Mike Myers has revealed in interviews that the Austin Powers character was created based on a couple of instances involving his family. His father loved watching British comedies with actors like Peter Sellers and Sir Alec Guinness, so Myers always wanted to play an English character in a comedy. Myers also said that one night after coming home from hockey practice, he started flirting with his wife in an English accent. His wife laughed and told him to write the routine down, so he could do it again. Writing the routine down led to this script.
Mike Myers originally wanted Jim Carrey to play Dr. Evil, but Carrey eventually passed due to scheduling conflicts with Liar Liar (1997). Myers then took the iconic role himself.
Joe Son, the actor who played Random Task, is serving a lifetime prison sentence for the torture of a 19-year-old woman in 1990. He went uncaptured until 2008 when a DNA match linked him to the crime. According to the victim, she unknowingly had a copy of this movie in her home until her attacker's identity was revealed. In 2017, he was sentenced to an additional 27 years for murdering his cellmate.
Larry Thomas: as a blackjack dealer. The filmmakers offered him the part because they liked his role as the 'Soup Nazi' in Seinfeld.