In Memoriam - 2014 Trivia Quiz

Answer: Eusébio

Born Eusébio da Silva Ferreira in 1942 in the city of Lourenço Marques (now called Maputo), the capital of Mozambique, Eusebio was nicknamed the "Black Panther", the "Black Pearl" or simply "O Rei" (The King). A prolific goalscorer, the netted 749 times in 745 matches at club level and 42 times in 77 matches for Portugal. He won the Golden Ball as the top goalscorer at the 1966 World Cup Finals.
Playing 15 of his 22 seasons with Benfica, winning eleven Portuguese League titles, Eusebio's 638 goals for the club is a record never likely to be beaten. Only the legendary Hungarian who played for Real Madrid, Alfredo di Stefano (who also died in 2014) scored more than Eusebio's 48 goals in the pre-Champions League era of the European Cup.
Eusebio was repeatedly voted into the top 10 in polls of the "Greatest Footballer of the 20th Century" and is widely considered the best player ever to come out of Africa.

Answer: Ariel Sharon

Born Ariel Scheinermann in 1928 in the agricultural settlement of Kfar Malal, in what in now central Israel but was then British Palestine, Ariel Sharon's first government appointment was as Minister of Defense in 1981. He had previously spent 26 years serving in the Israel Defense Forces , where he rose to the rank of Aluf (Major General). Sharon became Prime Minister when his Likud Party defeated the incumbent Ehud Barak in the 2001 election. Two years later, he became the first Israeli Prime Minister ever to visit India.

He will be remembered by The Ariel Sharon Park in central Tel Aviv, which is three times the size of Central Park in New York City.

Answer: Shirley Temple

Shirley Temple was born on St George's Day 1928 in Santa Monica CA. She made her film debut at the age of three, in 1932, in a feature called "The Red-Haired Alibi". It was the last of the ten films that she made in 1934, "Bright Eyes" that elevated Temple to stardom, She received a special Juvenile Oscar the following year for her contribution to film. Box-office blockbusters such as "Curly Top" and "Heidi" made Temple a superstar before she was ten years old.

Of the alternatives, Deborah Kerr died in 2007 but the other two were both still living at the end of 2014.

Answer: Tony Benn

Born Anthony Neil Wedgwood Benn in London in 1925, Tony Benn inherited the title of 2nd Viscount Stansgate when his father died and he was forced to resign his seat in the House of Commons. He fought to renounce his title and was eventually able to do so with the passage of the 1963 Peerages Act.

He duly returned to Parliament, where he would remain for the rest of his working life. Those considered radicals on the left-wing of British politics are still often referred to as 'Bennites'.

Answer: Mickey Rooney

Joseph Yule Jr, born in 1920 in Brooklyn NY, is better known today as Mickey Rooney. One of the last surviving stars of the silent era, Rooney made his first film at the age of seven in a 1927 comedy called "Orchids and Ermine" having made his debut on the vaudeville stage a year earlier. He was awarded a special Juvenile Oscar in 1939, the same year that he was also nominated for the Best Actor award. He was nominated again in 1943 for "The Human Comedy". He was also nominated twice in the Supporting Actor category, in 1956 for "The Brave and the Brave" and in 1980 for "The Black Stallion". He was honored with a lifetime achievement Oscar in 1983 in recognition of 50 years in the industry.

Of the alternatives, Gregory Peck died in 2003 aged 87 and Ernest Borgnine died in 2012 aged 95. Eli Wallach, 'Ugly' in the classic Western "The Good, the Bad and the Ugly", did die in 2014, but on June 24 aged 98.

Answer: Sir Jack Brabham

John Arthur Brabham was born in 1926 in the Sydney suburb of Hurstville in New South Wales, Australia. He enlisted aged 18 in the Australian Royal Air Force in 1944 and was discharged with the rank of Leading Aircraftman following the end of WWII. Brabham made his Formula One debut driving for Cooper Cars in 1955 but it was not until 1958 that he even picked up his first championship points. He recorded his first victory in the opening race of the 1959 season, in Monaco, and finished in the first four six times including a second win (in the British Grand Prix) to take the title. The following year, after starting with a disqualification, he won a record five straight victories to win the championship comfortably. In 1966, Brabham again put in an impressive series (four straight wins) to win his third title and a year later only just missed winning again, finishing second.
Brabham retired after finishing fifth at the age of 44 in the 1970 season. He became the first post-war racing driver knighted when he was honoured in 1978 for 'services to motorsport'.

Of the alternatives, New Zealander Bruce McLaren died aged just 32 in 1970. The other two were both still living at the end of 2014.

Answer: Maya Angelou

Maya Angelou was born in 1928 in Saint Louis MO. As well as poetry, she wrote numerous plays, movies and TV shows, but it is her series of autobiographies for which she is best known. The first of these, "I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings", published in 1969, tells of her life up to the age of 17. The seventh and final volume in the series, "Mom & Me & Mom", published in 2013, presents an overview of her whole life.
Angelou read her poem "On the Pulse of Morning" at Bill Clinton's 1993 Presidential inauguration -- the first such recital since John F. Kennedy was sworn into office.

Answer: Lauren Bacall

Lauren Bacall was born in The Bronx NY in 1924. Although barely out of her teens at the time, she made her film debut co-starring opposite Humphrey Bogart and Walter Brennan. A year later, she married Bogart and co-starred with his in classic movies such as "The Big Sleep" (in 1946), "Dark Passage" (1947) and "Key Largo" (1948). Bogart died in 1957 and Bacall married Jason Robards in 1961. Bacall won two Tony awards for her work on the stage, for "Applause" in 1970 and for "Woman of the Year" in 1981.

She was also nominated for a Best Supporting Actress Oscar in 1997 for "The Mirror Has Two Faces". In 2009 she was awarded an Honorary Oscar.

Answer: Jack Bruce

John Symon Asher Bruce was born in 1943 in the town of Bishopbriggs in Lanarkshire, Scotland. Bruce's musical career began in 1962 as a member of Alexis Korner's London-based "Blues Incorporated". In 1966, he joined Eric Clapton and Ginger Baker in "Cream" and Bruce overnight found himself as one of the, perhaps "the", most famous bassist in rock history.
In the post-Cream years, Bruce played with numerous outfits including the Graham Bond Organization, John Mayall & the Bluesbreakers, Manfred Mann, Ringo Starr & His All-Starr Band and Gary Moore.

Of the alternatives, John Entwistle, bassist for The Who, died in 2002. Geezer Butler, who played bass for Black Sabbath and Ozzy Osbourne, and Captain Sensible (real name Raymond Ian Burns), who was the bassist for The Damned, were both still living at the end of 2014.

Answer: P.D. James

Phyllis Dorothy James is best known simply as P.D. James.
She created her principal antagonist, police commander and poet Adam Dalgliesh of Scotland Yard, for her first novel in 1962. He made his fourteenth and last appearance in "The Private Patient", published in 2008. James also wrote a couple of mystery novels featuring Cordelia Gray.
She was awarded an O.B.E. in 1983 and became Baroness James of Holland Park in 1991.