EGOT Winners - The Oscars Trivia Quiz

Answer: State Fair

"State Fair" was a musical adaptation of a 1933 film of the same name. Starring Jeanne Crane and Dana Andrews, it was the only musical by Rodgers and his writing partner Oscar Hammerstein II that was produced directly for film, rather than being an adaptation of a stage show.

Included in the score of the film was the song "It Might As Well Be Spring", performed by Jeanne Crane (dubbed by Louanne Hogan). A recording by Dick Haymes, who also appeared in the film, entered the Billboard magazine Best Seller chart in November 1945, reaching number 5. "It Might As Well Be Spring" won the Oscar for Best Original Song at the Academy Awards ceremony in March 1946.

Answer: Airport

"Airport", released in 1970 and based on a novel by Arthur Hailey, was the first film from the so-called "Golden Age of Disaster Movies" of the 1970s. Despite being a big commercial success, making more than $100m at the box office, the film was a critical disappointment, with one of the few stand outs for critics being the performance of Helen Hayes as the elderly stowaway Ada Quonsett.

However, in spite of the reception it received from the critics, "Airport" was nominated for a total of ten Oscars, including Best Picture and Best Adapted Screenplay, as well as two separate nominations for Best Supporting Actress, with not only Helen Hayes, but also Maureen Stapleton nominated.

Answer: Robert Wise

Robert Wise was selected to direct "West Side Story" as he had some experience of directing urban dramas. However, as he was a novice at directing musicals, he approached Jerome Robbins, the director of the stage version of "West Side Story", to direct the musical sequences. Although Robbins was dismissed around one-third of the way through the shoot, Wise insisted that he be given a co-director credit, which led to the pair becoming the first to share the Oscar for Best Director.

Rita Moreno had been acting in film for most of the 1950s, playing a succession of small roles, usually as a latina, when she was cast as Anita, the girlfriend of Bernado, in "West Side Story". Upon winning the Oscar for Best Supporting Actress, she declared a hope that she would be less typecast; instead, when more roles of a similar nature were offered to her, she elected not to work in film for seven years, only returning to the screen in 1968.

Answer: Cormac McCarthy

The novel "No Country for Old Men" was originally published in 2005, and was based on a screenplay that writer Cormac McCarthy had written. However, when producer Scott Rudin purchased the film rights to the novel, he approached Joel and Ethan Coen to adapt the book into a screenplay.

This was relatively faithful to the source material, and was released in November 2007. At the following years' Academy Awards, the film was nominated for a total of eight Oscars, winning four - in addition to Best Picture, which Scott Rudin and the Coen brothers were awarded, it also won Best Director (the Coen Brothers), Best Supporting Actor (Javier Bardem) and Best Adapted Screenplay (the Coen Brothers).

Answer: Gregory Peck

When initially casting the leading role of Joe Bradley in "Roman Holiday", director William Wyler approached Cary Grant, who turned it down, supposedly believing himself to be too old to be believable playing the love interest of Audrey Hepburn, who was 24 when the film was made.

When Gregory Peck was cast in the role, his contract give him the star billing; although she had originated the eponymous title character in "Gigi" on Broadway, "Roman Holiday" was Audrey Hepburn's first major film role. Wyler only cast her after being impressed by her screen test, but her performance was such that Peck suggested she be given equal billing. Both a critical and commercial success, "Roman Holiday" was nominated for a total of ten Oscars, with Audrey Hepburn's win for Best Actress one of three successes.

Answer: The Sting

In 1973, Marvin Hamlisch wrote the soundtrack for "The Way We Were", directed by Stanley Donen, for which he contributed six new songs, including the title track. The same year, he also put together the soundtrack of the George Roy Hill directed film "The Sting", in which he used a number of ragtime pieces by Scott Joplin, some of which were new arrangements by Hamlisch himself.

At the 1974 Academy Awards, Hamlisch received nominations in the Best Original Dramatic Score and Best Original Song categories for "The Way We Were", and the Best Adapted Score category for "The Sting", all of which won, making Hamlisch one of a handful of people to have won three individual Oscars in the same ceremony.

Answer: The Producers

Mel Brooks had toyed with the idea of a comedy musical with the title "Springtime for Hitler" for some time, attempting to produce the piece as a novel and a theatrical production before eventually writing it as a film script. Although he had had a long and successful writing career in television, this was his first attempt at a film script, and the title was off-putting to potential backers.

Although he eventually obtained the finance to make the film, the one stipulation was a change of the title to simply "The Producers", with Brooks in the director's chair.

Despite the fraught production, in which the inexperienced director had clashes with many people on the set, the film garnered accolades, most notably Brooks' winning the Oscar for Best Original Screenplay, as well as a nomination for actor Gene Wilder as Best Supporting Actor.

Answer: Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?

Mike Nichols started out as a comedy performer, forming a well regarded and successful duo with Elaine May. When their partnership split in 1961, Nichols began working as a theatre director, first in Vancouver, before being chosen to direct Neil Simon's new play "Barefoot in the Park" on Broadway.

His success in the theatre led to Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor requesting that he direct their upcoming film "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?". This was a major critical and commercial success, as the highest grossing film of 1966, and with five Oscar wins from 13 nominations.

The following year, when "The Graduate" was in pre-production, Nichols was approached to direct, but producer Lawrence Turman couldn't obtain finance as Nichols was still relatively unknown in Hollywood.

However, Joseph E. Levine knew of Nichols' reputation in the theatre, and had heard that Elizabeth Taylor had specifically asked him to direct "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?", and so agreed to put up the money. The film was made, and eventually received seven Oscar nominations, with Nichols winning as Best Director.

Answer: The lead actor

When "Ghost" was in the process of casting, Patrick Swayze was approached to play the lead role of Sam Wheat. When talking to the producers, he enquired whether Whoopi Goldberg had been considered to play Oda Mae, the fake psychic who can see and hear Sam's ghost. Upon being told that the casting directors were not even considering her, Swayze then told them that if Goldberg wasn't cast, then he wouldn't do the film.

Despite this, Goldberg almost pulled out, owing to her not being sure whether the production of the film fit into her schedule.

It did, and in 1991 she became the second African-American woman to win an Oscar for acting, when she won Best Supporting Actress, 50 years after Hattie McDaniel won the same award for "Gone With The Wind".

Answer: Tim Rice

Andrew Lloyd Webber's first collaboration with Tim Rice came when they wrote "The Likes of Us" in 1965. In 1978, after two successful collaborations, the pair produced a concept album based on the life of Eva Perón, the late First Lady of Argentina, which eventually became the musical "Evita".

The success of the stage version led to numerous attempts to adapt it for film, which was eventually produced in 1996, starring Madonna in the lead role. Although the film largely used songs from the original stage version, Lloyd Webber and Rice wrote a new song, "You Must Love Me", specifically for the film, to make it eligible for the Academy Awards.

In 1997, "You Must Love Me" won the Oscar for Best Original Song, the first Oscar for Lloyd Webber, although it was the third in five years for Rice.

The success of the song has seen it subsequently included in the songlist of the stage version.