Trivia / Long Day's Journey Into Night

• Cast the Expert:
  • In a weird kind of way, when this play was played on the Norwegian National Theatre in The '50s. The play, presenting a troubled family of actors, was played by a troubled family of actors! The Maurstad family, consisting of a divorced couple and their grown-up son, all actors, gave the play an extra twist - because, as the son pointed out years later, "we were all in a crisis at the time", and the parents hadn´t spoken for 25 years.
  • Jason Robards has said that he strongly identified with the character of Jamie Tyrone. Like Jamie, Robards was the son of an Irish-American actor and struggled with alcoholism throughout his life.
• Doing It for the Art: Katharine Hepburn accepted the role of Mary in the film for one-tenth of her usual fee.
• Role Reprise: Jason Robards played Jamie in the original Broadway cast of the play before reprising the part on film. He would then go on to star as the character again in a revival of the Jamie centered sequel Moon for the Misbegotten, which he would go on to reprise in a TV production.
• What Could Have Been:
  • Marlon Brando was offered the role of Jamie.
  • The producers wanted Hepburn's frequent costar Spencer Tracy to play James, but he turned it down, citing the low salary as his reason, though his health and stamina may also have been a factor (he would die only five years later).
• Write Who You Know: Everyone is directly based on his real family and even share their first names: O'Neill's father was a famous Melodrama actor named James; his addict mother's first name was Mary, although she went by Ella; and his older brother was James Jr (Jamie). There's even a fleeting reference to the dead infant son being named Eugene— essentially O'Neill swaps names with Edmund the Author Avatar, the actual name for his dead sibling.
• You Look Familiar:
  • After playing Jamie multiple times, Jason Robards would eventually star as James Tyrone Sr. on Broadway.
  • Gabriel Byrne had played James Jr. in a Broadway production of ''Moon for the Misbegotten before portraying his father in a Broadway revival of this play.

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