20 Things You Probably Don’t Know About “Forrest Gump” [VIDEO]

It's been almost 20 years since "Forrest Gump" was released.  As the winner of 6 Academy Awards, including Best Picture, it's still one of the most-loved movies of all time, even if you want to punch someone every time they quote Forrest's famous line, "Life is like a box of chocolates..."  To celebrate this film, here are 20 things you probably didn't know about "Forrest Gump."

1. John Travolta, Chevy Chase, and Bill Murray all turned down the role of Forrest Gump.

2. Sally Field (his mom in the film) is only 10 years older than Tom Hanks.

3. The scene where Forrest sits in the hallway of his school while his mother talks to the principal was inspired by the Norman Rockwell painting "Girl with a Black Eye."

4. David Alan Grier, Ice Cube and Dave Chappelle both turned down the role of Bubba.  Chappelle said he thought the movie would bomb--and later admitted he regretted not taking the role.

5. Jenny's last name is Curran, but it is never said in the film. The only places you can find it are on her mailbox and on letters that she sends Forrest.

6. This was Haley Joel Osment's first film role.

7. Kurt Russell reportedly provided the voice of Elvis Presley in the film, but was never credited.

Kurt actually played Elvis in the 1979 TV movie Elvis.

8. The line "My name is Forrest Gump. People call me Forrest Gump" was ad libbed by Tom Hanks while filming the scene.

9. Forrest has his eyes closed in every photo you see of him in the movie.

10. Tom Hanks' younger brother Jim Hanks doubled for him in the wide shots of the running sequences.

11. There was no ball in the Ping-Pong matches scenes; it was entirely CGI.

12. When Forrest first learns to play ping-pong in the infirmary, he is told the trick is to "keep his eye on the ball" by another soldier. After that moment, whenever he is shown playing ping-pong, he never blinks.

13. The line Forrest says when his microphone is turned off at the Vietnam rally is:

"Sometimes when people go to Vietnam, they go home to their mommas without any legs. Sometimes they don't go home at all. That's a bad thing. That's all I have to say about that."

14. Forrest always wears a blue plaid shirt in the first scene of each age transition.

15. If Forrest "ran three years, two months, fourteen days and sixteen hours" and left his front porch early in the morning of Monday, July 5th, 1976 because he "felt like running", his entire transcontinental running marathon commenced on Monday, July 5th, 1976 at 7:00 AM EDT (approximately) in Greenbow, Alabama and terminated 1,171 days later (167 weeks and 2 days), on Wednesday, September 19th, 1979 at 8:00 PM MDT (approximately) in Monument Valley, Utah.

16. The Doors have a total of six songs in the movie, more than any other band.

17.  Tom Hanks wasn't paid for the film. Instead he took percentage points which ultimately netted him in the region of $40 million.

18.  Inspired by Lieutenant Dan Taylor, the military veteran character he played in this movie, actor Gary Sinise co-founded a rock and roll cover band during the mid-2000s called "The Lt. Dan Band." The band often goes on USO tours to play for US military personnel stationed around the world, and also plays various benefits for veteran-related causes.

19.  Following the huge success of the film, Winston Groom (the author of Forrest Gump) wrote a sequel novel, "Gump & Co." On the first page, Forrest Gump tells readers, "Don't never let nobody make a movie of your life's story."

20.  When this film became wildly successful, talk of a sequel naturally arose. However, at the time, Tom Hanks adamantly refused to work in any sequel (and making the sequel with another actor was not a consideration). Although Hanks has since reconsidered his stance on sequels/prequels (Toy Story 2, Toy Story 3, Angels & Demons), a sequel remained in "development hell" for years. As of 2010, Gump & Co. is in development.

(Facts from Buzzfeed.com and IMDb.com)