Ben Stiller: 50 amazing facts about the actor! (List)

1. Benjamin Edward Meara “Ben” Stiller was born on November 30 1965 in New York City.

2. He is an American actor, comedian, and filmmaker.

3. He is the son of veteran comedians and actors Jerry Stiller and the late Anne Meara.

4. After beginning his acting career with a play, Stiller wrote several mockumentaries, and was offered his own show entitled The Ben Stiller Show, which he produced and hosted for its 13-episode run.

5. Having previously acted in television, he began acting in films; he made his directorial debut with Reality Bites.

6. Throughout his career he has written, starred in, directed, and/or produced more than 50 films, including The Secret Life of Walter Mitty, Zoolander, The Cable Guy, There’s Something About Mary, the Meet the Parents trilogy, DodgeBall, Tropic Thunder, the Madagascar series, and the Night at the Museum trilogy.

7. He has had multiple cameos in music videos, television shows, and films.

8. Stiller is a member of a group of comedic actors colloquially known as the Frat Pack.

9.  His films have grossed more than $2.6 billion in Canada and the United States, with an average of $79 million per film.

10. Throughout his career, he has received multiple awards and honors, including an Emmy Award, multiple MTV Movie Awards and a Teen Choice Award.

11. Often plays characters who frequently find themselves in very embarrassing, awkward situations.

12. Brother of Amy Stiller.

13. Ranked #78 in Premiere’s 2003 annual Power 100 List. Had ranked #68 in 2002 and #80 in 2001.

14. In the late 1970s, he performed with the New York City troupe NYC’s First All Children’s Theater, playing several roles, including the title role in Clever Jack and the Magic Beanstalk.

15. At nine years old, he made his acting debut as a guest on his mother’s short-lived television series, Kate McShane.

16. Stiller displayed an early interest in filmmaking and made Super 8 movies with his sister and friends.

17. His elder sister, Amy, has appeared in many of his productions, including Reality Bites, DodgeBall: A True Underdog Story, and Zoolander.

18. He considered his childhood unusual, stating “In some ways, it was a show-business upbringing—a lot of traveling, a lot of late nights—not what you’d call traditional.”

19. While the family was “never very religious”, they celebrated both Hanukkah and Christmas, and Stiller had a Bar Mitzvah.

20. After being inspired by the television show Second City Television while in high school, Stiller realized that he wanted to get involved with sketch comedy.

21. His parents frequently took him on the sets of their appearances, including The Mike Douglas Show when he was six.

22. During his high school years, he was also the drummer of the punk band Capital Punishment, which released a studio album named Roadkill in 1982.

23. Stiller attended The Cathedral School of St. John the Divine and graduated from the Calhoun School in New York in 1983.

24. He started performing on the cabaret circuit as opening act to the cabaret siren Jadin Wong. Stiller then enrolled as a film student at the University of California, Los Angeles.

25. His father, comedian and actor Jerry Stiller (born 1927), is from a Jewish family that emigrated from Poland and Galicia in Eastern Europe.

26. His mother, actress/comedian Anne Meara (1929-2015), who was from an Irish Catholic background, converted to Reform Judaism after marrying his father.

27. Stiller dated several actresses during his early television and film career, including Jeanne Tripplehorn, Calista Flockhart, and Amanda Peet.

28. In May 2000, Stiller married Christine Taylor at an oceanfront ceremony in Kauai, Hawaii.[67] He met her while filming a never-broadcast television pilot for the Fox Broadcasting network called Heat Vision and Jack

29. The couple have appeared onscreen together in Zoolander, DodgeBall: A True Underdog Story, Tropic Thunder, Zoolander 2, and Arrested Development.

30. He and his wife reside in Westchester County, New York.

31. The couple have two children, a daughter, Ella Olivia, born April 9, 2002, and a son, Quinlin Dempsey, born July 10, 2005

32. Quinlin was a voice actor at age 3 in Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa, playing his father’s character, Alex, as a cub, a role he shared with another boy, Declan Swift.

33. Stiller frequently does impersonations of many of his favorite performers, including Bono, Tom Cruise, Bruce Springsteen, and David Blaine. In an interview with Parade, he commented that Robert Klein, George Carlin, and Jimmie Walker were inspirations for his comedy career

34. Has a Hollywood “clique” of close friends that have often appeared in his movies: Owen Wilson, Jack Black, Kyle Gass and Janeane Garofalo.

35. He frequently references the show in his work, and named his production company Red Hour Productions after a time of day in the original Star Trek episode “The Return of the Archons”.

36. Stiller is also a self-professed Trekkie and appeared in the television special Star Trek: 30 Years and Beyond to express his love of the show, as well as a comedy roast for William Shatner.

37. Stiller was awarded an Emmy Award for “Outstanding Writing for a Variety, Music or Comedy Program” for his work on The Ben Stiller Show.

38. Princeton University’s Class of 2005 inducted Stiller as an honorary member of the class during its “Senior Week” in April 2005.

39. He has been nominated for the MTV Movie Awards thirteen times, and has won three times: for “Best Fight” in There’s Something About Mary, “Best Comedic Performance” in Meet the Parents, and “Best Villain” in DodgeBall: A True Underdog Story. He also received the MTV Movie Awards’ MTV Generation Award, the ceremony’s top honor, in 2009.

40. He has been nominated twelve times for the Teen Choice Awards, and won once, for “Choice Hissy Fit” for his work in Zoolander.

41. On February 23, 2007, Stiller received the Hasty Pudding Man of the Year award from Harvard’s Hasty Pudding Theatricals. According to the organization, the award is given to performers who give a lasting and impressive contribution to the world of entertainment.

42. In 2014, Stiller was nominated for Best Actor at the 40th Saturn Awards for The Secret Life of Walter Mitty.

43. In 2011 he was awarded the BAFTA Britannia – Charlie Chaplin Britannia Award for Excellence in Comedy by BAFTA Los Angeles.

44. On March 31, 2007, Stiller received the “Wannabe Award” (given to a celebrity whom children “want to be” like) at the Kids’ Choice Awards.

45. On February 6, 2016, Stiller set the Guinness World Record for longest selfie stick (8.56 meters) at the World Premiere of Zoolander 2.

46. In The King of Queens: Shrink Wrap (2002) he played his own real-life father’s father.

47. Helped Jenifer Estess raised millions of dollars to combat A.L.S. (Lou Gehrig’s disease).

48. Has played two very similar characters in the movies Heavy Weights (1995) and Dodgeball (2004). In both films he plays an obnoxious, slightly insane and formerly overweight fitness instructor who’s hell-bent on getting others into shape, and perhaps also on making other peoples’ lives miserable.

49. His favorite actress of all time is Diane Keaton. He even wrote an article about her for Premiere magazine in 1997.

50. Is a big fan of Star Trek (1966). He named his production company “Red Hour Films” after an alien riot featured in the episode Star Trek: The Return of the Archons (1967). Has a humorous, You Tube website “gag” episode of “Star Trek” where he is imitating Shatner’s Captain Kirk.