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Ben Stiller is an American actor, comedian, and filmmaker, famous for his work in his own show entitled “The Ben Stiller Show.” Here are 42 facts about the comedian:
- He is considered to be the leader of “Frat Pack,” a group of comedians, who appeared together in many blockbuster comedy movies. The group includes Jack Black, Owen Wilson, Luke Wilson, Will Ferrell, Vince Vaughn and Steve Carell.
- Out of the 35 movies considered to be “Frat Pack” movies, he has acted in 20 of them. He has acted the most with Owen Wilson.
- He received an Emmy Award for Outstanding Writing for a Variety, Music or Comedy Program in 1993 for his work in “The Ben Stiller Show,” with main writers being Stiller along with Jeff Khan and Harry O’Reilly.
- He was awarded “The Teen Choice” Award for “Choice Hissy Fit” in for his work in “Zoolander.” He was nominated 12 times in his career for the Teen Choice Award.
- “The Ben Stiller Show” was initially produced by MTV for 13 episodes which included comedy sketch with music videos and parodies of various stars, shows and movies. After the cancelation with just one season, Fox Network produced it in 1992 with the same title.
- During the shoot of “Night at the Museum” he performed all his Jedediah scenes by talking to a toothpick. Wilson came after three months to film all his scenes. They both met only once while filming.
- Being a big fan of Tom Cruise he watched the first and second installments of “Mission Impossible” in order to run like him during the shooting of “Night at the Museum” in 2006.
- The lady at the employment office in the movie “Night at the Museum” is none other than his mother Anne Meara. His father Jerry Stiller is also an actor and this is not the first time his parents have acted in his movie.
- He was born as Benjamin Edward Meara Stiller on 30 November 1965 in the house of actor comedian couples Jerry Stiller and Anne Meara in New York City.
- He spent most of his childhood on the sets of his parent’s shows. In an interview he said “in some ways it was a show business upbringing, a lot of travel, a lot of late nights and not what you had call traditional.”
- He has an elder sister Amy Stiller who is also an actress. She has acted with brother Stiller in films such as “Reality Bites”, “Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story” and “Zoolander”.
- He made his acting debut in the television series “Kate McShane” as a guest. The show was a short lived series with Meara in the lead role as a lawyer. He was only 9 years old.
- He another TV soap opera titled “Guiding Light” he received a small part with one line. Though he admitted in an interview that it was a poor performance he was only 15 at that time.
- He produced a 10 minute short titled “The Hustler of Money” parody based on the movie “The Color of the Money”. It was aired on the “Saturday Night Live” in 1987.
- He was offered the job of writer on the Saturday Night Live in 1989 which did not last beyond 4 episodes. He quit because he wasn’t allowed to take any more short films.
- In 1991 he played a minor role as Pluto’s cook in the movie “Highway to Hell”. All the Stiller family members played a part in the movie.
- His first directorial theatrical movie release was “Reality Bites” in 1994. It was written by 19 year old Helen Childress who later spent a year with Stiller to rewrite the script. The movie was the highest grossing film in its opening weekend.
- In the 1995 movie “Heavy Weights”, while he played the part of both Tony Perkins and his father, his real life parents played the part of Bushkins.
- He played the un-credited role in the 1996 Adam Sandler movie “Happy Gilmore” as a nursing home orderly. Even though his name according to the tag is “Hal L” he is never called by name in the movie.
- In the movie “Flirting with Disaster” in 1996 he and the director David O. Russell did not get along well and had several heated arguments. Initially John Cusack was offered the role of Mel Coplin played by Stiller.
- Stiller as a director made Jim Carrey mime the action of playing basketball and used visual effects to add the ball in the post production of “The Cable Guy” in 1996. He found out that Carrey could not dribble the ball much less basket it.
- Initially Stiller was to play the part of the Cable Guy but found it difficult to do both acting and directing. Hence he recast the role. However he did play the part of Sweet Brothers.
- In a stretcher scene in the movie “There’s Something About Mary” Stiller in dropped from the stretcher while lifting to the ambulance. This was not scripted but they left it in the movie as it seemed funny.
- Stiller was the first choice of Farrelly Brothers for “There’s Something About Mary” but the studio was reluctant to cast him. They were even more reluctant to cast Owen Wilson and agreed to cast Stiller.
- He revealed in Late Show with David Letterman in 1993 that he had a heated argument with Greg Kinnear on the sets of “Mystery Men”. He even wanted to be released from the movie. Ironically he was given the chance to direct the movie but turned down as it was a huge project to handle.
- Teri Polo and Stiller do a scene in “Meet the Parents” in 2000 where they both make out in her bed and he fondles her breasts. As a gag she had stuffed her bra with cookies for that scene.
- In 2000 he made another short film titled “Mission Improbable” for MTV, a parody based on Tom Cruise’s famous “Mission Impossible series”.
- He forgot his line during a cemetery scene in “Zoolander” and repeats his line “But Why Male Models” twice. Fellow actor David Duchovny continued with it and gave him a straight answer.
- The “Blue Steel” look in “Zoolander” was based on Stiller’s own look in real life. It was developed form Christine Taylor’s own description of her husband’s look when he combs his hair in front of a mirror.
- “Zoolander” was the movie where he starred side by side with his wife Christine Taylor in a major film. She was cast previously in “Heat Vision and Jack” in 1999 which did not go beyond the pilot episode.
- Before the filming began for the movie “Starsky and Hutch” in 2004 he went to a driving school and did very well. However, he was not allowed to do all his driving stunts.
- For the performance of 2004 movie “Envy” the lead actors Stiller and Black along with Jeffrey Katzenberg of DreamWorks apologized publicly during the press conference of the “Shark Tale” at the 2004 Cannes Film Festival.
- During the filming of “Dodgeball : A True Underdog Story” in 2004 he broke 3 cameras in succession while filming one scene. Even his wife Christine Taylor also got smacked by a ball in the face due to Stiller.
- He made a cameo appearance in the 2004 movie “Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy” as an anchor for a Spanish language news team. Some members of the Frat Pack group also made a cameo in the movie.
- He also made an appearance in one episode of the popular TV series “Friends” in 2004. He played the character of Jennifer Aniston’s boyfriend who yells at everyone.
- Aniston played his love interest in the movie “Along Came Polly” in 2004. The reason she stated for accepting the role was to play alongside her friend Stiller and to dance the salsa.
- He provided the voice to the animated character Alex the Lion in “Madagascar” in 2005. It was his first experience as a voice actor for an animated movie.
- “The Heartbreak Kid” in 2007 marked the twentieth anniversary of father-son duo of Ben Stiller and Jerry Stiller working together in movies. Their first appearance working together was in “Hot Pursuit” in 1987.
- When Stiller signed for “Tower Heist” in 2011 they used it to coax Eddie Murphy to sign too. Ironically the idea for the movie came from Murphy himself few years before the project was launched.
- He met his wife Taylor during the shoot of television series for Fox Broadcast titled “Heat Vision and Jack”. They got married in May 2000 in Hawaii.
- The couple has two children: daughter Ella Olivia and a son Quinlin Dempsey. The family resides in Westchester County in New York.
- He was nominated for Best Actor at the 40 Saturn Awards in 2014 for his performance in “The Secret Life of Walter Mitty”.
