Heaven Can Wait - Trivia, Questions and Fun Facts

[discussimdb]

Fan of Heaven Can Wait or just want to share your movie knowledge? This topic is dedicated to all trivia and questions related to Heaven Can Wait

[scarlett]

The first choice for Mr. Jordan was Cary Grant who reportedly turned down a US $1-million offer from Warren Beatty. Website Wikipedia states: "Beatty lobbied hard for Cary Grant to accept the role of Mr. Jordan, going so far as to have Grant's ex-wife, Dyan Cannon, who stars as Julia Farnsworth, urge him to take the part. Although Grant was tempted, he ultimately decided not to end his retirement from filmmaking". The Turner Classic Movies website states: "Beatty had some grandiose notions about who should play Mr. Jordan . . . He wanted Cary Grant . . . but Grant had retired a dozen years earlier, and had no interest in returning to the screen". Beatty also considered former Senator and 1968 anti-war Democrat presidential candidate Eugene McCarthy for the part prior to James Mason in the end being cast as Mr. Jordan.

[albert]

Kate Jackson was Warren Beatty's first choice for the role of Betty Logan but Jackson turned down the part. Mary Steenburgen was also a finalist for the character that in the end was cast with Julie Christie.

[jesus]

Promotional materials such as movie posters for the picture prominently show Warren Beatty as an angel with a pair of wings but in reality Beatty is never seen adorned with wings in the movie at all and as such this artwork is purely impressionistic.

[fred]

"Here Comes Mr. Jordan" is reportedly based on the play "Heaven Can Wait" (1938). However, there are two films with that title. The first film Heaven Can Wait (1943), staring Don Ameche and Gene Tierney, is based on the stage play "Birthday" (1935), written by Leslie Bush-Fekete. In the play and film, the central character is an older man who has lived a full life and is confronted by the devil, who has to decide if he qualifies to enter "Hades". It is a different storyline than the one for "Here Comes Mr. Jordan". The second film titled Heaven Can Wait (1978), staring Warren Beatty, based on a play with the same title, written by Harry Segall, is practically a word for word rewrite of Here Comes Mr. Jordan (1941). The one exception being that a football player replaces a ring boxer as the central character.

[bernard]

English actor and comedian Arthur Lowe was a offered a key role in the movie.

[linda]

The movie was announced in Hollywood trade magazines on 4th March 1977.

[addison]

Warren Beatty portrays three characters in this picture: Tom Jarrett, Leo Farnsworth, which were his two adopted personas, and his primary character, Joe Pendleton.

[cameron]

The film, a remake, was made and released about thirty-seven years after its source Hollywood Golden Age classic Here Comes Mr. Jordan (1941), and about thirty-one years after that movie's sequel, Down to Earth (1947), which was also based on some of the same material, the 1938 play "Wonderful Journey" by Harry Segall which had originally been entitled "Heaven Can Wait".

[ronnie]

The exquisite and grandiose Farnsworth Mansion in the film is portrayed by the Filoli Estate which is located at 86 Cañada Road, Woodside in California, USA. The movie's closing credits declare that the picture was "filmed in part at Filoli, a property given by Mrs William P Roth to the National Trust for Historic Preservation and administered by Filoli Center".

[jesus]

The film cast includes two Oscar winners: Warren Beatty and Julie Christie; and five Oscar nominees: James Mason, Dyan Cannon, Jack Warden, Buck Henry and Vincent Gardenia.

[manuel]

Third and final of three collaborations of actor Warren Beatty and actress Julie Christie. The films are Shampoo (1975), Heaven Can Wait (1978) and McCabe & Mrs. Miller (1971). Christie and Beatty were former participants in a personal relationship when they made Heaven Can Wait (1978), having broken up in 1974. Under The name of "Jules", Beatty dedicated Christie a dedicatee for his next movie, the epic picture Reds (1981).

[charlie]

Buck Henry and Warren Beatty directed three actors all in Oscar nominated performances for Academy Awards: Warren Beatty, Jack Warden and Dyan Cannon but none of them won acting Oscars for acting in this movie.

[kristen]

James Mason once said about working with two directors (Warren Beatty and Buck Henry) on the film: "I was not upset by having two directors, but it was different. When Warren was in front of the camera, he decided it would be a nice idea to have somebody with whom he was on good terms behind it; he didn't have to bother with keeping an eye on the other actors."

[carl]

Final film of veteran actor and stuntman David Sharpe who worked uncredited in the stunt department as a van driver.

[carl]

First of two collaborations of Buck Henry and Warren Beatty who both acted in and directed this movie with Beatty also producing and screen-writing. The second was about twenty-three years later with Town & Country (2001) where Beatty was an actor and Henry was an actor and screenwriter.

[jeffrey]

The picture was selected for inclusion in the American Film Institute's America's Funniest Movies list of 500 movies nominated for the top 100 Funniest American Movies of all time known as the "AFI's 100 Years...100 Laughs" list.

[ella]

The movie loosely inspired the Iron Maiden song of the same name. Their "Heaven Can Wait" track is included on their 1986 album "Somewhere in Time".

[lynn]

Jack Snow: The former Los Angeles Rams football player as Cassidy.