Famous Movie Stars Facts Trivia Quiz

Answer: Town Crier

June Allyson (1917-2006) was noted for, and subsequently trapped into, roles in which she played the American sweetheart, the perpetually innocent, girl-next-door type. To a degree these roles suited her fresh-faced looks, but it was a persona she found hard to shake as she aged. Her career included performances on Broadway, ongoing appearances in almost thirty different television shows, and forty-seven movies. One of her most successful films was the 1957 comedy "My Man Godfrey", which also starred David Niven. In this, she played a bubbly heiress who drags a man whom she thinks is homeless back to the family home, where she gives him the job of a butler, much to the disgust of her father. The butler, played by Niven, turns out to be a more than wealthy upper-class chap, of course, and the film concludes to the satisfaction of all concerned.

This charming actress, who could turn on the tears at will, was married four times, but it was her first marriage to actor Dick Powell (1904-1963) from 1945 until his death from cancer that was the most well-known.

Answer: Robert Montgomery

Robert Montgomery (1904-1981), whose career reads like a dream come true, seems to have had everything handed to him on a silver platter. This, however, was not the case, for he was one of the hardest working men to ever take his place before the cameras. Making it his business in the early part of his career to know every facet of the film-making industry, Montgomery went on to become a famous movie and TV actor, as well as a producer and a director. He acted in 63 films over his long career, starring in most. He hosted two of his own television shows, directed six movies, joined the navy during the Second World War (where he rose to the rank of lieutenant commander), found time to coach President Eisenhower on how to best appear on television, and became a much sought after media consultant in his later years.

Robert, who was the father of the much loved actress Elizabeth Montgomery of "Bewitched" fame (1964-1972), was at his best performing comedy, with one of his most popular films being the 1931 "Private Lives" opposite the great actress Norma Shearer. This hilarious movie tells the story of a divorced couple who are horrified to find that their second foray into matrimony sees them ending up holidaying at the same hotel with their new spouses. This old black and white movie is very, very funny if you're ever lucky enough to catch it on late night television.

Answer: He pushed her into a swimming pool

That's some screen test! Van Dyke did this to test Myrna Loy's sense of humour reaction, and she apparently passed with flying colours. I may also have passed such a test if pushed into a pool at a Hollywood party - but only after I reciprocated by giving the director a hearty shove into the drink himself. Myrna (1905-1993) had a life that was just as interesting as any role she played on the silver screen, so interesting in fact that it warrants a separate quiz, which will be done eventually. Once she appeared in the 1934 film "The Thin Man", however, her career never looked back.

In this, Myrna played the wealthy socialite wife of a private detective who has been called out of retirement to investigate a murder - much to his wife's amusement.

This comedy-mystery saw Myrna's skill at acting, and those comedic skills for which she was tested, displayed to perfection. It was the beginning of a 14 film partnership opposite the charming, debonair Powell who was just as polished at comedy as Myrna was herself.

Answer: Leslie Howard

Leslie Howard, born 1893, was an English stage and film actor, playwright, director and producer who appeared in over 40 films from 1914 right up to the year of his death in 1943. Though much of his wartime activities are shrouded in mystery because of his involvement in Intelligence, this is believed to have been directly related to his death when a plane on which he was travelling was shot down by German aircraft over the Bay of Biscay near France. Howard also served with the British army during the First World War, and was invalided home as a result of shell shock. In between times he built up a fine reputation as a dramatic actor. A busy man indeed.

Perhaps the role for which this actor is most famous is that of Ashley Wilkes, the man with whom Scarlett O'Hara is besotted in the 1939 magnificent production of "Gone With the Wind", a tumultuous love story set against the background of the American Civil War. His character's lifestyle, manners, courtesy and finesse also act as the perfect foil to the lusty, somewhat vulgar, daring but fiendishly attractive Rhett Butler. Leslie Howard remained married to his only wife from 1916 until his death, which would have been a refreshing change even in those times, except that he had rather a reputation for being a ladies' man as well. That included more than a few affairs, and keeping a mistress towards the end of his life, a fact of which his far too understanding wife was comfortably aware. Although he didn't bother to run away from women, he practically galloped into their boudoirs instead.

Answer: Jean Harlow

Born in 1911, Jean, who was first signed by Howard Hughes, made a series of flops under his directorship, but when she switched to MGM in 1932 her luck changed. She became one of the most popular actresses of the time, and her leading men included some of the biggest names in Hollywood. By 1937, the year of her tragic death, she had made 34 full length films and 14 short subject reels. These included the 1936 comedy "Wife vs. Secretary" with Clark Gable, in which Gable's wife's unfounded jealousy of his secretary (Harlow) finally drives him into her arms, only to have her tell his wife not to be such an idiot and to take her husband back. In most of her movies Harlow was portrayed as the blonde bombshell, the brazen hussy, or the temptress, roles which she thoroughly tired of after several years, leading her to ask that somewhat wistful question about her costumes.

As a young teenager, Jean had been ill with scarlet fever, and by the time she turned 26 the long term effects of this early illness were beginning to play a deadly toll on her health. For more than a year, she was very ill on a recurring basis, with a myopic doctor unable or unwilling to investigate her symptoms further. Finally collapsing on set on May 29th of the year she died, Jean was taken home by longtime lover and fiancé, William Powell. So worried was he about her health that he called her mother back from holiday and insisted another doctor be consulted. That was when her illness, chronic kidney failure, was finally correctly diagnosed. It was too late however, and on 7 June, 1937, the popular, vivacious Jean Harlow died. Absolutely heartbroken, Powell purchased a large multi-coloured marble room for her in the Great Mausoleum in California for her internment. She was placed there, holding a single white rose in her hands, with a note from him that read, "Goodnight, my dearest darling".

Answer: True

True indeed, a fact that made me laugh heartily at first. This silent film has a storyline remarkably different from the later 1939 movie of the same name which starred Judy Garland. In fact, there's hardly any similarity at all, with Dorothy and the Tin Man initially in love and the Tin Man trying to murder the Scarecrow. No doubt, however, Oliver Hardy made an excellent job of his peculiar role. Hardy (1892-1957), who gave the gift of laughter to millions of people for most of his acting life, was also known to act the occasional villainous role in the early part of his career. However, once the first of the series of "Laurel and Hardy" comedy films he made with Stan Laurel was under way, he was set to play the hilarious Oliver for years. Before they teamed up together, this wonderful pair of entertainers had many films to their individual credit. Stan had 50 while Oliver had an amazing 250! Together, they made 107 more.

Oliver, known to all and sundry as "Babe", was given that nickname by an Italian barber. Each time he shaved the lovable tubby fellow's face, he always patted it with talcum powder, and remarked "Nice-a-bab-y". As a result of this, the name stuck with Oliver for the rest of his life, and he was actually billed in many of his early shows as Babe Hardy. Another interesting fact about Oliver Hardy which few people realise is that for some time in his younger years he studied music and singing with one of the top opera singers and instructors of the time, Adolf Dahm-Petersen. Hardy, indeed, had a lovely voice, but his movie roles seldom allowed him to display it. One last fact about Oliver's skills at comedy before I close this question is that during the many, many scenes he shot together with Laurel, quite a few of them had to be shot more than once. This happened whenever Laurel had to look at Hardy too much during any scene. Just the sight of his chubby friend's face was enough to send Laurel off into gales of helpless laughter instead.

Answer: Franklin

Percy Kilbridge (1888-1964), according to a few close friends including Jack Benny, had much the same sort of personality in real life as did Pa - but without the laziness. He was friendly and quiet, and rather amazingly refused to be paid more for his films than he considered his roles were worth. Imagine any actor doing that today! Percy was a rather well-known actor on Broadway before moving into film on the insistence of Benny, and never looked back from there. Pa Kettle, the character he played so hilariously in ten films, had a softly spoken drawling voice, was as lazy as all get up, borrowed everything he could from friends and neighbours, and was an expert at conning his Indian friends, Geoduck and Crowbar, into doing any work he was assigned to do. Ironically but hardly surprisingly, Percy disliked playing Franklin Kettle, and turned down many offers to appear as that character in a television series. Not, however, because he thought he was a lazy good-for-nothing, but because his character never developed any further.

As a trained Broadway actor where he had played many characters with various personalities and motivations, he said there was no enjoyment in playing Pa's static character over and over again. Those old Ma and Pa movies appear on very late night television now and then, and if you're in the right mood, they're very, very funny. You do have to be in that right mood though. Otherwise you could, like me, want to throttle Pa for his idleness.

Answer: Gregory Peck

Gregory Peck played the role of the lawyer Atticus Finch in this 1962 film, which has the dual plot of the passing of childhood and the murder of an innocent black man accused of rape. This powerful actor who brought such a quiet intensity to his many roles was born in San Diego, California in 1916 and passed away in 2003. His interest in acting stemmed from his time in college as a young man. He was so poor at that time that he had to work as a kitchen assistant in order to pay his acting tuition fees. Nor did things improve when he first moved to New York to pursue an acting career there, and at times he was so short of cash that he often slept in Central Park. Eventually though he began to make a living on Broadway, and by the time he moved on into film, his skills were so polished that he received four Academy Award nominations in his first five years of acting in this genre.

Physically, Peck was a very powerful man, and he refused to accept stunt doubles for most of his roles. This led to his accidentally punching Robert Mitchum during the shooting of a fight scene in the 1962 "Cape Fear" film in which they both starred, a blow that reverberated on Mitchum's jaw for several days afterwards. Interestingly, Peck's name was put forward in 1970 to run against Ronald Reagan for the office of governor of California, but he declined. How interesting would it have been if the two actors had run against one another for the later Presidency of the US! A Roman Catholic all his life, Peck toyed with the idea of joining the priesthood in his early days, but took the road less travelled to the Oscars instead. When asked about this in his later life, and whether he still attended church, this fine actor who had a dry sense of humour replied that he wasn't a fanatic about it but that he practised "enough to keep the franchise". Gregory Peck died at his home in 2003, surrounded by his wife, children and grandchildren. Their loving presence by his side probably meant far more to him than any gold-plated little statuette sitting on his mantelpiece.

Answer: Ingrid Bergman

That's astonishing, don't you think? It's a somewhat startling revelation about the changes in moral values that have taken place in such a relatively short time. Today, most would not even blink at that. Then, however, the furore this created in the United States went right to the top of the American political system, and Ingrid Bergman (1915-1982) was denounced on the floor of the US Senate. Six years later, after Ed Sullivan flew overseas to interview Ingrid for his show after Bergman was safely married to her Italian director, Ed Sullivan's network refused to allow him to show that interview on his longtime television variety program. One presumes all the people involved in the denouncement and the refusal had pristine personal lives. Now where has my tongue gone? Why, it's firmly implanted in my cheek.

Part of the reason for such censure of this lovely Swedish actress, who had also starred in various American made movies, was the roles she had portrayed in those movies. In the 1945 "The Bells of St Mary's" for example, she played a nun, and in the 1948 "Joan of Arc" she was that poor unfortunate heroine who had sizzled at the stake. Life imitates art, it seems. Somewhat fortunately though, there was no kindling available in the US Senate at the time of that 1950 condemnation.

Answer: Nobody could understand her southern accent

The sultry brunette beauty Ava Gardner lived from 1922 until 1990. She was the star of such movies as the 1948 "Mogambo" opposite Clark Gable, in which she played a young woman arriving in an African outpost to meet a rich maharajah, only to be stood up by him. Clark Gable played a big game hunter who happened to be there as well, but who had a very poor opinion of her character - initially. Your typical sexually charged scenario under a hot African sun in fact, but one that earned Ava an Academy Award nomination.

Born in North Carolina, and of Scots, Irish, English, French and Native American ancestry, Ava Gardner was spotted by a talent scout when she was just eighteen. He wasn't really a scout at all, but posing as one in order to get her phone number after seeing her photo in a photographer's studio. He didn't succeed, but his interest in the beautiful girl saw the photographer sending that photograph to MGM instead, where she was called in for a screen test. Once the head of that department heard her talk, however, he was aghast. Her southern drawl was so strong that he couldn't understand a word she said. He subsequently shot the test without Ava having to say a word. When Louis B. Mayer, head of the studio, saw the results, he remarked, "She can't sing, she can't act, she can't talk. She's terrific!" - and Ava was offered a contract, conditional upon her attending a speech class. She did - it worked - and it was all "Lights, camera, action!" for the next forty years of Ava's life.