It Ain't All it's Cracked Up to Be Quiz

Answer: Bill Cosby

While changing a flat tire on Interstate 405, in Los Angeles, California, Ennis Cosby, the only son of Bill Cosby, was shot and killed during a botched robbery attempt. Bill Cosby had four daughters, but this was his only son, and close family friends stated that he was devastated.

The suspect was caught and given a life term in prison. The victim and the perpetrator were strangers. The victim was only 27 and the perpetrator was 18.

Answer: Kelsey Grammer

While many people might think that "Cheers" actor Kelsey Grammer has it made, they might want to think again. In 1968, while the actor was only thirteen, his father was shot and killed outside of their home. In 1975, his sister Karen, who was 18, was kidnapped, raped, and then murdered.

In 1980, Grammer lost his twin half-brothers, who died off the coast of St. Thomas, in a scuba diving accident. Grammer's longtime friend, David Angell, was aboard American Airlines Flight 11, which crashed into the World Trade Center on a sunny day in 2001. Somehow, in spite of these tragedies, Grammer has gone on to a successful career in film and television.

Answer: Morgan Freeman

Morgan Freeman's step granddaughter, E'dena Hines, was stabbed to death by her boyfriend, rapper Lamar Davenport. E'dena Hines was the granddaughter of Freeman's first wife, Jeannette Gradshaw, to whom Freeman was married from 1967-1979. Freeman was devastated, and remained silent regarding his feelings over the incident.

Answer: Lana Turner

Lana Turner led what most of us would call a fairy tail life. When she was 16, she was drinking a soda in a an ice cream parlor, when she was "discovered" by a Hollywood reporter. She went on to become one of the most famous actresses of her era. In 1958, her teenage daughter, Cheryl Crane, stabbed Turner's boyfriend to death.

It was ruled a justifiable homicide, as the boyfriend, Johnny Stompanato, had a reputation as being abusive and had even held Turner's co-star, Sean Connery, at gunpoint. So being rich, famous, and beautiful, may not be all that it is cracked up to be.

Answer: They were both orphaned.

Both of these great actresses were orphaned as children. Ingrid Bergman lost her mother at the age of two and then was orphaned at the age of twelve when her beloved father died. Barbara Stanwyck lost her mother at the age of four, and her father left a few weeks later.

She was kicked around foster homes until she was a teenager. This lack of childhood security did not keep either of these great women from succeeding. It is possible that it may have provided an impetus to help them do well.

Answer: Roy Orbison

Back in 1966, singer Roy Orbison's wife, Claudette Frady, was struck and killed by a semi-truck while the two were out riding their motorcycles. She was killed instantly. Only two years later, two of his three sons were killed in a house fire which destroyed both his home and a part of his soul, I'm sure.

In 1973, just before Thanksgiving, his brother, Grady, was killed in an automobile accident while enroute to Orbison's house for the holidays. This insight into the life of this wonderful singer may help you to understand his music.

Answer: True

Despite what you may think of him now, in August on 1979, Simpson lost his daughter shortly before her second birthday. Aaren was found comatose in the bottom of the family pool by her mother. She was put on life-support on arrival at the hospital and died the next day.

The reported cause of death was "respiratory failure". Aaren was the youngest of Simpson's three children at the time. The tragedies that occurred later in Simpson's life were much more closely followed by the media, than this sad event was.

Answer: Highway rest stop

In 1993, while returning home from a funeral, James Jordan, father of basketball wizard Michael Jordan was shot and killed in a North Carolina highway rest stop. Two felons shot him while he slept, and stole the car. They disposed of the body in a nearby swamp.

They took his money, cell phone, and two NBA championship rings that his son had given him. Jordan was so affected by the murder that he retired from the NBA later that year saying he had lost his desire to play. He did make a comeback, but was never quite the same.

Answer: True

Art Linkletter brought a lot of smiles to American homes in the mid-20th century with his programs "People are Funny" and "Children Say the Darndest Things". Most viewers were unaware that he had been abandoned as a newborn and never knew his birth parents or siblings.

In 1969, his twenty year old daughter, Diane, jumped to her death from her sixth floor Hollywood apartment. In 1980, his son Robert died in an automobile accident. In 2007, he lost a third child to lymphoma. The loss of a single child is one of the most devastating things that can happen to someone.

The loss of three, is indescribable.

Answer: Charlize Theron

While growing up in South Africa, actress Charlize Theron witnessed her father's weekly verbal and physical abuse. When she was only fifteen, she witnessed her mother shoot and kill her father in an act of self-defense. Somehow, she found the inner strength to go on with life and be successful and self-reliant. Domestic violence can be found everywhere, including the homes of the rich and famous.