Celebrities in Historic Disasters Quiz

Answer: Elvis Presley

Seventeen twisters decended in this outbreak on April 5-6, 1936, killing nearly 450 people. Hardest hit were Gainsville, GA and Tupelo, MS...Elvis' hometown. Over 200 died in Tupelo alone, but the future 'King of Rock and Roll' survived.

Answer: San Francisco

'The Great Caruso' was jostled out of his bed by the quake in the early-morning hours of April 18, 1906, after performing "Carmen' at the Mission Opera House the previous evening. He safely made his way out of the city, wearing a large scarf to protect his famous voice.

Answer: Leiber-Stoller

Jerry Leiber was onboard the 'Andrea Doria' when it collided with the Swedish liner 'Stockholm' in July of 1956, about the same time Elvis Presley was hitting the charts with 'Hound Dog', penned by him and partner Mike Stoller. Also on board were actresses Ruth Roman and Betsy Drake (wife of Cary Grant) and the daughter of broadcaster Edward P. Morgan. Linda Morgan became known as the 'Miracle Girl' who was scooped from the 'Doria' and found in the wrecked bow of the 'Stockholm'. About 50 people died in the disaster.

Answer: Kyu Sakamoto

Sakamoto's song, 'Ue O Muite Aruko', became 'Sukiyaki' when it reached Number One in America in late 1963. He was one of 520 people who died when Japan Airlines Flight 123 crashed south of Tokyo in August of 1985. For the record, Pericoli charted with the Italian hit 'Al Di La', Makeba sang Zulu for 'Wimowe' ('The Lion Sleeps Tonight') and Masakela hit big with the instrumental hit 'Grazin' In the Grass'.

Answer: David Angell

Angell, along with Peter Casey and David Lee, won multiple Emmy Awards for all three of the series in the 1980's and '90's. He and his wife, Lynn, were aboard American Airlines Flight 11 when it was hijacked and deliberately slammed into the North Tower of the World Trade Center.

Answer: Apocalypse Now

Francis Ford Coppola, Martin Sheen, Marlon Brando and others narrowly escaped the brunt of the storm. As it was, many of the sets were heavily damaged or destroyed, but were reused in other scenes. All in all, it took 16 months to complete filming.

Answer: Margaret Brown

After her husband struck gold in Colorado, Margaret 'Molly' Brown became a long-time supporter of human rights and the arts. After a short visit with her daughter, who was studying at the Sorbonne in France, she found herself in the company of John Jacob Astor and his entourage in Egypt. An emergency call sent the group to England to board the 'Titanic' for the trip to New York in April of 1912. Mrs. Brown cemented her place in history with her bravery and help in reuniting lost family members (as one of the first students of the new Carnegie Institute in New York, she was fluent in French, German and Russian).

She also financed the Titanic memorial in Washington, D.C.

Answer: Fats Domino

A lifelong resident of the Crescent City, Fats Domino made his mark with classics like 'Blueberry Hill', 'Blue Monday' and 'Walking to New Orleans'. Domino had long since retired from the road, choosing to stay at his home in the lower Ninth Ward to care for his wife, who was ill at the time the storm hit. Both came away relatively unscathed, but their house was lost to the flood waters.

The storm killed over 1,800 people, among them another singer, Barry Cowsill of the 1960's group the Cowsills.

Answer: Boris Karloff

Back then he was William Henry Pratt (it would be a few years before he picked up his more famous moniker). Over 50 years later, Karloff would return to Canada to take part in a quiz show, not as the famous actor he was, but as a survivor of the deadly 'Regina Cyclone'.

Answer: The Asian Tsunami

Nemcova and fiancee Simon Atlee were at the Khao Lak resort in Thailand when the monster wave hit on Boxing Day (December 26), 2004. Atlee drowned in the tsunami and Nemcova suffered a broken pelvis, but hung onto a palm tree for nearly eight hours to survive the ordeal. The waters claimed over 186,000 lives.