I never knew Charles Xavier was establish on an one-time Hollywood thespian .
1.Fred Astairewas a skateboarder. He picked up the sport when he was in his 70s, and has a lifetime membership in the National Skateboarding Society.
2.Also Fred Astaire started taking dance lessons because his older sister started taking dance lessons and his mom didn’t want to spend money on a babysitter, soshe sent Fred, too.
3.Douglas Fairbanks and Mary Pickford are credited withbringing Alfredoto the states after an Italian chef came up with it for his pregnant wife and the acting pair asked for the recipe on their honeymoon in Italy.
4.Judy Garlandhas arose varietalnamed after her. Garland rose bushes are planted outside her crypt.
5.Humphrey Bogart was anavid chess playerand played correspondence chess with soldiers overseas in WWII. He was told to stop when the FBI intercepted a letter and mistook the chess notations for a secret code.
6.Roderick Mann, an entertainment journalist, said “Cary [Grant] told me he used totelephone Clark Gableeach Christmas and say, ‘Did you get any monogrammed stuff you don’t want? If he said yes, I’d hurry ‘round and we’d exchange initial presents.'”
7.Despite winning four Oscars, Katherine Hepburn only went to the Oscars once, in 1974 topresent an award, and came straight from her garden wearing her gardening clothes.
8.Prior to 1932, films James Cagney was in were shot with live ammo. For the filmTaxi, Cagneystarted to refusethe use of live ammunition after a near miss where a bullet deflected off of the steel window and hit the wall where his head had been.
9.Elizabeth Taylor had arare genetic mutationknown asdistichiasisthat gave her two rows of eyelashes.
10.Doris Day thought she was born in 1924 until the Associated Press found her birth certificate on her 95th birthdaysaying shewas born in 1922.
11.Bing Crosbyhad to re-record"White Christmas" because the original wore out from being pressed into records so many times.
12.Billie Holidayused to babysitBilly Crystal.
13.Tim Burtonoriginally wanted Sammy Davis Jr. forthe role ofBeetlejuice (though the role ended up going toMichael Keatonafter Burton was impressed by his improv skills).
14.When Sidney Poitier and Harry Belafontewere teenagers, they would share single NYC theater tickets and swap out at intermission, briefing the other on the plot they missed.
15.WhenFrank Sinatrawas born, the doctor thought he was a stillborn and went to go tend to his mother. Frank only started breathing when his grandmother picked him up off the delivery table, ran him under cold water, and smacked his back.
16.Louis Armstronghad callouseson his lips from playing the trumpet so much, which he would take off himself with a razor blade.
17.Finally,Stan Leehas saidthat the look of Professor X in X-Men is based on Oscar-winning actor Yul Brynner.
