Trivia for
The Elephant Man (1980) More at IMDbPro »

• Director David Lynch originally tried to do the makeup for the elephant man himself but simply wasn't able to.
  
  
• Following the death of the real Joseph "John" Merrick, parts of his body were preserved for medical science to study. Some internal organs were kept in jars, and plaster casts were taken of his head, an arm, and a foot. Although the organs were destroyed by German air raids during the Second World War, the casts survived and are kept at the London Hospital. The makeup for John Hurt, who played Merrick in the film, was designed directly from those casts.
  
  
• The Elephant Man makeup took 7 hours to apply each time. John Hurt would arrive on set at 5.00am and shoot from noon until 10.00pm. Because of the strain on the actor, he worked alternate days.
  
  
• When the nominees for the 53rd Annual Academy Awards were announced in February 1981, many in the industry were appalled that this movie was not going to be honored for its make-up effects. At the time there was not regular category and winners for make-up were cited with a special award. Feeling that the make-up technicians deserved to be rewarded for the film, a letter of protest was sent to the Academy's Board of Governors to ask them to change their minds and give the film a special award. The Academy refused, but in response to the outcry, they decided a year later to reward make-up artists with their own annual category, and thus the best make-up award was born.
  
  
• Merrick's condition was undiagnosed at the time of his death. Later studies of his skeleton and the casts made of his body led researchers to suggest he suffered from neurofibromatosis (NF), a genetic condition that 1 in 4,000 persons suffer from. The NF Foundation used the movie as a fund raising tool and credited it with making the disease more widely known. Later examination, including CT scans of the skeleton, lead researchers to believe he suffered from proteus syndrome, a much rarer condition than NF. In 2003, researchers using surviving DNA samples from Merrick were able to determine that he definitely suffered from proteus syndrome, and probably suffered from NF as well, hence his unique condition.
  
  
• The writers based this film on the memoirs of Dr. 'Frederick Treves' as well as other true accounts, but avoided the play by Bernard Pomerance. The true name of the Elephant Man was not John Merrick as most believe, but Joseph Carey Merrick. Merrick was born in Leicester, England on August 5, 1862, and died in the Royal London Hospital on April 11, 1890, at the age of 27. When Dr. Treves wrote his memoir, he referred to him as John. His handwritten manuscript reveals that Treves knew that Merrick's name was Joseph, and deliberately crossed out Joseph and replaced it with John. Merrick's surviving correspondence shows he signed his name as Joseph, and contemporary newspaper articles about his case refer to him by his correct name. Why Treves changed his name to John is unknown.
  
  
• After the first day of shooting, when actor John Hurt was exposed for the first time to the inconveniences of having his make-up applied and walking around in it, he called his wife, saying, I think they finally managed to make me hate acting.
  
  
• When Treeves sees Merrick for the first time, he sheds a single tear. Anthony Hopkins thought of his sick father at that moment to help him to cry.
  
  
• Originally offered to Terrence Malick but he passed.
  
  
• Keith Barron was cut out of this film
  
  
• Director Cameo: [David Lynch] when Merrick returns to London, he is chased by an angry mob, and flees underground. The shot of the crowd descending the stairs in pursuit features Lynch in full costume.
  
  
• Trevor Howard was asked to play the Freddie Jones part.
  
  
• The last lines, spoken by Merrick's mother, are quoted from Tennyson's poem, "Nothing Will Die."
  
  
• This film was executive produced by Mel Brooks, who was responsible for hiring director David Lynch and obtaining permission to film in black and white. He deliberately left his name off the credits, as he knew that people would get the wrong idea about the movie if they saw his name on the film, given his fame as a satirist.
  
  
• Mel Brooks hired David Lynch to direct the film because he admired Lynch's work in Eraserhead (1977).
  
  
• Helen Ryan, who played Princess Alex, also played the same person in the mini series "Edward the Seventh" (1975).
  
  
• Anthony Hopkins's portrayal of the good doctor in this film is reportedly what inspired Jonathan Demme to cast him as the evil doctor Hannibal Lecter in The Silence of the Lambs (1991).
  
  

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