Interesting Facts on Ten Celebrities Quiz

Answer: Ben Kenobi

In April, 2005, the village of Grabowiec, near Torun in Poland, officially named this street Obi-Wan Kenobi, not so much to honour the actor but that famous character that Alec Guinness played in the "Star Wars" movies. These tell the ongoing saga of the battles in a galaxy far, far away between the forces of good and evil. A bar in China was also named after Obi-Wan Kenobi as well at one stage, but this closed down in 2010. Hopefully Darth Vader wasn't responsible for that.

Sir Alec Guinness (1914-2000), along with Sir Laurence Olivier and Sir John Gielgud were three of the finest actors Britain ever produced. Their skill at mastering and presenting any role to absolute perfection was breathtaking. They had this amazing ability to become any character they played. Alec Guinness, who made almost sixty movies during his career, learned his craft in live theatre, particularly so in in Shakespearian roles. He easily made the transition to movies however, appearing in some of the top grossing films of all time for the remainder of his career. Apart from his role as Ben Kenobi (Obi-Wan Kenobi) in "Star Wars", he is probably best known for his portrayal of Lieutenant Colonel Nicholson in the 1957 film, "The Bridge on the River Kwai", which saw him win an Academy Award for his performance as a Japanese collaborator (of sorts) who ultimately redeems himself at the film's conclusion.

Answer: He had developed diabetes

Born in 1927, Roger Moore is a British actor best known for two roles in particular. These are his portrayal in a series of movies between 1973-1985 of super spy 007, James Bond, who deals with all types of baddies on an international level; and his television role in "The Saint" (1962-1969) as Simon Templar, a type of modern day Robin Hood, not averse to breaking the law, but only when it comes to dealing with swindlers and other criminal types. He then gives a large portion of his ill-gotten gains from their ill-gotten gains to worthy causes. Roger, over the course of his long career, has starred in five different television series in all, and made some fifty movies into the bargain. He has also received a most impressive number of awards for his work, found time to write four books as well, and marry four times.

Three of those marriages were to extremely volatile women. His first wife, for example, repeatedly punched and scratched him and threw a teapot at him on more than one occasion (there's nothing like the British and their cuppas), his second wife broke a guitar over his head and threw a brick at him through a window, his third marriage was decidedly troubled, but he finally came to rest with his choice of a fourth wife. Moore described her in one of his works as serene, loving and calm, which is probably just what this big star needs at this time in his life, following a bout with prostate cancer and then diabetes.

Answer: Charlemagne

Christopher Lee (1922-2015) was an English actor, singer, author, and altogether one very amazing man. Not only did he have more screen credits to his name than any other actor up until 2015 (211 in all), this fine actor made films in an amazing array of other languages. Apart from English, these included French, Greek, German, Russian, Norwegian, Swedish, Italian, Pakistani, Spanish and Japanese. Part of this multilingual ability was due to his work in Intelligence during World War II. On the more artistic side, Lee, apart from his acting, also worked with several heavy metal bands in his later years, and recorded several operatic works (in assorted languages). One of his recordings is the 2010 symphonic metal "Charlemagne: By the Sword and the Cross". Why Charlemagne you ask? Because the 6 foot 5 Lee was a direct descendant of that great historical figure. Oh my goodness, if that's not enough, Lee's films grossed more than 8,000 million dollars during his life time.

Unfortunately so, this fine Shakespearian actor had a real struggle trying to break away from the role that earned him his early fame - several starring roles as Dracula in productions such as the 1958 film of the same name, and with plots you could only expect from such a subject. He managed to do so however in later life, with his work in blockbusters such as the Star Wars production of "Attack of the Clones" (2002), in which he plays Count Dooku, the menacing Sith Lord - and as the antagonist Saruman in the "Lord of the Rings" trilogy, a villain who seeks power at all costs.

Answer: Orson Welles

Orson Welles, who made the above comment in 1956, lived from 1915-1985. This American actor, director, producer and writer worked in all the main areas of entertainment at the time - radio, stage, television and film. His most famous work was the 1941 movie "Citizen Kane", which he co-wrote, directed and produced, and in which he also starred. Its main character is a mix of all the top newspaper moguls at that time in American history, not the least of which was Randolph Hearst. Cast as Charles Foster Kane, it traces his rise to the top of the publishing business, the lives he destroyed along the way, his increasing ruthlessness, and his political ambitions, only to see it all come to naught as he dies a lonely and unloved man with no happy memories beyond those of his early childhood.

Welles' own childhood was far from happy. He came from a broken home, his father was an alcoholic, and his mother died when he was only nine. After her death, he went to live with his father, and was dragged all over the countryside, to Jamaica and even the far East as his father followed work. Welles was more of a minder than a child during this period. A brief stroke of luck came with a teacher at a school he later attended. He allowed the boy free rein to his creative instinct and exceptional acting abilities, and helped him on his way to a higher education. From that early beginning, Welles initially found his way into the theatre, a career he enjoyed, but also mixed in with his love of painting and writing as well, before adding radio, film and television to his resume as well. He married three times, one of which was to the tragic, beautiful actress Rita Hayworth, and, during his career, appeared in 120 theatrical productions that included many of the great Shakespeare's works, worked on almost 600 radio productions, made 36 records of his most famous performances, and acted in almost 200 movies and television productions. The man was a creative marvel!

Answer: George Clooney

George Timothy Clooney (born 1961) is an American actor, writer, producer and director. It was for his acting however that he first rose to fame, earning himself the title of "The Sexiest Man Alive" along the way. That was for his breakthrough role as Dr Doug Ross, a dedicated ER paediatrician in the long running series "ER" (1994-2009), a hospital drama that took 23 Emmy Awards during its initial presentation. Apart from his television appearances, and up to 2015, Clooney has made forty-nine movies, produced twenty-five others, directed five and written yet four more. His television roles for the same period of time number twenty-three as an actor and five as producer.

George Clooney has an interesting family tree. His father was an anchorman and game show host on television, his mother was a beauty queen and city councilwoman, his aunt was the famous entertainer Rosemary Clooney, his cousins, one of whom is married to singer Debby Boone, include actors Miguel and Rafael Ferrer - and his "four times great-grandmother, Mary-Ann Sparrow" was the half sister of Abraham Lincoln's mother.

Answer: Dorothy Quackenbush

I quite quacked up over that. Wanda (1915-1996) was born in Oregon, but grew up in Texas. Moving to New York as a young woman, she became a model there. Her claims to fame, apart from her comical last name, were that she was the advertising face of Chesterfield cigarettes, and that she was voted "Miss American Aviation" just before the World War II. In fact, as a model, Wanda was quite successful. In 1939, however, she became an actress with Paramount Studios, becoming their leading lady in various B movies, but never really breaking into the big time. One of her films included the 1945 "Hollywood and Vine" in which she stars as Martha Manning, a young woman who is on her way to seek fame in Hollywood. A mix-up over a stray dog sees a young man, smitten with Martha's beauty, trying to track her down to return the dog to her. All ends well, with Wanda never becoming famous, the young couple falling in love - and the dog becoming a celebrity.

As she grew older, Wanda's film roles dried up. That was often the case for pretty girls during that era of Hollywood. Her last role was a small bit part in a 1957 Dean Martin comedy "Ten Thousand Bedrooms" in which her name didn't even appear in the credits. In 1977, she married the famous American composer, singer and bandleader, Hoagy Carmichael (1899-1981) who was 78 at the time. He passed away four years later, and that's the last we hear of Wanda until her own death fifteen years later. Hollywood can be a little cruel sometimes.

Answer: The sheikh tried to buy her

Hope Hampton (1897-1982) was an American actress who first rose to fame during the era of the silent movies, in which she usually played daring young things or wicked temptresses. The comical thing about Hope's roles in those movies was that she was a trained opera singer in real life, but could only silently mime any songs for the cameras if these featured in her films. One of Hope's roles was in the 1923 "The Gold Diggers" in which she plays a chorus girl (Jerry La Mar), who is a friend of another girl, Mabel, in the line-up. When a young man falls in love with Mabel, his rich uncle refuses to accept the idea, believing all chorus girls are gold diggers. So Jerry plots a scheme with Mabel to chase after the uncle very aggressively in order to make Mabel look angelic by comparison. I'd love to see that.

In 1923, Hope married her manager, Jules Brulatour (a rather interesting man in his own right) in a more or less happy union that lasted until his death in 1946. On their honeymoon in Egypt, a sheikh there offered Brulatour 10,000 British pounds if Brulatour would sell his new wife to him. What a nerve! Hope's husband, however, merely smiled and replied "Mrs Brulatour's jewels are worth more than that".

Answer: A fairy godmother

American actor, producer and director, David Schwimmer, was born in New York in 1966. His love of acting can be traced back to his youth when he performed in plays at his local high school. Comically so, however, before attending high school, David's first role was playing a fairy godmother in a primary school play when he was aged ten. One suspects that didn't endear to him to acting at that time. Because of his very good grades at school, David initially planned to become a doctor, but after graduating from Northwestern University with a degree in the Humanities, he began a career as a professional actor instead. By 2015, he had become recognised as a more than accomplished actor - as well as a rather brilliant comedian.

And that brings us to 1994 and his hilarious role as Ross Geller in the highly popular television series "Friends", which ran from 1994 until 2004. In this show, David plays an awkward, rather socially inept palaeontologist, who seems to have an unfortunate habit of falling into unlikely relations, often with screamingly funny results. He truly is so very, very funny in this show. Perhaps his most amusing scene occurs during the episode where he dons a pair of trendy leather pants to impress a new date, but, in his anxiety to impress, he begins to sweat in that new hot gear. Excusing himself to go to the bathroom, he energetically fans his nether regions, but then finds to his horror that the pants have shrunk somewhat and he can't get them back on. I laughed until I cried during this episode. And that was just one of the many incidents that dogged this very funny character right throughout that excellent series.

Answer: A dunny was an outside toilet

Irene Dunne (1898-1990) was an American actress and singer who was at the peak of her fame from the 1930s to the 1950s, when, tired of the silver screen grind, she retired from performing in movies, dabbled for a short time in theatre and television, and then, without any regrets, retired from acting completely. Of her career, Irene would remark "I drifted into acting and drifted out. Acting is not everything. Living is." Known to her family and friends as Dunnie all her life, it's fortunate perhaps that this lovely star, who received five Academy Award nominations for her work in film, never performed in Australia. Her nickname's unfortunate connection with the outside toilets that once populated Australia's countryside would have caused titters in the audience without a doubt.

Known equally for her singing as for her acting, Irene's voice was truly lovely. It can be heard in the old 1935 film "Roberta" (starring Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers), in which she plays Stephanie, the head designer of a famous fashion house and the love interest of Randolph Scott, the other star in the film. Irene sings several numbers during the course of the movie, including the haunting and beautiful "Smoke Gets In Your Eyes". The film is worth while staying up to watch on late night television just to see and hear this alone.

Answer: Peter O'Toole

The 1962 "Lawrence of Arabia" stars O'Toole as that ambiguous figure during the ongoing battle to the death between the Turks and the Arabs on the Arabian Peninsula during World War One. Quite frankly I detest this film and its pivotal figure, but it is considered to be one of the greatest movies in history. Directed by David Lean, it has a huge cast, and runs for almost 230 minutes, but there is not one single speaking role for women throughout.

Peter O'Toole (1932-2013) was possibly one of the finest actors to ever set foot on stage and appear on screen, but sadly, most of his talent was consumed by his addiction, for much of his life, to alcohol. It was a dreadful, dreadful waste of a God-given talent. On screen, his presence was almost overwhelmingly magnetic, but, at the same time, strangely disturbing. He played any role with complete ease and competence. How much more could he have given the world if it had not been for his alcoholism? That was his true great tragedy. With reference to the quiz question, however, O'Toole was a rather odd choice in one way to play the role of Lawrence. He was almost a foot taller and far better looking than the real Lawrence. So much so in fact that when the famous British playwright, actor and composer Noel Coward attended its premiere, he is quoted as saying, "If Peter O'Toole had been any prettier, they'd have had to call it Florence of Arabia."