107 Fun Facts About The Shawshank Redemption

Who wrote and directed The Shawshank Redemption?

Frank Darabont turned down a seven-figure offer to let a bigger name direct his script, taking a pay cut to make it his first cinema feature.

Which author wrote the novella that The Shawshank Redemption is based on?

Stephen King granted the rights because he had enjoyed the director's short film of another of his stories, The Woman in the Room.

What is the full title of the 1982 novella behind The Shawshank Redemption?

Rita Hayworth and Shawshank Redemption lost its first three words on screen because the director feared people would expect a biopic of the actress.

Which film shares a source book with The Shawshank Redemption?

Stand by Me came from The Body in the same 1982 book, Different Seasons, and its director offered millions to direct Shawshank himself.

What was Andy Dufresne's profession before prison in The Shawshank Redemption?

Banker Andy's know-how buys him protection inside: he ends up doing tax returns for the guards and managing the warden's finances.

Who plays Andy Dufresne in The Shawshank Redemption?

Tim Robbins said yes because of the script, which he called the best he had read in years.

Who plays Ellis Boyd "Red" Redding in The Shawshank Redemption?

Morgan Freeman threw a baseball for the nine hours it took to film Red's first chat with Andy, then turned up the next day with his arm in a sling.

In the novella behind The Shawshank Redemption, Red is described as what?

An Irish-American in the book, Red keeps the joke 'Maybe it's because I'm Irish' on screen as a wink at the Black actor cast in the part.

In the film The Shawshank Redemption, what is the surname of the prison warden?

Norton preaches discipline to new arrivals while he hires out convict labour, pockets the bribes and has Andy hide the money.

Which actor plays the warden in The Shawshank Redemption?

Bob Gunton had a shaved head from Demolition Man, so the film-makers bought him a wig for the screen test that won him the part.

In The Shawshank Redemption, what is the name of the brutal captain of the guards?

Byron Hadley is about to throw Andy off a roof when Andy offers to shelter his inheritance from tax.

In The Shawshank Redemption, whose poster hides the tunnel when Andy's cell is found empty?

Raquel Welch gives the game away when the raging warden hurls one of Andy's stones at her poster and it sails straight through the paper.

In The Shawshank Redemption, who is the warden's "silent partner"?

A man Andy invented by mail, complete with birth certificate and driver's licence; after escaping, Andy walks into the banks as him and empties the accounts.

In The Shawshank Redemption, Andy dreams of starting over in which Mexican Pacific town?

Zihuatanejo appeals to Andy because, he tells Red, the Mexicans say the Pacific has no memory, and that is where he wants to live out his life.

In The Shawshank Redemption, which opera does Andy play over the prison loudspeakers?

The Marriage of Figaro costs Andy two weeks in the hole, which he calls the easiest time he ever did because he had Mozart in his head for company.

In The Shawshank Redemption, what is the first item Andy asks Red to smuggle in for him?

A rock hammer, which Red reckons would take a man six hundred years to tunnel out with; Andy does it in under twenty.

In The Shawshank Redemption, which elderly inmate is paroled after 50 years and cannot cope outside?

Brooks Hatlen carves his name into a beam of his halfway-house room before he hangs himself from it.

In The Shawshank Redemption, which young inmate reveals that a former cellmate confessed to Andy's crime?

Tommy Williams pays for speaking up: the warden has him shot and passes it off as an escape attempt, so Andy stays inside to run the books.

In The Shawshank Redemption, who leads the prison gang known as "the Sisters"?

Bogs Diamond never walks again: once Andy is useful to the guards, their captain beats him so badly he is shipped off to a prison hospital.

Which real prison served as the fictional jail in The Shawshank Redemption?

Ohio State Reformatory found a second life as a fan attraction, with tours of the warden's office and the solitary cells where scenes were shot.

Most of The Shawshank Redemption was shot in and around which city?

Mansfield, Ohio made the most of it: a local bakery took to selling Bundt cakes shaped like the film's Gothic prison to visiting fans.

In which US state is The Shawshank Redemption set?

Maine is only the setting: the film was shot several states away, where a real town and its empty prison doubled for New England.

In The Shawshank Redemption, what does Andy ask for in return for tax advice to a guard on the roof?

Beer for his co-workers is the whole fee, though Andy doesn't drink himself; for one morning the tarring crew feel like 'the lords of all creation'.

In The Shawshank Redemption, Andy Dufresne is sent to Shawshank for which crime?

Murdering his wife and her lover is a crime Andy didn't commit, yet he tells Red he killed her: he never pulled the trigger, but he drove her away.

What did The Shawshank Redemption win from seven Oscar nominations?

Nothing, yet the nominations proved the turning point: the buzz put a film few had seen in front of the audience that later adopted it.

Which film beat The Shawshank Redemption to the Best Picture Oscar?

Forrest Gump had already cost Shawshank a leading man: Tom Hanks turned down the part of Andy because he was committed to it.

Which composer earned his first Oscar nomination for the score of The Shawshank Redemption?

Thomas Newman was up against himself that night: his score for Little Women was nominated too, and The Lion King beat them both.

Which cinematographer filmed The Shawshank Redemption?

Roger Deakins earned his first Oscar nomination for it and lost, then kept losing until his 14th nomination finally won, for Blade Runner 2049.

In The Shawshank Redemption, which 1946 film are the inmates watching when Andy asks Red for a poster of its star?

Gilda was a late swap: the screenplay has the convicts hooting at Ray Milland's drunk in The Lost Weekend, not at the star Andy wants on his wall.

In The Shawshank Redemption, what does the warden find in his safe in place of his ledger?

A Bible, with the warden's own line turned on him, 'Salvation lay within', and its pages hollowed out in the shape of the tool that dug the tunnel.

In The Shawshank Redemption, where does Andy dump his tunnel rubble?

The exercise yard, a handful at a time, trickling from his trouser leg: all it took, Red says, was pressure, time and a big poster.

In The Shawshank Redemption, which word does Red call "made-up" at his last parole hearing?

Rehabilitated is 'a politician's word', Red tells the board after 40 years inside; the speech that ought to sink him gets him stamped approved.

In The Shawshank Redemption, which word does Andy throw at the warden just before he is sent to solitary?

Obtuse is what Andy calls him for refusing to chase evidence that could clear him; the warden later throws it back in the dark: 'Or am I being obtuse?'

Which future star was cast in The Shawshank Redemption as a young convict but dropped out before filming?

Brad Pitt pulled out as his fame took off after Thelma & Louise, choosing to star in Interview with the Vampire instead.

Rob Reiner wanted to direct The Shawshank Redemption himself with which of his A Few Good Men stars as Andy?

Tom Cruise loved the script enough to join a table read, but balked at taking direction from a first-time feature director and walked away.

Kevin Costner passed on playing Andy in The Shawshank Redemption because he was committed to which film?

Waterworld, the film Costner chose instead, ran so far over budget that it became the most expensive movie ever made at the time.

In The Shawshank Redemption, which pet does an elderly inmate raise from a chick and free before his parole?

A crow called Jake, first fed on a maggot Andy finds in his prison breakfast; the old man lets him go at a window just before his own release.

In The Shawshank Redemption, the real-life son of the actor playing Red appears on screen as what?

A con yelling "fresh fish" as the new arrivals are marched in; the mug shot of young Red clipped to the parole papers is his photo too.

In The Shawshank Redemption, what was the sewage in Andy's escape pipe really made of?

Water, chocolate syrup and sawdust filled the pipe; the real hazard was the creek the actor drops into, which a local chemist tested and called lethal.

In The Shawshank Redemption, Andy tells Red to find a buried package in a hayfield near which town?

Buxton is where Andy proposed to his wife on a picnic; the marker he describes is a piece of black volcanic glass with no business in a hayfield.

Which film did The Shawshank Redemption overtake in 2008 to become number one on IMDb's Top 250?

The Godfather lost the users' top spot to a film that had flopped in cinemas in 1994 and found its audience years later through endless cable reruns.

Who added The Shawshank Redemption to the National Film Registry?

The Library of Congress named it in 2015 as one of 25 films to preserve, two decades after its first run in cinemas failed to earn back its budget.

How much did preservationists pay the state for the real prison seen in The Shawshank Redemption?

One dollar bought a building the state had planned to tear down once filming wrapped; the enthusiasts who saved it turned it into a museum.

In The Shawshank Redemption, how does Andy finally get state money for the prison library?

Writing a letter every week for six years brings a $200 cheque and crates of used books; he keeps writing until the state votes the library money every year.

Which cable network began airing The Shawshank Redemption regularly in 1997, driving its cult status?

TNT belonged to Ted Turner, who had bought the company that made the film in 1993, so he was in effect selling the rights to himself.

Which 1995 US chart did The Shawshank Redemption top?

Video rentals: the distributor gambled by shipping 320,000 tapes of a box-office flop, and it ended 1995 as Billboard's top rental of the year.

In The Shawshank Redemption, whose shoes does Andy wear back to his cell on the night of his escape?

The warden's, polished to a mirror shine on his orders; nobody notices because, as Red asks, how often do you really look at a man's shoes?

In The Shawshank Redemption, a convict sorting library books reads out which novel as by "Alexandree Dumb-ass"?

The Count of Monte Cristo is one they'll like, Andy says, because it's about a prison break, which is why Red suggests filing it under Educational.

In The Shawshank Redemption, which instrument does Andy give Red, who says he played it as a younger man?

Harmonica: Red says he played a mean one as a younger man but lost interest inside, and Andy answers that inside is where it makes the most sense.

In The Shawshank Redemption, what does Andy help a young inmate with a wife and baby to earn?

His high school equivalency: Andy starts him on the alphabet, and word that the kid passed with a C-plus average reaches Andy through the door of a solitary cell.

In The Shawshank Redemption, Red bets cigarettes that on his first night Andy will do what?

Break down crying is Red's bet, because somebody always does; Andy never makes a sound all night and costs him two packs of cigarettes.

Why had the real prison in The Shawshank Redemption closed before filming?

An inmate lawsuit over conditions led a court to close it in 1990; two decades later its restored guard room was being hired out for weddings.

In The Shawshank Redemption, what does Andy get from Heywood shortly before he vanishes from his cell?

Six feet of rope: Red spends the longest night of his life fearing the worst, but Andy wanted it to tow a bag from his ankle on the crawl out.

At which film festival did The Shawshank Redemption have its premiere in 1994?

Toronto gave it a festival launch and a strong start on 33 screens followed, but when it went nationwide in October it opened in ninth place.

In The Shawshank Redemption, what job does Red do after he is finally released on parole?

Bagging groceries at the Foodway, the job the old prison librarian was given before him; after 40 years inside, Red still asks his boss for permission to use the toilet.

In the original script of The Shawshank Redemption, where was Red last seen?

On a bus to the border, his fate left open as in the book; the beach reunion was added after the director was told he owed the audience one.

What happened in July 2016 to the oak tree from The Shawshank Redemption, five years after a storm split it?

Felled by strong winds, it had been doomed since the storm five years earlier split it in half and showed the trunk was rotted through the middle.

Which former political prisoner turned national leader is said to have praised The Shawshank Redemption to its star?

Nelson Mandela, who spent 27 years in South African prisons, praised the film to its lead actor, by the actor's own account.

One nine-hour Shawshank Redemption shoot left Red's actor with his arm in a sling after repeatedly doing what?

Throwing a baseball through take after take of Andy and Red's first conversation meant he turned up the next day wearing a sling.

Which star turned down the role of Andy in The Shawshank Redemption because he was committed to another lead role?

Tom Hanks was one of several stars to say no; the director had first hoped for Gene Hackman or Robert Duvall, but neither was available.

What did the actor who plays Red in The Shawshank Redemption blame for the film's weak box-office run?

Its title, he said, was simply unmemorable, and other names had been floated before release for fear the original would not sell.

In The Shawshank Redemption, what work are the inmates doing on a rooftop when Andy offers a guard financial advice?

Spreading tar puts Andy within earshot of the captain of the guards, whose trust he wins; the warden soon has him handling the staff's finances.

In The Shawshank Redemption, which sentence does the court hand Andy at the end of his trial?

Two life sentences, served one after the other, send Andy to Shawshank in 1947 even though he insists he is innocent.

The director of The Shawshank Redemption went back behind bars for which 1999 film about guards on death row?

The Green Mile, drawn from the same author's work, earned four Oscar nominations, including Best Picture.

Which Palme d'Or winner opened across America on the day The Shawshank Redemption went into wide release?

Pulp Fiction arrived that same October 14 and went on to take $108 million, while the prison drama finished ninth for the weekend.

What did the author of the Shawshank novella do with the $5,000 check the film's director paid him for the rights?

Framed and returned it: the check came back years later with a joking note suggesting the director might one day need it for bail.

In The Shawshank Redemption, where is Andy first put to work before the warden moves him to the library?

The laundry is his first posting, and it leaves him exposed to attacks from the prison gang known as the Sisters.

In The Shawshank Redemption, how does the warden avoid being taken in when state police arrive at the prison?

He kills himself rather than face arrest, while the captain of the guards is led away in custody.

In The Shawshank Redemption, what cover story hides the killing of the young inmate who could clear Andy's name?

An escape attempt is the official story after the warden has the young man killed, so that Andy stays inside to keep the books.

After breaking out in The Shawshank Redemption, where does Andy mail the warden's ledger of corrupt dealings?

A local newspaper receives the ledger and the evidence inside it, which brings state police to the prison.

In The Shawshank Redemption, the young inmate who arrives in 1965 and studies with Andy is serving time for what?

Burglary put him in Shawshank, and the part went to newcomer Gil Bellows after a better-known actor had to withdraw.

In The Shawshank Redemption, what does Andy swing at the Sisters when they corner him in the projection room?

A film reel is his weapon, a detail critics read as one of the story's tributes to the power of cinema.

Critics liken the Shawshank Redemption scene where Andy wins a treat for a twelve-man work crew to which biblical event?

The Last Supper is the usual comparison, with Andy cast as a Christ-like figure, though the director says no such parallel was intended.

The director of The Shawshank Redemption later developed which long-running AMC series for television?

The Walking Dead reached AMC in 2010 under his guidance, though he left the horror drama midway through its second season.

Which actor, later the voice of SpongeBob's Mr. Krabs, plays the captain of the guards in The Shawshank Redemption?

Clancy Brown has voiced the money-loving crab since SpongeBob SquarePants began in 1999, five years after playing Shawshank's brutal captain.

To prepare to play Andy in The Shawshank Redemption, the lead actor had himself shackled and spent time observing what?

Caged zoo animals were his study in confinement; he also spoke with prisoners and guards and spent an afternoon locked up alone.

After his escape in The Shawshank Redemption, which name does Andy give at the banks holding the laundered money?

Randall Stephens is the alias Andy has used on paper since the warden's kickbacks began in 1963, so the money leaves with a man who was never an inmate.

In The Shawshank Redemption, how does the warden start collecting bribes from local contractors in 1963?

Renting out inmates for public works lets him undercut skilled labor, and the bribes that follow are the money Andy is made to launder.

Which actor, Death in Bill & Ted's Bogus Journey, plays the convict Heywood in The Shawshank Redemption?

William Sadler was first approached about the film in 1989, on the set of Tales from the Crypt, years before the script was written.

Which Tony, Grammy and Emmy winner plays the elderly prison librarian in The Shawshank Redemption?

James Whitmore, a stage and screen regular since the 1940s, won his Grammy for a one-man show as President Harry Truman.

Which future Sopranos actor turned down the role of the Sisters' leader in The Shawshank Redemption?

James Gandolfini passed on playing the prison predator, a few years before a mob-boss role on HBO made him a household name.

The warden's actor wore a wig early in The Shawshank Redemption because he had shaved his head for which film?

Demolition Man was still shooting when he auditioned, so a hairpiece covered his shaved head until his own hair grew back.

The director of The Shawshank Redemption cast his Andy after seeing the actor in which 1990 psychological horror film?

Jacob's Ladder, in which the actor plays a soldier haunted by hallucinations after Vietnam, won him the part once bigger names had passed.

The actor who plays Andy in The Shawshank Redemption grew up watching his co-star on which children's TV show?

The Electric Company had his future co-star in its original 1971 cast, playing characters such as the hip bookworm Easy Reader.

Which company co-founded by Rob Reiner backed The Shawshank Redemption within two weeks of seeing the script?

Castle Rock takes its name from a fictional town in the novella author's stories, and one of its producers threatened to quit unless it made the film.

Which gangster film did the Shawshank Redemption director cite as his model for using dialogue to mark passing time?

Goodfellas shaped the script's sense of passing years, alongside Frank Capra's films and the prison drama Birdman of Alcatraz.

Which Billy Wilder film were the Shawshank inmates first meant to watch, before its footage proved too costly?

The Lost Weekend, a drama about the dangers of alcohol, was priced out of reach, so the film's distributor offered cheaper pictures from its own library.

What did the Shawshank Redemption crew add to the polluted stream Andy escapes into, to make it safer for the actor?

Chlorine only partly cleaned the water, which a chemist had certified as toxic; the crew also dammed the stream to make it deeper.

The Shawshank Redemption is dedicated to Allen Greene, who died during filming and had been what to its director?

His agent died of an AIDS-related illness during the shoot, and the final cut carries a tribute to his memory.

The real beach where Andy and Red reunite in The Shawshank Redemption is a wildlife refuge protecting which animal?

Leatherback turtles, the largest of all sea turtles, come ashore to nest on Sandy Point's two miles of sand.

Readers of which British magazine voted The Shawshank Redemption the greatest film of all time in 2006?

Empire readers also named it the best film of the 1990s, and the magazine ranked it fourth on its 2008 list of the 500 greatest movies.

Which director compared The Shawshank Redemption to chewing gum, because it sticks to you once you step on it?

Steven Spielberg offered the image for a film that flopped in cinemas, then spent decades refusing to fade from view.

Critics have compared the pious but corrupt warden of The Shawshank Redemption to which American president?

Richard Nixon is the likeness critics see in the warden's look and public speeches: a holy man's image over crooked dealings.

The Shawshank Redemption's famous oak tree stood near which Ohio state park, once the home of author Louis Bromfield?

Malabar Farm, where Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall married in 1945, also lent the film the cabin seen in its opening scenes.

Finding a Hollywood cinema empty on Shawshank's opening night, its director and a producer reportedly did what?

Sold two tickets, according to the producer, by promising the buyers a studio refund if they did not enjoy the film.

Which part of the Mansfield Reformatory is billed as the world's largest free-standing structure of its kind?

The East Cell Block rises six tiers, yet the film's cell scenes were shot on a purpose-built set so that the cells could face each other.

What was due to happen to the Mansfield Reformatory once The Shawshank Redemption finished filming there?

Being torn down was the plan, and the walls and outbuildings did go, but a local preservation society bought what was left and opened it to visitors.

In 1997 the Mansfield Reformatory played a Russian prison holding a captured general in which hijack thriller?

Air Force One used the empty prison as the jail of General Radek, the dictator whose release the hijackers demand.

The corrections museum inside the Mansfield Reformatory displays which grim relic of the old Ohio Penitentiary?

The electric chair on show was used in 315 executions in Columbus; the reformatory itself was built for young first-time offenders.

The first 150 inmates sent to the Mansfield Reformatory in 1896 were put straight to work on its wall and what else?

Its sewer system was finished by those first prisoners, brought by train from Columbus; a century on, a film shot there made a sewer-pipe escape famous.

What occupied the future site of the Mansfield Reformatory a generation before the prison opened in 1896?

A Civil War camp trained soldiers on the field; it was named Camp Mordecai Bartley after a Mansfield man who had been governor of Ohio.

Which name did the Mansfield Reformatory carry when its cornerstone was laid in 1886?

Intermediate Penitentiary described its place halfway between the boys' school at Lancaster and the state penitentiary in Columbus.

Which 1989 buddy-cop film shot its prison scenes at the Mansfield Reformatory while inmates were still held there?

Tango & Cash sent Sylvester Stallone and Kurt Russell to jail there a year before the prison closed for good.

Which Cleveland architect gave the Mansfield Reformatory its castle-like blend of Gothic and Romanesque styles?

Levi Scofield meant the building to uplift as well as intimidate, in the hope of turning young inmates back towards a spiritual life.

Inmates at the Mansfield Reformatory were originally meant to receive three things: religion, education and what?

A trade completed the reform model: inmates served 18 months and could go free if they showed progress, or serve 18 more if not.

In 2015 polls, The Shawshank Redemption was voted the favorite film of Britain and which Pacific nation?

New Zealand's vote matched a British one that year, in which it was the only film to reach the top 15 with every age group.

In 2013, only which Robin Williams comedy filled more hours of American basic cable than The Shawshank Redemption?

Mrs. Doubtfire alone beat its 151 hours of airtime that year, by which point the prison drama had played on 15 basic cable networks.