In the Heat of the Night Trivia Quiz

Answer: Ray Charles

It was The Genius. Born in 1930, Ray Charles Robinson began performing when he was 16. By 1949, he had a recording contract. Robinson wrote many of the biggest rhythm and blues songs ever recorded, including "What'd I Say", the six and a half minute opus which literally created R&B as a genre.
Other great songs by Ray Charles include "I Got a Woman" (1954), "Georgia on My Mind" (1959) and "Hit the Road Jack" (1960). Charles died in June 2004. Jamie Foxx won an Academy Award for playing the legendary singer in "Ray" (2004).
James Brown, Otis Redding and Marvin Gaye were all major R&B recording artists.

Answer: Phillip Colbert

Colbert was an industrialist from Chicago who was planning to build a factory in Sparta. Some of the local business leaders did not support Colbert's plans, and were natural suspects for the murder.
Stephen Colbert is famous as the host of the late night Comedy Central show "The Colbert Report". Phillip Morris is a leading tobacco manufacturer.
Jack Teter was the actor who had the thankless job of playing the corpse of Colbert. Director Norman Jewison said Teter was an exceptionally good sport, given the amount of poking and prodding the other actors did to his (supposedly dead) body.
Since the murder happened on Tuesday, the 2nd, it took place in June. Colbert was murdered at around 12:30 a.m. when he was smashed in the head with a wooden stake. For all the rest of the details, watch the movie.

Answer: Rod Steiger

Rod Steiger played Gillespie, the racist redneck who eventually gained respect for Virgil Tibbs. Steiger won both the Academy Award and Golden Globe for Best Actor for the role.
Among Gillespie's great lines were:
"Yeah. Oh Yeah!" when chewing out Deputy Wood (Warren Oates) for arresting a fellow police officer.
"I got the motive which is money and the body which is dead!"
He also delivered a low-key "I don't know" in the slapping scene with Endicott.
Steiger's first big role was in "On the Waterfront" (1954) as Charley Molloy, Terry's brother/manager. He appeared in a wide variety of films over his fifty year career; Steiger died in July 2002.
Carroll O'Connor played Gillespie in the television series, which ran from 1988 to 1995. He won the Emmy Award in 1989 for the first season of the show.
George Kennedy was busy playing a convict in "Cool Hand Luke" (1967), which won him a Best Supporting Actor Academy Award.
Andy Griffith certainly had experience playing a southern lawman, but he was busy working on the last season of "The Andy Griffith Show" in 1967.

Answer: False

Gillespie and Tibbs (Sidney Poitier) had a highly antagonistic relationship for much of the film. Gillespie threw Tibbs in jail at one point. Several times he tried to get Virgil to leave town, even ordering his deputies to take Tibbs to the train station. Virgil did cause a great deal of hassle for Gillespie, including slapping one of the town's leading white citizens.
Amazingly, Sidney Poitier was not nominated for his performance in "In the Heat of the Night". He did earn an Oscar for "Lilies of the Field" four years earlier.

Answer: Lee Grant

Lee Grant played Leslie Colbert, the widow of the murdered industrialist. Tibbs was the one who told her that her husband had been murdered, and Grant gave an amazing performance as a woman coping with sudden loss. Mrs Colbert was vital to the plot because she was the one who demanded that Tibbs be kept on the murder investigation, threatening to move the factory out of town if she didn't get her way.
"In the Heat of the Night" was a major redemption for Grant, who had been blacklisted for almost a decade from 1955 to 1965. Grant did not receive an Oscar nomination for this film, but did win an Academy Award for "Shampoo" (1975).
Patricia Neal, Estelle Parsons and Joanne Woodward all could have been great as the widow Colbert.

Answer: Mister Tibbs

"They call me Mister Tibbs!" said Virgil, after being harassed by Gillespie.
Tibbs was demanding respect for his abilities as a police officer, and his value as a human being. He succeeded in angering Gillespie, who ordered Wood to get Tibbs out of town, "and I mean now!"
The line was ranked #16 on the AFI 100 Years, 100 Quotes list.
"They call me MISTER Tibbs!" was the name of the 1970 sequel, which starred Poitier and Martin Landau. Tibbs was a member of the San Francisco Police Department.

Answer: Philadelphia

Tibbs was from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. When Gillespie called Tibbs' chief to verify his credentials, it was the chief who offered Tibbs' assistance in the murder investigation.
When Tibbs first said he was from Philadelphia, Gillespie asked "Philadelphia, Mississippi?". This would have brought a reaction from audiences in 1967, as Philadelphia was the site of the murders of James Chaney, Andrew Goodman and Michael Schwerner in June of 1964.
A salary of $162 per week would give an annual income of just over $8400. That would have been a very high income for Mississippi, one of the poorest states in the US, but only an average salary for Philadelphia.
Virgil Tibbs did work for the San Francisco police department in the 1970 sequel "They call me MISTER Tibbs!" and the 1971 sequel "The Organization".

Answer: Arkansas

During the chase scene, one of the officers mentioned Arkansas and when Oberst (Scott Wilson) first entered the bridge, there was a sign saying "Arkansas Highway 49." In a wonderful scene, Oberst ran across the bridge until he saw Gillespie's car bearing down on him. When he finally realized he was caught, Harvey slowed down and stopped.
The real Sparta, Mississippi is nowhere near the Mississippi River or Arkansas.
Much of the filming was done in a town called Sparta, but in Illinois - Sparta is in southern Illinois, in Randolph County, and is located relatively close to the Mississippi.
"In the Heat of the Night" was Scott Wilson's first film, but certainly not his last. He has appeared in dozens of films since, and was on the AMC series "The Walking Dead" from 2011 to 2014.

Answer: Ralph Henshaw

Ralph Henshaw (Anthony James), the counterman we saw at the very start, killed Colbert in order to steal his money. One reason he needed the money was to pay for an abortion for his pregnant girlfriend.
Oberst was the first suspect, since he was apprehended with the victim's wallet. But the killer was right handed, and Oberst was left-handed; plus he had a solid alibi.
Gillespie suspected Sam Wood after he was accused of getting a girl pregnant and Wood deposited a large sum of money in the bank. Virgil determined that Wood was innocent because he could not have driven two cars at the same time.
Eric Endicott was the wealthy cotton baron who slapped Virgil, only to be slapped back. While Endicott was a vile racist jerk, he was not the murderer.
Anthony James would go on to frequently play a creepy villain over the next 25 years, in films such as "High Plains Drifter" (1973), "Blue Thunder" (1983) and "Unforgiven" (1992).

Answer: Delores Purdy

Delores Purdy was an exhibitionist who enjoyed parading in front of her living room window. She got pregnant by Ralph Henshaw, and was going to get an abortion from Mama Caleba (Beah Richards).
That was where Virgil Tibbbs confronted her, and when Tibbs revealed what was going on and exposed Ralph as the killer, Henshaw shot Delores' brother.
Quentin Dean made her film debut as Delores Purdy. She received a Golden Globe nomination as Best Supporting Actress. That was pretty much the high point of her career. Dean made a few more films and appeared on several TV westerns, but quit acting in 1969. Dean died in May 2003.
Dolores Landingham (Kathryn Joosten) was the president's secretary on "The West Wing". Dolores Paley is Angelica Huston's character in the Woody Allen film "Crimes and Misdemeanors" (1989). Stella Purdy was played by Stella Stevens in "The Nutty Professor" (1963).