From the Movie to the Television Series Quiz

Answer: Peter Lawford

In the 1934 movie, Powell plays Nick Charles, a retired detective who finds himself drawn into a murder case in San Francisco. After red herrings and plot twists, the murderer is revealed at a classic dinner party scene. Powell started acting at an early age on Broadway.

He did a series of movies based on the "Thin Man" with frequent co-star, Myrna Loy. Some of his best-remembered films are "The Great Zigfeld", "My Man Godfrey" and "Life with Father". In the 2-season (1957-59) TV show, handsome and affable Peter Lawford was cast in the male lead in a New York City setting with a different case to solve in each episode.

In his early career, Lawford started in many films and even got to sing in some of them (e.g. "Good News", Easter Parade", "Royal Wedding").

He was a brother-in-law of President John Kennedy, having married Pat Kennedy.

Answer: Richard Basehart

In the 1961 action/adventure movie, Walter Pidgeon plays Admiral Harriman Nelson. Canadian by birth, Pidgeon starred in numerous movies, mainly dramas such as "How Green was My Valley", "Mrs. Miniver" and "Forbidden Planet". In "VTTBOTS", Nelson is assigned to snuff out a fire that has ignited Earth's Van Allen belt, and making life uncomfortably warm, by firing a nuclear warhead into it. Three years later, it was made into a long-running TV series from (1964-68) that had a much more science fiction spin to the plots and incorporating futuristic gadgets and weird creatures, typical trademarks of producer Irwin Allen. On TV, Richard Basehart played the stoic Admiral Nelson. Basehart was a prolific movie and TV actor.

Some of his notable films were "Moby Dick", the 1953 version of "Titanic" and "Battle of the Bulge".

Answer: Edward Mulhare

Rex Harrison played crusty Captain Daniel Gregg in the 1947 romance drama. Gregg had died from accidental suffocation and haunts a cottage that a young widow now rents. At first he is resentful of what he perceives as an intrusion, but gradually gains respect and love for Mrs Muir (Gene Tierney). Harrison hailed from Britain, and won an Academy Award for his portrayal Professor Henry Higgins in the 1964 movie "My Fair Lady" and adaptation of the Broadway musical in which he also appeared.

The TV show was a sit-com which bore but a vague resemblance to the movie, played for laughs, and adding regular and guest characters that did not appear in the movie. Edward Mulhare, an Irish actor, started out to be a doctor, but eventually decided on an acting career which began on stage.

He also took over for Harrison as Professor Higgins in the Broadway play "My Fair Lady". He appeared in dozens of American TV shows as a regular or in a guest spot. Some of his films include "Von Ryan's Express" and "Our Man Flint".

His last acting role was on the TV series "Baywatch Nights".

Answer: Jack Warden

The "Bad News Bears" (1976) revolved around a Little League baseball team coached by a down-on-his-luck, beer-drinking curmudgeon, Morris Buttermaker (Matthau), who was an ex-Minor League player but now works as a pool cleaner. The team is so bad, that the new coach brings in "ringers" to help.

The movie was so popular it spawned two sequels, a TV series, and was remade in 2005 starring Billy Bob Thornton. Matthau was a prolific movie, TV and stage actor. Perhaps best remembered as the crusty sports writer, Oscar Madison, in the movie "The Odd Couple" and Max Goldman in the "Grumpy Men" movies with frequent co-star, Jack Lemmon.

The less successful TV series placed Jack Warden in the coach's role, but it only had 26 episodes, three of which were never aired. Warden started out as a boxer, but that career didn't pan out. Starting out with minor roles in movies, his big break came in portraying Juror #7 in the courtroom drama "Twelve Angry Men" and doing guest spots on many TV shows.

Answer: Bruce Davison

Harry is a Sasquatch (a.k.a. Bigfoot) who is taken home by the Hendersons after he is hit by their car. He revives, however, and must be kept hidden to prevent Harry's being captured and exploited by an avid Sasquatch hunter. This results in many predictable comic situations. John Lithgow and Melinda Dillon head the movie cast at Mr. and Mrs.

Henderson. Lithgow starred in dozens of movies and TV shows after starting on the stage. Some of his better known film vehicles were "Terms of Endearment", "The Pelican Brief" and "The World According to Garp".

His best known TV role was arguably that of Dick Solomon on "3rd Rock from the Sun". As a TV series, "HATH" didn't vary much from the 1987 movie's story line and, despite some minor character cast changes, ran for three seasons (1991-93). Bruce Davison and Molly Cheek led the TV cast. Davison accrued a long list of TV and film titles in which he acted.

Some of his efforts include "Mother, Jugs and Speed", "Willard" and "Spies Like Us".

Answer: Christopher Connelly

The premise of "Paper Moon" (1973) focuses on a traveling con man, Moses (Moze) Pray (Ryan O'Neal) who is forced to take on a little girl named Addie, who may be his daughter. In reality, Tatum O'Neal, who played Addie, WAS Rayn O'Neal's daughter. Addie turns out to be as good a bunco artist as she Moze form a business partnership selling Bibles to grieving families in the mid-west during the Depression era. O'Neal starred on many movies (e.g. "Love Story", "Barry Lyndon", "A Bridge Too Far") and dabbled in TV mostly in guest roles.

The TV show was very short-lived only airing only 13 episodes in the autumn of 1974 and the plot didn't vary much from the movie. Christopher Connelly and Jodie Foster played the respective roles in the TV cast. Connelly had a relatively short entertainment career, dying at age 47, and none of his films were huge box office draws.

Answer: Richard Dean Anderson

The 1954 theatrical movie was a rolicking musical with much athletic dancing choreographed by Michael Kidd. The plot involves a family of seven brothers. When the eldest, Adam (Howard Keel) brings home a wife, the other brothers start thinking about matrimony and they concoct a plan to "kidnap" some girls from the town after hearing Adam read Plutarch's "The Rape of the Sabine Women". Keel was known for his rich baritone singing voice and was aptly cast in many movie musicals (e.g. "Kiss Me Kate", "Annie Get Your Gun" and "Lovely to Look At") as well as a few dramas in non-singing roles.

The TV series only ran one season (22 episodes) starting in 1982, but without the singing and dancing. It also marked River, Joaquin and Liberty Phoenix's acting debuts. Richard Dean Anderson is primarily a TV actor and many would not argue that his best-known role was that of Angus MacGyver on the action/adventure series "MacGyver". On another note, a more popular TV show "Here Come the Brides", which ran from 1968-70, was also based on "SBFSB" in the same setting of the north-west U.S. and involved a similar premise.

Answer: Bill Bixby

In the 1963 movie, widower, Tom Corbett (Glenn Ford) lives with his son (Ron Howard) next door to an eligible woman, Elizabeth (Shirley Jones). Although Eddie likes Elizabeth, Tom often squabbles with her. Tom eventually meets Rita, with whom he hits it right off, bur Eddie doesn't like Rita (Dina Merrill) and tries to sabotage the relationship. Rita wants to send Eddie away to give her relationship with Tom a chance, but this doesn't sit well with Tom and he breaks off with her and in doing so, sees Elizabeth in a new light. Glenn Ford was a handsome leading man, mainly in dramas like "Gilda" or "The Blackboard Jungle" but also did some light comedies (e.g. "The Gazebo" and "Pocketful of Miracles") and westerns ("3:10 to Yuma", "A Time for Killing").

The TV series followed the basic premise, except each episode featured a new love interest for Tom (Bill Bixby) set up by son Eddie (Brandon Cruz). The TV series ran from 1969-72. That's a lot of ladies to date! Bixby started in TV as a guest star in many series, but got a big break when he was cast as Tim O'Hara in the sit-com "My Favorite Martian".

This led to more TV roles (e.g. "The Magician" and "The Incredible Hulk") and a handful of movies.

Answer: McLean Stevenson

"M*A*S*H" (1970) humorously explored the lives of the staff manning a mobile surgical medical unit during the Korean conflict. Roger Bowen played Col. Henry Blake, commanding office of that particular unit. Blake may well have been a good surgeon, but lacked decisive leadership, so the other staff took many liberties in dealing with their situation. Bowen, who played continuing characters in many TV shows, considered acting as his "second job".

He really thought of himself more of a novelist and sketch writer, having written eleven novels and numerous scripts for TV and Broadway. On the long-running TV series, the role of Blake was well-played by McLean Stevenson for the first three of its eleven seasons, portraying Blake as an even more bumbling character. Stevenson left the cast of "M*A*S*H to explore other career possibilities (e.g. "The McLean Stevenson Show", "Hello, Larry"), but none seemed to pan out for him.

He later admitted that leaving "M*A*S*H" was his biggest career mistake. Ironically, Bowen passed away a day after Stevenson.

Answer: Ed Nelson

In the 1957 movie, Peyton Place is a fictional New England town. Outwardly moral and conservative, it is surreptitiously rampant with scandal and hypocrisy. Lee Philips played newcomer Michael Rossi, a teacher and school principal who becomes the love interest, then husband, of Constance MacKenzie (Lana Turner). Constance owns a fashion shop and has had a turbulent past life. Philips started on the stage, then shifted to TV roles, but quickly turned to directing while still doing occasional guest appearances on TV. "Peyton Place" on TV ran from 1964 to 1969, proved so popular that sometimes three episodes were aired per week.

The show started to decline after Mia Farrow left the cast in 1966 and was written out and replaced by Leigh Taylor-Young playing a character named Rachel Welles. Ed Nelson now played Rossi, who is not a teacher, but a physician and Constance is a book store proprietor. Nelson started as an actor in B-movies, mainly of the science fiction genre. On TV his main foray was westerns as a guest star.

His continuing role in "Peyton Place" led to other movie and TV roles.