Classic Actors in Classic Roles Quiz

Answer: Gregory Peck

Best known for his Oscar winning performance as Atticus Finch in "To Kill a Mockingbird", Gregory Peck also starred as reporter Joe Bradley in "Roman Holiday" and as attorney Sam Bowden in the 1962 thriller "Cape Fear". He died in 2003 at the age of 87.

Answer: Shirley MacLaine

Her role as the naive Fran Kubelik in the 1960 Billy Wilder film "The Apartment" earned her a Golden Globe award and an Oscar nomination. The talented Ms. MacLaine was also nominated for several awards for her performance as the grouchy but lovable Ouiser in "Steel Magnolias". Her first Academy Award for Best Actress was for her unforgettable portrayal of Aurora Greenway in the classic 1983 James L. Brooks drama "Terms of Endearment".

The Richmond, Virginia native has written several books and was awarded an AFI Lifetime Achievement Award in 2012.

Answer: Dustin Hoffman

His performance as the autistic Raymond Babbitt in "Rain Man" earned Hoffman his second win (his first was for "Kramer vs. Kramer" in 1979). Benjamin Braddock and Enrico "Ratso" Rizzo were characters in "The Graduate" and "Midnight Cowboy", respectively. He received his seventh nomination for Best Actor in 1997's "Wag the Dog".

Answer: Jack Lemmon

The beloved Massachusetts born actor made more than sixty films during his career. He received a Best Actor nomination for his role in 1959's "Some Like it Hot" as Jerry/Daphne and followed up the following year in another Billy Wilder hit, "The Apartment", as C.C. "Bud" Baxter. His role as Joe Clay in the drama "The Days of Wine and Roses" is considered by many critics to be his best.

In 1973, he became the first actor to win Oscars in both the Best Supporting ("Mister Roberts" in 1955) and Best Actor ("Save the Tiger") categories.

Jack Lemmon died of cancer in 2001 at the age of 76.

Answer: Audrey Hepburn

"Roman Holiday" was released in 1953 and was Ms. Hepburn's first leading role. After winning the Oscar for Best Actress, she received subsequent nominations for her work in "The Nun's Story" as Sister Luke/Gabrielle van der Mal, "Breakfast at Tiffany's" as Holly Golightly, and as Susy Hendrix in the 1967 suspense drama "Wait Until Dark". Respected for her humanitarian work as well as her enormous talent in the performing arts, she was also the recipient of numerous awards for her tireless charity work.

Answer: Jack Nicholson

Particularly gifted for playing neurotic and sometimes unstable characters, Jack Nicholson's resume lists a wide variety of roles, including the brooding Bobby Dupea in "Five Easy Pieces" and the psychotic Jack Napier (aka "Joker") in the 1989 blockbuster "Batman". Perhaps his most well known work was as mental patient Randle McMurphy in "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest", which earned him his first Oscar.

His rare television work included two guest appearances on "The Andy Griffith Show", which aired from 1960-1968.

Answer: Lucille Ball

The zany red head actually began her career in 1932, nearly twenty years before the network debut of "I Love Lucy", and appeared in over eighty films, beginning with uncredited bit parts. Her success in radio and television during the 1950s earned her more prominent roles and the opportunity to work with legends such as Henry Fonda and Bob Hope. Among her most well known film characters were Mame Dennis in "Mame" and Helen Beardsley in "Yours, Mine and Ours".

She also costarred with then-husband Desi Arnaz as Tacy Bolton-Collini in the 1954 comedy "The Long, Long, Trailer". After nearly sixty years as one of the world's top entertainers, Lucille Ball died in 1989 at the age of 77.

Answer: Claude Rains

This talented actor is probably best known for his portrayal of Capt. Renault, the somewhat corrupt but charming prefect of police in "Casablanca". One of his first movie roles was the title character (Dr. Jack Griffin) in the 1933 sci-fi thriller "The Invisible Man". In 1946, he starred as Alexander Sebastian, Ingrid Bergman's Nazi husband in Alfred Hitchcock's "Notorious", receiving his fourth Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor.

A favorite among his co-stars, he worked with many legends, including Errol Flynn, Van Johnson, Bette Davis, and of course, Humphrey Bogart. His daughter Jessica has appeared in several films and has co-written a biography about her father.

Answer: Katharine Hepburn

Katharine Hepburn won a record breaking fourth Oscar for Best Actress in 1981 for her portrayal as Ethel Thayer in "On Golden Pond". (Her other three Oscars were for roles in "Morning Glory", "Guess Who's Coming to Dinner" and "The Lion in Winter".) She received numerous other nominations, including one for her performance as Rose Sayer in "The African Queen". Early films included 1933's "Little Women", in which she starred as Jo March.

In 1999, she was named as Hollywood's greatest female star by the American Film Institute. Her final performance was in 1994 at the age of eighty-seven, and she passed away nine years later at her home in Connecticut.

Answer: Meryl Streep

Meryl Streep's nomination for her role as Margaret Thatcher in the 2011 biographical "The Iron Lady" was her seventeenth, and earned her third Oscar. She won in the category of Best Supporting Actress as Joanna Kramer in the 1979 drama "Kramer vs. Kramer", and received her first Best Actress win as the title character in "Sophie's Choice", the 1982 story of a Polish Holocaust survivor.