Anonymous Title Characters Trivia Quiz

Answer: Senator Ransom Stoddard

The song by Gene Pitney did not mention the name of the shooter. It was composed for the soundtrack to the movie, but director John Ford scrapped it.
In the 1962 movie, Senator Stoddard (James Stewart) comes to a small village named Shinbone, to attend the funeral of his old friend Tom Doniphon (John Wayne). The Senator tells his story to a journalist: when he first came to Shinbone, the outlaw Liberty Valance terrorized the settlement and robbed the stagecoach with which Stoppard arrived. After Valance set fire to the newspaper office, Stoppard (meanwhile appointed to Deputy Sheriff) challenged him to a shootout.
Lt. John Dunbar was the main character in Kevin Costner's movie "Dances With Wolves" (1990).
Lt. Pete Mitchell, call name "Maverick", was the male lead in "Top Gun" (1986). He was portrayed by Tom Cruise.
Richard Gere played the role of Zack Mayo, who wanted to become "An Officer and a Gentleman" (1982).
Tom Doniphon shot Liberty Valance. He shot at the same time as Stoddard, from an alley, but it was his bullet that killed Valance, as Stoddard's bullet missed.

Answer: Figaro

De Beaumarchais (1732-1799) was born under the name Pierre Caron, which may have inspired him for the name of this barber-surgeon. Indeed: the barber is publicly known as Figaro.
Beaumarchais wrote in fact three plays about Figaro: "The Barber of Seville" (inspiration for the operas by Rossini and Paisiello), "Figaro's Wedding" (the source for Mozart's opera) and "The Guilty Mother". This last play was also transformed into an opera, this time by Darius Milhaud.
Figaro is a bit of an outcast: born out of wedlock, he was raised by gypsies and briefly imprisoned (the reason is not clear).
In the play and operas "The Barber of Seville", he assists Count Almaviva to win the beautiful Rosine's hand in matrimony. To insure Rosine doesn't want to marry the Count only for his money, Almaviva poses as the poor student Lindoro. "Figaro's Wedding" then tells how Figaro enters Almaviva's household as a valet, and marries the maid Suzanne. The final play involves two illegitimate children: Almaviva's daughter Florestine and Rosine's son Leon. When an Irish officer in the Spanish army takes up a job as secretary of Count Almaviva, it's up to Figaro and his wife to thwart the officer's conniving plans.

Answer: Prince Lev Nikolayevich Myshkin

Prince Myshkin is the one we're looking for. He is a young Russian who spent over four years abroad, being treated for some kind of mental illness. When he returns to St-Petersburg, he doesn't know any of the society figures. His lack of knowledge of the upper middle class and his medical history soon earn him the nickname "the idiot", but as some remark "He's not a fool".
Bezukhov is the protagonist in Lev Tolstoy's epos "War and Peace".
Onyegin (alternative orthography Onegin) is the title character in the novel in verse form by Alexander Pushkin, and set to music by Tchaikovsky.
Simeonov is one of the main characters in Anton Chekhov's play "The Cherry Orchard".

Answer: Dirk Struan

"Taipan" describes how the Struan family, led by Dirk, and the Brock family (with Tyler as pater familias) strive for supreme power. Struan's is considered the most influential company, and Brock seems always plotting some scheme to overthrow Struan's.
Gordon Chen is Struan's illegitimate son with a Chinese mistress. He works for Struan's and in secret leads the first Triad.
Aristotle Quance is the name of a deeply indebted painter.
In the TV miniseries, Bryan Brown plays Dirk Struan, and John Stanton plays Tyler Brock. Norman Rodway has the supporting role of Aristotle Quance. Russell Wong impersonates Gordon Chen.
The struggle between Struan's and Brock's is also the theme of Clavell's novel "Noble House" (set in 1963), also adapted for TV (transferred to the year 1988). This time the lead roles were for better known actors: Pierce Brosnan as Ian Dunross (Taipan of Struan's); John Rhys-Davies as his foe Quillan Gornt (head of Brock's); Ben Masters as the American Linc Bartlett, seeking a major deal with either of the two Hong Kong companies; and Burt Kwouk as Phillip Chen, one of the descendants of Gordon Chen.

Answer: The Good, the Bad and the Ugly

Clint Eastwood plays "the good", Lee van Cleef plays "the bad" and Eli Wallach is "the ugly". This 1966 movie is set in 1862, during the Civil War. The sole survivor of a stagecoach robbery tells Tuco in which cemetery a stash of gold has been hidden, and he tells Blondie what's on the grave where to dig. Angel Eyes chases down the two unlikely partners in the search for the gold.
"The Three Musketeers" are, according to the books by Alexandre Dumas and the many movies, three French soldiers named Porthos, Athos, and Aramis.
"Kelly's Heroes" (1970) relates how a platoon of WW II soldiers engages in a bounty hunt instead of participating in the strategic and tactical battles.
"Three Kings" (1999) tells the story of three Gulf War soldiers tracking down a hidden treasure somewhere in Kuwait.

Answer: Tracy

Daktari is the Swahili word for Doctor. The series was inspired on a real-life veterinarian near Nairobi, who tried to protect the local wildlife from poachers.
Poaching is, by the way, a recurrent theme in the 89 episodes. Many times Daktari and his household have to act against poachers, and sometimes they are threatened by them too.
The Hammond family is the one that had a pet bush kangaroo back in Australia, according to the TV series "Skippy" (1967).
The Martin family in Scotland owned a border collie named Lassie in the eponymous TV series from 1954.
Porter Ricks and his sons Sandy and Bud lived in Florida. They had many adventures with their pet dolphin "Flipper" (1964).

Answer: Oliver Mellors

Lady Constance Chatterley is not quite satisfied with her husband, because of the way he treats her. Not only is their marital relation troubled, but Lord Chatterley is also paralysed from the waist down - so he can't have sexual intercourse with his wife.
Then Lady Chatterley meets the gamekeeper Oliver Mellors, who has been estranged from his wife Bertha. Slowly and very gradually Constance and Oliver get to "know" each other, eventually also in the biblical sense of the word.
D.H. Lawrence published this novel in Italy in 1928. The first edition in the UK (1960) was the subject of a lawsuit under the Obscene Publications Act 1959, as the book included quite a lot of vulgar words. The public was probably outraged not only because of the frequent use of the f-word, but also by the fact that it described a sexual relation between an upper-class Lady and a lower-class labourer.
After hearing testimony by several contemporary British authors, the Court finally decided that the book was not obscene - it was merely the kind of book you didn't want your wife to read.
Whereas British censorship was overruled, the book was banned in Australia, and the Japanese translator was heavily fined.
Rubeus Hagrid is the gamekeeper (and professor of Care Taking for Magical Creatures) in the "Harry Potter" series by J. K. Rowling.
Philip White is a gamekeeper in the British TV series "Lark Rise to Candleford", based upon the books by Flora Thompson.
Alec Scudder is the gamekeeper in E.M. Forsters posthumous novel "Maurice", where the title character has sexual feelings for other men, not for women. Scudder answers Maurice's call.

Answer: Chingachgook

In "The Last of the Mohicans", the French and the British are at war, and both sides have their Native American allies. The Mohicans join the British in this French-Indian war (around 1757). Uncas and Chingachgook go out with the scout Hawkeye (born in a family of colonists, but raised by Native Americans) to escort Cora and Alice to their father, the British officer George Munro (in command of Fort Henry). Alas, the Huron scout Magua attacks them and kills Uncas.
Contrary to what the novel and the subsequent movie adaptations suggest, the Mohican tribe still exists.
Iotake is the Lakota name for the Hunkpapa Lakota Sioux whose anglicised name is Sitting Bull.
Witko is the original name of the Oglala Lakota we know as Crazy Horse.
Po-bish-e-quasho was a Comanche warrior, known to the westerners as Iron Jacket.

Answer: Baritone

A year after the notary has been publicly displayed as drunk and disorderly, he is now out for revenge. He convinces Eisenstein and other members of his household to go to Prince Orloff's ball, where they all are arrested for noisy disorder.
In essence Dr. Falke is a comic supporting role. As is usual in opera and operetta, these characters are sung by a baritone.
The dramatic hero is usually a part for a tenor. Bass singers have typical roles as villains or as people of great social importance (for instance a king).
The mezzo-soprano is a female voice, frequently used for the female supporting roles. Some mezzo roles are travesty roles, in which a woman sings a male part.

Answer: Violetta

Alexandre Dumas based his "lady with the camellias" on the French courtesan Marie Duplessis. Marguerite Gautier, as Dumas calls her, is a promiscuous woman. When she wears a white camellia, she is willing to grant sexual favours, but if she's wearing a red camellia she wants not to be touched. Marguerite has many suitors, but the one and only for whom she considers giving up her life as a prostitute, is Armand Duval. In the end Marguerite dies of consumption.
Verdi was quite impressed by this play and immediately started working on an opera. Francesco Maria Piave wrote the libretto, and suddenly the main characters received other names. Marguerite Guerain was named Violetta Valery, and Armand Duval became Alfredo Germont. Maybe Piave wanted to avoid copyright issues.
All the red herrings are taken from other success operas by Verdi.
Gilda is Rigoletto's daughter. Amneris is the Egyptian princess and love rival to Aida. Azucena finally is the gipsy woman who raised Manrico ("Il Trovatore").