ACTOR · BORN 1969
Gerard Butler
- Born
- 13 November 1969, Paisley, Scotland, UK
- Known for
- 300 (2007), How to Train Your Dragon (2010), How to Train Your Dragon 2 (2014), How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World (2019)
42 archived facts 4 topics 1 source Last reviewed Sep 2026
All facts (42)
- #001
Gerard Butler has always made time to socialize with his fans and hangs out with crew members as much as with the star actors on film sets, earning him a reputation as one of the best actors around.
- #002
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.
- #003
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.
- #004
Gerard Butler had the rock and roll voice that Andrew Lloyd Webber always wanted to hear as the Phantom.
- #005
Gerard Butler cried while telling Joel Schumacher, the director of The Phantom of the Opera (2004), about the Phantom's loneliness.
- #006
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.
- #007
Gerard Butler's favorite actors are Christian Bale and Gary Oldman.
- #008
Gerard Butler did not start acting until he was twenty-five.
- #009
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.
- #010
Gerard Butler was once the lead singer of a Scottish rock band called Speed, but music ultimately became his second love after acting.
- #011
Gerard Butler graduated from the University of Glasgow with a law degree.
- #012
During the production of The Phantom of the Opera (2004), Gerard Butler's makeup and prosthetics took four hours to apply.
- #013
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.
- #014
Gerard Butler and Bradley Cooper are close friends.
- #015
Gerard Butler jokes about preferring the masked side of his face to the normal side.
- #016
Gerard Butler has no formal acting training.
- #017
Gerard Butler sang in a rock band while he was studying law.
- #018
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).
- #019
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."
- #020
Gerard Butler is a big fan of the Glasgow Celtic football club. In 2011 he played for them in a charity match against Manchester United.
- #021
Gerard Butler did not see his father from the age of 2 until he was 16.
- #022
Gerard Butler was chosen by Empire magazine as one of the 100 sexiest stars in cinema history, ranking 10th. [2007].
- #023
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).'".
- #024
Gerard Butler is Scottish but partly of Irish descent. He has also noted that there is no tartan in his family as a result.
- #025
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.
- #026
Gerard Butler divides his time between Los Angeles, Malibu and New York.
- #027
Gerard Butler was once said to be the next James Bond, after Pierce Brosnan.
- #028
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.
- #029
Gerard Butler was president of the law society at university.
- #030
Among his jobs before acting roles, Gerard Butler worked as a waiter, a telemarketer and a demonstrator who showed how toys worked at fairs.
- #031
Along with Ben Stiller, Demi Moore, Susan Sarandon and director Paul Haggis, Gerard Butler visited a camp for internally displaced people in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, run by Sean Penn and his Jenkins-Penn Humanitarian Organization.
- #032
In the first two years of his career, Gerard Butler could not find any professional acting work.
- #033
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.
- #034
Gerard Butler often went to weekly jazz nights hosted by Danny Masterson in Beverly Hills. Samantha Ronson, Bo Barrett, Ben Foster, Kirsten Dunst and Adam Scarimbolo were frequently seen there.
- #035
Gerard Butler was chosen as 2005's most attractive man by Hello! magazine.
- #036
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).
- #037
Gerard Butler has starred in five films whose titles include his character's name: Dracula 2000 (2000), Attila (2001), The Phantom of the Opera (2004), Beowulf & Grendel (2005) and Burns (2006).
- #038
Gerard Butler co-hosted the 2003 MTV Europe Music Awards with fellow Scot Billy Boyd.
- #039
When his parents separated in Canada and his mother returned with him to Glasgow, Gerard Butler was the youngest of three children under the age of 6.
- #040
Gerard Butler studied law at the University of Glasgow, from which he graduated.
- #041
Gerard Butler has played three period drama warrior leaders to date: 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.
- #042
Gerard Butler was 16 years old before he saw his father again.
Sources & editorial notes
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