50 Fun Facts About The Graduate

Who directed The Graduate?

He was a Broadway star director but a Hollywood unknown, and every studio turned the project down before Joseph E. Levine financed it.

Who plays Benjamin Braddock?

He was just short of 30 when he auditioned to play a 21-year-old, and was paid $20,000 for the role.

Which actress plays Mrs. Robinson?

She was only six years older than Hoffman and eight years older than Katharine Ross, who played her daughter.

Who plays Elaine Robinson?

Simone Signoret recommended her to Nichols after they made the thriller Games together.

The Graduate is adapted from a 1963 novella by which author?

He wrote it shortly after graduating from Williams College and later gave away almost every dollar it earned him.

Which folk-rock duo recorded the film's soundtrack?

Nichols originally used their existing songs only as a temp track for editing, then decided nothing new could beat them.

In which California city do Benjamin's parents live?

Novelist Charles Webb grew up there himself, and Benjamin later drives from Berkeley to Pasadena and back searching for Elaine.

Under what false surname does Benjamin register at the Taft Hotel?

When the staff later greet him as Mr. Gladstone in front of Elaine, she works out that he has been having an affair.

How does Benjamin spend his summer days while meeting Mrs. Robinson at night?

The pool sequences, cut against the hotel trysts, are one of the film's most imitated montages.

What is Mr. Robinson's professional relationship to Benjamin's father?

That is why both families push Benjamin to take Elaine out, over Mrs. Robinson's furious objection.

Why, according to Mrs. Robinson, did she marry her husband?

She dropped out of college to avoid scandal in the 1940s, which is the root of her contempt for the life she ended up in.

How does Benjamin try to sabotage his first date with Elaine?

She flees in tears, he chases and kisses her, and they end up bonding at a drive-in over their shared uncertainty about the future.

Which university is Elaine attending?

Many of the campus exteriors were actually shot on the brick campus of USC in Los Angeles.

What lie does Mrs. Robinson tell Elaine about the affair?

When Elaine realises the truth she reconciles with Benjamin, who then pushes her to marry him.

What is the name and profession of the man Elaine is set to marry instead?

Mr. Robinson forces her to leave Berkeley for the wedding, which turns out to be in Santa Barbara that same day.

What happens to Benjamin's car as he races to the wedding in Santa Barbara?

He runs the rest of the way and arrives just as the ceremony is ending.

What does Benjamin use to bar the church doors so he and Elaine can escape?

He swings it at the guests first, then jams it through the door handles.

How do Benjamin and Elaine leave the church?

The camera holds on them as their ecstatic smiles fade into uncertain, ambivalent expressions.

What car does Benjamin drive in the film?

Alfa Romeo later sold a US model from 1985 to 1990 called the Spider Graduate in tribute.

What single word of career advice does Mr. McGuire give Benjamin at the party?

The line sits at number 42 on the AFI's list of the 100 greatest movie quotes.

Which French actress was Nichols's first choice for Mrs. Robinson?

The idea drew on the cliché of French older women 'training' younger men; Doris Day turned the part down over the nudity.

Which actor screen-tested for Benjamin but was rejected because he lacked an underdog quality?

He tested opposite Candice Bergen as Elaine; Charles Grodin turned the role down over a $500-a-week salary.

Which future Star Wars actor auditioned for Benjamin and was turned down?

Burt Ward was also informally offered the part but was already playing Robin on TV's Batman.

Which actor was cast as Mr. Robinson but fired after a few days of rehearsal?

Murray Hamilton replaced him; Hackman said years later that the firing still hurt.

Which future US president was considered for the role of Benjamin's father, Mr. Braddock?

William Daniels got the part instead.

Which Mel Brooks film had cast Hoffman before he begged to be released to audition for The Graduate?

He was to play the Nazi playwright Liebkind; Kenneth Mars took the part.

How much was the film's young lead paid for The Graduate?

After taxes and lodging he netted about $4,000, then went on New York unemployment benefits at $55 a week.

Which improv comedian with no screenwriting experience did Nichols pick to write the script?

He shared an Oscar nomination with Calder Willingham and appears in the film as the hotel desk clerk.

Which future star has two lines about calling 'the cops' as a boarding-house tenant?

It was only his second film role; Elaine May and Mike Farrell also appear uncredited.

The church wedding scene was heavily influenced by the ending of which 1924 silent comedy?

Its star Harold Lloyd, who races to stop a wedding in that film, served as an advisor for the scene.

Which Oscar-winning cinematographer, who had shot Ben-Hur, photographed The Graduate?

He said it took everything he had learned in 30 years, because the young director 'went in for a lot of camera'.

The song 'Mrs. Robinson' started life under what working title?

Simon told Nichols it was about times past, Mrs. Roosevelt and Joe DiMaggio; Nichols replied that it was now about Mrs. Robinson.

Which two new songs did Paul Simon first offer Nichols, both of which the director rejected?

Simon was paid $25,000 to submit three songs, and thought film work was close to selling out.

'Mrs. Robinson' was the first rock song to win which Grammy in 1969?

It reached No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 and appears on Bookends, released after the film.

Which baseball star is famously asked where he has gone in 'Mrs. Robinson'?

Simon, actually a Mantle fan, said it came down to syllables; DiMaggio later told him he hadn't gone anywhere, he was doing Mr. Coffee ads.

Which crooner recorded a 1969 cover of 'Mrs. Robinson' that swapped 'Jesus' for 'Jilly'?

It appeared on his album My Way and added a verse referring directly to Mrs. Robinson's antics in the film.

How did The Graduate fare at the 40th Academy Awards?

Nichols took Best Director; the film became only the seventh ever to win that award and nothing else.

Which film beat The Graduate and Bonnie and Clyde to Best Picture at the 1968 Oscars?

It was the first time three films were nominated for all five major awards, and the ceremony was delayed two days after Martin Luther King's assassination.

The Graduate was the highest-grossing film of 1967 in North America with roughly what gross?

Adjusted for inflation that is around $857 million, the 22nd-highest ever in the US and Canada.

Where did The Graduate rank on the AFI's original 1998 list of the 100 greatest American films?

It slipped to 17th in the 2007 update, and was added to the National Film Registry in 1996.

How much did the novelist receive for the film rights to The Graduate?

He made nothing more from the film or its stage versions, and later donated the book's copyright to the Anti-Defamation League.

What was the title of the novelist's sequel to The Graduate, published in Britain in 2007?

Set about a decade later, it has Ben and Elaine in Westchester fighting to homeschool their child, with help from Mrs. Robinson.

Why did Webb sit on his finished second Braddock novel for years before publishing it?

Canal+, which owns The Graduate, could have filmed the book without him; he published only when facing eviction from his home in Eastbourne.

Which actress starred as Mrs. Robinson when The Graduate opened in London's West End in 2000?

She also opened the Broadway run opposite Jason Biggs and Alicia Silverstone; Jerry Hall was among those who followed her in London.

Which producer financed The Graduate after every studio passed, later admitting he mistook Hoffman for a messenger boy?

He backed Nichols partly because Elizabeth Taylor had wanted him to direct Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?

The 1965 hit remix of 'The Sound of Silence' was made how, before it ended up in the film?

The duo had split up when the remix went to No. 1 in January 1966, and hastily reunited to record a follow-up album.

Which screen legend turned down Mrs. Robinson because the nudity offended her?

Bergman, Kerr and Hayworth were also considered, along with Shelley Winters, Ava Gardner, Patricia Neal and Geraldine Page.

Who replaced Gene Hackman as Mr. Robinson after Hackman was fired in rehearsals?

Hamilton went on to play Mayor Vaughn in Jaws; William Daniels was cast as Benjamin's father.

Which Los Angeles campus stood in for Berkeley in many of the film's exterior shots?

The wedding church, meanwhile, was the United Methodist Church in La Verne, whose minister watched the filming disapprovingly.

For how many consecutive weeks did The Graduate run at Denver's Esquire Theatre?

Only the Four Star in Los Angeles, the Coronet in New York and the Town in Seattle matched that year-long exclusive engagement.