Kit Harington is an English actor who just so happens to be one of the stars of Game of Thrones, the hit HBO fantasy series. He won the role of bastard-born ‘King in the North’ Jon Snow after starring in a West End production of War Horse as Albert Narracott in 2008.

Since then, Kit has become one of the most recognisable faces in entertainment – he’s earned millions of dollars and won rave reviews for his performance as Jon Snow, and he’s also made sure to branch out into other areas of film and television too.

1. FACIAL HAIR AND HAIRCUT

Prior to Kit’s Game of Thrones role he had never grown out his facial hair or the hair on his head! He had always had short hair and never even attempted a beard.

The producers wanted him to have long hair and a beard so they requested he grow out all of his hair. He was nervous this would affect his part as Jon Snow, but it actually worked out perfectly. It just goes to show you he was always meant to be the King in The North.

 

2. CONTRACT FOR HAIR

He is under a contract that he must keep his hair a certain length and style while he maintains the role of Jon Snow. He can’t wait to cut his hair again! He was quoted by Rolling Stone. “I told my agent, no more swords, no more horses. You [don’t want to get stuck in things] and maybe I can cut my fucking hair.”

3. HE IS SEVERELY CLAUSTROPHOBIC

Kit is severely Claustrophobic. He is also scared of spiders, but his claustrophobia is his worst fear. He can’t even handle large crowds sometimes. That being said during the “Battle of Bastards” fight scene he was living his real life nightmare.

He said it best though, “I’ve got a few fears, spiders being one of them, but the worst is my claustrophobia – I’m mortally afraid of crowds. I panic. It was one of the most terrifying things and most uncomfortable – 15 bearded Irishmen crushing you.”

 

4. WHEN JON SNOW DIED HE THOUGHT NO ONE WOULD CARE

He was very concerned during the Jon Snow “death scene” no one would care that he died. Maybe it would come out that they hated his character or his portrayal of the character.

He told Entertainment Weekly, “I’d like to say sorry for lying to everyone. I’m glad that people were upset that he died. I think my biggest fear was that people were not going to care. Or it would just be, ‘Fine, Jon Snow’s dead.’ But it seems like people had a, similar to the Red Wedding episode, kind of grief about it. Which means something I’m doing — or the show is doing — is right.”

Luckily people did care and he is glad for more than one reason they did. He was stopped by a cop, who then realized who he was. The cop wanted to know if he would come back to life in season six, but Kit was sworn to secrecy. He couldn’t even tell his other Game of Thrones co-stars!

Still, he was about to get a ticket so Kit did what any of us would do. He told the cop that he would be resurrected. The cop let him off. Good going Kit!

No matter how you feel about Kit Harington he is a down to Earth guy who seems like a lot of fun. I can’t wait to see where he ends up in Game of Thrones and I also can’t wait to see what roles he will play next. It should be interesting with his short hair.

 

5. HIS REAL NAME IS CHRISTOPHER

That’s right most of us know him as Kit Harington but his real full name is Christopher Catesby Harington. That sounds very royal. Maybe he should have kept that or permanently change his name to Jon Snow. That would be dreamy!

 

6. HE DIDN’T KNOW THAT WAS HIS REAL NAME UNTIL HE WAS 11!

Talk about family issues. Just kidding. His family only ever called him Kit so he thought that was his given name until he was 11 and realized his legal name is Christopher. Whoa, talk about crazy.

As you can imagine he was extremely upset when he found out his name wasn’t Kit. In an interview with CNN he said,” It’s my name. It’s short for Christopher. I didn’t know my name was Christopher until I was 11. I went to school, you do these exams and I put down Kit Harington and the teacher said, ‘That’s not your name,’ and I said, ‘Yeah I think I’d know my own name!’ They were like, ‘No no your name is Christopher.’ I was a bit pissed off with my mum. You didn’t tell me my name till I was 11!”

In 2014 he was asked by Glamour why his parents didn’t inform him that he was Christopher and not Kit. His response was, “I haven’t got a clue! I think they could see that I wanted to be Kit, but Christopher was a bit of a tradition. My brother’s name is Jack, but his real name is John. Kit is traditionally an offshoot of Christopher; it’s just not used that often.”

 

7. CATESBY WAS ALMOST HIS PROFESSIONAL LAST NAME

So Christopher “Kit” Harington’s middle name is Catesby which is also his mother’s maiden name! Shocker! However, could you imagine Jon Snow being played by a Kit Catesby instead of a Kit Harington? It just doesn’t have the same ring as Harington.

 

8. THE STAGE

Kit Harington didn’t start out in film, although he is very photogenic. No, he started out on stage. He played the lead male in War Horse while he was still in drama school. Another fun Fact about “Kit”.

9. WAR HORSE GOT HIM ATTENTION

His lead in drama school actually caught him attention from Game of Throne producers. They invited him in for an audition at the end of the play and the rest was history.

10. BLACK EYE

He showed up to his audition for Game of Thrones with a black eye. Apparently, he had an altercation the night before and at a McDonalds no less. I mean…I thought it was from a White Walker.

Regarding this he told the Daily Mail, “I had a black eye as I’d been in a scrap. But I think it might have helped. You know, ‘Who’s the kid with the black eye?’ I was completely new to them, but I looked the part – still had the black eye.”

11. He was once temporarily paralysed from the waist down

Harington explained: “I remember cursing him. I couldn’t stand that I was constantly having to carry down and replace all these f*cking books.

The reason being that Martin’s books were so enormously popular: “I’d fill up the shelves and they’d sell out in a day!”

Aside from Game of Thrones, Harington has been involved a number of other projects, including a 2014 movie entitled Pompeii.

The film itself was panned by critics and it’s probably an experience that Harington would forget…especially when you consider the fact that the actor was temporarily paralysed during filming.

Harington later revealed: “I was in my trailer, and I felt absolutely fine, but they called me to set, I got up, and my legs just went from underneath me, and I ****ing couldn’t stand.

“Every time I got up, the same thing happened. I just stayed in bed for 48 hours and then I was at work again. But it’s weird when that happens.”

Woah! Luckily the actor’s paralysis was only temporary…otherwise he might have been better suited to the role of Bran Stark instead.