Some Oscar History Part I Trivia Quiz

Answer: Peter O'Toole

Peter O'Toole played King Henry II in "Becket" (1964) and "The Lion in Winter" (1968) and has had a stellar career including roles in "Lawrence of Arabia", "Goodbye, Mr. Chips", "Venus" and "My Favorite Year".

Paul Newman played "Fast" Eddie Felson in "The Hustler" (1961) and "The Color of Money" (1986), for which he won the Oscar.

Al Pacino starred as Michael Corleone in "The Godfather" (1972) and "The Godfather: Part II" (1974), neither of which won.

Cate Blanchett played Elizabeth I in "Elizabeth" (1998) and "Elizabeth: The Golden Age" (2007). As with Pacino, neither role won her the coveted statue.

Answer: Mrs. Miniver

She couldn't resist "the opportunity of a lifetime". Garson started by declaring herself "practically unprepared" and then launched into seven minutes of thanks for having won for her performance. Award winners are officially allowed 45 seconds for their acceptance speech.

The film also won Oscars for Best Picture, Best Director and Best Supporting Actress.

She was nominated for Best Actress for "Madame Curie", "Blossoms in the Dust" and "The Valley of Decision"", but did not take home those Oscars.

Answer: Joe Pesci

Joe Pesci won in 1991 for "Goodfellas". His response? He simply said "It's my privilege. Thank you," and sat down. It was the shortest recorded acceptance speech recorded up to that time.

Answer: Jack Nicholson and Meryl Streep

Jack "Heeeeere's Johnny!" Nicholson got his first Oscar nod in 1970, with a nomination for Best Supporting Actor in "Easy Rider".

Meryl Streep's first nomination was in 1979, for "The Deer Hunter". She's been racking up nominations and statuettes ever since!

Those who have won more than one Oscar include:

Ingrid Bergman (leading: "Gaslight"; leading: "Anastasia"; supporting: "Murder on the Orient Express")
Robert De Niro (leading: "Raging Bull"; supporting: "The Godfather: Part II")
Gene Hackman (leading: "The French Connection"; supporting: "Unforgiven")
Helen Hayes (leading: "The Sin of Madelon Claudet"; supporting: "Airport")
Jessica Lange (leading: "Blue Sky"; supporting: "Tootsie")
Jack Lemmon (leading: "Save the Tiger"; supporting: "Mister Roberts")
Jack Nicholson (leading: "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest"; leading: "As Good as It Gets"; supporting: "Terms of Endearment")
Maggie Smith (leading: "The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie"; supporting: "California Suite")
Kevin Spacey (leading: "American Beauty"; supporting: "The Usual Suspects")
Meryl Streep (leading: "Sophie's Choice"; leading: "The Iron Lady"; supporting: "Kramer vs. Kramer")
Denzel Washington (leading: "Training Day"; supporting: "Glory")

Answer: The Last Time I Saw Paris

His first Oscar win was for "The Last Time I Saw Paris" (yes, I can hear you singing it softly!) from the 1941 film "Lady Be Good". He also won the Oscar for "It Might as Well Be Spring" from 1945's "State Fair". No, I don't remember that one either...

"A Mist Over the Moon" was his first nominated song, in 1939. "A Kiss to Build a Dream On" was his last, in 1952. "All Through the Day" was nominated in 1947.

Answer: The Los Angeles Times

According to filmsite.org, which provides some very comprehensive Oscar history, the results of the 1939 competition were leaked to the public early by "The Los Angeles Times". This fiasco changed a few things: an accounting firm, Price Waterhouse, was hired to count the ballots for the 1940 awards, and the results were no longer made available to anyone except, of course, the auditors and the person who got to lick the envelope!

Answer: Jessica Tandy

George Burns, then age 80, won Best Supporting Actor for "The Sunshine Boys" at the 1976 awards. While he was at the time the oldest actor to win a competitive award, Jessica Tandy, also age 80, became the oldest actress to win when she won in 1990 for her role in "Driving Miss Daisy" - and she was just slightly older than Burns, if you start counting days.

Since then, Christopher Plummer won Best Actor in a Supporting Role for his work in the film "Beginners", awarded in 2012 when he was age 82.

Answer: Tatum O'Neal

Tatum O'Neal, daughter of Ryan O'Neal, was 10 when she won her Oscar for Best Supporting Actress in "Paper Moon". By the time she made "Bad News Bears" in 1976, she was the top earning child star.

Gennie James starred in "The Secret Garden", Macaulay Culkin in "Home Alone" and "Richie Rich" (amongst others) and Dakota Fanning in "Sweet Home Alabama", "Charlotte's Web" and "The Secret Life of Bees" (amongst others).

Answer: Ben-Hur (1959)

Some other films that went home with a boatload of Oscars include:

"Ben-Hur" (1959) won Best Picture; Best Actor in a Leading Role; Best Actor in a Supporting Role; Best Director; Best Art Direction-Set Decoration, Color; Best Cinematography, Color; Best Costume Design, Color; Best Effects, Special Effects; Best Film Editing; Best Music, Scoring of a Dramatic or Comedy Picture; and Best Sound. It was also nominated for Best Writing, Screenplay Based on Material from Another Medium, but didn't win those categories.

"Titanic" (1997) won Best Picture; Best Director; Best Art Direction-Set Decoration; Best Cinematography; Best Costume Design; Best Effects, Visual Effects; Best Film Editing; Best Music, Original Dramatic Score; Best Music, Original Song; Best Sound; and Best Sound Effects Editing. It was also nominated for Best Actress in a Leading Role; Best Actress in a Supporting Role; and Best Makeup.

"The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King" (2003) won Best Picture; Best Director; Best Art Direction-Set Decoration; Best Costume Design; Best Film Editing; Best Makeup; Best Music, Original Score; Best Music, Original Song; Best Sound Mixing; Best Visual Effects; and Best Writing, Adapted Screenplay. There were no other nominations.

"Spartacus" (1960) won four Oscars, "How the West Was Won" (1962) took three and "Lawrence of Arabia" (1962) took seven.

Answer: Emil Jannings

The first dinner was held on 16 May 1929. There were 12 winners - can you imagine that today! Emil Jannings (1884-1950) won the Best Actor award for his roles in "The Last Command" and "The Way of All Flesh", but as he had to leave the USA prior to the dinner, his statuette was presented to him early, making him the first ever person to be given an Oscar. Okay, the statuette wasn't called Oscar until around 1934 (unofficially) and 1939 (officially). The statuette is supposed to be a knight standing on a reel of film. It allegedly got its nickname from Margaret Herrick, who eventually became Director of the Academy and who thought the statuette looked like her uncle Oscar.

Clifton Webb (1889-1966) received several Oscar nominations but never took home an Oscar.

Roscoe Arbuckle (1887-1933) was an immensely popular actor until he was accused of rape. He was acquitted on the third trial, but it irrevocably damaged his career.

Frank Mayo (1889-1963) appeared in 310 films but never got an Oscar.