's father what?

He dropped the idea because it felt too close to John Wyndham's The Midwich Cuckoos.

On the first edition's dust jacket, Truman Capote compared the novel to which Henry James ghost story?

The New York Times reviewer preferred a comparison to early Evelyn Waugh; Kirkus gave it a starred review.

At the end of the novel, Rosemary changes the baby's name from Adrian to what?

Levin's 1997 sequel Son of Rosemary picks him up as a charismatic 33-year-old running an international charity.

In Son of Rosemary, characters keep repeating which puzzling two-word phrase, itself a hidden message?

Rosemary wakes from a coma in 1999 to find her son leading a global charity, and the phrase resurfaces in the book's much-derided it-was-all-a-dream ending.

Censors under which regime cut passages from the Spanish translation of the novel for 'glorifying Satan'?

As of 2019 every Spanish-language edition still carried those cuts.

Which English rock band wrote the song 'Why Didn't Rosemary?' after watching the film on a 1968 US tour?

It appeared on their third album in 1969, the same year Mad magazine spoofed the film as 'Rosemia's Boo-boo'.

Before the film, its lead actress was best known as Allison MacKenzie on which TV soap?

She left the show in 1966 at Sinatra's urging when they married; she was 21 and he was 50.

Accepting her Oscar for the film at the 41st Academy Awards, what did the winning supporting actress say?

The line drew big laughs: she had been performing since 1915 and this was her first Oscar, on her second acting nomination.

Levin wove real New York events into the novel, including a 1965 visit by whom?

He also used the 1965 mayoral election, all pulled from contemporary newspapers.

Which future comedy star made his feature film debut in the movie?

He would go on to The Heartbreak Kid, Midnight Run and Beethoven; here he is the young doctor Rosemary runs to for help.

Although set in New York, where was most of the film's principal photography done?

After a few weeks of New York exteriors, the interiors were built on studio sound stages in Hollywood; the yacht dream was shot off Santa Catalina Island.

Roughly what was the film's production budget?

It grossed about $33.4 million worldwide, more than ten times its cost.

Robert Evans sent Polanski the novel's galleys together with the script for which skiing film?

Polanski was a ski buff, but read the novel through the night and called the next morning asking to write and direct it.

Which actress, later Oscar-nominated for Private Benjamin, was reportedly considered for Rosemary?

Jane Fonda and Patty Duke were also in the frame; Duke went on to play Rosemary in the 1976 TV sequel.

Which actor was briefly considered for Guy Woodhouse before Polanski suggested John Cassavetes?

Polanski drew sketches of the secondary characters for Paramount casting directors to match against actors.

The yacht dinner-party dream sequence was filmed on a vessel near which California island?

Some additional location work was done at Playa del Rey in October 1967 after the shoot moved to Paramount Studios.

Roughly how much did Rosemary's Baby gross worldwide for Paramount?

That was more than ten times its $3.2 million budget, making it a major hit for the studio.

Who played Roman Castevet in the 1976 TV sequel Look What's Happened to Rosemary's Baby?

Ruth Gordon was the only actor to appear in both films, reprising Minnie; Stephen McHattie played the adult son.

After Friday the 13th Part III, which producer considered a 3D remake of Rosemary's Baby?

He instead made The Man Who Wasn't There; a 2008 remake attempt by Michael Bay's team also fell through.

In which year was Rosemary's Baby selected for preservation in the National Film Registry?

Bravo had ranked the scene of Rosemary's assault by Satan No. 23 on its 100 Scariest Movie Moments.

Which Iranian photographer directed the 23-minute on-set documentary Mia and Roman?

A friend of Polanski and Sharon Tate, he shot footage of the director working with the cast.

Levin rejected an alien father for the baby because it would be too similar to which John Wyndham novel?

He settled on Manhattan and the Dakota-inspired Bramford, weaving in the 1966 transit strike and the 1965 mayoral election.

On what date did Random House publish Rosemary's Baby, Ira Levin's second novel?

His debut, A Kiss Before Dying, had won the Edgar Award for Best First Novel in 1953.