Curtis Armstrong

 Although Booger in "Revenge of teh Nerds" (1984) is arguably Curtis Armstrong's most famous character, he initially did not want the role. According to his comments on the Panty Raid DVD edition, he originally read for the role of Gilbert, but was later asked to read for Booger. He recalls telling fellow actor Bronson Pinchot that if he was offered the role of Booger, "They could just f**king forget it. I'm not picking my nose on camera for anyone."

Because the script did not have much of a plot (as the interviewed actors and filmmakers have stated), many of the actors were allowed to ad-lib scenes. Armstrong recalls that it was by pure chance that the characters of Booger and Takashi (played by Brian Tochi) ended up bunked next to each other in the gym and they improvised the running gag of them playing cards and Armstrong's line "What the f**k is a frush?"

David Wohl, who played Dean Ulich, was only two months older than Armstrong.

"I thought it was ridiculous to play high school or college students when I was 30. But at the same time, that was really done then."

The University of Arizona in Tucson, Arizona, was chosen to film many of the exterior scenes. Bill J. Varney, the university's assistant vice president for administrative services, approved filming, particularly after 20th Century Fox agreed to make a large donation to the university. Two weeks later, the university's administrators revoked permission to film on campus. Dudley B. Woodard, university vice president for student affairs, said the movie would not "portray campus life in a representative way." Allan Beigel, vice president of university relations, said there was nothing that would make them change their minds. After some negotiations, the university decided to allow filming on campus after all as long as the producers tried to schedule film shooting so as to not affect campus activities, not film anything "with a questionable nature with regards to taste," and accept advice from fraternities.

Happy Birthday, Curtis Armstrong!