50 Fun Facts About The Secret Life of Walter Mitty

Which comedy star both directed and played Walter Mitty in the 2013 film of James Thurber's story?

Ben Stiller took the lead role in April 2011 and agreed to direct three months later. The remake had been stuck in development since 1994.

Which magazine, also home to James Thurber's cartoons, first printed his Walter Mitty story?

The New Yorker ran the story on March 18, 1939, and it was an immediate success. It went on to become one of the most anthologized short stories in American literature.

What does Walter Mitty imagine facing in the final daydream of James Thurber's short story?

A firing squad is where the story leaves him, leaning on a wall outside a drugstore while his wife shops. Every earlier daydream had been cut short before he could triumph.

In British military slang, Walts, short for Walter Mitty, are people caught doing what?

Impersonating soldiers earns the nickname because Walter Mitty only dreamed of heroics. Andy McNab wrote that SAS applicants driven by vanity were labelled Walter Mitties and quietly sent home.

Which David Bowie song plays as Walter Mitty leaps aboard a helicopter in the 2013 film?

Space Oddity plays in his imagination, sung by his co-worker Cheryl, and it is what gets him to jump aboard. The scene marks the point where his fantasies and his real life come together.

Which comedian, famed for tongue-twisting patter songs, played Walter Mitty in the 1947 film?

Danny Kaye was the reason the plot changed so much: the writers were told to reshape it to show off his talents. James Thurber's own suggestions for the script were largely ignored.

James Thurber, the creator of Walter Mitty, lost an eye as a boy when his brother hit him with what?

An arrow shot by his older brother William struck his left eye during a game in the yard. His other eye failed decades later, leaving him almost completely blind in the 1940s.

Which rare Himalayan animal is the photographer after when Walter Mitty finds him in the 2013 film?

A snow leopard is what he has tracked into the Afghan mountains. Flying home from Afghanistan then gets Walter detained by airport security in Los Angeles.

Which horror star pushes Walter Mitty out of an office window as Dr. Hollingshead in the 1947 film?

Boris Karloff even shot a sequence in his Frankenstein monster make-up for the film, but it was cut. His character poses as a psychiatrist to convince Walter that his adventure never happened.

What does Walter Mitty manage at Life magazine in the 2013 film about its final print issue?

Photo negatives are his whole job as negative assets manager, which is why one missing frame threatens his career. The lost shot was meant for the last cover.

Which item does Walter Mitty's wife order him to buy in town, saying he is no longer young?

Overshoes are the one errand he manages without trouble, at the nearest shoe store. His wife later scolds him for not having put them on in the store.

Which shopping item does Walter Mitty forget until a courtroom daydream jogs his memory?

Puppy biscuit comes back to him when the imaginary Mitty hurls an insult at the district attorney. He says the words aloud in the street, and a passing woman laughs at him.

What does Walter Mitty use to repair a failing machine in the Thurber story's surgery daydream?

A fountain pen replaces a faulty piston in the failing anaesthetic machine, a fix he says will hold for ten minutes. The fantasy ends before he can make his first cut.

Which craft does Walter Mitty command through a storm in the opening daydream of the Thurber story?

A Navy hydroplane with eight engines is his command, and its admiring crew trust him to pull them through anything. His real name is never used in this first fantasy.

Whose shout ends Walter Mitty's surgeon daydream after he drives into the wrong lane?

A parking-lot attendant orders him out of the exit-only lane, then parks the car for him with insulting ease. Mitty walks away painfully embarrassed by the encounter.

Which alibi does Walter Mitty's lawyer offer in the courtroom daydream of the Thurber story?

An arm in a sling is the defence, and Mitty wrecks it by boasting he could have made the shot with his left hand. The sling echoes a real plan he had just made to save face at a garage.

Walter Mitty and his wife make their weekly shopping trip to which Connecticut city?

Waterbury is also where a newsboy, shouting about a local trial, sets off the courtroom fantasy. Mitty always tries to reach the hotel there before his wife does.

Where does Walter Mitty's wife spend her time while he runs their errands in town?

At the hairdresser is where he drops her off at the start of the trip. They arrange to meet afterwards at a hotel, where she dislikes arriving before him.

Which item does Walter Mitty pull off at a red light once his wife has left the car?

His gloves come off in a small act of rebellion, then go straight back on when a policeman snaps at him to hurry up. His wife had asked why he was not wearing them.

Which family doctor, later cast in a surgery daydream, does Walter Mitty's wife want him to see?

Renshaw is the doctor she suggests for a checkup after the first daydream. Minutes later he turns up in the imagined operating room, where even he needs Mitty's help.

Which real magazine does Walter Mitty leaf through before the Thurber story's bomber-pilot daydream?

Liberty was a real American weekly, published from 1924 to 1950. An old copy with an article about German air power is what puts him in the cockpit.

What does Captain Mitty knock back before the lone bombing mission in the Thurber story?

Brandy, several glasses of it, wins the admiration of the anxious sergeant who has told him he cannot fly alone. His wife's arrival at the hotel cuts the fantasy off as he leaves the dugout.

After Walter Mitty snaps that he was thinking, what does his wife say she will do at home?

Take his temperature is her whole reply to the one moment he stands up for himself. To her, a husband who answers back must have something wrong with him.

What did Walter Mitty once get wound around his car's axles, to a mechanic's amusement?

Tire chains defeated him so badly that a smirking mechanic had to come and free them. His wife has made him drive to a garage ever since whenever they need taking off.

In the Thurber story, Walter Mitty's imaginary patient Wellington McMillan is a millionaire what?

Banker Wellington McMillan is important enough that two outside specialists have been brought in. Even so, every doctor in the room turns to Mitty to save him.

Which James Thurber collection was the first book to include The Secret Life of Walter Mitty?

My World and Welcome to It later lent its title to a television series based on his work, which won two Emmys. The story had first appeared in a magazine three years before the book.

What does Captain Mitty volunteer to bomb single-handed in the Thurber story's war daydream?

An ammunition dump is the target, and he offers to fly there alone because his co-pilot is unable to fly. A nervous sergeant advises him not to go.

Which Ohio city, home of the Thurber House, was the birthplace of Walter Mitty's creator?

Columbus is where James Thurber grew up, and his memories of a childhood there fill My Life and Hard Times, often called his finest book. His ashes are buried in the city.

Which future children's author shared an office with Walter Mitty's creator, James Thurber?

E. B. White, who later wrote Charlotte's Web, helped him get hired and co-wrote a spoof of solemn books about sex with him. Its drawings proved so popular that their magazine began printing his cartoons.

Which job took Walter Mitty's creator James Thurber to the US embassy in Paris in 1918?

Code clerk was the post he took when poor eyesight kept him out of the army. He reached France two days after the Armistice and stayed for more than a year.

Which Bridesmaids star plays Cheryl, the co-worker Walter Mitty adores in the 2013 film?

Kristen Wiig also made her debut as a soundtrack singer in the role, recording a David Bowie cover for the film at Electric Lady Studios.

Which Oscar-winning actor plays the elusive photojournalist in the 2013 Walter Mitty film?

Sean Penn joined in what was billed as a small but pivotal supporting part. His character still shoots on analog film and sends word to the office by telegram.

Which comedy star was first lined up to play Walter Mitty when a remake was conceived in 1994?

Jim Carrey stayed attached for about a decade before scheduling conflicts forced him out in 2005. The rights had gone to the studio behind his hits The Mask and Dumb and Dumber.

The Greenland and Afghanistan scenes of the 2013 Walter Mitty film were all shot in which country?

Iceland stood in for both: a small village played the Greenland capital, while the Skogafoss waterfall and Vatnajökull's glacier country became the Afghan mountains.

Which natural disaster makes Walter Mitty miss the photographer he is chasing in the 2013 film?

A volcanic eruption beats him to it: the photographer had come to shoot the volcano, and Walter arrives just as it blows. He goes home dejected and promptly loses his job.

Which animals lurk in the icy sea when Walter Mitty jumps from a helicopter in the 2013 film?

Sharks are only part of the problem: his plunge also loses the supplies the helicopter was carrying and knocks out the ship's radio contact.

Which dating site's agent, played by Patton Oswalt, keeps phoning Walter Mitty in the 2013 film?

eHarmony agent Todd first tells Walter that his profile says nothing about places visited or things done. He ends up vouching for Walter when airport security detains him.

Which Oscar-winning star of Terms of Endearment plays Walter Mitty's mother Edna in the 2013 film?

Shirley MacLaine plays the mother whose piano turns out to be the mysterious curved object in one of the photographer's clue pictures.

Which producer bought the Walter Mitty film rights in 1944 and ignored James Thurber's advice?

Samuel Goldwyn even retitled the picture on the strength of a Gallup poll, then changed it back when the author's fans protested. His son went on to produce the 2013 remake.

Which actress plays Rosalind, the woman from Walter Mitty's daydreams, in the 1947 film?

Virginia Mayo plays both the real Rosalind and the heroine of the daydreams she resembles. She was a regular screen partner of the film's star through the 1940s.

Which blockbuster director signed on in 2003 to make a Walter Mitty film, then left within a year?

Steven Spielberg walked away in April 2004 to make War of the Worlds and Munich instead. His studio DreamWorks had signed on to co-finance the picture.

Where had the missing cover picture been hidden all along in the 2013 Walter Mitty film?

Inside a gift wallet from the photographer, which Walter had thrown away at his mother's house. His mother had quietly fished it out of the trash.

Which cake, baked by Walter Mitty's mother, carries the photographer's travel notes on its wrapping?

Clementine cake wrapping carries the notes that reveal where the photographer is heading next. Walter's mother had told him she baked it, but he was daydreaming at the time.

Which Parks and Recreation actor plays the manager who fires Walter Mitty in the 2013 film?

Adam Scott plays Ted Hendricks, who is overseeing the magazine's move online. Walter finally tells him off for disrespecting the staff when he delivers the lost picture.

What is Walter Mitty's day job in the 1947 film, a role that feeds his lurid daydreams?

Pulp-fiction proofreader at a Manhattan publishing firm is his job, and the lurid magazines he checks all day fuel his fantasies. By the end he has been promoted to associate editor.

In the 1947 Walter Mitty film, a little black book lists the hiding places of what?

Dutch art treasures had been secretly hidden before the German invasion, and a ruthless villain known as the Boot is hunting for the book that lists them.

In the 1947 film The Secret Life of Walter Mitty, the dream character Anatole of Paris designs what?

Women's hats, each more ridiculous than the last, are the trade of one of the star's best-remembered dream characters. The lyrics of his song were written by the star's wife.

Which skateboarding legend doubled for the star in the 2013 Walter Mitty film's Central Park scene?

Rodney Mullen, credited with inventing the kickflip and the flatground ollie, handled the Central Park stunts. A second double rode the mountain descent, though the close-ups are the real actor.

Which singer-songwriter performs Step Out and Stay Alive in the 2013 Walter Mitty film?

José González, born in Sweden to Argentine parents, performs both, and his band Junip adds two more tracks to the album. Stay Alive was written by Ryan Adams.

What does the Thurber Prize, named after Walter Mitty's creator James Thurber, honor each year?

American humor in print is what it rewards, and winners have included Daily Show hosts Jon Stewart and Trevor Noah. The prize has been given every year since 2004.