Run for Your Life! Trivia Quiz

Answer: Fred Lebow

Romanian-born Fred Lebow (ne Fischel Lebowitz) came to America in 1949 and by 1969 had become president of New York Road Runners. Lebow dedicated himself and the NYC Marathon not to top runners but to average, back-of-the-pack runners. Ehrlich blended archival and new footage to document the development of the Marathon, not to mention the revival of New York City itself between the 1970s a 1990s, and to pay tribute to Lebow. The film included interviews with Ed Koch (b.1924), mayor of NYC from 1978 to 1989, a time when the Marathon grew vigorously. Lebow died of cancer in 1994.

Alberto Salazar (b.1958) set a world marathon-racing record in 1981. David Dinkins (b.1927) defeated Koch to become the first Black NYC mayor (1990-93).

Answer: David Carradine

Directed by Terence Young, "Run For Your Life" (1988) was filmed in Rome, where Carradine married his third wife, Gail Jensen. Carradine played Major Charles Forsythe, a Vietnam veteran who beat his wife so brutally she miscarried. She became a marathoner to break free from her husband's psychological grip.

In "Kung Fu", Carradine played the hero Kwai Chang Caine. The rest of the answer choices were his co-stars from that series: Keye Luke was blind Master Po; Philip Ahn played Master Kan; and Radames Pera depicted Caine as a little boy.

Answer: "The Fugitive"

Novelist Roy Huggins created both "The Fugitive" (1963-67) and "Run for Your Life" (1965-68). Just as the Fugitive went from venue to venue, meeting new people and situations only to be forced to move on in the end, so did lawyer Paul Bryan, trying to live life to fullest before meeting the Grim Reaper. Ben Gazzara (1930-2012) played the leading role. Although Ryan was given eighteen months to live, the show lasted three years!

The Man-on-the-Move is a popular television trope, utilized in far too many series to list here, including "Route 66" (1960-64) and "The Incredible Hulk" (1978-82).

Answer: "Highlander: The Series"

"Highlander: The Series" (1992-98) originated as an alternate sequel to the feature film "Highlander" (1986), about a group of Immortals who can only die if beheaded and who mingle with mortals and are pursued by Hunters. The powerful theme song was "Princes of the Universe" from Queen's album "A Kind of Magic".

In "Run For Your Life," the Immortal Duncan Macleod (Adrian Paul) helps Immortal Carl Robinson, a former slave, defeat a racist cop, who turns out to be a Hunter.

Answer: The Beatles

"Run for Your Life/I'm Down" is dually named because it is actually two stories, as were all episodes in "The Beatles" (1965-67). In the first story, Ringo knocks down a vat of wine and nearly destroys a French wine factory. In the second, while at the Louvre, Ringo is knocked unconscious and dreams he is back in the days of Louis XIV. The episode title is listed in some sources as "I'm Down/Run for Your Life", so it is unclear which part is which.

In "The Beatles", the Fab Four did not provide their own voices. Paul Frees voiced George and John, while Lance Percival voiced Paul and Ringo.

The Jackson Five had an animated series 1971-72, and not to be outdone, the Osmonds had one 1972-74. The Archies were not a real group but a collection of studio singers and musicians who made the music for 'The Archie Show' (1968-69).

By the way, of the groups listed only the Beatles were a male quartet; the Osmonds and the Jacksons were quintets at the time of their animated series, and the Archies were co-ed.

Answer: "Rubber Soul"

"Rubber Soul" hit North American stores at Christmastime 1965 and topped the album charts in 1966. Interestingly, the album was marketed as "folk rock", and to do so, several songs from the UK version were replaced with songs from the UK "Help!" album. Both countries' versions of "Rubber Soul" contain "Run for Your Life", a fairly dark and threatening song that John Lennon stated he later regretted writing (in "The Beatles Bible", 2009).

The compilation album "The Early Beatles" (1965) was released only in North America, while "Yellow Submarine" (1966) and the Fab Four's last album, "Let It Be" (1970), appeared on both sides of the Atlantic.

Answer: Thompson Twins

The Thompson Twins were a New Wave band active from 1977 to 1993.

Using "Run for Your Life" has yielded chart-topping material. The pop group Bucks Fizz released one in 1983 from their "Hand Cut" album, and it reached the UK's top 20. Boy band Northern Line sang "Run for Your Life" in 1999, which peaked at number eighteen. Lastly, the title appeared on "X Factor" winner Matt Cardle's "Letters", which hit number two on the UK albums chart in 2011. However, one "Run For Your Life" per decade seems to be sufficient!

Answer: Andrea Kane

The romance enters the story because in order to find her sister Audrey and to protect herself from death threats, Ms. Kensington must enlist the aid of her former lover, FBI associate Zachary Hamilton. And her father may be smuggling drugs, besides. Kane's other books include "The Theft", "Drawn in Blood", and "The Gold Coin".

Answer: a Hercule Poirot mystery

Thankfully, Agatha Christie never used that title for any Hercule Poirot mystery or indeed any other novel of hers.

And now the books whose authors could not resist the temptation:
* "Run for Your Life", a 2009 mystery novel by James Patterson and Michael Ledwidge. Irish Detective Michael Bennett, a widower with ten children, saves New York City from a psychopath who kills...rude people.

* "Run for Your Life", a 2006 novel by Judith Hawking, about an amateur sleuth who trains for the London marathon while she solves the mystery of her boss's disappearance (which may be connected to art forgery).

* "Run for Your Life", a 1966 children's novel written by Yorkshireman Lionel Davidson (as David Line), and later adapted for television. A pair of boys overhear a murder plot, but no one will listen.

Answer: "Run for Your Life: Strategies for Those Who Will Go the Distance"

Angela D. Henderson provides a fourteen-week plan for beginning a running program three days per week in "Strategies for Those Who Will Go the Distance" She states in the book that she felt called by God to take up running to learn endurance. As a consequence of her experiences, Henderson founded Uplift Ministries in South Carolina and Mountain-Mile Ventures Ltd., which offers motivational speaking.

"A Book for Beginning Women Runners", by Deborah Reber, delivers information, motivation, and practical advice for the novice, but it is strictly secular and limited to running, not life in general. (This one may have been tempting. The devil made me do it).

In "Engineers Don't Idle Well", Charles Space recounts his life story as high-school dropout who enrolled at Georgia Tech and acquired jobs at NASA and the Walt Disney Company.

"The Icy Grip of Fear" sounds like something I might have invented, but in fact it is the third volume in "The Wonders of Practical Christianity, A Teaching Series" by Dr. Valerie A. Beauchene, an evangelical theologian.