My dad nearly played a corpse in Eyes Wide Shut.

They made him up to look dead, gave him a plastic breastplate so he couldn't be seen breathing and he had to spend the whole time they were shooting his scenes lying motionless in bed. They put him up in a posh hotel in London AND paid him. What's more, they didn't use the shots!

BUT,

My mother invented CRACKERJACK! pencils. (I realise that that this will mean nothing to our transatlantic brethren...)

Steve