Famous Lions Trivia Quiz

Answer: Daktari

The children's TV show "Daktari" was a spin-off from the 1965 film "Clarence the Cross-Eyed Lion". It was produced from 1966-69 and aired throughout the seventies.

Daktari is the Swahili word for doctor, and the main set up of the show followed a vet and his work in Africa rescuing animals from poachers and other dangers. Judy the Chimp and Clarence were his pets. Bruno the Bear made a guest appearance before moving on to his own show, "Gentle Ben".

Producer Ivan Tors was also responsible for "Flipper" the dolphin.

The photo is from the set, Clarence is posing with Judy.

Answer: Jeremy Irons

Simba's evil Uncle Scar has a plan to usurp Simba and become king of the pride. The plot takes inspiration from Shakespeare's "Hamlet".

Jeremy Irons is a multi award winning actor in both Hollywood and in Shakespeare plays. He has voiced an English language version of the audio guide for Westminster Abbey in London, and has served as the voice-over in big cat documentaries. He lives in Ireland with his wife, actress Sinead Cusack. Their son Max Irons is a professional actor. Their son Sam Irons has acted as a child with Jeremy in several Roald Dahl films.

The photo is an ornamental metal door knocker.

Answer: London

Nelson's statue stands in Trafalgar Square, London, nearly 170 feet high up on a column, surrounded at the base by four oversized bronze lions. The bronze plaques on the base are made from melted down French guns, surrendered in battles such as the Battle of Trafalgar, where Nelson beat Napoleon.

The original four lion statues were in stone and deemed not grand enough to grace the statue of Nelson, erected in 1843, so they were never installed. In 1858, the famous painter of the time, Edward Landseer, was drafted in to design something more splendid.

Landseer was not a sculptor but a painter of horses and dogs. He went to great lengths to study the lions in the zoo in detail and learn about their habits; such lengths that the four plinths around the column remained empty for nearly another ten years before they were completed. He designed four individual lions, each with its own expression and identifiable characteristics.

About 1500 British men lost their lives in that victorious battle, as indeed did Nelson, but they had thwarted Napoleon's plans to invade England.

The picture is a late Victorian print of Trafalgar Square.

Answer: MGM

MGM refers to all the lions used in their trademark as "Leo the Lion", but only the lion used from 1957 - 2021 was actually named "Leo". In 2021, MGM created a new CGI lion logo based on Leo.

On black-and-white MGM films between 1924 and 1928 a lion called "Slats" is used in the logo. He was born in Dublin Zoo, Ireland. Unlike earlier and later lions used, he does not roar but just looks around with an air of dignity. They were mainly silent movies, after all.

Now that talkies had taken over they needed a roaring lion again. From 1928 to 1956, the lion MGM used was called "Jackie". He was born in the wild and trained for film work. He appeared as an "actor" in many movies, including the Tarzan films, and retired in 1931.

The photograph is a studio release featuring Jackie's roar being recorded.

Answer: Britain and Ireland

Test rugby is an international match between national teams. "The British Lions" was created in the 19th century when Ireland and Britain were under the same (British) government. In modern times, players can be picked from the national teams of Scotland, Wales, England, and (as Northern Ireland and the Irish Republic play together as a national team), the whole island of Ireland, and so they have changed the name to "The British and Irish Lions" shortened to "The Lions".

England, Ireland, Scotland and Wales, plus Italy and France, hold a popular annual competition against each other known as the "Six Nations".

Pictured is the Lions line up from 1888 on a tour to New Zealand.

Answer: L. Frank Baum

It was Baum who created the cowardly lion in "The Wonderful Wizard of Oz" written in 1900. The lion feels scared and inadequate and tries to bite Toto the dog, but in fact he performs several brave feats of courage in the book, such as leaping across gaping chasms in the road, carrying the group to safety on his back, and killing a giant spider.

Baum wrote 14 books in the Oz series, as well as scores of novels, short stories, plays and poems, most of his work aimed at children. He wanted to create an American Fairy Tale tradition. In 2013, he was inducted into the Chicago Literary Hall of Fame.

The alternative choices created tigers. Kipling created Shere Khan, Kerr created "The Tiger Who Came To Tea" and Milne created Tigger.

Pictured is a page from the first edition of the book.

Answer: Richard

Richard I was nicknamed Richard the Lionheart because of his great military prowess. He had his first army when he was just 16. He was son of King Henry II and Eleanor of Aquitaine, and though he was born in England he spent his adult life mainly in France.

Born in 1157, he was King of England from 1189 until his death in 1199, but he may have spent as little as six months actually in England during that time as he was usually abroad on crusades.

In Disney's "Robin Hood", Richard the Lionheart is portrayed as a strong good lion but absent king, while King John, his successor, is portrayed as a weak baddie lion, sucking his thumb in the face of danger. In real life, Richard was broadly seen as a hero, and John broadly as corrupt. Under King John's reign, the Magna Carta was introduced, limiting a king's power and giving citizens more power.

The picture is a vintage comic book panel.

Answer: Egyptian

Maahes is an Ancient Egyptian deity of war and weather. He is also in charge of protection, lotuses, knives and cannibalism of prisoners. He is either the nephew or son of Sekhmet, sister of Bastet.

Sekhmet is the daughter of the sun god Ra and sometimes known as The Eye of Ra or the Vengeance of Ra. She is in charge of destruction as well as healing. She breathes fire and causes plagues as well as warding them off.

Their cult was in the town of Leontopolis in the Nile delta. There, temples were built in honour of the two sisters and Maahes, and groups of revered lions were at one point kept in the temples. The Egyptians held an annual festival of drunkenness which was the best way to soothe the goddess's wrath.

Pictured is a statue of Sekhmet from about 1400 B.C.E.

Answer: Patience and Fortitude

The statues are carved from pink Tennessee marble. They were built in 1911 and their nicknames varied at first. At one stage they were called Astor and Lenox after the library's founders.

In the 1930s, Mayor Fiorello LaGuardia named them "Patience" and "Fortitude" in deference to the spirit of New Yorkers dealing with the economic depression of the time.

They appear in several books and movies including "The Wiz" and "Ghostbusters".

This is a photograph of Fortitude.

Answer: Aslan

Aslan, from the Narnia books by CS Lewis, is also known as "The Great Lion" and is king of Narnia. He sacrifices himself to save Narnia from the evil queen. It is strongly believed that he represents Christ.

The name Aslan is a boy's name in Turkey, derived from the old Turkish language word for "lion". Lewis mentions the sweet "Turkish Delight" in his books and Peter is later known as Peter the Magnificent which is also a title for the Ottoman Sultan Suleyman.

The name Simba, from Disney's "The Lion King", means lion in Swahili. Elsa was a real lioness, the subject of several books about her such as "Born Free". Grograman is a lion from "The Neverending Story".

The painting is called "Lion In The Snow" by Hungarian artist Geza Vastagh (1866-1919).