FILM · 1987 · USA
Black Widow
22 archived facts 5 topics 1 source Last reviewed Oct 2026
All facts (22)
- #001
Debra Winger was offered two roles in Black Widow (1987) and chose the FBI agent part because she did not understand the Black Widow's motivation for killing, so the lead role went to Theresa Russell.
- #002
It was the first feature film of writer-producer-director David Mamet as an actor.
- #003
It marked cinematographer Conrad L. Hall's return to filmmaking after a ten-year absence.
- #004
Director Bob Rafelson first met Debra Winger at a party when she was young. "I thought she was an incredibly vivacious and joyful, even wild, person. We stayed in touch over the years, and when I finished working on the script for 'Black Widow' I sent it to her. I think it was the point when her career was moving from playing young girls to playing women. And that parallels the transformation of the character in 'Black Widow.'".
- #005
Cher turned down the role of Catharine.
- #006
The film's cast includes four Oscar nominees: Debra Winger, Dennis Hopper, Diane Ladd and David Mamet.
- #007
The film touches on deaths caused by "Ondine's Curse," which the Wikipedia website defines as "congenital central hypoventilation syndrome (CCHS) or primary alveolar hypoventilation." CCHS is a respiratory disorder that is fatal if untreated. People afflicted by Ondine's curse classically suffer from respiratory arrest during sleep.
- #008
It was the first feature film director Bob Rafelson had shot in about six years; his previous film was another film noir, The Postman Always Rings Twice (1981).
- #009
Debra Winger majored in criminology at university.
- #010
Despite the prominent cast, Dennis Hopper's screen time is less than five minutes.
- #011
The "gift" of the title character, the six-figure sum ($500,000) he gives to his sister-in-law, is worth a little over a million today (2019).
- #012
One of two screenplays produced by screenwriter Ron Bass had its first release in 1987; Bass's other film that year was Francis Ford Coppola's Gardens of Stone (1987).
- #013
The film's two most talked-about actresses, Debra Winger and Theresa Russell, both had more than one character name; two and four respectively. Winger was Jessie Bates and Alexandra Barnes; Russell was Renee Walker, Marielle Dumers, Margaret McCrory and Catharine Petersen.
- #014
Playwright and screenwriter David Mamet also appears in this film, for which he has no writing credit.
- #015
Director Bob Rafelson worked with actress Lois Smith on his classic film Five Easy Pieces (1970). Smith played Jack Nicholson's sister.
- #016
James Hong and Diane Ladd appeared in another neo-noir thriller, Chinatown (1974).
- #017
Sami Frey here plays the husband of a serial-killer woman who marries men, kills them and takes their money. He had the same kind of role in Claude Miller's Mortelle Randonnée. Black Widow was later played by Isabelle Adjani.
- #018
Both sisters-in-law are connected to director Bob Rafelson's regular actor/collaborator Jack Nicholson: Lois Smith plays Jack's sister in Rafelson's classic Five Easy Pieces (1970), while Diane Ladd, who plays the sister of Easy Rider's lead actor and director Dennis Hopper, appeared in Chinatown (1974).
- #019
Leo Rossi and Dennis Hopper appeared in River's Edge (1986). Twenty years later both appeared in the series 10. & Wolf (2006), in which the daughter and granddaughter of mega-producer Dino De Laurentiis also appeared. The late producer was also behind Halloween II, in which Leo Rossi appeared.
- #020
D. W. Moffett and Terry O'Quinn appeared in the AIDS drama An Early Frost (1985).
- #021
D. W. Moffett and Lois Smith also appeared in Falling Down (1993).
- #022
Department of Justice agent Alexandra Barnes (Debra Winger) used the alias "Alex".
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