Trending Facts

Jack Nicholson turned down $10 million to play the Joker. Took $6 million instead — plus a cut of every Batman toy ever sold. The studio thought they'd saved money. Batman merchandise hit $1 billion. Nicholson walked away with $90 million. For playing a clown.

During an Easter egg hunt in Surrey in 2016, about 30 kids spotted two men sprinting across a field with a police helicopter circling overhead. Without being told, the children lay down in the dirt and formed a giant human arrow pointing the helicopter straight at the fleeing suspects. Both men were caught. The crew landed to thank the kids — and the children shared their own Easter chocolate with them.

Celine Dion hated "My Heart Will Go On" so much she almost refused to record it. She did one throwaway demo just to get her husband to stop asking. That single take sold 18 million copies and won an Oscar. Rolling Stone later voted it the 4th most annoying song ever made.

Arnold Schwarzenegger agreed to star in the comedy Twins for a $0 salary. Instead, he negotiated for 20% of the film's backend profits. The studio agreed, convinced the movie would flop. It grossed $216 million worldwide. Arnold's cut came to roughly $35 million — more than he'd ever made for a Terminator film.

Sean Connery turned down $450 million. He was offered Gandalf in Lord of the Rings — $10 million plus 15% of box office for all three films. Said no because he "didn't understand the material." The trilogy grossed $3 billion. He never understood it.

George Clooney made tequila in his garage as a hobby — gave bottles to friends for two years — then sold the company for $1 billion. Years earlier, he'd filled 14 suitcases with $1 million each and hand-delivered one to every friend who'd let him sleep on their couch when he couldn't pay rent. The man treats money like it's contagious.

No studio would insure Robert Downey Jr. for Iron Man — he'd just gotten out of prison. Mel Gibson personally paid his bond when nobody else would. Marvel paid him $500,000. By Avengers: Endgame, his paycheck was $75 million. Same guy. Same role. Different universe.

In 2012, archaeologists dug up a parking lot in Leicester, England, and found the skeleton of King Richard III — lost for 527 years. He was the last English king killed in battle, buried in a hasty unmarked grave in 1485. An amateur historian convinced a university to dig up the car park on a hunch. They found him in the first trench, six hours into a two-week excavation. The parking space above his grave was marked with the letter "R."

In 1996, Denise Rossi won $1.3 million in the California lottery. Eleven days later, she filed for divorce from her husband of 25 years to hide the money. Three years later, he found out by accident. A judge ruled she committed fraud and gave him 100% of the winnings. If she had just been honest, she would have kept at least half.

Donald Miller Jr. of Ohio disappeared in 1986 and was declared legally dead in 1994. In 2005, he showed up very much alive and asked the court to reverse his death certificate. The judge denied it — Ohio's 3-year statute of limitations to reverse a death ruling had expired. The judge told him: "I don't know where that leaves you, but you're still dead as far as the law is concerned."

Sylvester Stallone was so broke he sold his bull mastiff Butkus outside a liquor store for $40. After selling the Rocky script, he went back to buy the dog. The new owner refused. Stallone kept raising the offer until the man finally agreed — for $15,000. Butkus went on to appear in Rocky.

Steve Jobs' biological father, Abdulfattah "John" Jandali, managed a popular Mediterranean restaurant near San Jose. Jobs ate there a couple of times without knowing the owner was his father. Jandali didn't know either. Years later, when Jobs' biological sister Mona Simpson tracked Jandali down, he casually boasted: "Even Steve Jobs used to eat there. He was a great tipper." That's how Jobs found out.

Elvis wanted to record "I Will Always Love You." His manager Colonel Tom Parker called Dolly Parton and said there was one condition - hand over 50% of the publishing rights. Dolly said no. Years later, Whitney Houston covered it for The Bodyguard. Dolly earned over $10 million from that single cover. She later joked she made enough money to buy Graceland.

In 1324, Mansa Musa — ruler of the Mali Empire — made a pilgrimage to Mecca with a caravan of 60,000 men and thousands of pounds of gold. When he stopped in Cairo, he gave away so much gold that he crashed the local economy. The price of gold didn't recover for twelve years. He is widely considered the wealthiest person who ever lived.

FedEx was days from collapse. $5,000 left in the bank. Founder Fred Smith flew to Las Vegas and bet it all at blackjack. By morning he had $32,000. Just enough to keep the planes flying one more week. In that week, he closed an $11 million deal. FedEx now makes over $90 billion a year.

Sisa Abu Daooh, an Egyptian woman, disguised herself as a man for 43 years after her husband passed away so she could work and provide for her daughter. She worked as a shoe shiner, brick layer, and farmer. When she was finally revealed in 2015, the Egyptian government didn't punish her — they awarded her the "Ideal Mother" prize on national television.

Depression-era bank robber "Pretty Boy" Charles Floyd reportedly destroyed mortgage documents during at least one or two heists. While the legend claims he freed hundreds from debt, FBI historians note this was likely occasional rather than routine—but the rumors helped cement his Robin Hood reputation among struggling Oklahoma farmers.

50 Cent was offered a flat $5 million to be the face of Vitamin Water. He turned down the cash and negotiated for a minority equity stake in the company instead. When Coca-Cola bought Glacéau (Vitamin Water's parent company) for $4.1 billion in 2007, 50 Cent walked away with an estimated $100 million.

Dmitry Agarkov received a credit card offer with a 45% interest rate buried in the fine print. He scanned the contract, rewrote it to include 0% interest, no fees, and penalty clauses if the bank changed the terms, then mailed it back. The bank signed it without reading. A court upheld his version. He counter-sued for 24 million rubles. The bank settled. He got a special debit card.

At the 1912 Olympics, a marathon runner quit and went home to Japan without telling officials and was considered a missing person in Sweden for 50 years. In 1966, he was invited to complete the marathon. His time: 54 years, 8 months, 6 days, 5 hours, 32 minutes and 20.379 seconds.

Edwin Robinson lost his sight and hearing in a truck accident in 1971. Nine years later, he stepped outside during a storm in Maine to rescue his pet chicken — and was struck by lightning. When he woke up the next morning, he could see and hear again. Doctors had no explanation.

Al Pacino didn't sign his own checks. His accountant did. By his 70s, his $50 million fortune was gone. He was unknowingly paying for 16 cars, 23 cellphones, and a $400,000-per-year landscaper at a house he never lived in. The accountant got seven and a half years in prison. Pacino had to take roles in movies he openly disliked — including Jack and Jill — just to pay the bills.

In 1986, federal prisoner Ronald J. McIntosh escaped during an unsupervised prisoner transfer. Eight days later, he returned in a stolen helicopter and broke out his girlfriend, bank robber Samantha Lopez, from federal prison in a daring daylight rescue.

In 1999, a Swedish radiologist named Anna Bågenholm fell through ice while skiing in Norway and spent 80 minutes trapped under a frozen stream. Her body temperature dropped to 56.7°F — the lowest ever recorded in a surviving hypothermia patient. When rescuers pulled her out, she had no heartbeat and no breathing. Clinically dead. Doctors at Tromsø University Hospital spent 9 hours bringing her back using a cardiopulmonary bypass machine. She survived. And later became a radiologist at the very hospital that saved her life.