City Folk (Part 4): Actors Trivia Quiz

Answer: Burt Lancaster

Lancaster, Pennsylvania is one of the oldest inland cities of the United States, and was at one time, the capital of the new nation. On September 27, 1777 it was made the capital after the British Army had captured Philadelphia and the Continental Congress had to escape. Burt Lancaster was one of the few actors who had the honor of getting to speak at that March on Washington in 1963.

He had been filming in Europe but flew to the U.S. to take part in the March. He was a financial supporter of Martin Luther King's tour and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference. And on that "Sesame Street" appearance Mr. Lancaster used his thespian expertise to recite the alphabet.

Answer: John Gilbert

Louis B. Mayer, the head of MGM did not like the heartthrob silent film actor John Gilbert, but the story that he had Gilbert's voice altered to sound high-pitched when Gilbert was trying to make the transition to talkies, is a myth. According to Scott Eyman's highly respected biography on Louis B. Mayer, called "The Lion of Hollywood", this vocal sabotage rumor is urban legend. Gilbert was indeed having a hard time transitioning to talkies but it was mostly due to his overly theatrical style of acting according to sources in the book. And also, one can indeed listen to Gilbert's voice in an early talkie "Queen Christina" and there's nothing wrong with it at all.

The combination of bad directors, bad scripts, and a breakup with actress Greta Garbo all led to John Gilbert's career spiraling downward.

Answer: Lovers and Other Strangers

In 1968, Joseph Bologna made his Broadway debut as the co-author of "Lovers and Other Strangers"; his co-writer was his wife, the actress Renee Taylor. The play would turn out to be a huge hit. They wrote the play about their true life experience as an Italian man and Jewish woman getting married and their families' reactions. Two years later they would write the screenplay for the film adaptation and would get an Oscar nomination for it, losing however to "M*A*S*H*". The Italian-American Joe Bologna shares his last name with one of the most populous cities in Italy. Bologna, located just 67 miles north of Florence, is the capital city of Italy's Emilia-Romagna region.

Answer: Robert Lansing

Born in San Diego, California, Robert Brown was a young actor in New York City when he was hired to join a theatre stock company in Michigan. Before he boarded the bus to head there, The Actor's Equity union informed him that there was already an actor named Robert Brown, so he couldn't join with that name. So...because the stock company was located in Lansing, he chose that as his Equity name. Robert Lansing appeared with actress Mariette Hartley in the heartbreaking "Twilight Zone" episode called "The Long Morrow" in 1964, playing an astronaut sent on a mission lasting many years right after he meets the love of his life. Four years later he made a guest appearance on "Star Trek" playing the character Gary Seven.

He and co-star Teri Garr were supposed to star in a spin-off series based on that episode in which they would have many adventures together, but because "Star Trek" was nearing cancellation, the project lost momentum.

Answer: Troy Donahue

Troy Donahue won a Golden Globe in 1960 for Most Promising Newcomer - Male (for 1959's "A Summer Place"), and was also voted the 10th greatest television teen idol in a 2005 ranking by "TV Guide" magazine. David Cassidy was ranked first, followed by Ricky Nelson, and John Travolta. Troy's blonde hair and blue eyes made him a teen idol despite his admittedly limited talent as an actor. But he did appear on countless magazine covers.

Troy, New York is located just north of the capital city Albany. It's on the east side of the Hudson River which splits the state in half. That patriotic symbol known as Uncle Sam that you've seen on many posters? Troy is said to be his home, based on the character being based on Samuel Wilson of Troy.

Answer: The landlord at the rooming house where Dustin Hoffman stays in Berkeley in "The Graduate".

Norman Fell is hilarious in "The Graduate" as the landlord Mr. McCleery, who grows increasingly suspicious of Ben Braddock, "I just like to know what my boys are up to. You aren't one of those agitators, are you?"
Ben: "What?"
McCleery: "I hate 'em. I won't stand for it."

This actually does make me wonder if that's what helped get Mr. Fell cast as the landlord in "Three's Company" for which he won a Golden Globe as "Best Actor in a Supporting Role - Television Series" in 1976.

The famed Oklahoma Sooners college football team play their home games in their stadium located in Norman, Oklahoma. When the stadium is filled with 82,000 fans, there are more people in it than all but six of Oklahoma's most populous cities.

Answer: Meet John Doe

Cooper starred in 9 films nominated for Best Picture Oscars, and received 5 nods for Best Actor, as well as an honorary Oscar. Despite not being a fan of baseball, never playing it or even seeing a game, he was cast as Lou Gehrig in "Pride Of The Yankees" (1942).

He was Oscar nominated for that role which was his mother's favorite. He starred in two movies that were based on Ernest Hemingway novels; "A Farewell to Arms" and "For Whom the Bell Tolls". He was nominated for the latter. He was directed by the great Frank Capra in two films, "Mr. Deeds Goes to Town" and "Meet John Doe".

He was nominated for Best Actor for the first but not the latter. He did not however, star in "The Music Man" which featured the song "Gary, Indiana". But he does have a connection to the city. Early in his career he was acting under the name Frank Cooper (his real name), but apparently so were a few other actors.

He hired a casting director named Nan Collins to work as his agent, and she suggested he change his name to "Gary" because she favored the name, it being the name of her hometown in Indiana.

Answer: His Girl Friday

In the movie "His Girl Friday" Cary Grant plays Walter Burns, a newspaper editor, who has teamed up with his hotshot reporter ex-wife Hildy Johnson (Rosalind Russell) as they break open the city's biggest story in years. They are hiding an escaped convict named Earl Williams in a roll-top desk right in the reporters' room. In the scene, the room is crowded with reporters and the crooked Mayor who wants the execution to go through because it would bring him publicity for the upcoming election. The Mayor has bribed a messenger to delay showing up with the reprieve from the Governor. Walter and Hildy discover this bribe has occurred, and then when Earl Williams is discovered in the desk, the Mayor tells Walter that he's "Whistling in the dark. Well that isn't going to help you this time. You're through!" Walter responds "Listen the last man that said that to me was Archie Leach just a week before he cut his throat." This of course is a big inside joke since Archie Leach was Cary Grant's birth name.

Despite all the cities named Grant in the U.S. none of them came even close to a population near 10,000. Grant, Minnesota had a population under 5,000 in the 2010 census.

Answer: The Night Stalker

Simon Oakland was Antonio Vincenzo , the editor boss of reporter Carl Kolchak, played by the great Darren McGavin in the TV series "The Night Stalker". The show was a spin-off from the far superior TV movie "The Night Stalker" that was made with the same characters and which served as the inspiration for "The X-Files". Simon Oakland's character was frequently depicted chewing out Kolchak for one thing or another, but he did respect Kolchak's savvy as a reporter. Oakland's Vincenzo was never convinced of Kolchak's crazy sounding stories about the various monsters he was writing about.

The series only lasted one season (20 episodes) from 1974 to 1975. Simon Oakland died on August 29, 1983, in California, but not in Oakland, California; he died in Cathedral City, 484 miles from Oakland.

Answer: The Equalizer

"The Equalizer" and "The Equalizer 2" were both remakes of the TV series "The Equalizer" that ran from 1985 to 1989 and starred Edward Woodward as the title character. Movies that Mr. Washington starred in that were remakes of other movies include "The Manchurian Candidate", "Man On Fire", "The Magnificent Seven", and "The Taking of Pelham 123". Speaking of "The Manchurian Candidate" that is an example of a film that Mr. Washington shot in Washington D.C. Also shot in Washington D.C. was "The Pelican Brief" his film with Julia Roberts (various locations including U Street-Cardozo Station, and the Edward Bennett Williams Law Library at Georgetown University Law Center).