Michael Clarke Duncan

 Michael Clarke Duncan's large frame—6 feet 5 inches and 315 pounds—helped him in his jobs digging ditches for Peoples Gas Company and being a bouncer at several Chicago clubs.

In reality, Duncan was of a similar height to his "The Green Mile" (1999) co-star David Morse, and was a couple of inches shorter than James Cromwell. Amongst other things, creative camera angles were used to create the illusion that Duncan, as John Coffey, towered over the prison staff, even "Brutal" Howell and Warden Moores.

Duncan had to stop lifting weights while filming to look more like a man from 1935 (Stephen King's novel was originally set in 1932; the timeframe was bumped to 1935 so that the movie "Top Hat" (1935) could be featured). For emotional scenes, Duncan would recall his father leaving him as a child.

Duncan was uncomfortable with having to grab Tom Hanks' crotch for the scene where John cures Paul's urinary infection. Hanks left the set and came back to do the scene; Duncan grabbed Hanks' crotch and was shocked to discover that he had put an empty water bottle in his trousers. After that, Duncan felt more comfortable with the scene.

"I think the toughest scene for me to film was the two dead girls, simply because I had a lot of crying to do, a lot of howling to do, and it really drained me."

Prior to acting, Duncan did bodyguard work for Will Smith, Martin Lawrence, Jamie Foxx, LL Cool J and The Notorious B.I.G.; he let a friend take over for him the night Notorious B.I.G. got shot, which prompted him to quit that line of work.

Happy Birthday, Michael Clarke Duncan!