1970s Male Movie Characters Trivia Quiz

Answer: Chief Brody

This was the 1975 movie which showed the world that a summer movie could be the biggest hit ever. The victim of a shark attack was found at a small seaside town. Chief Brody thought the beaches should be closed, but the mayor thought that would be bad for business. More attacks happened until Chief Brody and two other men took a boat into the ocean to catch the great white shark.

Answer: Major Major

"Catch 22" and "M*A*S*H" came out at the same time and featured characters clowning around in the military. Each movie was based on a book. "Catch 22" was set during World War II in Italy and featured Army Air Corps pilots. The rule called Catch 22 was that if a person was insane, he didn't have to fly any more dangerous missions, but if he didn't want to fly, that proved he was sane. Bob Newhart played a man named Major Major Major who was a captain until he got promoted to major.

He wanted to get through the war without any trouble, so he had a rule that if he was in his office, no one could come in to see him, but if he wasn't there, anyone could walk right in.

Answer: Trapper John

"M*A*S*H" was based on a book about three surgeons in a Mobile Army Surgical Hospital during the Korean War, but the setting looked a lot like the Vietnam War, which was happening at the time. Duke and Hawkeye arrived together. Trapper John was the expert surgeon who arrived later and was still there when Duke and Hawkeye left.

The TV half hour sitcom "M*A*S*H" never mentioned Duke, but Hawkeye and Trapper John were friends until Trapper John left. Later, Trapper John (played by a different person each time) was used in a one hour drama called "Trapper John, M.D.".

Answer: Chance

Chance was a man who lived in the same home his whole life. He had never talked on the phone or ridden in a car. It's never explained if someone had left him on the doorstep as a baby or how he came to be there.
One day the old man who owned the place died, and the maid just left. Lawyers showed up and told Chance he had to leave. He always lived in the house watching TV, or working in the garden. Like Adam getting kicked out of the garden of Eden, you might say, Chance leaves with an umbrella and a suitcase and just walks throughout Washington, D.C., not knowing where to go.
He gets hit when a car backs up and is taken to a wealthy man's enormous estate. The next day the U.S. President visits the rich man, and Chance sits in. All Chance knows about the world is what he saw on TV and in the garden. When the President asks Chance about the currently bad economy, Chance says things will grow in the spring. The President thinks Chance is being symbolic, so he quotes Chance on television, and that night Chance is taken to a talk show to talk about politics.

Answer: Lex Luthor

Superman began as a character in a comic book series. It was used in cartoon films, movie serials, television, etc. This movie was intended to tell the life story of Superman from when he was a baby sent from planet Krypton just before it exploded. The baby landed on Earth and was raised by an old farm couple.

He grew up with super strength and various powers. The movie led to a plan Lex Luthor had to use a nuclear missile to cause a giant earthquake which would destroy California and create a new West Coast owned by Luthor.

He tried to kill Superman, or weaken him, by putting a Kryptonite necklace around Superman's neck, because the radiation from planet Krypton was harmful to Superman.

Answer: Jaws

"The Spy Who Loved Me" was a James Bond film involving the famous spy trying to find out what Stromberg was up to. Stromberg sent Jaws, a seven foot tall villain with metal teeth, to stop Bond. Stromberg used a large ship to capture (in fact it swallowed) a United States nuclear submarine and a Russian nuclear submarine so he could use the nuclear missiles to destroy New York City and Moscow.

He hoped this would cause World War III, which would make it easier for Stromberg to take over the world. Eventually, Stromberg's hideout was destroyed, but Jaws survived to attack Bond in "Moonraker".

Answer: Spock

After the success of "Star Wars" the plans to make a new "Star Trek" TV series were changed into making a feature movie which was intended to be a big screen representation of things that had happened in the classic TV series. There was a transporter malfunction, an electrical space attack on crew members, a robot probe examining the Starship Enterprise, and a confrontation with a large machine which wanted to kill everything on Earth. (In 1979 Drax also tried to kill every person on Earth in "Moonraker".) Spock, who was half human and half alien, was one of the most popular characters from the classic TV series.

The "Star Trek" fans flocked to the theater to see Spock's return, as Spock advised Captain Kirk what to do in the motion picture.

Answer: Leatherface

Leatherface was the killer in "The Texas Chainsaw Massacre" movies who wore a mask of human flesh. People traveling in a van ended up at an isolated house in Texas where a family killed people. Leatherface used a sledgehammer and a chainsaw to kill people in the first movie. Several movies using the name "The Texas Chainsaw Massacre" or "Leatherface" have been made since the 1974 movie. Sometimes one of these movies features a completely different family of killers.

Answer: Col. Sharki

The Pink Panther was a large diamond regarded as a religious symbol, or good luck charm, for the nation of Lugash. It had previously been stolen by the princess who thought she should have it, in the movie "The Pink Panther". This time it was stolen again, and the Shah of Lugash insisted Inspector Clouseau be brought in to find the diamond, because he had accidentally found it in the first movie. Sir Charles Litton was suspected of having stolen the diamond because people suspected he was "the Phantom", a famous jewel thief, although it was never proven that he was the Phantom.

He wanted to find out who stole it to clear his name. Meanwhile, Col. Sharki of the Lugash secret police also wanted to recover the diamond. In the climax Sharki was supposedly shot dead when someone shot at Clouseau.

However, he was shown in the movies "Trail of the Pink Panther" and "Curse of the Pink Panther" talking about the diamond when it was stolen again.

Answer: Neidermeyer

The college students of Delta House kept breaking rules while the dean tried to have their charter revoked. ROTC officer Neidermeyer harassed Flounder, a new pledge to Delta House. In one scene, some of the Deltas took Neidermeyer's horse into the dean's office for a joke, but the horse dropped over dead. It was said, in the end credits, that Neidermeyer was shot by his own men in the Vietnam War.

However, in some versions of "Twilight Zone: The Movie" there is a scene in Vietnam in which lost American soldiers say that maybe they shouldn't have killed Neidermeyer. This seems to be consistent with "Animal House". However, in the movie "The Stupids" Neidermeyer, played by Mark Metcalf who played him in "Animal House", was selling American military weapons to terrorists. (John Landis directed all three stories in the three movies.)