Amusing Facts about the Stars Trivia Quiz

Answer: Bobby Milk

Kids are so awful - and just a little bit funny - at the nicknames they come up with for their classmates. De Niro soon toughened up as a result and began hanging round with other street kids in New York where he grew up. Many of these early childhood friends are still his best friends today, so he couldn't have been too bruised by the nickname. I wouldn't dream of calling this brilliant but rather frightening actor anything but Sir.

Born in 1943, De Niro completely absorbs himself in whatever character he is playing. Just as an example of the range of his acting skills, take the terrifying ex-convict out for revenge that he played in the 1991 film "Cape Fear" and then contrast it against his hilarious role as an over the top retired cat-loving CIA operative in the 2000 film "Meet the Parents". De Niro has been nominated very many times for acting awards and won an Academy Award for his roles in the 1974 film "Godfather Part II" and the 1980 film "Raging Bull".

Answer: A lynching

Can you just imagine the poor boy's eyeballs almost popping out of their sockets at the grim sight? That's black humour at its very worst. Henry was still a bashful and rather short lad at that age, he was a Christian Scientist, he enjoyed skating, and swimming and running, and he was a Boy Scout. So how does Dad decide to bond with him? A public hanging. This had two immediate effects on the shy - and now shocked - teenager. The first was that he started growing taller almost immediately and soon was over six feet tall. Perhaps he even thought his father planned to assist in that growth spurt by having his own neck stretched at some future date. And he became so enraged at the ghastly sight in front of his eyes that he developed a very strong awareness of social prejudice that remained with him for the rest of his life.

Fonda acted in many fine stage productions and films during his career, including his excellent work in the 1955 film "Mr Roberts" and the 1957 "12 Angry Men". Yet, in spite of being named as the sixth greatest male star of all time by the American Film Institute, and his many nominations for film awards, he always just failed to win an Academy Award until just before his death. This was the Best Actor Academy Award for his role in the 1981 film "On Golden Pond". Born in 1905, Henry Fonda died in 1982 from heart disease.

Answer: I won every one except eleven

Poor old Dino, born in 1917 to Italian parents, didn't speak English until after he had started school. As a result, he was mocked constantly by his classmates for his stammering attempts to communicate, a fact that didn't endear him to school at all. Consequently, he looked like he was set for a criminal career when he dropped out of that worthy establishment early. He began delivering bootleg to thirsty customers, worked as a croupier in a speakeasy, as a blackjack dealer, tried his hand as a factory worker and finally settled on trying to make a living as a boxer. Surprisingly, and in spite of making fun of it, he was quite good at the sport. Along the way however he suffered a broken nose, split lips, bruised knuckles and all the trademarks of the boxing trade, before finally giving it away because he "figured there had to be easier ways of having your brains knocked out."

Martin served in the army during World War II, and, following his discharge at the close of the war, concentrated on his singing career in nightclubs, where he eventually met Jerry Lewis. The duo had a successful career for ten years on stage and in film, with Martin playing the straight man and Lewis the idiot. Following their break-up because Martin was tired of the puerile scripts he was constantly given, he commenced a successful career in his own right as an actor, and hosted his own television shows. Forever associated as a member of Hollywood's famous - or infamous - Rat Pack, Martin was tainted the remainder of his life with a reputation for being a very heavy drinker and a womanising night-clubber, something he himself lampooned in his televisions shows. In fact, he was neither. He drank lightly and always left early after any post show party etc. to return home to his family. His children remembered him as always being home for dinner every evening. Sadly, Dean Martin passed away in 1995 from lung cancer.

Answer: His sister's dress

I have no doubt at all that this fact can be linked to his later choice of tough guy film roles. Bronson's father died when he was ten, so perhaps the small boy was rather relieved to have to leave school early and go to work in the coal mines instead.

He did manage to educate himself part-time however and became the first member of his family to graduate from high school. Bronson, who enlisted in the US Army Air Forces in 1943, was awarded a Purple Heart for injuries received during his services. I think he should have also been awarded a medal for the dress as well.

He began his film career in 1951, and after perfecting his acting skills, turned in such memorable performances as those seen in the 1960 "The Magnificent Seven" and the 1967 "Dirty Dozen" and the 1963 "The Great Escape" films.

Born in 1921, Bronson, a devoted family man, died in 2003 from pneumonia.

Answer: Suspension from the school

This suspension was for breaking curfew, smoking and drinking, something which was a real no-no for women at the time. Little did the powers that be who ran the college realise what other scrapes the lively Katharine got up to, or her name would have been permanently struck from society's lists of eligible wealthy young women.

These included going skinny-dipping after dark on a regular basis in the college's cloisters fountain. Katharine was a true great of the movies, with a star that far outshines any others that graced the silver screen. During her lifetime as an actress she won an enormous number of awards and was nominated for countless others.

These included four Academy Awards. These were for the 1933 "Morning Glory", the 1967 "Guess Who's Coming to Dinner", the 1967 "The Lion in Winter" and the 1981 "On Golden Pond".

Born in Connecticut in 1907, Katherine Hepburn died in 2003 of natural causes, a true lady to the last.

Answer: In his buttocks

Marvin is such an interesting man to read about. He was actually named after General Robert E. Lee - yes, that Lee - and is the Confederate General's cousin, four times removed. He played violin as a child, which would indicate a gentle sensitive nature, but yet he was expelled from several schools as a youth for his bad behaviour. Perhaps he didn't like the violin after all? After the war he was working as a plumber's assistant in a theatre. It was there that he was asked to step into the role of a sick actor in a play currently being performed. He didn't look back from that moment.

A fine and powerful actor, with an enormous screen presence, Marvin was known for his roles in films such as the 1962 "The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance", the 1967 "The Dirty Dozen" (a brilliant movie), his hilarious role in the 1969 musical "Paint Your Wagon" and his equally entertaining role in the 1965 "Cat Ballou" - for which he won an Academy Award. He died in 1987, aged only 63, from a heart attack. Interestingly, his headstone revealed what he considered to be the most important thing he had achieved in his life. It reads "Lee Marvin, PFC US Marine Corps, World War II". What a man.

Answer: Agriculture

Unable to find work in Italy, where he was born in 1895, Valentino set off, aged 18, to make his fortune in the USA. After living on the streets a short while, he worked a variety of jobs before landing in films. These included bussing tables and gardening, and as a taxi dancer at Maxim's. Taxi dancers were paid professional dance partners for women and men in nightclubs. They were referred to as taxi dancers, because, like taxis, one paid for the proportion of time used. After he gained fame on the screen, particularly so in his role in the 1921 movie "The Sheik" (a role incidentally that he hated being identified with) women adored him and men detested him.

The ladies fainted in the aisles, sent him passionate love letters, and left their husbands because of their failure to compare to Valentino. Men, on the other hand, walked out of his movies in disgust. Though many copied his slicked back hair style (earning those who did the nickname of Vaselino) a concerted campaign got under way in which poor Valentino's sexuality was constantly questioned. Even though claim after claim against him proved to be untrue, the rumours persisted, so much so that Valentino challenged two different writers of scurrilous articles to a duel and a boxing match respectively. Neither writer turned up for the occasion. Other less envious men, like champion boxer Jack Dempsey, defended Valentino. Dempsey said that Valentino "was the most virile and masculine of men. The women were like flies to a honeypot. He could never shake them off, anywhere he went. What a lovely, lucky guy." Sadly this lovely, lucky guy, never did get to fulfil his role in agriculture. He almost approached it once though in the 1922 film "Blood and Sand" in which he played a bullfighter. Valentino died in 1926 from peritonitis - and the little love-starved hearts of women all over the world broke into a million tear-stained pieces.

Answer: He was listed as a female on his birth certificate

Oh, the indignity - and how he must have laughed at this in his later life. Following the death of his mother from a brain tumour when he was only ten months old, Gable was lucky in his father's second choice of a wife. She brought the little boy up to be well-dressed, groomed to perfection and unfailingly courteous, and taught him to play piano. His father insisted his son become more manly as well, and forced him into hunting and fishing excursions and physically demanding work such as that carried out by real he-men types. In truth, Gable's true love was the Arts, and language in particular, with Shakespeare at the top of his preferred reading list. Sadly, when he was 21, his step-mother also passed away. He certainly had a lot of bad luck with the women in his life. At this second loss, Gable moved away from home to try his hand at acting, and landed on the doorstep of the owner of a theatre in Oregon. She took one look at the half-starved young man and took him under her wing, fattened him up a bit, had his teeth repaired, his hair styled, and trained him in posture and in voice skills, managing to get his voice down to a rich and resonant pitch. She then became his manager and his first wife, setting the now amazingly appealing young actor along his road to stardom.

Gable is most well known for roles in films like the 1934 "It Happened One Night" (for which he won an Academy Award), 1935 "Mutiny on the Bounty", the 1939 "Gone With the Wind" (of course), and a host of others. During the Second World War he fought in the US Air Force, enlisting, with an aching heart, following the death of his beloved third wife, Carole Lombard, in 1942. For his services he earned the Air Medal and Distinguished Flying Cross. Clark Gable's last film, was "The Misfits" which was released in 1961 shortly after his death in November 1960 of a heart attack. Every time I see that great old movie on telly, with Gable so sick and old, and the beautiful and fragile Marilyn Monroe putting in the performance of a lifetime in this, her last completed film as well, it truly makes me cry - just a little.

Answer: They said LeSueur sounded like Le Sewer

Crawford's father was a French Huguenot, hence the rather exotic birth name given to her in 1905 - although that given year of her birth has been constantly challenged. She had no say in her new stage name either. The studio ran a public competition to find a new one for her. They chose the winner and the suggested name, and Lucille LeSewer became Joan Crawford from then on. She hated the new surname in particular and said it sounded like "Crawfish".

Known for her role in films such as the 1934 "Forsaking All Others", 1945 "Mildred Pierce" (for which she won an Academy Award), and the 1962 "Whatever Happened to Baby Jane", Crawford's career spanned the transition from the silent film era to the talkies. She went from playing the wide-eyed young beauty, to hagged, drink-destroyed but incredibly powerful has-beens. Crawford was a victim of the Hollywood machine. It created her, and then destroyed her just as carelessly. In later life when her film offers were few and far between, she retired to her apartment after seeing a dreadful photograph of her aging self in the press. There, she began to drink more and more heavily, falling and hurting herself several times, and was forced to move into a smaller apartment. Finally, in May 1977, she was also forced to give away her most loved pet, a small dog, because she was too weak to look after it any longer. She died just two days later from a combination of a heart attack and cancer, abandoned by a world that had once worshipped at the altar of her beauty. Such is the shallow world of Hollywood.

Answer: Performing with a trained seal

George tried the stint with the seal, shining shoes, running errands, selling newspapers, trick roller skating, and singing and dancing on street corners. He was working full time job at the mighty age of seven and going to school part time. Quitting school altogether in grade four, he took up smoking his trade-mark cigar, and, with three other boys of the same age, set up a singing quartet that they would perform anywhere to earn a little cash. He said later of his time with the seal that he had to work extra hard not to be upstaged by his oceanic co-star.

During those long, struggling years, George perfected his craft - and his brilliant self-deprecating and wonderful sense of humour. He met Gracie Allen, a young entertainer starting out, in 1923 and married her in 1926, in a wonderfully happy marriage that lasted some 38 years until Gracie's death. The couple made their mark on the world of entertainment in radio, vaudeville, theatre, film, and their long running television show "George Burns and Gracie Allen Show". After her death in 1964, George buried himself in work, in television and on the big screen. In his later years, his stage persona was that of a randy senior citizen always on the lookout trying to get lucky with the ladies, and in this characterisation, he was absolutely hilarious and could make you laugh till you cried. He released a statement on his 100th birthday in 1996 saying that, for a birthday gift, he'd like "a night with Sharon Stone". This great old battler, star, husband, and comic genius died two months later - and I guess wherever he is right now, hot or cold, he's still keeping the laughs rolling right in.