Midnight Cowboy

Top 10 Fun Facts

1. Midnight Cowboy was the only X rated movie shown to a US President while in office. Most US presidents are too busy reading Penthouse to watch X rated movies.
2. Midnight Cowboy was the only X-rated film ever to win a Best Picture Oscar. But that may change when the Academy starts the "Best X Rated Film" category in 2010.
3. Originally rated X, the film was reclassified and rated R in 1971, ensuring every future sitting US President could watch it without ending up on a movie trivia list.
4. Talk about suffering for your art - to make sure he kept his limp the same in every shot, Dustin Hoffman put pebbles in his shoe. It was a considerable drop in star status for Pebbles, who used to star in "The Flintstones" as Bam-Bam's love interest.
5. Generally, it's safe to assume that the man on the corner begging for change is just a guy who's down on his luck. Not if you're an auditioning film executive. While waiting on a street corner for Dustin Hoffman, the executive completely ignored the beggar near him. Turns out that beggar was actually Hoffman, who had dressed up (or down?) to prove that he could play the gritty Ratso. Does that mean the guy who always sits on my stoop might actually be famous?
6. Producer Jerome Hellman had actually seen Dustin Hoffman in "Eh!," a one-man off-Broadway show in 1965, which is how Hoffman was originally cast for the role of Ratso. I guess all the begging wasn't really necessary.
7. John Schlesinger chose Harry Nilsson's recording of "Everybody's Talkin'" over the song Nilsson had written specifically for Midnight Cowboy, "I Guess the Lord Must Be in New York City." Schlesinger also thought about using "Cowboy" by Randy Newman and "Lay Lady Lay" by Bob Dylan.
8. During a heated scene between Ratso and Joe, Joe counters Ratso's comment that "cowboys are fags!" with the statement that "John Wayne is a cowboy! Are you calling John Wayne a fag?" That year at the Oscars, both Dustin Hoffman and Jon Voight were nominated for Best Actor Oscars for their roles in Midnight Cowboy. They lost to Jon Wayne. Irony?
9. Dustin Hoffman's performance as "Ratso" Rizzo is ranked #7 on Premiere Magazine's 100 Greatest Performances of All Time. And he doesn't even sing "Look at Me, I'm Sandra Dee" in the movie, which most characters named Rizzo have to do.
10. The TV series "The BIg Valley" starred Lee Majors, who was originally cast as Joe Buck. The series got renewed for an extra season, causing Majors to have to drop out of Midnight Cowboy. It's too bad - imagine how different it would be if Joe Buck were played by the Six Million Dollar Man, bionic parts and all.

Cast

Crew