ArkaEvren

TV SERIES · 2025–2025 · USA

Death by Lightning

Episodes
4

9 archived facts 3 topics 1 source Last reviewed Oct 2026

A look behind the scenes of Death by Lightning, the 2025 series about the assassination of President James Garfield.

9 Interesting Facts About Death by Lightning

Interesting Facts (5)

  1. #001

    Makowsky based Guiteau on Martin Scorsese protagonists such as Rupert Pupkin and Travis Bickle, regarding the assassin as a historical precursor to those figures.

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  2. #002

    While writing Chester A. Arthur, Makowsky kept hearing Nick Offerman's voice in his head and concluded the part had to go to him.

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  3. #003

    Makowsky acknowledged that he made up the sequence in which Arthur and Guiteau go on a bender, doubting the two ever spent such a night together.

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  4. #004

    Betty Gilpin relocated her family to Budapest for the shoot shortly after giving birth, and prepared for Lucretia Garfield by reading all of her correspondence with her husband.

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  5. #005
    Contains a major spoiler — show

    Alexander Graham Bell did build a rudimentary metal detector to find the bullet still lodged in Garfield's body, though the attempt failed. What likely caused the fatal infection and Garfield's early death, however, was the era's poor medical practice: doctors pushing dirty hands into an already open wound did little to locate the bullet or extend his short life.

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Behind the Scenes (2)

  1. #006

    During the sole dialogue scene between Garfield and Guiteau, Matthew Macfadyen suddenly began crying, which was not in the script.

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  2. #007

    Michael Shannon's facial hair on the series was entirely fake; he said growing it in "would never happen." Matthew Macfadyen's beard was 80 percent his own hair and 20 percent extensions, which the makeup department spent an hour applying each morning.

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Deeper Meaning (2)

  1. #008

    Director Matt Ross cast deliberately against type, pointing out that Michael Shannon had largely played villains and hard men, whereas Matthew Macfadyen had taken on more heroic parts.

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  2. #009

    Gilpin jokingly threatened Ross if he cut her character's blistering confrontation with Guiteau, which he described as one of his favorite scenes in the show.

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Sources & editorial notes

Reference databases

  • IMDb IMDb title page (trivia)

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