Famous Last Words Trivia Quiz

Answer: Elvis Presley

Elvis died in 1977 at his home, Graceland. His girl friend, Ginger Alden, who found him slumped over in the bathroom gives us his last words. He died of a heart attack. Years of prescription drug abuse contributed to his premature death. He sold over 600 million records worldwide.

Answer: At fifty, everyone has the face he deserves

The author of "Nineteen Eighty-Four" and "Animal Farm" died in 1950 at 46 from the complications of tuberculosis. He real name was Eric Blair. Orwell fought in the Spanish Civil war on the side of the Republicans against Franco's Nationalists in 1936. But, due to the suppression by the Soviet-backed Communists of the revolutionary socialist dissenters, Orwell had to flee for his life.

He became an ardent anti-Stalinist which led him to write the political fable set on a farm based on Stalin's betrayal of the Russian Revolution.

The financial success of "Animal Farm" made him comfortable for the rest of his life.

Answer: Mozart

Mahler died in 1911 from streptococcus septicemia at 51. During his lifetime he was more appreciated for his conducting more than his musical compositions. In 1910 he had helpful 'marriage counseling therapy' session with Sigmund Freud. Freud's diagnosis was mother-fixation.

Answer: Joseph Wright

Wright died in 1930 at the age of 75 from pneumonia. He was JRR Tolkien's tutor at Oxford. Virginia Woolf, in her diary, expressed her admiration for his work as editor of "The English Dialect Dictionary".

Answer: Truman Capote

"Tru" died in 1984 at age 59 from liver cancer at the home of his friend Joanne Carson (former wife of Johnny Carson). His years of alcohol and drugs abuse contributed heavily to his death. He is well known for writing "Breakfast at Tiffany's" and "In Cold Blood", both made into hit films.
He was born Truman Streckfus Parsons and took on the surname of Capote when his mother remarried after a divorce.

Answer: Winston Churchill

Churchill died in 1965 at age 90 after multiple strokes. His mother, Jennie Jerome, was American. He served as Prime Minister of Britain from 1940-45 and again from 1951-55 and won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1953 "for his mastery of historical and biographical description". He painted under the pseudonym of "Charles Morin" mainly using oils in his impressionist works.

Answer: Arthur Conan Doyle

Doyle died of a heart attack at his home in 1930 at age 71. He received a degree in medicine and because his practice was slow he started writing. He later specialized in ophthalmology. The three other answers all refused a knighthood.

Answer: Groucho Marx

Groucho made 13 films with the Marx brothers. His death was overshadowed by the passing of Elvis who had died just three days earlier. He had a TV show called "You bet your life".

Answer: Pete Maravich

"Pistol" Pete died in a pickup game in a Pasadena gym due to heart failure at age 40 in 1988. He was the all time college scoring champ inspite of not being allowed to play as a freshman and before the 3 point basket rule and the shot clock were the rule.

His 3,667 career points and 44.2 points/game are still the record. An autopsy revealed an unknown congenital heart defect: he was born without a left coronary artery.

Answer: Margaret Sanger

Sanger died in 1966 at the age of 86 from congestive heart failure. Although she was responsible for the founding of Planned Parenthood she was not an advocate of abortion. Ethel Byrne was her more radical sister who, after their 1916 arrests for opening a contraceptive clinic, became one of the first American hunger strikers. Emma Goldman was an anarchist and advocate for free love and birth control.

She was deported to the USSR in 1919. In 1938, Lasker became the president of the Birth Control Federation of America, the precursor to Planned Parenthood.