Death and Faxes Trivia Quiz

Answer: Joy Adamson

Joy Adamson was born in 1910 with the name Friederike Victoria Gessner, earning her nickname 'Joy' from her second husband in 1938. Her third husband, whom she married in 1944, was George Adamson. It was they who together lived in Kenya and had the experience of raising the lioness cub 'Elsa' in the late 1950s. Apart from the challenge of raising a lioness, Joy and George Adamson decided to return Elsa to the wild, and worked to train her to be ready for such. They were successful.

Joy published "Born Free" in 1960, which achieved international recognition, and topped the NY Times Best Seller list for 13 weeks. After her tragic and untimely death, Joy Adamson's was cremated and her ashes buried in the grave of Elsa the Lioness in Kenya's Meru National Park.

Answer: Jesse Owens

Jesse Owens was born in Alabama in 1913, and moved to Cleveland as a child. Although his feat of achieving four gold medals at the 1936 Olympics in Berlin is almost legendary, destroying Hitler's expectation of Aryan superiority, his most impressive accomplishment came the previous year. It was on May 25th, 1935 that Jesse Owens, in the space of 45 minutes, set three world records and tied a fourth during the Big Ten Meet in Ann Arbor, Michigan.

And despite all of his accomplishments in athletics, Owens' death resulted from half a lifetime of smoking, which he reportedly took up at the age of 32, becoming a pack-a-day smoker. He died at the age of 66 from the aforementioned aggressive lung cancer. The following year (1981), the 'Jesse Owens Award' was created by USA Track and Field and has since been presented annually to the country's top track and field athlete.

Answer: Jean-Paul Sartre

Jean-Paul Charles Aymard Sartre was born in Paris in 1905, and became interested in philosophy while in his teens. In his early 20s, he studied psychology, philosophy, logic, ethics and sociology, and physics. After more than a decade of teaching, he was drafted into the French army during World War II. Early on, he was captured and spent nine months as a POW, before being released in 1941. In the post-war years, Sartre published most of the works for which he is well-known, and in 1964, he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature "for his work which, rich in ideas and filled with the spirit of freedom and the quest for truth, has exerted a far-reaching influence on our age." (he declined it)

In spite of his views during the bulk of his lifetime, Sartre's thoughts on the existence of God changed as he approached the end of his life. He is recorded as stating, "I do not feel that I am the product of chance, a speck of dust in the universe, but someone who was expected, prepared, prefigured. In short, a being whom only a Creator could put here; and this idea of a creating hand refers to God." (source: Wikipedia)

Answer: Alfred Hitchcock

Sir Alfred Hitchcock was born in Essex, England, getting his start in the film industry in 1919 as a title-card designer. He soon branched out into other areas of the film industry. By the time he was finally enticed to come to Hollywood in 1938, he had established himself as a successful filmmaker in England and in Germany.

He went on to achieve even greater success in the United States as a producer and director, and known for his television series "Alfred Hitchcock Presents", his many cameos, and his innovative style of filming that coined the term 'Hitchcockian'.

But despite five Oscar nominations for Best Director over the years, he never won.

Answer: Josip Broz Tito

Josip Broz, commonly called 'Tito', was born in 1892 in the Kingdom of Croatia-Slavonia within the Austro-Hungarian Empire. He spent his early life working in many factory jobs, before being conscripted into the Austro-Hungarian military just prior to the outset of World War I. He lived a tumultuous existence during the war, including much time as a Russian POW, and eventually returned to his home (Kumrovec) in the (then) Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes in 1920. Soon afterwards, he joined the Communist Party of Yugoslavia (CPY). In the interwar years, Broz became involved with the revolutionary actions of the CPY, which resulted in his arrest and jail time in the early 1930s. It was in 1934 that Broz, writing articles for the CPY, used the pen name 'Tito' for the first time. A few years later (in 1939), Josip Broz Tito became the General Secretary of the CPY.

During World War II, Tito became the leader of liberation forces fighting against Nazi occupation, and this led to his being recognized as the first Prime Minister of Yugoslavia by the end of the war. In the years following the war, although initially aligned with Soviet communist policies, Tito and Stalin had a 'falling out' (to simplify a complicated backstory), and Tito went forward with his own way of communism and a foreign policy of neutrality through the Cold War years. Tito ran his own 'oppressive' regime, ensuring he held power and brooking no political dissension, but at the same time he worked to provide an overall improved existence for the general citizens of Yugoslavia. His decades of rule resulted in a state funeral that was attended by world leaders (or their representatives) from 129 different states.

The May 5th edition of the New York Times wrote: "Tito sought to improve life. Unlike others who rose to power on the communist wave after WWII, Tito did not long demand that his people suffer for a distant vision of a better life. After an initial Soviet-influenced bleak period, Tito moved toward radical improvement of life in the country. Yugoslavia gradually became a bright spot amid the general grayness of Eastern Europe."

Answer: Bill Evans

Bill Evans was born in New Jersey in 1929, and started his musical career quite young, learning to play multiple instruments. Even though he made a career of his piano-playing skills, he actually attended Southeastern Louisiana University on a flute scholarship! After a stint with the military (playing with the Fifth US Army Band), Evans returned to school, seeking his Masters in Composition from Mannes College of Music in New York City. During this time, he gigged for his income, and drew the notice of Miles Davis, amongst other jazz greats of the day.

Bill Evans would go on to make a name for himself as a solo jazz pianist, as well as a leader (typically of a trio with himself on piano, along with bass and drums), and was also sought after as a side musician with other musicians and bands. His later life involved some tragedy, with his brother committing suicide, and that, along with his struggles with drugs and with chronic hepatitis, led to his death at the age of 51.

Answer: Steve McQueen

Steve McQueen was born in Indiana in 1930, and had a pretty tough upbringing that involved gangs, an abusive stepfather, and being relegated to a 'troubled adolescents' school (in California, where his mother had moved with her second husband) at the age of 14. At the age of 17, he joined the Marines, where he stayed until 1950 and learned some much-needed discipline.

After his stint in the military, McQueen began acting in theatre in New York, while supporting himself with winnings from motorcycle racing. At the age of 25 he relocated to Los Angeles to pursue a career in the film & TV industry. McQueen got his breakout role with the television series "Wanted: Dead or Alive" (1958-61), which soon led to roles in films such as "The Magnificent Seven" (1960) and "The Great Escape" (1963). Amidst his other credits and accomplishments, McQueen earned an Oscar nomination for his role in the 1966 war film "The Sand Pebbles". In the late 1970s, McQueen became ill with pleural mesothelioma, due to asbestos exposure. In 1980, he underwent a surgery to remove a large cancerous tumor, and died of a heart attack in his sleep after the procedure.

Answer: Conn Smythe

Constantine "Conn" Smythe was born in Toronto in 1895, becoming involved with athletics at a young age. His skills soon turned primarily to hockey, and he played on a championship team while at the University of Toronto pursuing his engineering degree. World War I intervened, and Smythe served with distinction and returned to finish his degree and establish a sand and gravel business. During this time, Smythe turned his hand to coaching, and his skills there brought attention by the Boston Bruins and the Toronto St. Pats. In 1927, however, Smythe went a step higher and joined a group that purchased the St. Pats, keeping the team from being moved out of Toronto. Thus were born the newly-minted Toronto Maple Leafs. Smythe started out with the team as part owner, team governor, general manager, and coach. He also spearheaded the construction of a new arena - the Maple Leaf Gardens.

Smythe would serve his country again during the World War II, coming home with a spinal injury that would affect him for the rest of his life. Shortly after his return, he bought a controlling interest in the Maple Leafs, which he held until selling his shares in 1961. They won seven Stanley Cups in that time. He would remain part of the team as the governor until the end of the 1961-62 season (the Leafs also won the cup that year). The Playoffs MVP trophy was named after Smythe in 1965, and from 1974 until 1993, one of the NHL divisions was also carried his name.

Answer: John Lennon

The Beatles vocalist and guitarist (and songwriter, of course) was born in Liverpool in 1940 and began his musical aspirations as a teenager, forming the band The Quarrymen (named for the school they attended - Quarry Bank High School) when he was just 16. Soon after, he met Paul McCartney and history was made. McCartney brought in George Harrison, and the three of them (along with bassist Stuart Sutcliffe) formed The Beatles in 1960. Drummer Pete Best completed the group when they went play a residency in Hamburg. Sutcliffe left the group in 1962 (McCartney covered his spot on bass), and Ringo Starr replaced Pete Best around the same time, creating the line-up that would strike fame and fortune.

Lennon would choose to leave The Beatles in 1969 and strike out on a solo career while also becoming more politically active in the radical left. On December 8th, 1980, Mark David Chapman - a fan who had become disillusioned with and enraged at his musical hero for various reasons - shot and killed Lennon outside his apartment block in Manhattan.

Answer: Harland Sanders

Harland Sanders was born in Indiana in 1890 and would spend much of the early part of his life moving around and working many different jobs, culminating in the ownership of a Shell Oil Company service station in Kentucky. It was there that he first began serving meals (including chicken) and began to develop his 'secret recipe'. In 1952, he franchised his recipe, and businessman Pete Harman opened the first Kentucky Fried Chicken restaurant in Salt Lake City.

'Colonel' Harland Sanders (the title is a non-military designation given by the Commonwealth of Kentucky) worked full time on expanding the franchise business, growing it exponentially in the years that would follow. Even after selling the business in the U.S. in 1964, Sanders stayed on as a brand ambassador, and for the last 20 years of his life, never went out in public without wearing his white cotton suit. He was even buried in it.