Celebrities Born in the Great State of Virginia Quiz

Answer:

FYI - All incorrect answers are people born in Nebraska.

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- Arthur Ashe (Richmond) was an American professional tennis player. He was the first black man to win the U.S. Championship (1968) and Wimbledon (1975).

- Pearl Bailey (Newport News) was an American actress, singer and author. She has appeared in two films that have been selected for the National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically or aesthetically" significant: Carmen Jones (1954) & Porgy and Bess (1959).

- Warren Beatty (Richmond) is an American actor and filmmaker. When he made his deal with Warner Bros. for "Bonnie and Clyde" (1967), they agreed to give him 40% of the box-office gross. The film generated over $70 million, netting Beatty an estimated $28 million.

- Shirley MacLaine (Richmond) is an American actress and author. She has appeared in four films that were nominated for the Best Picture Oscar: "Around the World in 80 Days" (1956), "The Apartment" (1960), "Terms of Endearment" (1983) all winners, and the nominated "The Turning Point" (1977).

- Ella Fitzgerald (Newport News) was an American singer, songwriter and composer, sometimes referred to as the "First Lady of Song", "Queen of Jazz", and "Lady Ella". In 1958 she became the first African American woman to win a Grammy Award. She won two awards that night: one for Best Jazz Performance, Soloist, and another for Best Female Pop Vocal Performance.

- Thomas Jefferson (Shadwell Plantation) was an American statesman, planter, diplomat, lawyer, architect, philosopher, and founding father who served as the third president of the United States from 1801 to 1809. His greatest feat as president, was the Louisiana Purchase, a transaction with France that effectively doubled the size of the United States.

- Robert E. Lee (Stratford Hall) was a Confederate general during the American Civil War, toward the end of which he was appointed the overall commander of the Confederate States Army. While he is known as a loyal Confederate, he was asked to lead the Union Army by then-President Abraham Lincoln.

- George C. Scott (Wise) was an American actor, director and producer. He was the first actor ever to refuse an Academy Award, which he did for "Patton" (1970). He claimed he missed the ceremony because he was busy watching a hockey game.

- Woodrow Wilson (Staunton) was the 28th president of the United States, serving from 1913 to 1921. He put the first Jewish justice on the Supreme Court. In 1916, he pushed for Louis Brandeis to be named to the high court against fierce opposition. In the end, he prevailed.

- Sam Snead (Ashwood) was an American professional golfer who was one of the top players in the world for the better part of four decades. On February 7, 1962, at age 49, Snead won the Royal Poinciana Plaza Invitational. He is the only man to ever win an official LPGA Tour event.

- Willa Cather (Gore) was an American writer known for her novels about life on the Great Plains, including "O Pioneers!", "The Song of the Lark", and "My Ántonia". Her most widely-read and widely-admired novel, "My Ántonia", was nominated for the first-ever Pulitzer Prize but didn't get it. The one for which she later won a Pulitzer Prize, "One of Ours", was thought by many to be a weaker work.

- Booker T. Washington (Hale's Ford) was an American educator, author, and orator. The T in Booker T. Washington stands for Taliaferro, which means "iron cutter" in Italian. Reports vary, but Washington's mother apparently named her son Booker Taliaferro when he was born, and later dropped the second name.

- Nat Turner (Southampton County) was an enslaved black carpenter and preacher who led a four-day rebellion of both enslaved and free black people in Southampton County, Virginia in August 1831. He claimed that he received a vision in 1831, which convinced him that rebelling against his slave owners was his destiny.

- Joseph Cotten (Petersburg) was an American film, stage, radio and television actor. Appeared in four Best Picture nominees in the 1940s alone: "Citizen Kane" (1941), "The Magnificent Ambersons" (1942), "Gaslight" (1944) and "Since You Went Away" (1944).

- Richard E. Byrd (Winchester) an American naval officer, was a pioneering American aviator, polar explorer, and organizer of polar logistics. While serving in WWI, he became a skilled pilot, and took part in six of America's twelve expeditions to the Antarctic.