50 Fun Facts About The Silence of the Lambs

Who directed The Silence of the Lambs?

He had just made Married to the Mob and went on to make Philadelphia; he won the Silver Bear for it in Berlin.

Who plays FBI trainee Clarice Starling?

Pfeiffer and Ryan both turned the part down; Foster won her second Best Actress Oscar for it.

Which actor did Demme first approach to play Hannibal Lecter before Anthony Hopkins?

Hopkins was then offered it on the strength of The Elephant Man and thought the title sounded like a children's story.

Who was Demme's first choice for Clarice Starling?

They had just made Married to the Mob together; she said she 'got nervous about the subject matter'.

What did Hopkins reportedly ask his agent when told a script called The Silence of the Lambs was coming?

Ten pages in he rang back to say it was the best part he had ever read.

Hopkins based Lecter's voice partly on HAL 9000 and on the vocal patterns of which writer?

He denied basing the cadence on Katharine Hepburn or the unblinking stare on Charles Manson.

Who made Lecter's iconic restraint mask?

Ed Cubberly of Frenchtown, New Jersey, normally kitted out hockey goalkeepers.

The Silence of the Lambs was only the third film to win the 'Big Five' Oscars. Which are they?

The other two are It Happened One Night and One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest; it lost Sound and Editing to Terminator 2 and JFK.

The Silence of the Lambs remains the only film of which genre to win Best Picture?

It premiered at the Berlin Film Festival and made $272.7 million on a $19 million budget.

Who wrote the 1988 novel the film is based on?

It was the sequel to his 1981 novel Red Dragon and won a major genre award.

Who wrote the Oscar-winning adapted screenplay?

He got an advance copy of the book from Harris himself and later returned to write Red Dragon.

Which actor first partnered with Orion to direct and star in the adaptation, then withdrew?

His children wanted him to stop making violent films; he pulled out midway through the first draft.

Which studio released the film on Valentine's Day 1991?

It opened at number one and stayed there for five weeks.

Where was the film mainly shot?

Buffalo Bill's house is a real Victorian home in Perryopolis, Pennsylvania, that later sold for $195,000.

What is Buffalo Bill's real name in the story?

'Jack Gordon' is the alias he gives Starling; Dolarhyde is Red Dragon's killer.

Which real killer's habit of feigning injury with an arm brace did Harris borrow for Buffalo Bill?

Gein's skin 'suit' and Heidnik's basement pit supplied the other elements.

Which real criminal's basement pit inspired the design of Buffalo Bill's well?

He held six women prisoner in a Philadelphia pit in the 1980s.

What kind of insect does Buffalo Bill leave in his victims' throats?

The pupae are imported from Suriname; the moth's thorax bears a skull-like marking.

Lecter's false name for the killer, 'Louis Friend', is an anagram of what?

Iron sulfide is fool's gold, Lecter's way of telling Starling the tip was worthless.

Which US city is Lecter transferred to, where he escapes from a courthouse cell?

Chilton arranged the transfer as a reward for information given to Senator Ruth Martin.

What does Lecter use to unlock his handcuffs during his escape?

He then leaves in an ambulance disguised in a dead guard's uniform.

What is the name of the hospital director who records Starling's conversation with Lecter?

Lecter's final line, 'having an old friend for dinner', is aimed squarely at him.

Who plays Jack Crawford, head of the FBI's Behavioral Science Unit?

Real profiler John E. Douglas gave him a tour of Quantico and played him tapes that reportedly changed his view on the death penalty.

Starling's childhood trauma, which gives the film its title, took place on a farm in which state?

After her father's death she lived with relatives there and failed to save spring lambs from slaughter.

What was the profession of Starling's late dad, murdered when she was ten?

He was murdered when she was ten, leaving her orphaned, as she tells Lecter in their quid pro quo.

How does Buffalo Bill stalk Starling in the film's climax?

He gives himself away by cocking his revolver, and she fires at the sound.

Buffalo Bill's first victim, whose home gives Starling the breakthrough, worked as what?

Frederika Bimmel's unfinished dresses matched the patches of skin removed from later victims.

Which cult song plays during Buffalo Bill's infamous mirror scene?

'Hip Priest' plays as Starling enters the house; both are post-punk cuts chosen alongside Howard Shore's score.

Who composed the film's score, recorded by the Munich Symphony Orchestra?

He also scored Demme's Philadelphia and later The Lord of the Rings.

Lecter's famous line about a census taker mentions liver, fava beans and what?

AFI ranked it the 21st greatest movie quote of all time.

Which 1986 film was the first to feature Hannibal Lecter, spelled 'Lecktor'?

Michael Mann directed and Brian Cox played the doctor opposite William Petersen's Will Graham.

Why did Orion get the rights to the Lecter character for free from producer Dino De Laurentiis?

A star and the studio were meanwhile splitting the $500,000 cost of the novel rights.

Who replaced the original Starling actress in the 2001 sequel Hannibal?

Foster and Demme both declined because of the increased violence and gore; Ridley Scott directed.

Who played the disfigured Mason Verger in Hannibal (2001)?

Liotta played Justice Department official Paul Krendler, who suffers the film's most notorious dinner.

Which actor played FBI agent Will Graham in the 2002 prequel Red Dragon?

Brett Ratner directed and Ted Tally returned to write; it was Hopkins's last outing as Lecter.

Who played Hannibal Lecter in NBC's Hannibal (2013-15)?

Bryan Fuller developed the series, which was cancelled after three seasons for low ratings despite acclaim.

Who played the young Lecter in the 2007 prequel Hannibal Rising?

The 2006 novel explores his childhood in Lithuania and his path to murder.

The 2021 CBS series Clarice, starring Rebecca Breeds, is set when?

Alex Kurtzman and Jenny Lumet created it; it lasted one season.

Which Mexican prison doctor met by Thomas Harris is believed to have partly inspired Hannibal Lecter?

Harris called him 'Dr. Salazar'; a surgeon who had murdered his lover, he was the last man condemned to death in Mexico.

Lecter is described in the novels as descended from nobility of which country?

He also claims Italian Visconti and Sforza blood, hence the refined tastes.

Ted Levine, who played Buffalo Bill, is also known for playing Captain Stottlemeyer on which series?

He was a main cast member for all eight seasons.

Hopkins won his second Best Actor Oscar, aged 83, for which 2020 film?

He was 83, the oldest acting winner ever, and was nominated for the other three as well.

Starling's actress won her first Best Actress Oscar three years earlier for which film?

She was Oscar-nominated at 14 for Taxi Driver and studied literature at Yale between the two.

Which real Washington workplace stood in for the FBI Director's room in the film?

Elizabeth Dole was Labor Secretary at the time; the FBI also let scenes shoot at Quantico.

Which genre prize did Harris's 1988 book win?

It added the Anthony Award for Best Novel the following year.

Which post-punk band's song 'Hip Priest' plays as Starling enters Buffalo Bill's house?

Demme's soundtracks were always eclectic; he had made the Talking Heads concert film Stop Making Sense.

At which festival did the film premiere, with Demme winning the Silver Bear for Best Director?

The film had opened in US cinemas on Valentine's Day 1991, a few days before its European bow.

Which FBI profiler toured Quantico with Scott Glenn to prepare him for playing Jack Crawford?

Douglas, a pioneer of criminal profiling, was widely seen as the real-life model for the Crawford character.

In which Pennsylvania town is the Victorian house that served as Buffalo Bill's home?

Principal photography ran from November 1989 to March 1990, mostly in and around Pittsburgh.

When the film was re-released in the UK in 2017, the BBFC lowered its certificate from 18 to what?

Co-producer Ed Saxon said audiences had become desensitised; the BBFC's Craig Lapper argued viewers had simply become more used to the genre.