Elf star Will Ferrell's surprising sporting talent, his real name and the fake reports of his death
Easily one of the best Christmas films of all time is Elf, which stars comedy legend Will Ferrell. Despite being one of the most famous faces in the film world, there are some surprising facts about Will, such as that Will is not his first name.
Will was born in California in 1967, as John William Ferrell however went by Will as this is what his parents called him. He spoke about his name change on Christina Applegate's MeSsy podcast, he said: "It wasn’t my choice... My parents named [me] John but they called me Will. I grew up as Will, but on a rule sheet, my legal name is John Ferrell... I don’t know why that was so embarrassing to me to have to explain, ‘I’m actually Will."
The 57-year-old actor has three children, all who have unusual names. He married Swedish actress Viveca Paulin in 2000 after they met at an acting class in 1995. For the latest TV & Showbiz news, sign up to our newsletter.
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They have three sons together, Magnus who is 20, Mattias who is 17 and Axel who is 14. Will has defended his choice in names for his sons, he said: "My wife was born in Sweden and we loved the idea of a Scandinavian name. I've gotten a lot of flack: 'What kind of ego do you have to have to name your child the great one?' That is not it at all.'"
It has also been reported twice during his career that Will has died. The first fake reports of his death came in 2006 after he reportedly died in a paragliding accident.
The report was posted on the iNewswire Web site, as reported by abc News, and was quickly withdrawn, but not before creating a small tremor in the Hollywood media. "Not much to say other than we heard and read about it this morning and reacted accordingly," says Matthew Labov, Will's publicist at the time, who reported that Will was in Canada shooting a movie. "There was no point in trying to track [the source] down as it was obviously a hoax."
Will was also reported as dead again in 2018 after a car crash in southern California that saw the car he was travelling in flip over. The star was not injured in the crash and was taken to hospital after, for a brief time.
Despite being incredibly successful in film, Will also has many surprising sporting links. At school he played different sports, including American football, football and basketball.
In 1990 he graduated with a degree in sports information and he is now the part-time owner of Los Angeles FC. In 2012 he took part in Soccer Aid, he is often spotted at Los Angeles Kings ice hockey games and played in five games of major league baseball for charity.
As a good friend of fellow Hollywood star Ryan Reynolds, Will has also attended Wrexham football games, a club which Ryan co-owns and went to Wembley with Ryan to watch Wrexham take on Bromley in the FA Trophy final.
