50 Fun Facts About The Big Lebowski

Which pair of filmmakers wrote, directed and produced The Big Lebowski?

They wrote it around the same time as Barton Fink but shot Fargo first.

In what year is the film set, when the Dude is attacked in his Los Angeles home?

The Gulf War is on television throughout.

What do the enforcers do to the Dude's rug before realising they have the wrong Lebowski?

The rug really tied the room together, a line borrowed from a real Vietnam veteran the Coens knew.

Which real-life film producer and Seattle Seven member was the main inspiration for the Dude?

He liked White Russians, was known as 'The Dude', and had once owned a Chrysler LeBaron.

Whose love of guns and the military did the Coens fold into Walter Sobchak?

They met him in Los Angeles while making Barton Fink.

Which two women did the actress playing Maude say the character was based on?

Schneemann was an artist who 'worked naked from a swing'.

Which actor did the Coens originally consider for the role of the Dude?

Jeff Bridges hesitated too, worried the part would set a bad example for his daughters.

Where did most of the Dude's wardrobe come from?

Bridges picked out clothes he thought the Dude might wear and wore them home after shooting.

The Dude was originally scripted to drive a smaller car. Why did it become a Ford Torino?

The script had a Chrysler LeBaron, which the Dude's real-life inspiration really had owned.

Which actor plays Walter Sobchak?

Walter is a Vietnam veteran who refuses to bowl on Saturdays because he is shomer Shabbos.

Why does Walter say he cannot bowl on Saturdays?

He converted to Judaism for his ex-wife Cynthia and kept the observance.

Which actor plays Donny, the bowling partner Walter keeps telling to shut up?

Donny dies of a heart attack during the fight with the nihilists in the parking lot.

How does Donny die?

Walter fights the nihilists off, but Donny collapses in the commotion.

What do the Dude and Walter put Donny's ashes in, rather than pay for an urn?

When Walter scatters them, an updraft blows the ashes straight back onto the Dude.

Which actress plays Maude Lebowski?

Maude sleeps with the Dude because she wants a child by a father she will never have to deal with.

Why does Maude sleep with the Dude?

She is waiting for him at his home when he gets back from Treehorn's.

Who plays Brandt, the Big Lebowski's obsequious assistant?

David Huddleston plays the wheelchair-bound millionaire himself.

Which actress plays Bunny Lebowski, the millionaire's young wife who is 'apparently kidnapped'?

Convinced the kidnapping is a ruse by Bunny, Walter fakes the ransom drop.

What does the envelope from the kidnappers contain, supposedly from Bunny?

Walter is unimpressed: he can get you a toe by three o'clock this afternoon.

What does the Dude find in his recovered car that leads him to a teenager's house?

It is signed by Larry Sellers, whose father wrote for Branded.

Walter attacks a Corvette outside Larry's house with a crowbar. Whose car is it really?

The neighbour retaliates on the Dude's Torino, and the nihilists later set what is left of it on fire.

Which of these musicians plays one of the German nihilists?

Peter Stormare and Torsten Voges are the others; Aimee Mann plays the nihilist girlfriend who supplies the toe.

Who plays Jesus Quintana, the purple-clad rival bowler?

The character was partly inspired by a 1988 stage performance he gave at the Public Theater in Mi Puta Vida.

Which cover of 'Hotel California' accompanies Jesus Quintana's entrance?

Fitting, since the Dude hates the Eagles.

Who plays the Stranger, the cowboy narrator who chats with the Dude at the bar?

His theme is 'Tumbling Tumbleweeds', chosen when the Coens were still writing the script.

Which pornographer, played by Ben Gazzara, drugs the Dude's drink?

His beach house scenes were shot at the Sheats-Goldstein Residence designed by John Lautner.

The Dude's drugged dream sequences are staged in the style of which Hollywood choreographer?

They were shot in a converted airplane hangar.

Which Bob Dylan song plays over the opening titles?

Music supervisor T Bone Burnett insisted on being credited as 'Music Archivist' instead.

Which Dude line reportedly persuaded Allen Klein to let the film use 'Dead Flowers'?

Klein stood up and said 'That's it, you can have the song'; it plays over the closing credits.

What kind of music accompanies the German nihilists on the soundtrack?

Jeff Bridges, meanwhile, gets Creedence.

Which composer, a veteran of every Coen film, wrote the score?

The film premiered at Sundance on January 18, 1998.

What was the film's production budget?

PolyGram and Working Title backed it, and it grossed $48.3 million worldwide.

How much did The Big Lebowski gross in the US and Canada on its original release?

It opened in 1,207 theatres on March 6, 1998, and took $5.5 million that weekend.

In which city did Lebowski Fest begin in 2002, with 150 fans showing up?

Founders Will Russell and Scott Shuffitt built it around a screening, live music and a costumed bowling party.

What is the official name of the religion Dudeism, founded in 2005?

Oliver Benjamin, a journalist in Chiang Mai, founded it as a modern form of Taoism.

Roughly how many Dudeist priests had been ordained worldwide by May 2017?

March 6, the film's US release date, is the Day of the Dude.

In which year was The Big Lebowski added to the US National Film Registry?

Roger Ebert had added it to his 'Great Movies' list in 2010.

The 2019 spin-off The Jesus Rolls reimagines which 1974 French film?

Bertrand Blier's original was Les Valseuses; the spin-off took just $64,648 against a $4.5 million budget.

The film's structure is loosely modelled on the detective fiction of which author?

The title nods to The Big Sleep, and the plot is just as hard to follow.

How long did principal photography take, in and around Los Angeles in early 1997?

Filming ran from January to April.

Jeff Bridges reprised the Dude for which beer brand's Super Bowl LIII commercial in 2019?

He teased it with a five-second Twitter clip captioned 'Can't be living in the past, man. Stay tuned', tumbleweed included.

Who was the cinematographer on The Big Lebowski?

He shot the night scenes with an orange sodium-light effect rather than the usual blue moonlight, bridging the gritty and dream looks.

At which festival did The Big Lebowski premiere on January 18, 1998?

It played the 1,300-seat Eccles Theater, then the Berlin festival, before opening in 1,207 North American cinemas on March 6.

The Coens wrote The Big Lebowski at around the same time as which of their films?

Ethan said the Dude-Walter dynamic grew out of the scenes between Barton Fink and Charlie Meadows; Fargo got made in the meantime.

All the bowling sequences were shot over three weeks at which alley?

The dream sequences, by contrast, were staged in a converted airplane hangar.

Larry Sellers's father wrote for which TV western that Walter reveres?

Arthur Digby Sellers gets no say in the visit; Walter smashes a Corvette outside the house that turns out not to be Larry's.

Peter Exline, a partial model for the Dude, played which sport before the Coens made it bowling?

They chose bowling because it is a social sport where you can sit, drink and smoke 'while engaging in inane conversation'.

Which actor passed on the 'Big' Lebowski role, not wanting to play an American?

Duvall disliked the script and Hackman was on a break; even Jerry Falwell and Norman Schwarzkopf were floated before David Huddleston got it.

Which composer's music did Jack Kehler pick for landlord Marty's dance performance?

He chose Pictures at an Exhibition from three or four options the Coens offered, and rehearsed for three three-hour sessions.

Jackie Treehorn's house scenes were shot in a 1963 Hollywood Hills home by which architect?

The same architect-designed house, the Sheats-Goldstein Residence, has shown up in many films and music videos since.