50 facts you didn’t know about Jimmy Fallon

Learn 50 things about Jimmy Fallon, comedian, television host, actor, musician, writer, and producer.

1. James Thomas "Jimmy" Fallon is an American comedian, television host, actor, musician, writer, and producer.

2. Jimmy Fallon is known for his work in television as a cast member on Saturday Night Live and as the host of late-night talk show The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon.

3. Born in Bay Ridge, Brooklyn and raised in Saugerties, New York, Fallon's upbringing was idyllic.

4. Jimmy Fallon grew up with an interest in comedy and music, moving to Los Angeles at 21 to pursue stand-up opportunities.

5. Jimmy Fallon was commissioned to join NBC's Saturday Night Live as a cast member in 1998, fulfilling a lifelong dream.

6. Jimmy Fallon remained on SNL for six years between 1998 and 2004, co-hosting the program's Weekend Update segment and becoming a celebrity in the process.

7. Jimmy Fallon left the program for the film industry, starring in films such as Taxi (2004) and Fever Pitch (2005), which were mostly unsuccessful.

8. Following his film career, Fallon returned to television as the host of Late Night with Jimmy Fallon on NBC in 2009, where he became well known for his emphasis on music and games.

9. Jimmy Fallon transitioned from that program to become the sixth host of the long-running The Tonight Show in 2014.

10. In addition to his television work, Fallon has released two comedy albums and several books.

11. Jimmy Fallon was born in Bay Ridge, Brooklyn, New York, and is the son of Gloria (née Feeley) and James W. Fallon.

12. Fallon's ancestry is five-eighths Irish, a quarter German, and one-eighth Norwegian; his paternal grandmother, Luise Schalla, was from Osterholz-Scharmbeck, Lower Saxony, Germany, while one of his maternal great-grandfathers, Hans Hovelsen, was an immigrant from Fredrikstad, Norway.

13. A Vietnam War veteran, his father spent his adolescence singing in street-corner doo-wop groups, and shortly after his son's birth, was working as a machine repairman for IBM in Kingston, New York.

14. Jimmy Fallon has described his childhood as "idyllic," while his parents have been noted as overprotective.

15. Jimmy Fallon and his sister, Gloria, were unable to leave their home, and they had to ride their bicycles in the backyard.

16. Jimmy Fallon attended St. Mary of the Snow, a Roman Catholic elementary school in Saugerties.

17. Jimmy Fallon considered being a priest, inspired by his experiences as an altar boy.

18. Jimmy Fallon spent many nights recording the radio program The Dr. Demento Show on a reel-to-reel recorder, where he was exposed to both comedy and music.

19. Jimmy Fallon developed an obsession with the late-night comedy program Saturday Night Live (SNL) as a teenager, watching it religiously.

20. Jimmy Fallon grew up watching the show, viewing "the clean parts" that his parents taped for him.

21. Jimmy Fallon and Gloria would re-enact sketches like "The Festrunk Brothers" with friends.

22. Jimmy Fallon was such a fan that he made a weekly event of watching the show in his dormitory during college.

23. In his teens, he impressed his parents with different impersonations, including actor James Cagney and comedian Dana Carvey.

24. Jimmy Fallon was also musically inclined, and started playing guitar at age thirteen.

25. He would go on to perform comedy and music in contests and shows.

26. By his junior high years, he was labeled a class clown, to his teachers' disdain, but also described as generally "nice and well-mannered."

27. At Saugerties High School, from which he graduated in 1992, he was a performer in most stage productions, and was twice a class social director.

28. Jimmy Fallon won a young comedian's contest with an impression of Pee-wee Herman.

29. Jimmy Fallon attended The College of Saint Rose in Albany, New York, where he was first a Computer Science major, later switching to Communications in his senior year.

30. Jimmy Fallon dropped out of The College of Saint Rose a semester shy of a degree to move to Los Angeles to pursue comedy full-time.

31. Jimmy Fallon secured a manager and got bookings by the age of 21.

32. Jimmy Fallon often did stand-up at the Improv, earning $7.50 per set, and he joined classes with the Groundlings, an improv comedy troupe.

33. Fallon appeared in the feature film The Scheme (originally entitled The Entrepreneurs).

34. His one line in Father's Day was cut but he can still be seen in the background.

35. In 1998, Fallon appeared briefly on the show Spin City in the second season as a man selling photographs.

36. Fallon began to pursue a movie career beginning in 2004. He had spurned most major roles due to lack of time and disinterest in the dozens of scripts he read. He signed on for his first lead role in Taxi, a remake of a French film. Fallon had read the script in the prior years but became more interested when co-star Queen Latifah became attached to the project.

37. On April 3, 2013, following a period of speculation, NBC officially announced that Fallon would succeed Jay Leno to become the sixth permanent host of The Tonight Show following the 2014 Winter Olympics.

38. Jimmy Fallon's "Tonight Show" debut on February 17, 2014 on NBC's network engaged 11.3 million viewers, making it the most-viewed late night show in the past few years.

39. Fallon's third book, Your Baby's First Word Will Be Dada, a children's book, was released in June 2015.

40. Jimmy Fallon married film producer Nancy Juvonen, co-owner of production company Flower Films, on December 22, 2007.

41. They have two daughters, one born in 2013 (Winnie Rose Fallon), the other born in 2014 (Frances Cole Fallon); both were born via gestational surrogacy.

42. He has a female English cream Golden Retriever dog named Gary Frick that has appeared on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon.

43. On February 22, 2011, Fallon was on The Dr. Oz Show and had a mole removed from his left hand in front of a live studio audience by cosmetic surgeon Arthur Perry.

44. On June 26, 2015, Fallon suffered a ring avulsion, an injury he suffered by tripping over his wife's rug and catching his ring on a counter top which nearly tore off his finger. He was taken to the emergency room then sent to a surgeon who performed microsurgery on his finger. Fallon spent 10 days in the ICU before going home.

45. Fallon debuted on Saturday Night Live as a featured player at the beginning of the show's twenty-fourth season in September 1998.

46. He became a star by his fourth episode, when he performed Halloween-themed versions of songs by popular artists, as well as his Sandler impression.

47. In his off time, Fallon released a book comprising e-mail exchanges with his sister, titled I Hate This Place: A Pessimist's Guide to Life (1999), and filmed a minor role for the film Almost Famous (2000).

48. Fallon parlayed his SNL success into co-hosting the 2001 MTV Movie Awards and 2002 MTV Video Music Awards, and the recording on his debut comedy album, The Bathroom Wall (2002), which was nominated for the Grammy Award for Best Comedy Album.

49. He also modeled for Calvin Klein.

50. Fallon was named one of People magazine's 50 Most Beautiful People in 2002.

Source: Wikipedia.org