"Bonnie and Clyde": The Creative Team Quiz

Answer: Gene Wilder

Gene Wilder began his acting career in New York City, studying at the Actors' Studio. On Broadway, he appeared in the unsuccessful stage adaptation of "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest", playing Billy Bibbit to Kirk Douglas' Randle Patrick McMurphy.

His next film after "Bonnie and Clyde" was Mel Brooks' "The Producers", for which he received an Oscar nomination. Two more legendary collaborations with Mel Brooks, "Blazing Saddles" and "Young Frankenstein", were to follow. All in all, he had a stellar film career. Gene Wilder died in 2016.

Answer: Gene Hackman

"Bonnie and Clyde" propelled Gene Hackman into film stardom and he soon became a bankable leading man. He won an Oscar four years later for his raw, intense performance in "The French Connection".

Hackman has proven to be a prolific author, publishing numerous historical novels with his writing partner, Daniel Lenihan. Reviewing their book "Justice for None", the Library Journal praised the novel's "rich, detailed evocation of rural America in the late 1920s."

Answer: Estelle Parsons

Estelle Parsons' performance as Blanche Barrow thrilled the Academy voters but it ticked off Blanche Barrow, who was still alive and well when the film was made. Not at all the hysterical shrew portrayed in the film, Blanche was so incensed by the portrayal that she actually sued Warner Brothers.

Parsons spent the bulk of her acting career on stage, not on film. Nominated for five Tony Awards over the years, she never won but she is clearly a beloved and respected actress. She is perhaps best known for her recurring role on the sitcom, "Roseanne".

Answer: Burnett Guffey (cinematography)

Burnett Guffey started working in film way back in 1923. He started as an assistant cameraman on silent films before graduating to cameraman for directors such as John Ford and Alfred Hitchcock. He soon became a respected cinematographer, winning his first Oscar for the 1953 classic, "From Here to Eternity". "Bonnie and Clyde" won him his second and final Oscar.

Theodora Van Runkle did not win the Oscar for "Bonnie and Clyde", but her costumes for Faye Dunaway started a fashion trend. Beret sales spiked nationwide and Dunaway, for a time, became a fashion icon. For years afterward, she insisted that Van Runkle design her costumes.

Answer: Robert Towne

The word 'uncredited' appears with impressive frequency on Robert Towne's IMDB page. While he is the credited author of "Chinatown", one of the greatest screenplays of all time, and a handful of other highly regarded films, Towne seems to be known primarily as a 'script doctor' -- a writer hired to polish or rewrite an existing script. Towne is said to have made uncredited contributions to such films as "The Godfather", "Heaven Can Wait", and "Mission Impossible II".

Answer: Kramer vs. Kramer

Robert Benton was born and raised in Wachahaxie, TX. His father, so the legend goes, attended the funerals of both Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow. Young Robert grew up hearing stories about the exploits of Bonnie and Clyde.

He met David Newman when they were both editors at "Esquire" magazine. They continued to work together and, in 1972, Benton directed his first feature, "Bad Company", from a Newman/Benton script.

Benton directed 1979's "Kramer vs. Kramer". In addition to his two Oscars, Dustin Hoffman and Meryl Streep won acting prizes and the film was named best picture of the year.

"Kramer vs. Kramer" tells the story of a self-obsessed man whose wife leaves him, placing the care of their young son exclusively in his hands. Fireworks fly in the courtroom scenes, after Streep's character sues for custody of the little boy. Brilliant performances all around.

Answer: Mickey One

The story of a comedian (Beatty) on the run from the mob, "Mickey One" didn't do well in its initial release. Its legacy is that it brought Warren Beatty and Arthur Penn together for the first time. If they failed to capture lightning in a bottle their first time around, Beatty and Penn were certainly able to do so with "Bonnie and Clyde".

Answer: Little Big Man

"Little Big Man" was a success for Arthur Penn, although he would never duplicate the triumph, artistically or commercially, that he had with "Bonnie and Clyde". Dustin Hoffman stars as 121-year-old Jack Crabb, a white man raised by Native Americans, who claims to be the sole white survivor of Custer's Last Stand at Little Big Horn.

In the early part of the film, we meet Crabb as a teenage boy. Orphaned, he is taken in by Mrs. Pendrake (Dunaway), a pious woman who takes her mothering of the young Jack quite seriously. When Jack discovers that she is not the saint he thought she was, he moves on. It's a small part for Dunaway, whose star was on the rise in a big way when this film was released in 1970. One has to wonder why she took on such a small role -- perhaps out of respect and/or gratitude to Penn who, after all, helped to make her a star. Dunaway went on to be one of the iconic stars of the 1970s, starring opposite Jack Nicholson in the masterful "Chinatown" and winning an Oscar for her turn in "Network".

Answer: The Miracle Worker

"The Miracle Worker" is based on William Gibson's play of the same name about young Helen Keller and her teacher Annie Sullivan. Penn, who had an impressive theatrical background, directed the original Broadway production with Anne Bancroft as Annie and a young Patty Duke as Helen. Penn and Bancroft won Tony Awards and when Penn was pegged to direct the film version, he hired Bancroft and Duke to reprise their roles. They both won richly deserved Oscars.

Penn's Broadway career lasted nearly 50 years and included such highlights as "Golden Boy", "All the Way Home", and "An Evening with Mike Nichols and Elaine May".

Answer: Reds

Beatty's epic tale of radical American journalist John Reed (Beatty) and his lover Louise Bryant (Diane Keaton) won three Oscars in 1982. When you consider that the film was essentially a history of the early days of the American Communist party, it's somewhat surprising that it was received so warmly. Beatty's Oscar acceptance speech acknowledged as much:

"I think that your decision, taken in the great capitalistic tower of Gulf + Western, to finance a three-and-a-half hour romance which attempts to reveal for the first time just something of the beginnings of American socialism and American communism, reflects credit not only upon you, I think it reflects credit upon Hollywood and the movie business."