50 Fun Facts About Samuel L. Jackson

In Pulp Fiction, which book of the Bible does Samuel L. Jackson's hitman Jules claim to quote before a killing?

Ezekiel 25:17 is the verse Jules names, yet most of his speech is not in the Bible at all. Tarantino borrowed it from the opening creed of a Sonny Chiba martial arts film.

Which thriller did Samuel L. Jackson insist keep its blunt title after the studio renamed it Pacific Air Flight 121?

Snakes on a Plane was a title Jackson called the only reason he took the job, so he had it restored. Online fans then grew so loud that the studio added five days of reshoots.

Samuel L. Jackson asked George Lucas to give his Star Wars Jedi a lightsaber blade of which unusual color?

Purple made Mace Windu easy to pick out in the crowded battle scenes of Attack of the Clones, which is why Jackson asked for it. Earlier toys had given the character a blue blade.

Samuel L. Jackson first played Nick Fury in a surprise scene after the credits of which Marvel film?

Iron Man ends with Fury telling Tony Stark he has joined a bigger universe, a cameo Jackson played uncredited. It grew into a deal to play the spymaster in nine films.

Which historically Black institution suspended Samuel L. Jackson after he helped hold its trustees hostage in 1969?

Morehouse College suspended him for two years over the protest, which demanded changes to the curriculum. Jackson went back and graduated with a drama degree in 1972.

In which shark thriller is Samuel L. Jackson's executive devoured midway through a speech about sticking together?

Deep Blue Sea kills off its biggest star mid-sentence, which suited a director who wanted viewers unable to guess who survives. The role was created for Jackson after he was offered the cook.

Which 1993 blockbuster casts Samuel L. Jackson as chief engineer Ray Arnold, later found only as a severed arm?

Jurassic Park kills Arnold off screen because Hurricane Iniki hit Hawaii before his raptor chase could be filmed. The arm was all the story had left to show.

Which superhero, the best friend of Mr. Incredible, does Samuel L. Jackson voice in Pixar's The Incredibles?

Frozone freezes the moisture in the air, so he is only as strong as the water around him. Director Brad Bird cast Jackson because he wanted a distinctively cool voice.

Which childhood difficulty did Samuel L. Jackson learn to manage by pretending to be other people?

A stutter still returns on some days, and Jackson says his most famous swear word is what gets him through the block.

Which actor plays Vincent Vega, the partner of Samuel L. Jackson's hitman Jules Winnfield in Pulp Fiction?

John Travolta got Vincent only because Michael Madsen chose a Kevin Costner western instead. He and Jackson teamed up again in the 2003 thriller Basic.

Which Sith Lord kills Samuel L. Jackson's Jedi Master by blasting him out of a window in Revenge of the Sith?

Palpatine survives only because Anakin Skywalker slices off Windu's weapon hand a moment before the killing blow. Jackson's voice returns among the dead Jedi in The Rise of Skywalker.

Samuel L. Jackson's Nick Fury is the eyepatch-wearing director of which spy agency in the Marvel films?

S.H.I.E.L.D. is the agency Fury runs, and Jackson twice turned up in character on its ABC spin-off series, including a season finale.

In which John Grisham courtroom drama does Samuel L. Jackson play Carl Lee Hailey, a father tried for murder?

A Time to Kill has Hailey gun down his daughter's two attackers inside the county courthouse. The role earned Jackson a Golden Globe nomination and an NAACP Image Award.

Which sequel pairs Samuel L. Jackson's Harlem shopkeeper Zeus Carver with a cop forced to solve a bomber's riddles?

Die Hard with a Vengeance grew out of a script called Simon Says that was meant for Brandon Lee, with the Zeus part first written for an actress.

Which film casts Samuel L. Jackson as Stephen, a head house slave who exposes the heroes' plan at a plantation dinner?

Django Unchained makes Stephen a villain who outthinks his own master, and Jackson likened the character's moral compass to that of Justice Clarence Thomas.

In which basketball drama does Samuel L. Jackson lock his unbeaten high school team out of the gym over poor grades?

Coach Carter retells a real 1999 standoff in Richmond, California, where Ken Carter benched his undefeated team. In the film he vows to resign if the school board reopens the gym.

Which M. Night Shyamalan film first cast Samuel L. Jackson as Elijah Price, a comic art dealer with brittle bones?

Unbreakable was written with Jackson in mind, and its twist reveals that Price staged deadly disasters to find his opposite. He took the part again in Glass.

Which role did a college-age Samuel L. Jackson fill at Martin Luther King Jr.'s funeral in Atlanta?

Usher was his job that day, and he then went to Memphis to join an equal rights march. Decades later he played King himself on Broadway in The Mountaintop.

Which African country made Samuel L. Jackson a citizen in 2019 after a DNA test traced his ancestry there?

Gabon welcomed him after tests linked him to its Benga people, who later gave him a name meaning star. He told the story in the documentary series Enslaved.

In Pulp Fiction, what do Samuel L. Jackson's Jules and his partner retrieve for their boss Marsellus Wallace?

A briefcase with the lock code 666 is all viewers ever see, because Tarantino says its contents have no explanation. The golden glow came from an orange light bulb hidden inside.

For which Quentin Tarantino crime film did Samuel L. Jackson win the Silver Bear playing gun runner Ordell Robbie?

Jackie Brown won him Best Actor at the Berlin Film Festival for a villain who lures his own bagman into a car trunk and kills him.

Which western stars Samuel L. Jackson as Major Marquis Warren, a bounty hunter with a forged letter from Lincoln?

The Hateful Eight has Warren admit the letter is fake, saying it buys him leeway with white strangers. The film ends with a dying rival reading it aloud and praising its detail.

Which spy comedy casts Samuel L. Jackson as Richmond Valentine, a lisping billionaire who hands out free SIM cards?

Kingsman: The Secret Service was Jackson's chance to play a great Bond villain, a part he took because he doubted a real Bond film would ever call.

In Captain Marvel, what kind of creature costs Samuel L. Jackson's younger Nick Fury the use of his left eye?

A cat named Goose does it, though she is really an alien Flerken that has swallowed the Tesseract. Jackson was de-aged throughout to play the younger Fury.

In which Martin Scorsese mob film does Samuel L. Jackson play Stacks Edwards, a real-life Mafia associate?

Goodfellas gave Jackson only a minor part, typical of years he spent in small roles while Morgan Freeman acted as his mentor.

In which Eddie Murphy comedy does Samuel L. Jackson play an armed robber who keeps holding up McDowell's restaurant?

Coming to America credits him only as the Hold-Up Man, a thief who has hit the restaurant five times before the disguised prince Akeem stops him.

Which crime sequel casts Samuel L. Jackson as a New York detective whose uncle was the hero of the 1971 original?

Shaft brought back Richard Roundtree as the elder John Shaft, uncle to Jackson's detective. A 2019 sequel rewrote the family tree and made the two father and son.

Which actress, who directed Samuel L. Jackson on Broadway in The Piano Lesson, has been his wife since 1980?

LaTanya Richardson met him in 1970 while she was a student at Spelman College in Atlanta. The couple have since acted together in four films.

On which hit 1980s sitcom did Samuel L. Jackson spend three years as the stand-in for its star?

The Cosby Show gave him steady work as Bill Cosby's stand-in at a time when his own film roles were still minimal.

Which subject did Samuel L. Jackson first plan to study at college before a public speaking class led him to drama?

Marine biology was his first major, followed by a spell in architecture. A part in The Threepenny Opera then settled him on acting for good.

In which thriller does Samuel L. Jackson's framed Chicago cop Danny Roman take hostages to clear his own name?

The Negotiator turns a hostage talker into a hostage taker, and Roman will only speak to a rival from another precinct, played by Kevin Spacey.

Which Southern drama has Samuel L. Jackson's blues-playing farmer Lazarus chain a troubled young woman to a radiator?

Black Snake Moan takes its title from a 1927 Blind Lemon Jefferson blues, which Lazarus sings for his captive during a thunderstorm.

Which Spike Lee film starring Samuel L. Jackson as crack addict Gator moved the Cannes jury to invent a new award?

Jungle Fever began shooting about a week after Jackson left rehab, and he called playing an addict cathartic. The jury added a special supporting actor prize just for him.

In which Spike Lee film does Samuel L. Jackson play the neighborhood radio DJ Mister Señor Love Daddy?

Do the Right Thing credits him as Sam Jackson, and his DJ closes the film by announcing an official inquiry into the night's violence.

In which Tennessee city did Samuel L. Jackson grow up, attending segregated schools and playing in the school orchestra?

Chattanooga is where his mother and grandparents raised him, though he was born in the nation's capital. At school he played French horn, piccolo, trumpet and flute.

Which Best Supporting Actor prize did Samuel L. Jackson win for Pulp Fiction after missing out on the Oscar?

A BAFTA from Britain was his reward, while the Oscar he was nominated for went elsewhere. He also took the Independent Spirit Award, but as a lead.

Which longtime friend presented Samuel L. Jackson with his honorary Oscar at the 2022 Governors Awards?

Denzel Washington presented the statuette, an honorary award that called Jackson a cultural icon whose work resonated across genres and generations.

Which Grand Theft Auto game features Samuel L. Jackson as the voice of corrupt police officer Frank Tenpenny?

San Andreas casts him as the leader of a corrupt police unit who threatens to pin an officer's killing on the hero. Jackson later hosted the Spike TV Video Game Awards four times.

Which Oscar winner directed Samuel L. Jackson in Unicorn Store after acting beside him in Kong: Skull Island?

Brie Larson made her feature directing debut with the film and cast Jackson as a mysterious salesman. The two teamed up again in Captain Marvel.

Which actor plays the bodyguard hired to protect Samuel L. Jackson's assassin in The Hitman's Bodyguard?

Ryan Reynolds plays Michael Bryce, who must deliver the hitman alive to testify against a dictator at the International Criminal Court. The pair returned for a 2021 sequel.

Which Marvel comic series redrew Nick Fury to look like Samuel L. Jackson without first asking his permission?

The Ultimates borrowed his face in 2002, and Jackson, a comics reader, spotted it and had his agents call Marvel. The publisher promised him the part in any future film.

Which actor did a Los Angeles TV host confuse with Samuel L. Jackson during a live interview in 2014?

Laurence Fishburne had appeared in a Super Bowl car commercial, and the host asked Jackson about it by mistake. Jackson scolded him on air and the host apologized.

Which sport does Samuel L. Jackson love so much that his film contracts guarantee him time to play during shoots?

Golf is written into his contracts, and he has played in Gary Player's charity tournament to raise money for children in South Africa.

Which hat brand is Samuel L. Jackson noted for wearing in public, helping to popularize its Spitfire cap in 1997?

Kangol has never made a hat in Australia, yet it adopted a kangaroo logo in 1983 because Americans kept asking for the kangaroo hat.

In Pulp Fiction, what does Samuel L. Jackson's Jules call surviving a hail of bullets, prompting him to quit crime?

Divine intervention is how Jules reads a gunman's missed shots, so over breakfast he announces his retirement and later lets two diner robbers walk away.

In which Quentin Tarantino film does Samuel L. Jackson make a cameo as Rufus, the organist at a wedding chapel?

Kill Bill: Volume 2 gives him a brief cameo as the musician booked for the Bride's wedding, whose rehearsal ends in a massacre.

Which thriller pairs Samuel L. Jackson's private eye Mitch Henessey with Geena Davis as an amnesiac schoolteacher?

The Long Kiss Goodnight first killed Henessey off, until a test-screening viewer shouted that Sam Jackson could not die. Jackson calls it his favorite of his own films to watch.

Which playwright wrote The Piano Lesson, in which Samuel L. Jackson originated Boy Willie in 1987 at Yale?

August Wilson's drama reached Broadway in 1990 with Charles S. Dutton as Boy Willie. Jackson returned for the 2022 Broadway revival as the uncle, Doaker Charles, and earned a Tony nomination.

In Pulp Fiction, which hairpiece did Samuel L. Jackson wear after an assistant bought it by mistake for his hitman?

A Jheri curl wig turned up in place of the much bigger style in the script, enraging Tarantino until Jackson talked him into keeping it.

In Captain America: The Winter Soldier, where does the verse from Samuel L. Jackson's Pulp Fiction speech reappear?

On a gravestone carved with Fury's own name sits the same verse reference, a wink to Jules that the presumed-dead spy visits in person.