The Towering Inferno - Trivia, Questions and Fun Facts

[discussimdb]

Fan of The Towering Inferno or just want to share your movie knowledge? This topic is dedicated to all trivia and questions related to The Towering Inferno

[ken]

Lee Marvin turned down the role of Doug Roberts.

[charlie]

Paul Newman's and Steve McQueen's names are staggered in the opening credits, closing credits, and on the posters so that, depending on which way you read it (top to bottom or left to right), both appear to get top billing. This is known as "first place - above and below", This strategy was being worked on when Newman and McQueen almost co-starred together in "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969)," but McQueen eventually dropped out of the project and was replaced by the lesser known Robert Redford.

[tom]

Sixty stunt people performed more than 200 stunts.

[lynn]

Sean Connery, Rod Taylor and Charlton Heston were considered for the role of Chief O'Halloran.

[jamie]

Fred Astaire lobbied to write a song for the film, but his effort was deemed to be too old-fashioned, making the way for Joel Hirschhorn and Al Kasha's Oscar-winning "We May Never Love Like This Again".

[albert]

When Fred Astaire's character enters the new building, he takes a moment to stare up at it's overwhelming height. The shot of his worms eye view of the building (which only fully existed as a miniature) was achieved by filming the miniature's reflection off an angled mirror on the ground, outside since the camera was too big to get the shot the normal way.

[bernard]

The large sculpture that is part of the bar design in the Promenade Room was originally used in the Harmonia Gardens set in Hello, Dolly! (1969).

[elmer]

According to Esther Williams in her memoirs, she was personally contacted by Irwin Allen and offered roles in both this film and The Poseidon Adventure (1972), but declined both.

[addison]

Steve McQueen took a four-year hiatus from acting after making this film.

[elmer]

Despite the alleged on-set clash between William Holden and Faye Dunaway over Dunaway's continuous lateness and absences they would reunite 2 years later for Network (1976).

[kenzi]

The HH-1N helicopters are in the original paint scheme used by NAS Lemoore's (CA) Search and Rescue Flight. Later on, they were painted red and white. Up until the unit's disbandment in 2004, the Flight was still pointing out it was their helicopters used in the movie.

[norma]

Despite negative comments years later from some cast and crew who felt the film was "dumb" and "stupid", the film was nevertheless a massive worldwide box office hit and earned back nearly ten times it's production cost. It also earned Paul Newman and Steve McQueen, who were later both critics of the film, a sizeable sum (as both were given a percentage of the box office gross).

[jeffrey]

The fox fur-trimmed pink satin cape worn by Sheila Matthews as Mayor Ramsey's wife during the dedication ceremony of the Glass Tower was a leftover costume originally worn by Jean Simmons in Désirée (1954).