A Bundle of "Bob" Trivia Quiz

Answer: Bob Ross

Robert Norman Ross (1942-1995) had a long-running instructional painting show, 'The Joy of Painting' on the American TV network PBS, and he was known for his unique style in churning out landscapes quickly, and showing the viewer how to do it in real time, as well as for his soft voice, not to mention his curly hairstyle.

In an interview in the magazine 'Mental Floss', Bob Ross Company co-founder Annette Kowalski said, "When we got a line of paints and brushes, we put his picture on.... The logo is a picture of Bob with that hair, so he could never get it cut.

He wasn't always happy about that." As a child, Ross kept an alligator in his bathtub, and before becoming a painting celebrity, he served in the U.S. Air Force for 20 years.

Answer: Bob Newhart

Bob Newhart (b. 1929) became a star thanks to the sitcoms "The Bob Newhart Show" (1972-1978) and the quirky "Newhart" (1982-1990), which ultimately had an unexpected tie-in with the earlier sitcom. Before TV, he was a standup comic who made stammering hilarious and had a popular routine as Abraham Lincoln's public-relations man. Before this, however, he was an accountant for U.S. Gypsum and an ad-writer in Chicago.

Answer: Bob Fosse

Robert Louis Fosse (1927-87) was named for author Robert Louis Stevenson (1850-1894), who penned "Treasure Island" (1883) and other works. He served briefly in the U.S. Navy, and his second wife, dancer Joan McCracken, encouraged him to become a choreographer. Fosse was known for a very precise choreographical style, that included hand movements, sometimes a lot of snapping fingers.

Although he did not invent jazz hands (or spirit fingers), nobody popularized them like Bob Fosse, particularly after the 1972 musical "Pippin". Music idol Michael Jackson invited Fosse to choreograph his video "Thriller" in 1983, but for some reason Fosse turned the King of Pop down.

Answer: Bob Weir

Singer-songwriter and guitarist Bob Weir (b. 1947) co-founded the Grateful Dead with Jerry Garcia in Palo Alto, California, and stayed with them until they disbanded in 1995. For many years, Weir suffered from undiagnosed dyslexia. He lived with dancer and Apple Records employee Frankie Hart for nearly 6 years but never married her; in 1999, he married Natascha Münter.

The United Nations appointed him Goodwill Ambassador for the UN Development Programme (UNDP) in 2017. He has also served on the board of directors for many humanitarian and environmental organizations.

Answer: Bob Hawke

Robert James Lee Hawke (1929-2019) was born in Bordertown, South Australia. He served as Prime Minister of Australia and leader of his country's Labour Party between 1983 and 1991, when he was removed by his own party, the first Labour prime minister to experience such removal. (It would happen to Kevin Rudd in 2010).

It was under the Hawke government that 'Advance Australia Fair' replaced 'God Save the Queen' as Australia's national anthem, in 1984. As a Rhodes Scholar he studied economics at Oxford University.

As a young man, he entered the Guinness Book of Records in 1954 for guzzling 2.5 pints of beer in 11 seconds. When the Australian yacht "Australia II" won the America's Cup after multi-year streak by the USA, Hawke said, "Any boss who sacks anyone for not turning up today is a bum".

Answer: Bob Uecker

Robert George Uecker (b. 1935) played for the Milwaukee and later Atlanta Braves, the St. Louis Cardinals, and the Philadelphia Philliesin the 1960s. Then in the 1970s, he began a career as a sportscaster, covering the Milwaukee Brewers' radio broadcasts. Johnny Carson invited Uecker to appear on the "Tonight Show" in the 1970s-80s more than 100 times, and the former baseball player also hosted NBC's "Saturday Night Live" in 1984.

He starred in all 118 episodes of the sitcom "Mr. Belvedere" (1985-1990) as husband, father, and sportswriter George Owens (although in the pilot his character was a construction worker).

Answer: Bob Barker

Robert William Barker (b. 1923) was the longest-running daytime gameshow host in the U.S. television history. He hosted CBS's long-favorite game show "The Price is Right" from 1972 to 2007. In 1981, after the death of his wife Dorothy Jo (whom he had married in 1945), he became a staunch animal rights advocate. One-eighth Sioux, Barker grew up on the Rosebud Indian Reservation in Mission, South Dakota.

He was a fighter pilot in World War II, and like many in broadcasting of his generation, got his start in radio.

He was sued by three different models on "The Price is Right" for sexual harassment; one suit was dropped by the plaintiff, one was settled out of court, and the third was dismissed.

Answer: Bob Hope

Leslie Townes Hope (1903-2003) was a fixture of old Hollywood who made a second career of entertaining U.S. troops overseas, which he started doing in WWII and continued to do as long as health permitted. He was born in England, but raised in Cleveland, Ohio.

He made a number of "On the Road" pictures with his colleague, singer-actor Bing Crosby. Unlike other Hollywood stars, he stayed married to his wife Dolores Reade until his death from pneumonia at the ripe old age of 100. Not bad for a high school dropout!

Answer: Bob Dole

Robert Joseph Dole (b. 1923), represented the State of Kansas in the U.S. Senate (1969-1996), and from 1985 until his retirement in 1996 he was the Republican leader of the Senate. He left politics after losing to Bill Clinton in the presidential election of 1996. Dole suffered permament loss of most of the use of his right arm after being injured in World War II, when he led a platoon of the 10th Mountain Division in Italy.

In 1990, he was instrumental to the passage of the Americans with Disabilities Act, and he came out of retirement in 2012, now using a wheelchair, to urge his fellow Republicans to approve a United Nations treaty on the rights of the disabled. To his disappointment, the Senate rejected the treaty.

Answer: Bob Seger

The father of Robert Clark Seger (b. 1945) abandoned his family when the boy only 10 years old. The lad bought a record in 1957, however, and he knew he wanted to be a rock-and-roll star. He began performing in Detroit in 1961 with his chums from Ann Arbor High School in a band called the Decibels. With his more successful Silver Bullet Band, he toured for over 40 years. Seger wrote many songs during his career, but only two on the road, "Night Moves" and "Turn the Page".

He and his band won a Grammy in 1980 for "Against the Wind".