Role-Playing Trivia Quiz

Answer: Kevin Spacey

Kevin Spacey plays middle-aged advertising executive Lester Burnham who is having a mid-life crisis in the 1999 film "American Beauty". Early on in the film he says "Both my wife and daughter think I'm this gigantic loser, and they're right". Written by Alan Ball, the Sam Mendes movie won Academy Awards for Best Picture, Best Actor, Best Director and Best Cinematography.

Besides winning a Best Actor Oscar for this film, Spacey also won a Best Supporting Actor Academy Award for "The Usual Suspects".

Answer: Lisa Kudrow

Lisa Kudrow was one fourth of the quartet on "Friends" (1994-2004), one of television's top comedies. As most of you know, the show was about six fairly affluent 20-Somethings living and working in New York City. Phoebe was a part-time masseuse with an identical twin sister, Ursula.

She played the guitar at Central Perk and sang "Smelly Cat". Phoebe also served as a surrogate mother for her brother, Frank Jr., delivering triplets. Lisa Kudrow won a Best Supporting Actress Emmy in 1997 for her role.

Answer: Alfonso Ribiero

"The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air" (1990-1996) featured Will Smith as ...Will Smith.
The plot involves his moving from Philadelphia to his rich uncle's house in California. Will must now learn to cohabitate with his uncle, aunt (both of them) and their three kids. Alfonso Ribiero plays their middle child, Carlton Banks, who is often the butt of Will's jokes. Ribiero was first seen on "Silver Spoons" in 1984 where he played Ricky Stratton's best friend...Alfonso.

Answer: Mary Badham

Based on Harper Lee's Pulitzer Prize winning 1960 novel, we have the 1962 film "To Kill a Mockingbird". It is set in Maycomb, Alabama in 1932. Atticus Finch is a small town lawyer and widower with two young children, Scout (Jean Louise) and Jem (Jeremy Atticus). Scout is the narrator who tells us about the events in her life from the perspective of a pre-teen, events which include bigotry, a murder trial and her mysterious neighbor. Mary Badham was nominated for a Best Supporting Actress Academy Award for her role.

Answer: Sean Hayes

"Will and Grace" could more accurately be called "Will and Grace and Jack and Karen". It was one of the first shows to deal with homosexuality in its main characters. The show ran from 1998 to 2006, and was rebooted less successfully from 2017 to end in 2020. Sean Hayes plays the more flamboyant Jack McFarland, best friend and neighbor to Will and Grace.

He plays a struggling actor who has yet to find his vehicle. Sean has also appeared on many TV shows, e.g., "Sean Saves the World" (2013-2014).

Answer: Katharine Hepburn

What can you say about four time Academy Award winner Katherine Hepburn? Dorothy Parker once said "Miss Hepburn ran the whole gamut of emotions - from A to B". However, her performance as straight-laced missionary Rose Sayer opposite Humphrey Bogart's Charlie Allnut during World War I, in "The African Queen" (1951), is exceptional.

She was nominated for an Academy Award for this film (and seven others), and won Best Actress Oscars for "Morning Glory" "Guess Who's Coming to Dinner?", "The Lion in Winter" and "On Golden Pond".

Answer: Michael J. Fox

Michael J. Fox played teenager Marty McFly in the "Back to the Future" films, the first of which was "Back to the Future" in 1985. We first meet a skate-boarding Marty when he is transported back by a DeLorean, thirty years into the past. The "time-machine" was invented by his friend and mad scientist Doc Brown. Marty must find a way to get his parents together or face the fact that he will never be born.

Despite having been diagnosed with Parkinson's Disease, Michael continues to act on shows like "The Good Wife" and "Designated Survivor".

Answer: Alicia Silverstone

Amy Heckerling's 1995 movie "Clueless" is loosely based on Jane Austen's 1815 novel "Emma". The setting of the film is Beverly Hills, CA, where we meet affluent and popular teenager Cher Horowitz in this coming-of-age comedy. Cher lives with her father, a widower.

While Cher seems like a typical airhead, her heart is in the right place as she attempts to help others, and her occasional cluelessness hides her intelligence. Alicia Silverstone, who plays Cher, has also been in the movies "Batman and Robin" and "Blast from the Past".

Answer: William Petersen

"CSI: Crime Scene Investigation" (2000-2015) was one of the first shows to deal with crime solving on a scientific level. Predating TV shows like "Bones', it showed how a Las Vegas police forensic team of experts could investigate and catch criminals without car chases and bombs exploding. William Petersen starred as Gil Grissom, the leader of the team. Petersen, the executive producer, left in 2009. Prior to that, he appeared in films such as "To Live and Die in L.A." (1985) and "Manhunter" (1986).

Answer: Dawn Wells

"The ship set ground on the shore of this uncharted isle/With Gilligan, the skipper too/The millionaire and his wife/The movie star, Professor and Mary Ann", all on "Gilligan's Island" (1964-1967). Poor Mary Ann, she was basically an afterthought. In fact, for those old enough to remember the show, did you ever know Mary Ann's surname? She was the typical "girl next door" and possible linchpin of the group. Dawn Wells appeared on "Baywatch" as Mary Ann Summers in 1992, and "Lover's Knot" (1995) as, you guessed it, Mary Ann!