44th Academy Awards 1972 Trivia Quiz

Answer: Best Supporting Actor: Roy Scheider

"The French Connection" has the distinction of being the first R-rated movie to win the Best Picture Academy Award. It also won Academy Awards for Best Actor (Hackman), Best Director (Friedkin), Best Film Editing, and Best Adapted Screenplay. It was nominated for Best Supporting Actor (Scheider), Best Cinematography and Best Sound Mixing. Two years after being nominated for his role as Sonny Grosso in "The French Connection", Roy Scheider played Chief Martin Brody in the movie "Jaws", in which he delivered the memorable quote "You're gonna need a bigger boat".

Answer: Cloris Leachman and Ben Johnson

Ben Johnson, Jeff Bridges, Cloris Leachman and Ellen Burstyn all received nominations for their performances in "The Last Picture Show". The cast also included Cybill Shepherd in her film debut, Randy Quaid and John Hillerman.
Cloris Leachman was born in 1926 and one of her later films was "The Comedian" (2016). Her award for her portrayal of Ruth Popper in "The Last Picture Show" was her first nomination and win at the Academy Awards.
Ben Johnson, born 1917, is a world champion rodeo cowboy, whose work in the film industry was as a stunt-man as well as an actor. His only Academy Award was for his portrayal of Sam the Lion in "The Last Picture Show". He died in 1996 from a heart-attack.

Answer: Isaac Hayes

Isaac Hayes won the Academy Award for the song "Theme from Shaft" from the movie "Shaft". Isaac Hayes became the third African American to win an Academy Award after Hattie McDaniel in 1940 and Sidney Poitier in 1964. Whilst it is common now for the writers of a song to be the performer of it, Isaac Hayes has the distinction of being the first to both write and perform the Academy Award winning song.

Answer: Fiddler on the Roof

For the score he composed for the movie "Fiddler on the Roof", John Williams won his first Academy Award in 1972. John Williams is considered one of the great composers in the film industry, composing recognizable themes such as "Jaws", "Star Wars", "Superman", "E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial", Indiana Jones movies, "Jurassic Park" and the "Harry Potter" films. Williams was born in 1932 and for his musical composition for the movie "Star Wars: The Force Awakens" (2015), he received his 50th Academy Award nomination.

Answer: Best Cinematography for Oswald Morris

"Fiddler on the Roof" won three Academy Awards: Best Cinematography, Best Sound Mixing and Best Original Song Score or Adaptation Score. It is an adaptation of the 1964 Broadway musical of the same name. Oswald Morris is a British cinematographer who was nominated three times for "Oliver!", "Fiddler on the Roof" (which he won the award) and "The Wiz".

In a career spanning six decades Oswald Morris died in 2014 aged 98.

Answer: Klute

Jane Fonda portrayed Bree Daniels in "Klute" for which she won the Best Actress Academy Award. "Klute" also starred Donald Sutherland, Charles Cioffi, and Roy Scheider. "Klute" is about Detective John Klute (Donald Sutherland), who is hired to find an executive named Tom Gruneman (John Mills) who has gone missing. During his investigation Klute meets a high class prostitute, Bree Daniels, who assists him in trying to find the missing executive. "Klute" was the first of Alan J. Pakula's "paranoia trilogy" which he directed. "The Parallax View" and "All the President's Men" were the subsequent films of this trilogy.

Answer: Jack Albertson

In 1969 Jack Albertson won an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his role in the movie "The Subject Was Roses". Though Gene Wilder was nominated for a Golden Globe as Best Actor in a Musical or Comedy for his role as Willy Wonka, he didn't receive an Academy Award nomination. Gene Wilder though was nominated for an Academy Award in 1969 for his role in "The Producers".

Answer: Charlie Chaplin

Charlie Chaplin, who had been living in Switzerland for 20 years, came back to the United States to receive an honorary award "for the incalculable effect he has had in making motion pictures the art form of this century". Chaplin had been living in exile following his revoked re-entry into the USA in 1952 by attorney general James P. McGranery, due to "his political views and moral behavior".

In 1980, the release of FBI records indicated that the US government had no real evidence against Charlie Chaplin and the revoking of his re-entry visa was unjustifiable, so if Chaplin had re-applied he would have regained entry.

Instead, Charlie Chaplin chose not to re-apply, cutting his ties with the USA.

Answer: Sunday Bloody Sunday

"Sunday Bloody Sunday" was nominated for four Academy Awards: Best Actor (Peter Finch), Best Actress (Glenda Jackson), Best Director (John Schlesinger), and Best Original Screenplay (Penelope Gilliatt). The film was released prior to the 1972 shooting of unarmed protesters in Derry, Northern Ireland, which was immortalized in the U2 song "Sunday Bloody Sunday". The movie "Sunday Bloody Sunday" is about a love triangle that exists between Alex Greville (Glenda Jackson), Daniel Hirsh (Peter Finch) and a sculptor Bob Elkin (Murray Head).

The success for the movie was that for the first time a homosexual character, portrayed by Peter Finch, accepted his sexuality, instead of being portrayed as a self-loathing individual, which was the usual depiction of that era.

Answer: A Clockwork Orange

"A Clockwork Orange" was nominated four times at the 44th Academy Awards: Best Picture - Stanley Kubrick (Producer), Best Director - Stanley Kubrick, Best Adapted Screenplay - Stanley Kubrick, Best Film Editing - Bill Butler. This movie was an extremely controversial film.

It was condemned by the National Catholic Office for Motion Pictures forbidding Roman Catholics from seeing the film. It was passed uncut for UK cinema release in December 1971, resulting in British authorities condemning the sexual violence depicted in the film, ultimately blaming the film for an increase in criminal violence seen in society, to the extent that the film was withdrawn in 1973 by Warner Brothers at the request of Kubrick.