Hairless Heroes Trivia Quiz

Answer: Yul Brynner

Yul Brynner was born in Russia in 1920. He is best known for his roles in "The King And I", "The Ten Commandments" and "The Magnificent Seven". The "King And I" was the role for which he shaved his head, but he kept the look for the rest of his career. "The Magnificent Seven" also starred Steve McQueen, Charles Bronson, James Coburn, Robert Vaughn, Brad Dexter, and Horst Buchholz.

Brynner played an active role in World War II, using his French language skills to broadcast propaganda to occupied France.

Answer: Howard Webb

Webb refereed the Champions League 2010 final between Inter Milan and Bayern Munich without much trouble, whereas the World Cup final 2010 between Spain and The Netherlands saw fourteen yellow cards and one red being dealt out. Fellow baldy (who should know better) Wesley Sneijder (Netherlands, losers) said "we were robbed".

Webb is no stranger to controversy, having received death threats from Polish fans after allowing Austria a (legitimate) penalty in the dying minutes of a Euro 2008 game, leading to a one all draw. The threats were revealed in a fascinating French documentary film about referees in the 2008 UEFA Euro called "Referees".

Tom Henning Øvrebø has got a lot of big-calls wrong, but against Chelsea and Italy, so never mind.

Collina is said to be the best ref in recent history, the height of his career being the 2002 World Cup final in which Brazil beat Germany.

Graham Poll looked like getting the gig as ref in the 2006 World Cup Final until he mucked up by cautioning the same Croatian player (Simunic) three times before sending him off in a game against Australia.

Answer: Isaac Hayes

One would hope that the role of Chef in the irreverent TV show won't be Isaac Hayes' epitaph as his musical career was formidable. Not only did he have a distinguished career as a solo artist, but he was part of the team at Stax records who pumped out some of the greatest soul music of all time. The biggest hit he was involved in is probably "Soul Man", performed by Sam And Dave, although his "Theme From Shaft" gives it a run for its money.

Hayes was the voice of Jerome "Chef" McElroy, who works in South Park Elementary School, from the first episode in 1997 until 2006. It seems the reason for his leaving was an episode called "Trapped In The Closet" that mocked Scientology, a group of which Hayes was a member. He died in 2008.

Answer: Isaak Babel

Isaak Babel is best known for his short stories, especially "Red Cavalry", but he was also a journalist, playwright and translator. He would no doubt have become a titan of world literature, but unfortunately fell foul of Stalinist Russia's bureaucracy, was arrested, tortured and executed before he got the chance. They claimed he was a member of a Trotskyist organization and spying for France. The orders to kill him came from Stalin.

His legacy has survived and although he might not be a household name his influence on writers such as Jorge Luis Borges, Hubert Selby Jr, Vladimir Nabokov and Philip Roth is indelible.

Answer: Benito Mussolini

Not all the hairless are heroes, and although Benito Mussolini might still be kept as a covert icon to a few, he was a bad guy.

Mussolini helped found fascism, led the National Fascist Party to power, sided with Hitler, invaded a few places, and signed the Lateran Treaty between the Kingdom of Italy and the Holy See that still stands today. He lost power in 1943, was put in prison, escaped and set up the Italian Social Republic in Salo', which was little else than a puppet state of the Nazis. It only lasted from November 1943 to April 1945 when Mussolini tried to get to Switzerland, was captured, executed and his body strung up in Piazzale Loreto, outside a petrol station.

Ming The Merciless is Flash Gordon's arch enemy and was played by Swedish actor Max von Sydow in the 1980 movie.

Answer: Max Schreck

F. W. Murnau directed this silent chef d'oeuvre of expressionist horror, and Max Schreck played Count Orlok. It was adapted quite freely from Bram Stoker's "Dracula", and veers into odd territory. The much copied vampire shadow scene is one of the icons of early horror and still has the power to scare today.

Klaus Kinski played the lead role in Werner Herzog's remake of "Nosferatu" in 1979, which has a creepiness all of its own.

Oliver Reed got his head shaved in Ken Russell's masterpiece "The Devils" (1971).

Answer: King Tubby

King Tubby was essentially a sound engineer, but his experiments (along with other pioneering Jamaican musicians, sound engineers and producers) have led to him being treated as an artist in his own right. Furthermore, not just Jamaican music but popular music as a whole would sound very different were it not for him. Unfortunately, he was shot and killed in 1989 outside his house and missed out on seeing dub reggae appreciated by the masses through mainstream artists.

The Upsetter was one of the many pseudonyms used by fellow Jamaican pioneer, Lee "Scratch" Perry, born Rainford Hugh Perry.

The history of Jamaican music is a fascinating tale full of twists and turns. The books "Dub: Soundscapes and Shattered Songs in Jamaican Reggae" , "People Funny Boy: The Genius Of Lee Scratch Perry" and "Young, Gifted and Black: The Story of Trojan Records" come highly recommended, but the recordings of both artists are the first place to start.

Mad Professor was born Neil Joseph Stephen Fraser in Guyana and is known for bringing dub music to the mainstream through his work with people such as Sade and Massive Attack.

Buster Bloodvessel was born Douglas Trendle and is the singer in British ska band Bad Manners who found fame as part of the 2 Tone ska revival in the early 1980s along with The Specials, The Selecter and Madness. He took his stage name from the character played by Ivor Cutler in the Beatles film, "Magical Mystery Tour".

Answer: Michel Foucault

I am out of my depth writing about Michel Foucault's philosophy, let's just say he stated "I am a Nietzschean." He was born in Poitiers in 1926 and died of Aids related illnesses in Paris 1984.

His own depression led to an interest in psychology, only later moving onto philosophy. He was a member of the French Communist Party in the 1950s, although he got disillusioned and angered ex-comrades with his critique of Marxism.

In the 1960s he was loosely associated with people such as Lacan, Lévi-Strauss, and Roland Barthes under the banner of structuralism, although the pigeonholing didn't sit comfortably with him. In the 1970s he founded the Groupe d'Information sur les Prisons and wrote "Discipline And Punish" which talks about the development of punishment and prisons. He also wrote "The History of Sexuality".

Answer: Paul Dombey senior and Paul Dombey junior "Dombey And Son"

Dickens always had great, dramatic opening scenes that grab the reader from the off, and "Dombey And Son" is no exception.

"Dombey was about eight-and-forty years of age. Son about eight-and-forty minutes. Dombey was rather bald, rather red, and though a handsome well-made man, too stern and pompous in appearance, to be prepossessing. Son was very bald, and very red, and though (of course) an undeniably fine infant, somewhat crushed and spotty in his general effect, as yet."

The mother dies in childbirth and the young Paul Dombey, an heir old Mr Dombey has been desperate for, is a sickly child who doesn't live past six years old. As with all Dickens novels, there are countless twists and turns, but all ends well with Dombey's daughter, Florence, providing him with grandchildren, one called Paul, and an aged Mr Dombey doting on them.

Charles Dickens himself was a shameless adherent of the comb-over.

Answer: Kerry King

Kerry King, born 1964, is a founding member of Slayer and even on early album covers can be seen to be a bit thin on top. He took the plunge sometime around 1992/1993 and shaved the lot off. Good move.

Ozzy did shave his head in the early 80s, but not because he was going bald but because he's Ozzy and that's the kind of thing he does. Rumours that he'd had a bit to drink are groundless.

Rob Halford had long, flowing locks in Judas Priest's early days, then went very short (something of a precedent for a heavy metaller) mid-career. He eventually went the whole hog.

Klaus Meine of the Scorpions should have done the same rather than attempting the comb-over. He was often seen wearing a hat.

Answer: Marlon Brando

Brando got paid a fortune for his role as Colonel Kurtz in "Apocalypse Now (1979), who has gone a bit nuts in an isolated part of Cambodia during the Vietnam War, but his performance is worth the money and turns a rather average film about Vietnam into a minor classic. Harrison Ford plays Colonel Lucas who sends Captain Willard (Martin Sheen) to find Kurtz (Marlon Brando) and kill him.

Charles Bronson isn't in the film, but he might have livened up the very slow middle section when they are going up the river.

A documentary on the making of the film called "Hearts of Darkness: A Filmmaker's Apocalypse" features footage filmed by Eleanor Coppola, the director's wife. It's a fascinating behind the scenes look at such a mammoth project.

Answer: Pim Fortuyn

Pim Fortuyn formed his own party and based it on the extremely volatile issue of immigration, focusing on Islamic newcomers. He was understandably lumped in with far-right politicians such as Belgian Filip Dewinter, the Austrian Jörg Haider, and French Jean-Marie Le Pen, although he rather naïvely strove to distance himself from them.

He was assassinated in 2002 by a fellow countryman who cited his scapegoating of Muslims as justification.

Answer: West Ham United

The Eggert Magnússon-led consortium bought West Ham in 2006 and promptly sacked the manager, Alan Pardew. He was replaced by Alan Curbishley. By late 2007 Magnússon had officially given up his stake in the club.

He was an enigmatic character, but his appearance led some cruel visiting fans to chant something about "egghead", a play on his name and his dome-like head.

As I write in 2011, Fulham are owned by Egyptian businessman and maverick socialite Mohamed Al-Fayed, Leeds United by Cockney wideboy Ken Bates, and Manchester United the Glazer family, all three being controversial ownerships for different reasons.

Answer: Duncan Goodhew

Duncan Goodhew won the bronze in the 4 x 100 metre medley relay and gold in the 100 metres breaststroke at the 1980 Olympics held in Moscow. He has since become a popular celebrity in Great Britain, as much for his achievement as for his affable nature and easily identifiable bald head. He's also often used as a cultural reference in British comedy shows.

Eddie "The Eagle" Edwards came to people's attention during the 1988 Winter Olympics as the first ever British ski-jumper. His dogged determination against all the odds made him a national hero.

Both Sebastian Coe and Linford Christie are British Olympic gold medalists.

Answer: Curly "The Three Stooges"

Jerome Lester "Jerry" Horwitz found international fame in The Three Stooges as Curly, best remembered for his outbursts of weird noises and wacky phrases. One of his other trademarks was his crazy walk, which was actually a trick to cover up a limp he got from shooting himself in the leg as a child.

Horwitz's downfall was being too much of a bon vivant, leading to both financial ruin and poor health, ending in a series of strokes and eventual death of cerebral haemorrhage in 1952.

Sid James was born Solomon Joel Cohen in South Africa. Although he played Sidney Fiddler, Sid Carter, Sid Plummer, Sidney Bliss, Sidney Boggle and Sir Sidney Ruff-Diamond in the "Carry On" films, he also played characters with other names.

Uncle Fester was played by Jackie Coogan, born John Leslie Coogan, in the classic 1960s TV series.

The bigot Alf Garnett was played by Warren Mitchell, born Warren Misell, in "Till Death Us Do Part", and follow-up "In Sickness and in Health" on British TV.