Better Known As... Trivia Quiz

Answer: Morgan Fairchild

Morgan Fairchild was born in Denton, Texas in 1950 with the name Patsy Ann McClenny. She began her career in 1973 in the daytime soap opera "Search for Tomorrow". She has appeared in TV dramas like "Flamingo Road" and sitcoms like "Murphy Brown" and "Friends". Her first acting job was as a double for Faye Dunaway in the 1967 movie "Bonnie and Clyde".

Answer: Nora Roberts

Prolific American author Nora Roberts was born Eleanor Marie Robertson in Silver Spring, Maryland in 1950. She has written over 200 novels, most under the name Nora Roberts. She has used the pseudonym J.D. Robb for the "Death" series, along with the pen names Jill March and Sarah Hardesty.

She started writing in 1979 when she was housebound with two young children on a 'snow day'. Nora was also the first author inducted into the Romance Writers of America Hall of Fame.

Answer: Portia de Rossi

If I mentioned the name Portia Lee James DeGeneres, you might connect it with Portia de Rossi, the stage name for Amanda Lee Rogers. She married Ellen DeGeneres in 2008. Portia was born in Australia in 1973, and came to fame on the TV show "Ally McBeal" (1998-2002) where she played Nelle Porter. In 2003, she began appearing on "Arrested Development" as Lindsay Bluth Funke.

Answer: Isak Dinesen

Danish author Karen Blixen (1885-1962) was also a baroness. She wrote in both Danish and English under two different pen names, i.e., Isak Dinesen in English-speaking countries and Tania Blixen in German-speaking countries, but occasionally she also used Osceola and Pierre Andrezel. Included among her famous works are "Out of Africa" (1937) and "Babette's Feast" (1950).

Answer: Sandra Dee

"Look at me, I'm Sandra Dee" is a line from the musical "Grease" but, depending upon your age, you may not remember that model of purity (post Doris Day) known as the real Sandra Dee (1942-2005). Sandra was born in Bayonne, New Jersey with the un-star-like name of Alexandra Zuck.

She became a teenage star in the 1950s, the "pure, all-American" girl. She was in films such as "A Summer Place" and ""Gidget", and married singer Bobby Darrin in 1960.

Answer: Patsy Cline

Country music singer Patsy Cline (1932-1963) was born in Winchester, Virginia, with the name Virginia Patterson Hensley. She was part of the Nashville sound in the 1950s and early 1960s, and one of the few country singers who was able to 'crossover' to become a pop music star. Patsy was one of the most influential singers of the 20th century, with hits like "Crazy" and "Walkin' After Midnight". Tragically, her life was cut short by an airplane crash.

Answer: Ayn Rand

If you've ever read "The Fountainhead" or "Atlas Shrugged", you are familiar with the writing and philosophy of author Ayn Rand (1905-1982). Rand was born in St. Petersburg, Russia with the name of Alisa Zinovyevna Rosenbaum. She moved to New York City in 1926, then to Hollywood, California to become a screenwriter.

The philosophical precept to which she adhered was called "Objectivism" or "the morality of rational self-interest".

Answer: Ginger Rogers

Would the 1935 film "Top Hat" have been the same if the stars had been Frederick Austerlitz and Virginia Katherine McMath? The answer is it was! Fred Astaire's partner for ten films, beginning with 1933's "Flying Down to Rio" was, of course, Ginger Rogers (1911-1995).

She did everything Fred did, "except backwards and in high heels". In addition, Rogers won an Academy Award for Best Actress for the dramatic 1940 film "Kitty Foyle".

Answer: Mary Westmacott

If I were to use the title "Queen of Mystery" or "Queen of Crime", the first person you might think of is Dame Agatha Christie (1890-1976). The British novelist wrote over 60 detective novels and short stories, many with fictional detectives Miss Jane Marple and Hercule Poirot. Agatha Miller married Archibald Christie in 1914 and they had a daughter, Rosalind. Christie also wrote six romance novels under the pseudonym of Mary Westmacott, e.g., "The Burden".

Answer: Grandma Moses

You might be hard pressed to name the folk artist born Anna Mary Robertson. Robertson was born in New York in 1860, the third of ten children. It was not until she was 78 that Anna started painting in earnest, showing that life can really begin at any age.

Her works have been sold all over the world and in 2006 a painting of hers was sold for $1.2 million. In 1887 she married Thomas Salmon Moses, and she became world famous as Grandma Moses. She died in 1961 at 101.