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Gerard Butler

ACTOR · BORN 1969

Gerard Butler

Born
13 November 1969, Paisley, Scotland, UK
Known for
How to Train Your Dragon (2010), Lara Croft: Tomb Raider - The Cradle of Life (2003), Gamer (2009), The Bounty Hunter (2010)

23 archived facts 5 topics 1 source Last reviewed Nov 2026

Gerard Butler (born 13 November 1969) is an actor best known for How to Train Your Dragon, Lara Croft: Tomb Raider - The Cradle of Life and Gamer.

23 Interesting Facts About Gerard Butler

Interesting Facts (9)

  1. #001

    On the first day of shooting for Mrs. Brown (1997), Gerard Butler had to run naked into a freezing sea and developed hypothermia as a result. Later during the shoot, he saved a young boy from drowning in the River Tay and received a Certificate of Courage from the Royal Humane Society.

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  2. #002

    Gerard Butler cried while telling Joel Schumacher, the director of The Phantom of the Opera (2004), about the Phantom's loneliness.

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  3. #003

    In an interview before he finally quit drinking at the age of 27, Gerard Butler said his wild drinking antics included smashing bottles over his own head and running in front of cars, and that he once woke up in Paris, miles from where the party had been, covered in cuts and blood, with no idea to this day what had happened.

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  4. #004

    Gerard Butler keeps trying to quit smoking using hypnosis, patches, lasers and the most common methods. He stopped for six months during the filming of 300 (2006) but started again near the end of the shoot.

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  5. #005

    Gerard Butler was once the lead singer of a Scottish rock band called Speed, but music ultimately became his second love after acting.

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  6. #006

    On December 18, 2011, Gerard Butler was rescued after a surfing accident in Northern California. He and three others were filming a scene for Chasing Mavericks (2012) when huge waves hit them. He was held underwater and dragged over a rocky reef until a safety officer on a jet ski rescued him. He was hospitalized and released with minor injuries.

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  7. #007

    Gerard Butler and Bradley Cooper are close friends.

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  8. #008

    On whether the famous six-pack he showed in 300 was real: "When people first saw the footage, they thought my abs were fake and had been retouched on a computer. I assure you those really were my abs. I pushed myself so hard for this film that my abs became enormous. I was constantly given this instruction: 'You are playing the king, you need to set an example (for the other actors).'".

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  9. #009

    Gerard Butler's first stage role was in Coriolanus. During rehearsals for the play, a wooden stake went into his eye. He later played Tullus Aufidius in the film Coriolanus (2011).

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Behind the Scenes (7)

  1. #010

    His favorite actors are Christian Bale and Gary Oldman.

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  2. #011

    During the production of The Phantom of the Opera (2004), it took four hours to do his makeup and prosthetics.

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  3. #012

    He was president of the Law society at university.

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  4. #013

    Among his acting roles, he worked various jobs such as waiting tables, telemarketing and demonstrating how toys worked at fairs.

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  5. #014

    He visited a camp for internally displaced people in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, run by Sean Penn and his Jenkins-Penn Humanitarian Relief Organization, alongside Ben Stiller, Demi Moore, Susan Sarandon and director Paul Haggis.

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  6. #015

    He co-hosted the 2003 MTV Europe Music Awards with fellow Scot Billy Boyd.

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  7. #016

    To date he has played three period drama warrior leaders: Leonidas in 300 (2006), Stoick the Vast in the How to Train Your Dragon series, and the title character in Attila (2001); Stoick is the first character he will reprise in live action.

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Characters & Cast (4)

  1. #017

    Beyond singing in a band at university, Gerard Butler had no musical experience before taking the lead role in The Phantom of the Opera (2004).

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  2. #018

    When Gerard Butler auditioned for the role of Aslan the Lion in Walden Media/Disney's production of The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe (2005), he asked, "This isn't going to be like the BBC puppet Aslan, right? Because, if so, I'm leaving right now."

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  3. #019

    Gerard Butler won the lead role in Guy Ritchie's RocknRolla on the basis of the shredded eight-pack abs he famously displayed in the global hit 300. When producer Susan Downey was asked why Ritchie cast Butler in the lead, she said, "Guy saw Gerry in 300, and just fell in love with his abs and decided to cast him in our movie." Ritchie reiterated: "He had a rather impressive set of abs in 300." Ironically, although Butler was cast for his abs, he never actually got the chance to show them, since he has no shirtless scene in the film.

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  4. #020

    Gerard Butler was approved for a role in Mindhunters (2004), but chose to leave the role because of his prior commitment to Timeline (2003). The shooting schedules of the two films overlapped. Jonny Lee Miller, who had appeared with Butler in Dracula 2000 (2000), stepped in to take the Mindhunters role.

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Career & Awards (1)

  1. #021

    Gerard Butler did not start acting until he was twenty-five.

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Life & Family (2)

  1. #022

    Gerard Butler holds a law degree from the University of Glasgow, but he gave up his legal career after being fired from a law firm just one week before he qualified to practice law.

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  2. #023

    Before his final year of law school, Gerard Butler took a year off to live in California. He lived mostly in Venice Beach, worked various jobs, traveled often and, by his own account, drank heavily, and at one point was arrested for alcohol-related disorderly behavior.

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Related pages

  • Point Break — Gerard Butler comes up in the facts on that page
  • Miley Cyrus — Gerard Butler comes up in the facts on that page
  • Craig Ferguson — Gerard Butler comes up in the facts on that page

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Sources & editorial notes

Reference databases

  • Wikipedia English Wikipedia article
  • IMDb IMDb name page (biography and trivia)

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