Drummers on the Screen Trivia Quiz

Answer: Jack Lemmon

Jack Lemmon played the extremely hip warlock brother of the beautiful witch portrayed by Kim Novak in this entertaining fantasy film. His bongo playing in a night club was only one aspect of his quirky personality. Gillian (Novak) enlisted the help of Nicky (Lemmon) in her quest to make her neighbour, Shep Henderson (James Stewart), fall in love with her, instead of her college nemesis (Janice Rule).

Lemmon (1925-2001) had a career spanning several decades winning Oscars for Supporting Actor in "Mr Roberts" (1955) and Best Actor for "Save the Tiger" (1973). Over the years he and Walter Matthau appeared in ten movies together, including "The Odd Couple" (1968) and "Grumpy Old Men" (1993).

Answer: Howard Lang

Addressed by Jack Hawkins' character as "Hortator", the timekeeper beats an ever-quickening pace for the galley slaves to keep time to as they pull on their heavy oars. Judah Ben-Hur (Charlton Heston) is seen to glare in the direction of Quintus Arrius (Hawkins) even while attempting to keep up the stroke rate. The stint as a galley slave was only one of the hardships endured by the titular hero in this biblical epic.

Howard Lang (1911-1989) had over a hundred acting credits in movies and TV between 1946 and 1986. He appeared as Winston Churchill in the 1983 mini-series "The Winds of War" and as the Titanic's Chief Officer Henry Wilde in "A Night to Remember" (1958).

Answer: Charlie Watts

"Gimme Shelter" was a documentary following The Rolling Stones, including drummer Watts, on their 1969 tour of the United States of America. Included is coverage of the free concert at Altamont Speedway, California, during which four members of the audience died (three accidentally).

Charlie Watts was born in London, England in 1941 and joined the Rolling Stones soon after the group was founded. He has been considered the "least wild" member of the group, and has remained married to the same woman since 1964. Almost all of his film and TV performances have been as a drummer, usually himself.

Answer: Ringo Starr

The Beatles played themselves in this comedic look at what their life was supposedly like on a typical day. They set off from Liverpool to London to appear on a television show and encounter a number of obstacles and adventures along the way, set to the tune of some of their most famous songs. One problem that happened? Ringo went missing just before they were about to perform! The movie has been claimed to be the birthplace of the music video, with some justification.

Richard Starkey, aka Ringo Starr, was born in Liverpool, England in 1940. He replaced Pete Best as the Beatles' drummer in 1962, and the rest, it could be said, was history!

Answer: Kevin Corcoran

"Johnny Shiloh" was first shown in the US in two parts on "Walt Disney's Wonderful World of Color" in January 1963. It was released theatrically two years later in other countries. The story was based on the real life of John Clem, who joined the Union Army as a ten-year-old drummer boy during the American Civil War. The film showed him holding his ground during the 1862 Battle of Shiloh, beating his drum and earning his nickname. The latter part of the movie followed his further career during the war, when he became one of the youngest non-commissioned officers in the army. As well as Corcoran in the title role, the cast included Brian Keith and Darryl Hickman. (Personal note: I would have been 11 when I first saw this, and I loved it! Knew all the words to the song - still do in fact!)

Kevin Corcoran (1949-2015) was a regular in kid-oriented movies of the late 1950s and 1960s, including "Old Yeller" (1957), "Swiss Family Robinson" (1960) and "Toby Tyler, or Ten Weeks with a Circus" (1960). He also often appeared as Moochie, a nickname that it was said Walt Disney himself gave to Corcoran. As an adult he had a career in various off screen capacities (assistant director, production manager, etc.).

Answer: Tom Everett Scott

Set in 1964, "That Thing You Do" was about a one-hit wonder band called The Wonders (formerly the Oneders) from Erie, Pennsylvania. Guy Patterson (Scott) was recruited to replace their original drummer (Giovanni Ribisi) who had broken his arm right before their first paying gig, and Guy's spin on the title tune landed them another job and eventually much more, culminating in a trip to Hollywood. Guy was known as "the smart one" for more than just his academic knowledge. Tom Hanks wrote and directed, as well as playing the record company executive who tried to shape the band's career.

Tom Everett Scott was born in Massachusetts in 1970, and "That Thing You Do" was his first movie. Since then he has appeared in a number of TV series, including "Reign" and "Sons of Anarchy" and in such movies as "Race to Witch Mountain" (2009) and "La La Land" (2016).

Answer: Sal Mineo

Like many of the musician biopics of its time, "The Gene Krupa Story" paid less attention to historical facts than it did to the music, which need not have been that bad a thing. Sal Mineo gave screen presence to the great jazz drummer of the title, though the music was performed by the man himself. James Darren sang a bit and Susan Kohner also appeared.

Sal Mineo (1939-1976) was born in the Bronx and murdered at the age of 37 in West Hollywood. His most notable movie roles included Plato in "Rebel without a Cause" (1955) and Dov Landau in "Exodus" (1960), both of which brought Oscar nominations for Best Supporting Actor.

Answer: Gene Krupa

James Stewart starred in the title role of what was another musician biopic that took some liberties with the story of the big band leader who was immensely popular when he perished when the aircraft in which he was travelling was lost at sea during WWII. June Allyson played his wife, and Gene Krupa was just one of several musicians who made cameo appearances as themselves. Louis Armstrong was another.

Gene Krupa (1909-1973) was born in Chicago and started playing drums professionally before he was 20. After some time on the jazz scene in that city, and making a few recordings, he moved on to play with Benny Goodman's band and later started his own orchestra. He has long been regarded as one of the most influential drummers ever.

Answer: Richard Jenkins

Richard Jenkins was Oscar-nominated for his role as Walter, a professor who was surprised to discover two illegal immigrants living in his New York apartment, but went on to befriend and try to help them. On one occasion, Walter accompanied Tarek (Haaz Sleiman) to a jazz club, where Walter became fascinated with his friend's African drum, enough to request lessons in playing that instrument. By the end the drum has become a symbol of Walter's transformation from lonely academic to someone much more free.

Jenkins has become one of those actors who keeps turning up, once you have noticed him the first time. After seeing "The Visitor", I realised that I'd seen him before as the ghostly patriarch of the family Fisher in "Six Feet Under" on television. Born in Illinois in 1947, he appeared in movies like "Silverado" (1985) and "Random Hearts" (1999) and more recently in "Friends with Benefits" (2005), "Jack Reacher" (2012) and "Kong: Skull Island" (2017).

Answer: Miles Teller

Teller played Andrew Neiman, a student drummer at a music academy who was driven to excel by his extremely tough instructor, Terence Fletcher (J.K. Simmmons). The brutality with which Fletcher drove home his lessons was justified (by Fletcher) as a necessity to draw out the best performance from the young musicians under his tutelage. Andrew showed promise, so Fletcher pushed him even harder than the others. The movie won three Oscars, including Best Supporting Actor for Simmons.

Miles Teller was born in Pennsylvania in 1987, and before "Whiplash" had appeared in "Rabbit Hole" (2010) and "Footloose" (2011). He has since appeared in "Fantastic Four" (2015), "Thank You for Your Service" (2017) and "Only the Brave" (2017).