Wise And Witty Women Trivia Quiz

Answer: Tallulah Bankhead

Tallulah Bankhead (1902-68) is perhaps best remembered for her many stage roles, although she won plaudits for her role as journalist Connie Porter in Hitchcock's "Lifeboat" (1944). Prior to this she had won awards for her stage performances as Regina Giddins in Lillian Hellman's 1939 play "The Little Foxes", and Sabina in the premiere of Thornton Wilder's 1942 drama "The Skin of Our Teeth."

Answer: Lily Tomlin

Lily Tomlin was born in Detroit, Michigan, in 1939 and began her career performing stand-up comedy. From 1969 to 1973 she was a regular on the popular TV show "Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In", which brought her to public notice. In 1975 she appeared in a serious role in Robert Altman's "Nashville", and followed this with many successful films during the next six decades, including "The Late Show" (1977), "9 to 5" (1980), "I Heart Huckabees" (2004) and "Moving On" (2023).

Answer: Cher

Cher was born Cherilyn Sarkisian in May 1946, in the Californian city of El Centro. In 1962 she met (and later married) singer Sonny Bono, and they began to perform together, first in 1964 as Caesar and Cleo, then later as Sonny and Cher. Their TV show "The Sonny and Cher Comedy Hour" helped to cement their popularity, although they divorced in 1975.

Cher continued to work as a solo artist, branching out successfully into film with roles in serious dramas such as "Silkwood" (1983) and "Suspect" (1987). In 2024 she celebrated 60 years in the music business.

Answer: Gloria Steinem

American feminist campaigner Gloria Steinem was born in Toledo, Ohio, in March 1934. She began her career as a journalist in the 1960s, writing for various publications including "Esquire", "Cosmopolitan" and "New York Magazine". Then in 1972 she became one of the founders of the feminist magazine "Ms", which celebrated its 50th anniversary in 2022. Throughout her life she campaigned on a range of feminist and primarily left-wing issues.

Steinem often used the "fish without a bicycle" analogy in her public speeches, and is sometimes credited with inventing it, although she freely admitted that the Australian writer Irina Dunn came up with it first.

Answer: Marlene Dietrich

Marlene Dietrich was born Marie Magdalene Dietrich in Berlin in December 1901. Her acting career began in Germany in the 1920s, and she came to international attention through her starring role as the cabaret singer Lola in the 1930 film "The Blue Angel", directed by Josef von Sternberg. On the strength of this performance, she moved to America and began a successful Hollywood career. She starred in several other films directed by von Sternberg, including "Morocco" (1930), Shanghai Express (1932) and "The Devil is a Woman" (1935).

During the Second World War she became a high-profile supporter of the Allied campaign and travelled to Europe and the Pacific to perform for American troops. After the war she performed more frequently on stage in concerts and cabaret, and died in Paris in 1992 at the age of 90.

Answer: Phyllis Diller

Born in Lima, Ohio, Phyllis Diller (1917-2012) had a long and successful stage career as a stand-up comedienne, as well as appearing regularly on television and in films from the 1950s into the twenty-first century. She retired from stand-up comedy in 2002 aged 85 but continued to make occasional film and television appearances into her nineties.

Her stage persona was that of a self-deprecating wise-cracking woman, and many of her routines involved her fictional husband "Fang".

Answer: Colette

The French writer Sidonie-Gabrielle Colette was always known by her surname only. She was born in January 1873 in the village of Saint-Sauveur-en-Puisaye and published her first novel, "Claudine ŕ l'école" ("Claudine at School") in 1900. It, and three sequels, were published under the name of Willy, the pen-name of Colette's then husband, Henry Gauthier-Villars.

Over the next 40 years she became well-known as a novelist in her own right, publishing many works dealing frankly and openly with aspects of female sexuality. "Gigi" was published in 1944 during the German occupation of Paris, where Colette was then living. In 1958, four years after her death, it was turned into a film musical by Alan Jay Lerner and Frederick Loewe, which was very successful and won the Academy Award for Best Picture.

Answer: Dolly Parton

Dolly Parton was born in January 1946 in Pittman Center, Tennessee. She began singing as a child on local radio stations, and slowly made a name for herself as a country music singer during the 1960s and 70s, as well as writing songs for herself and other recording artists.

During the late 1970s her music moved in a more mainstream direction, and her starring role in the 1980 film "9 to 5" helped to widen her appeal. She has also became known for her philanthropic work, especially through her Dollywood Foundation, which funded scholarships for Tennessee school children, as well as providing free books to local children under the age of five.

Answer: Coco Chanel

Gabrielle Bonheur "Coco" Chanel was born in August 1883 in the town of Saumur in western France. Her fashion career began with boutiques in Deauville (1913) and Biarritz (1915) before she moved to Paris in 1918. In 1921 she launched the perfume known as "Chanel No. 5", and by the end of the 1920s was one of the most famous fashion designers in Paris.

During the Second World War she collaborated with the German occupiers of Paris and escaped to Switzerland when the war ended in 1945. She returned to design in the 1950s, and moved back to Paris, where she died in 1971 at the age of 87.

Answer: Eleanor Roosevelt

Eleanor Roosevelt was born in New York City in October 1884, into a wealthy family. She was the niece of Theodore Roosevelt, who served as the 26th US president from 1901 to 1909. In 1905 she married Franklin Delano Roosevelt (FDR), who was her fifth cousin once removed.

When FDR became first Governor of New York and then the 32nd US president, she became well known for appearing alongside him as well as becoming involved in a range of political causes in her own right. After his death in 1945, she continued to be active in politics and was the first chair of the United Nations Commission on Human Rights. She died in New York in 1962 at the age of 78.