Entertaining Nobility Trivia Quiz

Answer: The King's Speech

"The King's Speech" (2010) was a story about George VI who ascended to the British throne in 1936 after the abdication of his brother. Alas, George was not fully prepared: he stammered badly when addressing a multitude. So his wife hired a speech therapist who should remedy George's speech impediment. Colin Firth won an Oscar for his role as George VI, and Geoffrey Rush was nominated for an Oscar for his supporting role as the speech therapist Lionel Logue.
"The Princess Diaries" (2001) starred Anne Hathaway as Mia Thermopolis, a university student who suddenly learned that she was in fact the only heiress to the throne of a small monarchy.
"The Lion King" (1994) was a Disney animated movie loosely based on Shakespeare's "Hamlet".
"The African Queen" (1951) was a movie about a missionary sister (Katherine Hepburn) and a drunk captain (Humphrey Bogart) who at the end use the captain's ship to sink a German patrol boat.

Answer: Canasta Royale

"Canasta Royale" is the card game. It is based upon the traditional Spanish card game with two decks aimed at sets of seven identical cards (for instance seven jacks) with or without using wildcards. The game developed by NorthSky provides several difficulty levels, and is available on Windows or on Apple iOS (for iPhone or IPad).
"Age of Empires" is a series of strategy games in which the player has to use one of the civilizations to overwhelm the others.
"Prince of Persia" is a series of arcade/adventure games in which a legendary prince has to battle several opponents.
"Queen's Quest" is a series of adventure/puzzle games set in a magical realm. The player has to solve several mysteries and find hidden objects. 

Answer: BB King

Riley B King (1925-2015) started singing in the local gospel choir. In 1949 he started his professional career as a blues singer. He also played the guitar, a guitar he named Lucille. Some of his studio albums were named after his guitar: "Lucille" (1968), "Lucille Talks Back" (1975) and "Lucille and Friends" (1995).
BB King won 15 Grammy Awards with various of his studio albums, including his two last recordings ("BB King & Friends: 80" from 2005 and "One More Favor" from 2008).
Count Basie (William James Basie, 1904-1984), Duke Ellington (Edward Kennedy Ellington, 1899-1974) and Nat King Cole (Nathaniel Adams Cole, 1919-1965) were famous jazz musicians.

Answer: Oberto

Giuseppe Verdi (1813-1901) was a prolific opera composer. He left us 26 operas, plus a number of revised editions.
Verdi started his career with "Oberto" (1839), subtitled "Il conte di San Bonifacio" ("The count of San Bonifacio"). The story is about Oberto, who lost a battle against his rival Riccardo. Riccardo has abducted Oberto's daughter Leonora, seduced her and left her to marry Cuniza. But when Leonora publicly accuses Riccardo, Riccardo and Oberto fight a duel (off-stage). Riccardo kills Oberto but then is conquered by remorse, goes in exile and leaves all his possessions to Leonora.
"Oberto" was a small success in the period 1839-1843. Later on it would be overshadowed by other operas by Verdi such as "Nabucco" (1842), "Rigoletto" (1851), "Il Trovatore" (1853), "La Traviata" (1853) and "Aida" (1871).
"Idomeneo, re di Creta" (1781) was composed by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756-1791) and starred a mythical king of Crete. George Frideric Handel (1685-1759) composed "Serse" (1738), about the Persian king Xerxes. "Knyaz Igor" (translated as "Prince Igor") was an opera composed by Alexander Borodin (1833-1887) that had its first night only in 1890, after the unfinished opera was completed by Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov (1844-1908) and Alexander Glazunov (1865-1936).

Answer: The White Queen

"The White Queen" (2013) was a mini-series about the final stage of the War of the Roses, as told by Elizabeth Woodville (spouse of King Edward IV, who ruled from 1461 until 1483), Anne Neville (wife of king Richard III, who ruled from 1483 until 1485) and Margaret Beaufort (mother of king Henry VII, who ruled from 1485 until 1509).

The main actors and actresses in this television series were Rebecca Ferguson (Elizabeth), Amanda Hale (Margaret), Faye Marsay (Anne), Max Irons (King Edward IV) and Aneurin Barnard (Richard III, at that time still Richard Duke of Gloucester). "Ellery Queen" (1975-1976) was a detective series about an eponymous amateur sleuth. "The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air" (1990-1996) was a comedy series about a lower-middle-class teenager moving in with his upper-middle- class aunt's family. "The Dukes of Hazzard" (1979-1985) was an action comedy series about the Duke family and their run-ins with the sheriff of Hazzard County.

Answer: Aretha Franklin

Aretha Franklin (1942-2018) started singing in the local gospel choir. In 1961 she started her professional career and had a first international hit ("Rock-a-Bye Your Baby with a Dixie Melody"). At the end of the sixties, she had her most important successes with "Respect", "I Never Loved A Man the Way I Love You", "Do Right Woman, Do Right Man" and "I Say a Little Prayer".
Franklin won a total of 18 "ordinary" Grammy Awards and no less than 3 Grammy Special Awards.
Aretha Franklin was not the only one with the honorific title "Queen of Soul". Nina Simone (1933-2003) shared the same nickname, and Dusty Springfield (1939-1999) was nicknamed the "White Queen of Soul".
Joan Baez (born 1941) was nicknamed the Queen of Folk, as was Vinjamuri Anasuya Devi (born 1920). Mahalia Jackson (1911-1972) was the Queen of Gospel. Amalia Rodrigues (1920-1999) was the Queen of Fado.

Answer: Jack Lord

"Book 'em, Danno" was the phrase frequently uttered by Detective Steve McGarrett (played by Jack Lord) on the TV crime series "Hawaii Five-O". The "Danno" to whom he delivered this line was detective Danny Williams (role by James Macarthur). Many episodes of the show ended in McGarrett solving the crime and muttering to Williams the aforesaid catchphrase.
Five-O was not the nickname for the official state police of Hawaii: it was a police organization without an official status.
Jack Lord (1920-1998) was born under the name John Joseph Patrick Ryan. Lord debuted in 1949 in the movie "Project X". In 1952 he appeared in his first television series ("The Hunter"). Some of his major movie roles include Buck Walden in "God's Little Acre" (1958) and Felix Leiter in "Dr. No" (1962). His first major TV series was "Stoney Burke", but his last major series "Hawaii Five-O" is probably the one for which he will best be remembered.
King Vidor (1894-1982) was a movie director, best known for "the Big Parade" (1925) and "Duel in the Sun" (1946). Queen Latifah (born 1970) has been active as model and singer-songwriter as well as actress, nominated for an Oscar for her supporting role in "Chicago" (2002). Robin Duke (born 1954) is best known for her appearances in "Saturday Night Live" and also could be spotted in minor roles in "Groundhog Day" (1993) and "Multiplicity" (1996).

Answer: Sir Laurence Olivier

First of all, the use of the title Sir is limited to those who were indeed raised to nobility (at least as a Knight, the lowest rank). Many more people have received honorific titles such as OBE (Officer of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire) or OM (Order of Merit) without being knighted.
Sir Laurence Olivier (1907-1989) started his career on stage in 1925. He made his movie debut in 1930 in "Too Many Crooks" and "The Temporary Widow". He is best known for his performance in movies based upon Shakespeare's theatre plays, including "Hamlet" (1948) for which he won two Oscars (one as Best Actor, one as producer). In 1947 he was knighted, and in 1970 he was raised to the rank of Baron - more specifically, Baron of Brighton in Sussex, England.
Sir Anthony Hopkins (born 1937) is associated with Wales. Sir Sean Connery (born 1930) is a typical Scot. And Sir Michael Gambon (born 1940) was born in Ireland, although he gained British citizenship.

Answer: Rudyard Kipling

Rudyard Kipling (1865-1936) was the author sought in this question.
"The Man Who Would Be King" is one of Kipling's many short stories. The narrator of the story tells he met two soldiers, named Dravot and Cameham, aspiring a better life. When their plot to blackmail a local rajah failed, they decided to move to the remote region Kafiristan and claim the throne. Two years later, Cameham returned, and explained to the narrator that Dravot was indeed crowned king of Kafiristan, but was exposed as a fraud when he tried to marry a local girl. Dravot was executed and Cameham narrowly escaped with his life.
Kipling's story was filmed in 1975 starring Sean Connery (Dravot) and Michael Caine (Cameham).
Kipling is of course better known for his collection of stories "The Jungle Book" (1894) and for his novel "Kim".
Landon (1903-1993) wrote the biopic novel "Anna and the King of Siam" (1944), on which the musical and movie "The King and I" (musical: 1951, movie: 1956) are based. Shakespeare (1564-1616) wrote about several kings, but I refer here to his drama "King Lear". Twain (1835-1910) wrote "The Prince and the Pauper" (1881), in which a poor young boy changes place with the royal prince.

Answer: Kings of Leon

Kings of Leon is an American rock band founded by the brothers Nathan (born 1979), Caleb (born 1982) and Jared (born 1986) Followill together with their cousin Matthew Followill (born 1984). They formed in 1999, with Caleb as lead singer, Nathan on the drums and percussion, Matthew playing the lead guitar and Jared the bass guitar. They took the band name from the first name of their grandfather (so no connection with the historical kingdom of Leon in Spain). Kings of Leon entered the music world with an EP named "Holy Roller Novocaine" in 2003, although most consider their album "Youth and Young Manhood" (also 2003) to be their official debut album. Commercial success came with their albums "Because of the Times" (2007) and "Only by the Night" (2008). Between 2008 and 2010, Kings of Leon won four Grammy Awards.
The British band Queen was founded in 1970 by Brian May (guitar), Roger Taylor (drums) and Freddie Mercury (lead singer) - a trio of students attending the same university.
Lordi is a Finnish heavy metal band, consisting of some masked characters, who insist on hiding their true identity. The real names I've discovered don't point at siblings.
Queens of the Stone Age formed in 1996 with Josh Homme as vocalist. The other founding members (replaced over time) were no siblings.