Celebrity Rhyme Time - Classic Edition II Quiz

Answer: dinner Brynner

Russian-born Yuliy Borisovich Brynner played the King of Siam in both the film and stage versions of "The King and I" (for which he won an Oscar and two Tonys). He also played the evil Pharaoh in Cecil B. DeMille's Technicolor (and better known) remake of "The Ten Commandments" (1957). Even though he was as bald as a cue ball and maintained a vaguely Slavic accent, audiences accepted Brynner as an American cowboy in "The Magnificent Seven" and other Hollywood westerns. Capitalizing on that part of his career, Brynner even played a robotic cowboy in the sci-fi thriller "Westworld" (1973).

He died of lung cancer in 1985, after filming a haunting public service announcement shown shortly after his death: "Now that I'm gone, I tell you: Don't smoke. Whatever you do, just don't smoke."

Answer: loan Joan

Born Lucille Fay LeSueur, Joan Crawford began her career as a flapper in the silent era. Her career had many ups and downs, as she moved from Queen of the Movies in the 1930s to "box office poison". But the film "Mildred Pierce" (1945) proved to be a major comeback and won her the Best Actress Oscar. Clark Gable once asserted that she was his favorite actress to work with. In 1955 she married Alfred Steele, President of the Pepsi-Cola company. After her husband's death, she became a member of the board of directors, but she was so desperate for cash that she took non-starring roles in motion pictures. She made a second comeback in "What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?" (1962), a thriller in which she co-starred with Bette Davis.

Joan Crawford's legacy was marred by the publication of "Mommie Dearest" (1978), in which her adopted daughter alleged child abuse -- denied by some colleagues, such as Myrna Loy and Cesar Romero, but confirmed by others, such as Rex Reed, June Allyson, and longtime rival Bette Davis.

Answer: flower Power

Tyrone Edmund Power, Jr., was known for his heroic, sometimes exotic or swashbuckling roles in "The Mark of Zorro" (1940), "The Black Rose ("1950), and "Prince of Foxes" (1949). In his later years, he played more sophisticated roles on screen in "Witness for Prosecution" (1957) and on stage in "John Brown's Body" (1953).

He died quite suddenly from a heart attack at age 44 in 1958 whilst filming "Solomon and Sheba" (1959). Yul Brynner took over Power's role as King Solomon, but if you look closely you can still make out Power in some long shots that were kept in.

Answer: spleen Jean

Born Harlean Harlow Carpenter in 1911, sex symbol Jean Harlow held a "laughing vamp" image that was nothing like her personality in real life. She starred in many films, including "Platinum Blonde"(1931) with Loretta Young, "Hold Your Man" (1933) with Clark Gable, and "The Public Enemy" (1931) with James Cagney.

The "Blonde" film in particular started a craze of women dying their hair to match Harlow's, often using dangerous methods combining laundry bleach and ammonia (don't try this at home). A supporter of the New Deal, she visited President Franklin Roosevelt on his birthday in 1937.

Not her spleen but her kidneys, alas, were her demise. In 1937 she died of acute renal failure (possibly due to high blood pressure) at only 26 years of age.

Answer: table Gable

William Clark Gable was a prolific leading man during his nearly 40-year film career. Next to his role as Rhett Butler in "Gone with the Wind", he is also known for playing a rugged interpretation of Mr. Christian in "Mutiny on the Bounty" (1935). Very fit and handsome, he almost played the title role in "Tarzan the Ape Man" (1932), but Olympic swimmer Johnny Wiessmuller won the day.

He co-starred in six films with "blonde bombshell" Jean Harlow and in three films with Norma Shearer. His last film, Arthur Miller's "The Misfits" (1961), co-starred Marilyn Monroe (also her last) and is considered by many critics to be Gable's (and Monroe's) finest performance.

Answer: korma Norma

Montreal-born Edith Norma Shearer played sophisticated, carefree women in silent films and in pre-code Hollywood films, some of which would be considered racy even in the early 21st century. In later films like "Marie Antoinette", she shed her free-spirit image and played "noble" roles. (You have to see the movie to see how she made Marie Antoinette noble.) She received six Best Actress Oscar nominations but only won for "The Divorcee" (1930).

She was married to producer Irving Thalberg from 1927 until his death in 1936. Norma Shearer, however, lived to be 80 and died in 1983.

Answer: duster Buster

Joseph Frank "Buster" Keaton, known as "The Great Stone Face" for his deadpan expression, was one of the biggest stars of the silent era. He began working with Roscoe "Fatty" Arbuckle in New York City for producer Max Schenck. He made dozens of shorts and many feature films, including "The Navigator" (1924) and "The General" (1927).

After "The General", however, he lost creative control over his films, and his work suffered as a consequence. The loss of independence, the pressure to change over to sound filming, and problems with his marriage led to Keaton's alcoholism, and his career faltered as he was unable to continue performing the taxing physical comedy his films required. Television revived his fame somewhat, especially as his older reels received airtime.

In 1999 he was named the 21st-greatest male film star of all time by the American Film Institute.

Answer: chaplain Chaplin

Sir Charles Spencer "Charlie" Chaplin (1889-1977) is perhaps best known for his "Little Tramp" character, dressed in a bowler hat, oversized shoes, and undersized jacket, and sporting a cane which he twirled as he walked. He was very athletic and many of his films featured quite acrobatic antics.

His best known silent films include "The Gold Rush" (1925), "The Kid" (1921), and "Modern Times" (1936), Chaplin's commentary on the dehumanization of the Industrial Age. ("Modern Times" was photographed as a silent movie, but it included sound effects and an radio announcement, so it was actually a hybrid.) He was, in fact, one of the last holdouts against talkies. Unlike Buster Keaton, however, Charlie Chaplin was savvy enough to keep creative control over his films by co-founding the distribution company United Artists (along with D.W. Griffith, Douglas Fairbanks, and Mary Pickford). Thus he avoided the problems that Keaton and many other silent film stars experienced during the transition to sound. Chaplin eventually made several sound films, including "The Great Dictator" (1940), a satire of Hitler and Nazi Germany.

Answer: knee Leigh

Born Jeanette Helen Morrison in 1927, Janet Leigh was discovered by movie star Norma Shearer. She made a variety of films during her long career, from "Little Women" (1949) to "The Manchurian Candidate" (1962). In 1951 she married Tony Curtis (husband number three) and co-starred with him in "Houdini" (1953) and a few others. She was best known, however, for her role as the thieving, ill-fated secretary in Alfred Hitchcock's "Psycho" (1960). A few months after receiving an honorary doctorate she passed away in 2004.

Leigh and Curtis had a daughter, Jamie Lee Curtis, who had a substantial film career in her own right.

Answer: deck Peck

It's a FunTrivia tradition to include a question on "To Kill a Mockingbird" (though perhaps more honored in the breach), so I beg your indulgence.

Eldred Gregory Peck (1916-2003) starred in his first motion picture, war film "Days of Glory", in 1944, and his last, a documentary called "A Conversation With Gregory Peck", in 2000. Tall and strong, he generally did his own stunts. He played in all kinds of film from the psychological thriller "Spellbound" (1945) to the romantic comedy "Roman Holiday" (1953) with Audrey Hepburn. He played a variety of roles from an heroic soldier to an obsessed whale-hunter to an evil Nazi doctor. Peck was not only a movie star but also a humanitarian, earning the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1969. Gregory Peck passed away in 2003. That same year his character in "To Kill a Mockingbird", Atticus Finch, earned the number one spot in the American Film Institute's list of greatest film heroes.