Love Story

Top 10 Fun Facts

1. Andy Williams' version of the Love Story theme raced up the charts after lyrics were added to the already popular instrumental track from the film. Your mom probably has a music box that plays it somewhere in her house.
2. Ryan O'Neal was not director Arthur Hiller's first choice to play Oliver-but luckily for O'Neal, Beau Bridges turned down the role.
3. Okay, so maybe O'Neal wasn't Hiller's second choice, either: Michael Douglas, Jon Voight and Peter Fonda turned down the part as well, despite being offered 10% of the film's gross.
4. The film's most memorable line, "Love means never having to say you're sorry," wasn't actually written that way. The scripted line was "Love means not ever having to say you're sorry." Wonder if anyone apologized to screenwriter Erich Segal, or if they just chalked it up to good ol' love?
5. After Segal sold the screenplay to Paramount, the studio had him adapt it into a novel to help publicize the film before its release. The book became a runaway hit in its own right before the movie even came out-and without a recommendation from Oprah's Book Club. Impressive.
6. Tommy Lee Jones made his film debut in a small role as a Harvard student. In fact, Jones had graduated from Harvard the year before. Now that's method acting.
7. Baring it all: Ray Milland, who played Ryan O'Neal's uptight father, appeared in Love Story without the hairpiece he'd word for decades. So if he seems a little chilly in some scenes, now you know why.
8. Let me see your paperwork, kid: the shots of Ryan O'Neal walking through the snowy streets of New York City were grabbed guerilla-style, as the production didn't have enough money left to secure filming permits.
9. Love Story aired on ABC-TV in 1972, just 2 years after it premiered in theaters. This was before video rentals and premium cable, so it was kind of a big deal.
10. What's your take on it, Duke? John Wayne apparently thought the film could have done without the potty language, saying he didn't believe Love Story was popular because "the girl went around saying s*** all the way through it," but that instead "the American public wanted to see a little romantic story." You tough guys are always the softies.