Film Roles - A through O Trivia Quiz

Answer: Atticus Finch

Gregory Peck portrayed the Southern attorney Atticus Finch in the 1962 movie adaptation of the Pulitzer Prize winning novel by Harper Lee, which deals with the theme of racial inequality. Atticus is the single father of Scout (the narrator) and Jem. At a time when racism was rampant in the rural South, Atticus is willing to represent a black man.

This character is truly a man of courage and integrity. The other choices are: Archibald "Harry" Tuttle, played by Robert De Niro in the 1985 film "Brazil"; Arthur Bach, the role played by Dudley Moore in the 1981 comedy "Arthur" and Alan Rittenhouse was played by James Cromwell in "Deep Impact" from 1998.

Answer: Terence Stamp

Terence Stamp convincingly played the role of the naive Navy seaman from Helman Melville's book about murder on the high seas. The film was directed by Peter Ustinov. Terence Stamp is a British actor who went on to appear in 60 other movies which include "The Collector" (1965), "Wall Street" (1987), "The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert" in 1994 and, of course, he was General Zod in both "Superman" ('78) and "Superman II ('80).

The incorrect choices are all well-known British actors of the same time period.

Answer: Clark Gable

Based on the book by Charles Nordhoff and James Norman Hall, it was Clark Gable who, as Christian, led the revolt against Captain William Bligh on the HMS Bounty in 1935, opposite the remarkable Charles Laughton. Gable was nicknamed The King of Hollywood for his roles in, among other things, "It Happened One Night", in 1934 with Claudette Colbert, and his last movie "The Misfits" (1961), based on the screenplay by Arthur Miller.

Answer: Dorothy Dandridge

Dorothy Dandridge (1922-1965) was an outstanding actress who, unfortunately, lost out on many roles due to discrimination and the times. In fact, Miss Dandridge was nominated for an Academy Award for "Carmen Jones" but lost to Grace Kelly for "The Country Girl".

She also appeared in the 1959 version of the Gershwin opera "Porgy and Bess", opposite Harry Belafonte. At the time of her death from barbiturate poisoning, she was only 42. One of her personal quotes was "if I were white, I could capture the world".

In 1999, Halle Berry played Dandridge in the TV movie "Introducing Dorothy Dandridge".

Answer: Sudden Impact

This is a tricky question since Eastwood played Harry Callahan ("Dirty Harry"), the San Francisco law enforcer, in all of the films above; however, it was in the 1983 movie "Sudden Impact" where he actually said the now-famous line. Harry goes into a diner for some coffee while a robbery is occurring; he is able to shoot all but one robber who holds a waitress hostage.

It is at that point when Harry points his .44 Magnum and dares him to shoot. Also, at the end of the movie, just before shooting Mick the rapist (who is also holding a hostage) he again says "Come on, make my day". I guess Eastwood knew a good line when he heard it!

Answer: Fiona

Cameron Diaz was the voice of Princess Fiona in the 2001 movie "Shrek", "Shrek 2" (2004), "Shrek the Third" (2007), "Scared Shrekless" (2010) and who knows how many more? We find that the beautiful Fiona is a princess by day and an ogre by night. In the original, Shrek is to take the beautiful Fiona to marry the scheming Lord Farquaad but, in a twist of fate, winds up marrying Shrek instead and returning to his home in the swamp. John Lithgow voices Lord Farquaad. Mike Myers is the eponymous Shrek and Eddie Murphy is Donkey in the original and its subsequent interations.

Answer: Gordon Gekko

I tried to trick you by using characters with "G" who were all played by Michael Douglas (clever, eh, but I'm guessing it didn't work). Gordon Gekko has become an iconic character who voices the motto of the 1980s, "Greed is good". He represents all that is wrong with Wall Street in his selfishness and inhumanity and is based on several stockbrokers of the time (Michael Milken, for example).

In case you're wondering, Dan Gallagher is from the excellent 1987 film "Fatal Attraction", Grady Tripp was the Professor in "Wonder Boys" (2000), and Michael Douglas played Detective Gavin Hatch on a 2002 episode of "Will and Grace". (Ok, so it wasn't a movie...just a character.)

Answer: Helen Hunt

Helen Hunt, born in 1963, started her professional acting career at the age of eight and hasn't stopped since. In "Twister" she played a storm-chaser opposite Bill Paxton who played her husband trying to serve her with divorce papers. She played the role of Jamie Buchman on the TV sitcom "Mad About You" from 1992 to 1999 and she won a Best Actress Academy Award as Carol Connelly in "As Good as It Gets" in 1997, playing a waitress with a son who is ill with chronic asthma.

Helen has appeared in films which include "Bob Roberts" (1992) and "Cast Away" (2000) with Tom Hanks.

Besides her acting, she has written screenplays and also directed the movie "Then She Found Me" in 2007.

Answer: Iris

Jodie Foster, born Alicia Christian Foster in 1962, portrayed the Coppertone girl (a commercial still seen today) when she was three years old. By 1968 she was playing roles on TV in shows like "Adam-12" and movies like "Kansas City Bomber" and "Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore".

At the age of twelve, Jodie portrayed the tough talking, pre-teen (12 year old) runaway Iris, who works as a prostitute in New York City with her pimp Sport. Robert De Niro plays Travis Bickle, an unstable Vietnam veteran who works as a taxi driver at night ("You talkin' to me?") who wants Iris to live a normal life and who makes it his mission to save her.

Answer: Spencer Tracy

Orignally based on the novella by Robert Louis Stevenson called "The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde", published in 1886, it was the great actor Spencer Tracy who starred in 1941 version of the film. He is a doctor who drinks a potion which brings out his evil side. Both Ingrid Bergman and Lana Turner co-starred in the film. Tracy was an outstanding actor, adept at both comedy and drama.

He won consecutive Oscars for "Captains Courageous" (1937) and "Boys Town" (1938), and appeared with Katharine Hepburn in nine films. FYI, John Barrymore was in the 1920 version and Fredric March played the dual roles in 1931.

Answer: Kevin Kline

Kevin Kline plays the duplicitous Otto, a violent hitman who considers himself an intellectual. On the other hand, his cohorts in crime understand that he is really stupid. In order to commit an armed robbery of a collection of diamonds, he joins a group consisting of Wanda Gershwitz (Jamie Lee Curtis), Ken Pile (Michael Palin) and Georges Thomason (Tom Georgeson). Kevin attended the prestigious Julliard School in NYC, was in "The Big Chill" (1983), went on to play Cole Porter in the 2004 film "De-lovely" and won two Tony Awards for the musicals "On the Twentieth Century" (1978) and "Pirates of Penzance" (1981).

Answer: Lolita

"Lolita" is originally from the book by the Russian author Vladimir Nabokov. It tells the story of a middle-aged British professor who moves to a small American town for a teaching position. He winds up living and subsequently marrying Charlotte Haze (played by Shelley Winters when she was no longer a sexpot) just so he can be close to Charlotte's daughter, Lolita, with whom he has fallen in love. We meet Lolita when she is 12 year old, innocent, yet sexually experienced, a stubborn child with an astonishing lack of self-awareness, who is simply the object of Humbert's obsession. How Stanley Kubrick was able to make a movie with this theme in 1962 is unbelievable!

Answer: Tony Manero

In the 1977 film, Tony Manero is an immature Brooklyn kid who works in a dead-end job in a paint store during the week. On Saturday nights, he is transformed at a Brooklyn discotheque and becomes King of the Disco Floor with his smooth dance moves. Tony uses his dancing to compensate for the dull reality of his everyday life. Produced by Robert Stigwood and directed by John Badham, it brought Travolta to the forefront as a multi-talented movie actor.

The score was by the Bee Gees and became one of the best-selling albums of all time.

The movie almost single-handedly brought on the age of Disco!

Answer: Navin

Navin R. Johnson is the adopted son of a black family in the hilarious 1979 movie "The Jerk", directed by Carl Reiner. (For those younger people, that's Rob Reiner's father.) Navin leaves his family in Mississippi to discover the world. He goes to St. Louis where he meets a guy at a gas station whose eyeglasses keep slipping; Navin invents a handle for the glasses which he calls Opti Grab and, as the movie tagline says, he goes "from rags to riches...to rags".

As Navin puts it: "I once had wealth, power, and the love of a beautiful woman. Now I have only two things: my friends, and... uh...my thermos."

Answer: Sandy Olsson

Olivia Newton-John plays Australian good girl Sandy Olsson (sometimes listed as Olsen), who falls in love over the summer with a greaser named Danny who is the leader of the T-birds, in this 1978 musical. In the fall, when they return to school, they find that they both are now attending Rydell High and typical teenage problems ensue. Sandy tries to cast off her good-girl, Sandra Dee image to attract bad boy Danny.

The cast does an excellent job of depicting California in 1959, and the music includes such songs as, "Summer Nights", "You're the One That I Want" and "Hopelessly Devoted to You".