The most important person, who was Groom's inspiration for the character of Forrest Grump was Sammy Lee Davis, a Vietnam War survivor and veteran. The story of Groom's protagonist fighting in the Vietnam war is similar to what Davis experienced.
Although Forrest Gump wasn't a real person, there's a high possibility that he was partly inspired by veteran Sammy Lee Lewis, whose Vietnam War story is very similar to that of Gump's. Joining the Army fresh out of high school, Lewis was asked to fight in Vietnam.
John Travolta was the original choice to play Forrest
It's hard to imagine anybody but Tom Hanks in the role of Gump now, but he wasn't the first choice. They wanted John Travolta, but he passed. It could have been a truly amazing year for Travolta.
First, Gump likely falls somewhere on the Autism Spectrum. In fact, in a paper published in 1996 by Dr. Shinji Ijichi, M.D. and Dr. Naomi Ijichi, M.D., they gave Gump that very diagnosis based on information gleaned from Groom's novel.
Hanna Hall was cast from an open call as the young girl who inspires Forrest to run. Hall went on to appear in Sofia Coppola's The Virgin Suicides (2000), Halloween (2007), American Cowslip (2009) and Happiness Runs (2010). In 2019, she was featured on USA Network's The Purge series.
Jenny Dies From Hepatitis C In The Forrest Gump Books
That said, what's clear is that Jenny dies of Hepatitis C in the second book, while she dies of AIDS in the movies, even though it was only implied. Notably, Hepatitis C was discovered in 1989, which is why the doctors could do little for Jenny in the '80s.
Forrest asks Jenny and Forrest Jr. to live with him, and Jenny proposes to Forrest. The two marry in the backyard. After some time of living together as a family, Jenny dies at age 32. Her illness is never explicitly stated, though screenwriter Eric Roth confirmed in a 2019 interview that she died of AIDS.
In fact, two Japanese doctors have started down that path, perhaps tongue in cheek, and made an official diagnosis of Gump according to the DSM-IV autistic disorder criteria, ruling out possible alternative diagnoses such as Rett's disorder or childhood disintegrative disorder according to observational evidence ...
Bubba, a Southern Black man with Autism-spectrum disorder, appears in the most substantially fleshed out historical event in Forrest Gump: the Vietnam War.
Who turned down the role of Forrest Gump before Tom Hanks?
The classic role of Forrest Gump was initially offered to John Travolta. He declined the part and has since openly admitted that passing on the role was one of the biggest mistakes of his career.
Tom Selleck: Indiana Jones in 'Raiders of the Lost Ark'
Harrison Ford took the lead role in the franchise as the archeologist, but it could've been Tom Selleck. Karen Allen, who played Marion Ravenwood opposite Ford as Indiana Jones, revealed the Friends alum's TV career forced him to turn down the gig.
Bubba Gump Shrimp began as a fictional company from Forrest Gump, but in 1995, Anthony Zolezzi bought the rights to the name Bubba Gump Shrimp Co. from Paramount Pictures. Zolezzi hoped to use the name to revive his struggling seafood company, Meridian Products.
What was the mistake in the Forrest Gump running scene?
When Forrest decides to end his cross country run in the Monument Valley of Utah, he was running east. He turns, says he is tired and going home, then starts jogging through the crowd heading west toward the mountains, which is the wrong way to get home to Alabama.
It's my understanding that he gave Bubba's mom half of his fortune. Since we don't know how much it amounted to, I can't give you a specific number. It was enough that it looked like she got to live in a very nice house and neighborhood with at least one servant.
At the time, the AIDS pandemic was sadly in full swing, and given every historical event in Forrest Gump, Jenny succumbing to HIV is widely accepted as...
In reality, the voice that Tom Hanks used to bring Forrest to life is from Mississippi. Notably, the reason why Hanks chose this accent underscores why he is a respected leading actor and what it means to be part of a Tom Hanks movie.
The symbol doesn't come back into play until the film's very end, after he's sent his son on the bus for his first day of school. The feather represents Forrest's approach to life — it just floats through the world in whichever direction the wind takes it. A lot of what happens is up to chance — for good and for bad.
In real life, Tom Hanks doesn't own the chain restaurant in any way, but he does have an interesting connection to the Times Square location. Before the building was a shrimp lover's paradise, it was his first bank when he lived in New York City in 1979.
Quite simply, Jenny does not feel she deserves to be loved — at least, not in the way that Forrest is ready to love her. This can also explain why Jenny repeatedly runs away from Forrest. With her total lack of self-esteem, Jenny feels that she needs to abandon Forrest in order to protect him.
10. Tom Hanks in "Forrest Gump" The box-office hit "Forrest Gump" is another case in which Hanks opted for performance-based pay, in which he received an estimated $60 million.
Forrest Jr. has written a letter for his mom, but he doesn't want his dad to read it. Forrest just leaves the letter at Jenny's grave. Forrest says he's not sure if each person has a destiny or if they're just floating around randomly (like that feather).
During a Vietcong ambush, Lieutenant Dan is badly wounded, but Forrest ignores the command to leave him behind and instead saves his life. Lieutenant Dan's injuries result in the amputation of his legs, and he sees Forrest's heroic act as him being robbed of fulfilling his destiny.
While Forrest Gump uses real historical events as a way to introduce Forrest and his acquaintances as products of America's turbulent narrative, many of the factual occurrences were adjusted to account for Forrest's inclusion and dramatic effect.
