The Golden Touch Trivia Quiz

Answer: Vivien Leigh

Vivien Leigh was primarily a stage actress. It was in the theatre that she met Laurence Olivier, the man who was to become her second husband and bring her to America. She secured the role of Scarlett O'Hara in "Gone With the Wind" (1939), for which she earned her first Oscar. In 1951 she landed the role of Blanche Dubois from "A Streetcar Named Desire", a role she had played before, onstage in London. This role earned her her second Oscar.
Leigh suffered from bi-polar disorder, which had a lot to do with her reputation for being difficult to work with. She was also diagnosed as having tuberculosis in the 40s, a disease which plagued her off and on until it claimed her life in 1967, at the age of 53.
"I have always depended on the kindness of strangers." is a line from "Streetcar Named Desire" while "Fiddle dee dee" and "I'll think about that tomorrow." are two separate lines from "Gone with the Wind".

Ingrid Berman received Best Actress Oscars for "Gaslight" (1944) and "Anastasia" (1956), and a Best Supporting Actress Oscar for "Murder on the Orient Express" (1974).
Bette Davis received Best Actress Oscars for "Dangerous" (1935) and "Jezebel" (1938).
Olivia de Havilland received Best Actress Oscars for "To Each His Own" (1946) and "The Heiress" (1949).

Answer: Marlon Brando

Born in Omaha, Nebraska, Brando was known for bringing intensity and realism to his performances and often played very violent roles. He won his first Oscar for playing Terry Malloy in "On the Waterfront" (1954), from which the oft quoted line "I coulda been a contender." came.
His second Oscar was for playing Vito Corleone in "The Godfather" (1972). The classic line from that movie (paraphrased above) was, "I'm going to make him an offer he can't refuse."
An activist for many causes, Brando refused his second Oscar in protest of the way Native Americans were portrayed onscreen. He did not attend the ceremonies but sent fellow activist Sacheen Littlefeather to speak on his behalf.
Brando passed away in 2004 from respiratory failure, at the age of 80.

Gary Cooper received Best Actor Oscars for "Sergeant York" (1941) and "High Noon" (1952).
Fredric March received Best Actor Oscars for "Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde" (1931) and "The Best Years of Our Lives" (1946).
Peter Ustinov received Best Supporting Actor Oscars for "Spartacus" (1960) and "Topkapi" (1964).

Answer: Sally Field

Determined to 'rise above' (pun intended) her starring roles in "Gidget" (1965-1966) and "The Flying Nun" (1967-1970), Sally Field won her first Oscar for playing the titular character in "Norma Rae" (1979), a movie based on the true story of a woman fighting to improve the horrendous conditions in the mill where she worked. In one scene she wrote the word UNION on a piece of cardboard and held it up until everyone was paying attention.
Her second Oscar was won for playing the role of Edna Spalding, a widow trying to hold her family and farm together during the Depression in "Places in the Heart" (1984).
During her Oscar acceptance speech, Field spoke about how the respect of her peers mattered to her and spoke the lines, "You like me right now. You like me."
Her talents also include writing, directing and producing.

Jessica Lange won a Best Actress Oscar for "Blue Sky" (1994) and a Best Supporting Actress Oscar for "Tootsie" (1982).
Cate Blanchett won a Best Actress Oscar for "Blue Jasmine" (2013) and a Best Supporting Actress Oscar for "The Aviator" (2004).
Dianne Wiest won best Supporting Actress Oscars for "Hannah and Her Sisters" (1986) and "Bullets Over Broadway" (1994).

Answer: Dustin Hoffman

Hoffman is an amazingly versatile actor who has a reputation for being difficult to work with. Hoffman accepts this reputation, preferring the term meticulous to difficult, and says that it's because he is so immersed in his roles that it becomes annoying to everyone else.
He won his first Oscar for playing Ted Kramer in "Kramer vs. Kramer" (1979), a man who had to learn how to be a parent when his wife walked out, leaving him with his young son. When told by his son that they needed more cereal, Kramer's response was "What colour?"
Hoffman also won an Oscar for playing autistic savant Raymond Babbitt, a man who had an uncanny ability to count things, including toothpicks and cards at a Vegas Blackjack table, in "Rain Man" (1988).
The fellow student who shared the honour of being voted 'least likely to succeed' was Gene Hackman who won a Best Actor Oscar for "The French Connection" (1971) and a Best Supporting Actor Oscar for "Unforgiven" (1992).

Spencer Tracy won Best Actor Oscars for "Captains Courageous" (1937) and "Boy's Town" (1938).
Robert De Niro won a Best Actor Oscar for "Raging Bull" (1980) and a Best Supporting Actor Oscar for "The Godfather: Part II." (1974).

Answer: Meryl Streep

Meryl Streep won her first Oscar, for an Actress in a Supporting Role, for playing Joanna Kramer in "Kramer vs. Kramer" (1979). She won Oscars for Best Actress in a Leading Role for playing Sophie in "Sophie's Choice" (1982) and British Prime Minister Maggie Thatcher in "The Iron Lady" (2011). In "Sophie's Choice" her character had to choose which of her two children lived and which one was sent to the gas chamber, upon arrival at Auschwitz. The quote about your character becoming your destiny was part of a larger speech made by Thatcher in "The Iron Lady".

Maggie Smith has won a Best Actress Oscar for "The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie" (1969) and a Best Supporting Actress Oscar for "California Suite" (1978).
Elizabeth Taylor won Best Actress Oscars for "BUtterfield 8" (1960) and "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?" (1966).
Luise Rainer has won Best Actress Oscars for "The Great Ziegfeld" (1936) and "The Good Earth" (1937).

Answer: Jack Nicholson

Jack Nicholson won his first Oscar for playing Randall McMurphy in "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest" (1975). McMurphy was a man who thought his jail time would be easier if he served it on a psych ward, but who hadn't reckoned on the nurse who ran the ward. He also got a Best Actor for playing Melvin Udall in "As Good as It Gets" (1997), a successful writer who had no people skills because of his issues. The above mentioned line was spoken to the one woman who actually got through to him.
Nicholson also won an Oscar for Best Actor in a Supporting Role for playing astronaut Garrett Breedlove in "Terms of Endearment" (1983).

Christoph Waltz won Best Supporting Actor Awards for "Inglourious Basterds" (2009) and "Django Unchained" (2012).
Sean Penn won Best Actor Oscars for "Mystic River" (2003) and "Milk" (2008).
Anthony Quinn won Best Supporting Actor Awards for "Viva Zapata!" (1952) and "Lust for Life" (1956).

Answer: Jane Fonda

Jane Fonda is the daughter of acting great Henry Fonda and appeared, as his daughter, in his last film, "On Golden Pond" (1981). Jane accepted his Best Actor Oscar on his behalf.
Jane has a long history of standing up for what she believes in, including the role she played that earned her her second Best Actress Oscar in "Coming Home" (1978). Jane played Sally Hyde, a woman who came to understand how wrong the Vietnam War was. Her first Best Actress Oscar was for playing call girl Bree in "Klute" (1971).
Jane was very outspoken in her objection to the Vietnam War and got herself into some trouble by being photographed sitting on an anti-aircraft battery, being sung to by North Vietnamese soldiers. This was something she later said she was manipulated into doing and was horrified by the pictures. She has embraced other causes, including Native American and feminist rights.
Jane's interest in keeping fit and her resulting exercise videos were considered to be part of launching the 80's obsession with aerobic workouts.

Katharine Hepburn won Best Actress Oscars for "Morning Glory" (1933), "Guess Who's Coming to Dinner" (1967), "The Lion in Winter" (1968) and "On Golden Pond" (1981).
Hilary Swank won Best Actress Oscars for "Boys Don't Cry" (1999) and "Million Dollar Baby" (2004).
Helen Hayes won a Best Actress Oscar for "The Sin of Madelon Claudet" (1931) and a Best Supporting Actress Oscar for "Airport" (1970).

Answer: Daniel Day-Lewis

Daniel Day-Lewis has a reputation for immersing himself so completely in the role that he is playing that he often doesn't come out of it until filming is done. His first Oscar came for playing Christy Brown in "My Left Foot" (1989), an artist who could only control his left foot. During filming Day-Lewis stayed in his wheelchair while on set, something which greatly inconvenienced the crew but helped Day-Lewis understand what Brown faced every day.
His second Oscar was received for playing Daniel Plainview in "There Will Be Blood" (2007) and his third Oscar was awarded for playing iconic American President Abraham Lincoln in "Lincoln" (2012). Day-Lewis spent a full year preparing for this role, preparation which certainly paid off.

Jack Lemmon won a Best Actor Oscar for "Save the Tiger" (1973) and a Best Supporting Actor Oscar for "Mister Roberts" (1955).
Walter Brennan won Best Supporting Actor Oscars for "Come and Get It" (1936), "Kentucky" (1938) and "The Westerner" (1940).
Michael Caine won Best Supporting Actor Oscars for "Hannah and Her Sisters" (1986) and "The Cider House Rules" (1999).

Answer: Jodie Foster

Jodie Foster won her Oscars for Best Actress in a Leading Role for playing Sarah Tobias, a woman who was gang raped in a bar while the other men cheered her rapists on, in "The Accused" (1988) and Clarice Starling, the FBI cadet who helped find a serial killer, with the help of Dr. Hannibal Lecter, in "The Silence of the Lambs" (1991).
The line (paraphrased above) "Well if that's the best you could do, then your best sucks!" was a line spoken by Foster in "The Accused" as she fought to see not only her attackers, but also those who egged them on be brought to justice. "Believe me, you don't want Hannibal Lecter inside your head." was advice delivered to Foster's character by Special Agent Jack Crawford.

Shelley Winters won Best Supporting Actress Oscars for "The Diary of Anne Frank" (1959) and "A Patch of Blue" (1965).
Glenda Jackson won Best Actress Oscars for "Women in Love" (1970) and "A Touch of Class" (1973).
Sandra Bullock won a Best Actress Oscar for "The Blind Side" (2009).

Answer: Tom Hanks

Hanks' delightful performance as a young boy who got his wish to be "Big" (1988) didn't win him an Oscar. Neither did his performance in "A League of Their Own" (1992) where he got to deliver the immortal line, "There's no crying in baseball!"
He did get a Best Actor Oscar for playing Andrew Beckett, a man fighting discrimination and wrongful dismissal, in "Philadelphia" (1993) and for playing Forrest Gump in the movie of the same name in 1994. It was in this movie that he delivered the oft quoted line "My momma always said, 'Life was like a box of chocolates. You never know what you're gonna get'."

Melvyn Douglas won Best Supporting Actor Oscars for "Hud" (1963) and "Being There" (1979).
Kevin Spacey won a Best Actor Oscar for "American Beauty" (1999) and a Best Supporting Actor Oscar for "The Usual Suspects" (1995).
Denzel Washington won a Best Actor Oscar for "Training Day" (2001) and a Best Supporting Actor Oscar for "Glory" (1989).