Calling Santa Claus! Trivia Quiz

Answer: Edmund Gwenn

Edmund Gwenn won a Best Supporting Actor Oscar for playing the delightful old gentleman who called himself Kris Kringle and believed himself to be the real Santa, not just a department store version of him. "Miracle on 34th Street" told his tale, including going to court to determine if he was insane or really and truly Santa Claus.

The cast included John Payne, Maureen O'Hara and a young Natalie Wood. The 1994 remake had Richard Attenborough as Kris Kringle.

Answer: Bing Crosby

All four of the stars of "White Christmas" wear some representation of a Santa costume at some point, but Bing is the only option here. He and Danny Kaye played old army buddies who have teamed up as a musical act, who tried to help their old general (Dean Jagger) make a go of his Vermont inn.

Helping out were Rosemary Clooney and Vera-Ellen, a sister act performing at the inn. Besides the title song, the music included "Count Your Blessings Instead of Sheep", "Sisters" and "Snow", all by Irving Berlin.

Answer: John Call

"Santa Claus Conquers the Martians" has not won many accolades, unless being on imdb's Bottom Rated Movies list counts. The Martians kidnapped Santa because the children of Mars had become obsessed with him, but he eventually won out by bringing happiness to Mars, so no violence eh? John Call's other movie credits included roles such as Ticket Taker and Man with Bushy Hair in a career spanning twenty years.

Answer: Christopher Plummer

"The Silent Partner" was a Canadian caper movie starring Plummer as bad guy Harry Reikle, and Elliott Gould as bank teller Miles Cullen, whose lives became entangled when Cullen tried to cut himself in on Reikle's plan. I remember the surreal feeling of watching this movie in a theatre within Toronto's Eaton Centre, when the establishing shot of that very place appeared on screen.

A more likely Christmas sighting of Plummer would be as Captain von Trapp in the perennial favourite "The Sound of Music".

Answer: Jeff Gillen

Jeff Gillen, as the department store Santa, is only one of the people who warned Ralphie what would happen if he received the much-desired Red Ryder air rifle in "A Christmas Story" starring Peter Billingsley (as Ralphie) and Darren McGavin. Gillen's other credits included Window Washer, Reporter #3 and Bartender amongst other such roles.

Answer: Tim Allen

"The Santa Clause" was invoked when Scott Calvin (Allen) put on the fallen Santa's suit, making him the replacement gift-bringer, as was explained to Scott by Bernard the Elf (David Krumholtz). Accompanied by his son, Charlie (Eric Lloyd), and directed by Comet the reindeer, Scott finished the route the first year.

His transformation and insistence that he had become Santa led to complications with his ex-wife and her new husband wanting to shield Charlie from Scott's delusions, but Santa was able to overcome these obstacles. Sequels followed in 2003 and 2006.

Answer: Billy Bob Thornton

"Bad Santa" was putting it mildly in the case of Willie Stokes, who was usually drunk, always crude and never jolly. Planning to rob the department store that employed him, each year, was only another black mark against him and his pal Marcus (Tony Cox) who would play the part of Santa's elf. Complications arose in the form of a kid who believed in Santa, and a store employee who tried to curtail some of their more unsavoury pursuits.

The latter was played by John Ritter in one of his last acting roles.

Answer: Edward Asner

"Elf" was about Buddy, who had been raised as an elf after accidentally stowing away in Santa's sack when a baby in an orphanage. Will Ferrell played Buddy and Bob Newhart was Papa Elf, who raised him. When Buddy had grown to a size that made it clear he was a human, Santa (Asner) gave permission for him to look for his human father (James Caan) in New York.

Asner's long career has included stints as Lou Grant in two different television series, the voice of Carl Fredericksen in the movie "Up" (2009) and over 300 more credits. Several more appearances as Santa have featured in his acting portfolio.

Answer: Tom Hanks

The Santa of "The Polar Express" flew away carrying such a large bag of toys that it seemed impossible the reindeer would be able to get it off the ground. The magic of Christmas allowed the flight to take place, of course. Just before this, Santa had presented the (formerly doubting) Boy (Daryl Sabara) with a bell from his sleigh, as a mighty symbol of Christmas. Hanks played several roles, including The Conductor of the magical title train, Scrooge and Santa in the performance capture animation.

Answer: Paul Giamatti

Paul Giamatti's Santa went by Nick (short for St Nicholas) and was the younger brother of Chicago scam artist Fred Claus (Vince Vaughn). Fred got into some bother down south, so came home to help brother Nick during the busy season. While Santa was trying to weather an audit, Fred was trusted with determining who has been naughty or nice and may or may not have provided the help needed.

Giamatti was Oscar-nominated in the Best Supporting Actor category for his performance in "Cinderella Man" (2005) and won Golden Globes for "Barney's Version" and "John Adams" (TV).