Ladies in Westerns Trivia Quiz

Answer: Katharine Ross

The 1969 movie "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid" received seven Academy Award nominations, winning four. The film starred Paul Newman (Butch Cassidy), Robert Redford (Sundance Kid) and Katharine Ross (Etta Place). Etta Place, a schoolteacher, was the girlfriend of the Sundance Kid. She eventually went with the two outlaws to Bolivia. The three characters were real life individuals - Butch Cassidy (Robert LeRoy Parker 1866-1908), the Sundance Kid (Harry Alonzo Longabaugh 1867-1908), and Etta Place (1878-?). However, little is known of Etta Place after she supposedly left Bolivia in the early 1900s.

Katharine Ross has appeared in a number of movies including "The Singing Nun" (1966) and in "The Graduate" (1967), where she was the daughter of Mrs. Robinson (Ann Bancroft). In her personal life she has been married to the actor Sam Elliott since 1984.

Answer: Amanda Blake

Amanda Blake (1929-1989) was an American actress and is best known as the saloon proprietress of the Long Branch Saloon in the television series "Gunsmoke". Her character, Miss Kitty Russell, appeared in the series from 1955-1974.

Due to her continuing role in "Gunsmoke" she had little time to appear in movies. She did, however, make a number of guest appearances on various television shows including "Hollywood Squares", "The Red Skelton Show", and "StateTrooper", to name just a few. She and her husband (Frank Gilbert) ran a program that successfully bred cheetahs at their ranch and were huge supporters of Animal Welfare.

Answer: Claudia Cardinale

"Once Upon a Time in the West" was a 1968 spaghetti western starring Henry Fonda, Charles Bronson, Jason Robards, and Claudia Cardinale. She played the role of Jill McBain, a recently widowed homesteader. Her homestead played an important role in the movie, as the railroad was being built through her property.

Claudia Cardinale (b.1938) is an Italian-Tunisian actress who mainly appeared in Italian and French films in the 1950s. She eventually became known to English audiences with her role in the 1963 movie "Pink Panther" opposite David Niven and Peter Sellers.

Answer: Katy Jurado

Katy Jurado (1924-2002) was a Mexican actress of stage, film and television. In the movie, Helen Ramirez (Katy Jurado) had been the lover of the three major male characters - the outlaw Frank Miller (Ian MacDonald), Marshal Will Kane (Gary Cooper), and Deputy Marshal Harvey Pell (Lloyd Bridges). The movie also starred Grace Kelly, as Amy Fowler Kane.

Katy Jurado was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her role in the 1954 western "Broken Lance". However, it was her role as Helen Ramirez in the 1952 classic "High Noon" that won her a Golden Globe Award. She was the first Latin American actress to be nominated for these two awards. Her acting career spanned the years 1943-2002 and she was married to the actor Ernest Borgnine from 1959-1963.

Answer: Barbara Stanwyck

Barbara Stanwyk is well remembered as Victoria Barkley, the matriarch of the Barkley Ranch in the western series "The Big Valley" (1965-1969). In the series her four children were Jarrod (Richard Long), Health (Lee Majors), Nick (Peter Breck), and Audra (Linda Evans).

Barbara Stanwyck (1907-1990) was an American actress of stage, film and television. Her acting career spanned from 1922-1986 and she was nominated four times for an Academy Award for Best Actress (1938, 1942, 1945 and 1949).

Answer: Doris Day

"Calamity Jane" (1953) was a western musical starring Doris Day (1922-2019) as the Wild West heroine Calamity Jane, alongside Howard Keel as Wild Bill Hickok. The film is loosely based on the life of the American frontierswoman Martha Jane Cannary (1852-1903) and her acquaintance with Wild Bill Hickok.

Doris Day was an actress, singer and animal welfare activist. She starred in numerous films in the 1950s and 1960s opposite actors such as James Garner, Frank Sinatra, Clark Gable, Cary Grant, Kirk Douglas, David Niven, and Rod Taylor to name just a few. She had her own television show from 1968-1973 called "The Doris Day Show". Her recording of the song "Que Sera Sera" (Whatever Will Be, Will Be) reached number two on the US charts and number one on the UK charts in 1956.

Answer: Betty Hutton

"Annie Get Your Gun" was a 1950 western musical based on the life of the western sharpshooter Annie Oakley (1860-1926) portrayed by Betty Hutton (1921-2007). Judy Garland originally had the role of Annie Oakley but was fired after one month of filming. Annie's husband, Frank Butler (1847-1926) is portrayed by Howard Keel. For her role in the movie Betty Hutton was nominated for a Golden Globe Best Actress Award.

Betty Hutton was an actress of stage, film, television, as well as a dancer and singer. In the 1940s she appeared in successful films opposite Fred McMurray and Bing Crosby, which made her a Paramount Pictures female attraction. After "Annie Get Your Gun" she was billed above Fred Astaire in the musical "Let's Dance" (1950). Her acting career spanned the years 1938-1983.

Answer: Linda Cristal

Linda Cristal (b. 1934) is an American-Argentinian actress who, from 1967-1971, appeared as Victoria Cannon, the wife of "Big John" Cannon (Leif Erikson), in the western adventure television series "The High Chaparral".

She appeared in a number of movies during the 1950s winning a Golden Globe Award in 1958 for her role in the 1958 comedy film "The Perfect Furlough". After "The High Chaparral" she made a number of guest appearances in a number of television series episodes, however, her last starring role was on the Argentinian television series "Rosse" (1985).

Answer: Jane Fonda

"Cat Ballou" is a 1965 western comedy film starring Jane Fonda as Catherine "Cat" Ballou and Lee Marvin in the dual role as Kid Shelleen and Tim Strawn. Marvin won the Academy Award for Best Actor for this dual role. Cat Ballou struggled to keep her deceased fathers ranch and sought revenge by becoming an outlaw.

Jane Fonda (b.1937) is a former fashion model and political activist. She has been nominated a number of times for an Academy Award and was successful as Best Actress in "Klute"(1971) and "Coming Home"(1978). She is the daughter of the actor Henry Fonda (1905-1982) and the sister of actor Peter Fonda (1940-2019).

Answer: Marlene Dietrich

Marlene Dietrich (1901-1992) had the leading role in this 1939 western "Destry Rides Again". She played the role of Frenchy, a saloon hall queen, who fell in love with Deputy Thomas Jefferson "Tom" Destry Jr. (James Stewart). Destry was hired by the townspeople to clean up the lawless town. In her love for the Deputy she took a bullet which killed her, as it had been destined for the Deputy.

Marlene Dietrich started acting on the stage and silent movies in Berlin in the 1920s. She moved to the USA in the late 1920s and gained a contract with Paramount Pictures. Her first film in the USA was in 1930 in "Morocco" opposite Gary Cooper and Adolphe Menjou. During WWII, although German, she supported American involvement in the conflict and visited troops in Europe and the Pacific.