Categories: Movies

Little Known Facts About Actor Will Ferrell

John William Ferrell was born in Irvine, California on July 16, 1968 to parents Lee and mother Kay. A little known fact about actor Will Ferrell is, his father became a member of the Righteous Brothers’ band in 1967. Will attended Rancho San Juan Middle School and University High School. In high school, Ferrell was a Trojan football star. He still holds the school record for kicking fourteen field goals during his career. He then earned a degree in Sports Journalism from the University of Southern California. Read this interesting article and learn some more little known facts about actor Will Ferrell you’re sure to enjoy!

Early Career
Ferrell started out being a television sportscaster. He then traveled into comedy by joining “The Groundlings”, an improvisational troupe in Los Angeles. That experience, along with his lauded impersonations, landed him on NBC’s comedy hit “Saturday Night Live” as a repertory player. Some of his best-known impersonations on SNL were of Robert Goulet, Governor Jesse Ventura, Senator Ted Kennedy President George W. Bush.

A little known fact about actor Will Farrell is that he was SNL’s “highest paid cast member” earning a whopping salary of $350,000.

Ferrell also created such characters as “Mourning Latte” frenzied co-host “Tom Wilkins” and night clubber “Steve Butabi”. His SNL career lasted from1995 to 2002.

The 1998 movie, “A Night at the Roxbury” was a take-off of a SNL skit. Critic James Sanford of the Kalamazoo Gazette said, “making a skit 30 times as long does not necessarily mean you’ve made it 30 times as funny…”Guy MacPherson of the Apollo Guide said, “Even as a skit, Chris Kattan and Will Ferrell playing brothers Doug and Steve Butabi just doesn’t work.” And, Eric Lurio of the Greenwich Village Gazette had one word to describe the movie: “Crap!!!!!

Will Ferrell quickly put the experience behind him as he landed roles in other movies. He acted in “Dick” (1999), “Drowning Mona” (2000), “Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back” (2001) and “Old School” (2003). “Elf” (2003) was an award-winning comedy that made more than $100 million. Since the New Millennium began, Ferrell has kept busy by making nearly two dozen movies.

More recent movies such as “The Producers” (2005) earned him a Golden Globe nomination; the 2006 “Stranger Than Fiction” got him a “Best Performance” nomination, and he and actress Sacha Baron Cohen won the 2007 MTV Movie Award for “Best Kiss” in “Talladega Nights”.

Unfortunately, he and actress Nicole Kidman were nominated, and won, a Razzie Award for “Worst Screen Couple” in the 2005 flick, “Bewitched”.

Family Life
Will Ferrell married Swedish actress Viveca Paulin in August of 2000. The couple has two sons, Magnus, born in 2004, and Mattias, born in 2006. A little known fact about actor Will Ferrell is that he’s six-foot-three-inches tall and he loves to run. He and his wife both participated in the Boston Marathon in 2001 and 2003. Ferrell’s finish time was 3 hours, 56 minutes and 12 seconds. His bib number was 9999.