"Reel" Names Redux Trivia Quiz

Answer: Will Kane

Gary Cooper played Marshal Will Kane opposite Grace Kelly in the 1952 film "High Noon" about the Marshal having to face a bunch of killers without any help from the townspeople of Hadleyville. One of the things that was most innovative about the film is that it was set "in nearly real time", which enhanced the suspense even more.

As for the other choices of marshals: Matt Dillon, played by James Arness, was US Marshall of Dodge City, Kansas in the TV western "Gunsmoke" (1955-1975); Sam Gerard was the Deputy US Marshall played by Tommy Lee Jones in "The Fugitive" (1993) and Rooster Cogburn was John Wayne in "True Grit" in 1969 and in the 1975 sequel "Rooster Cogburn".

Answer: Gloria Swanson

Gloria Swanson played the "washed up" silent film star in the 1950 film "Sunset Boulevard" opposite William Holden as Joe Gillis the "hack' writer who is going to write the screenplay for Norma Desmond's comeback. The movie was directed by Billy Wilder, as was "Some Like It Hot" in 1959 and the Oscar winning "The Apartment" in 1960. I thought one of the best features of the movie was the fact that the narrator was already dead. Two great quotes from Ms. Desmond: "All right, Mr. De Mille, I'm ready for my close-up" and "I AM BIG.

It was the pictures that got small". The incorrect choices are all actresses of the same era, i.e., the late 1940s and early 1950s.

Answer: Sue Ann Nivens

In the fourth season of "The Mary Tyler Moore Show", Betty White began playing the role of Sue Ann Nivens - the sugar-sweet, back-stabbing, man-crazy, perfectionist star of the "Happy Homemaker", the TV show-within-the-show. Betty was Sue Ann from 1973 through 1977 and she won two Emmy Awards for Best Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series in 1975 and 1976 for the role.

She later went on to play the part of Rose Nylund, the naive St. Olaf native, on "The Golden Girls" from 1985 to 1992 and the forgettable sequel "The Golden Palace" in 1992 and 1993.

The other choices were also characters on the "MTM Show", as played by Cloris Leachman, Georgia Engel and Valerie Harper.

Answer: Mike Connors

Mike Connors was a "private eye", "shamus" "gumshoe". etc., which was a very popular genre in 1960s and 1970s; he played army veteran Joe Mannix, a hard-boiled private investigator who was assisted by his secretary Peggy Fair (played by Gail Fisher) and Lt. Adam Tobias (played by Robert Reed who later became Mike Brady).

The show ran from 1967 through 1975 and was, according to IMDB, "one of the most violent series in TV history". I have provided a trip down memory lane for the wrong answers, i.e., Craig Stevens was "Peter Gunn" (with a cool theme song), George Peppard played "Banacek" (a Polish-American detective) and Buddy Ebsen was the geriatric "Barnaby Jones".

Answer: Kevin Spacey

Kevin Spacey assaying the role of crippled conman Roger 'Verbal' Kint in the 1995 film noir "The Usual Suspects" says "The greatest trick the Devil ever pulled was convincing the world he didn't exist". This story starts out with a massacre and fire on a ship in San Pedro Bay and the convoluted story told by Kint, one of the survivors.

The police bring in "the usual suspects" (a quote from Claude Rains' character in "Casablanca") and from there...well, it's beyond explanation. Spacey won his first Academy Award as Best Supporting Actor for the film and went on to win a Best Actor Academy Award for his role as Lester Burnham in "American Beauty" (1999).

Answer: DeFazio and Feeney

The show was about two single girls, Laverne DeFazio and Shirley Feeney, lroommates living in Milwaukee, Wisconsin in the 1950s and 1960s, and working as bottle cappers for the Shotz Brewery. Penny Marshall and Cindy Williams played the title roles from 1976 through 1983.

In the sixth season, the girls get fired from the brewery and move to Burbank, California as gift-wrappers but, by then, I don't think many people were still watching. The show was originally a spin-off from "Happy Days" where we meet Laverne and Shirley as friends of "The Fonz". To sum it up, all i can say is "1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8 Schlemiel! Schlimazel! Hasenpfeffer Incorporated".

Answer: Charlie Allnut

Arguably, one of the 20th century's best actors, Bogart played Charlie Allnut, the boozy captain of his run-down ship, the African Queen. The movie was set in 1914 during World War I and had Katharine Hepburn as Allnut's opposite, the "strait-laced missionary", Rose Sayer.

The film won a Best Actor in a Leading Role Academy Award for Bogart, while Hepburn was nominated for Best Actress and John Huston was nominated for Best Director. If you recognize the names of the incorrect choices that may be because they are all characters played by Bogart: Rick Blaine in "Casablanca" (1942), Sam Spade in "The Maltese Falcon" ((1941) and Duke Mantee in "The Petrified Forest" (1936).

Answer: Florence Henderson

"Here's the story of a lovely lady who was bringing up three very lovely girls" (although I'm not so sure about Jan). From 1969 through 1974, Florence Henderson played the prototypical mother of "The Brady Bunch" with her charges Greg, Peter, Bobby, Marcia, Jan and Cindy, with the help of her architect husband Mike (Robert Reed) and her live-in housekeeper, Alice Nelson (Ann B. Davis). Yes, there they were - the "ideal average American middle-class family" that everyone wanted to be a part of. Henderson went on to play parts in other TV shows like "The Love Boat" and "Fantasy Island" but she could never really lose that "mother" image.

The other choices played mothers too.

Answer: Marlon Brando

Marlon Brando could "make you an offer you can't refuse" when you watched his riveting, Oscar winning portrayal of Mafia crime boss Don Corleone in "The Godfather" from 1972. Like his other movies, he seemed to become the role he was playing, i.e., Mario Puzo's patriarch, both benevolent and violent - a father, a friend, a ruthless killer. Marlon Brando has played such iconic roles as Terry Malloy in "On the Waterfront" (1954) for which he also won an Academy Award, Stanley Kowalski in "A Street Car Named Desire" in 1951 and Fletcher Christian in the 1961 version of "Mutiny on the Bounty". Jack Nicholson once said "When Marlon dies, everybody moves up one".

Answer: Barney Miller

Hal Linden played Captain Barney Miller from 1974 through 1982. He was the sensible, rational cop surrounded by a squad of lovable nutcases like Detective Wojciehowicz (Max Gail), Detective Harris (Ron Glass), Detective Sgt. Dietrich (Steve Landesberg) and Detective Sgt. Yemana (Jack Soo). Set in the 12th Precinct in Greenwich Village, New York City, anything could happen and usually did.

It would be nice if all criminals and law enforcement officers could be this funny! The incorrect answers are all from cop shows: Frank Furillo from "Hill Street Blues" (1981-1987); David Starsky from "Starsky and Hutch" (1975-1979); Frank Drebin "Police Squad!" from 1982.