The Ultimate Interesting Facts on Famous People Quiz | Mixed People

Answer: Who the hell wants to hear actors talk?

Harry Morris Warner (1881-1958) was one of the founders of the film, television and music production company, Warner Brothers, along with his three brothers, Albert, Sam and Jack. He served as the company's president until two years before his death. Originally from Poland, the family had moved to the United States in the 1880s. After trying many occupations, and then moving into the fledgling movie business, the brothers formed their own production and distribution company by 1912. Rin Tin Tin was their most important star for quite some time, with Jack Warner saying the dog "seemed to display more intelligence than some of the Warner comics".

It was a cut throat business, though, with the other major companies often putting Warner Brothers on the verge of financial ruin. In 1925 Sam Warner purchased a radio station, with the idea that perhaps they could incorporate synchronised sound in films as well, but initially Harry Warner wasn't impressed with the idea, making his famous statement quoted in the above question. Eventually he relented, however, and Warner Brothers made Hollywood history by becoming the company, in partnership with Vidaphone, responsible for the film industry's first talkie, "The Jazz Singer" in 1927. Tragically though, what began as a dream, became a reality, and grew to an outstanding success over the years that followed, even after the early death of Sam, finally fell apart in 1956, when Jack Warner betrayed Harry in a business deal of mammoth underhanded proportions. He secretly bought back all the shares in the company after the brothers agreed to put their stock on the market - and put himself in as company President in Harry's place. The brothers never spoke again. Harry's health collapsed almost overnight as a result of this act and he died two years later - some say of a broken heart.

Answer: Pens and pieces of poetry

Edmund Spencer (1522 or 1523-1599) was an English poet famous for being one of the first writers to give the world the Modern English verse. Initially, this poet, whose most famous work is "The Faerie Queene", worked more in jobs we would recognise today as the public service. He earned enough in that employment, either by fair means or foul, to acquire quite a lot of land in Ireland, and by 1590 had commenced his relatively short career as a writer. "The Faerie Queene" is an allegorical work that spans several volumes - to the horror of all of us who had to study it at university. It is basically one huge tribute to the Tudors and Queen Elizabeth I in particular. Talk about grovel! It earned Spencer a comfortable pension and royal patronage however, even though there is some doubt that Elizabeth ever waded through it.

Spencer's rather ghastly animosity towards the Irish, their culture, laws, religion and language eventually saw him driven from his home and lands, and the destruction of his castle by Irish forces in 1598. He also believed in destroying as much of Ireland as possible, with particular emphasis on all food products, in order to starve its people into becoming fully Anglicised. Spencer moved back to England and died there shortly afterwards in 1599. In as fine a tribute to any public servant turned poet you can imagine, several of his literary peers carried his coffin to Westminster Abbey for his burial, and dramatically tossed pens and pieces of poetry upon it on its descent into the cold, cold ground, shedding literary tears of grief as they did.

Answer: She sounded like a goat

Shakira Isabel Mebarak Ripoll was born in Colombia in 1977. This lovely entertainer has many strings to her bow apart from singing. She is also a noted songwriter, dancer, writer, actress, producer and model as well. By 2015, fourteen albums of her music were on shelves around the world and she had sold some 60 million records all over the globe. Her best selling single is the 2002 hit number "Whenever, Wherever", followed in 2006 by her number "Hips Don't Lie" which earned its moment in the spotlight by being the most played record in one week in American music history up until that time.

Yes, this is the girl who was rejected from her school choir by a music teacher who informed her she sounded like a goat. Shakira, who can perform in any music genre, is not just a money making machine who gives nothing back to the world. She has formed a foundation which provides help to poor children right throughout her country of birth, gives many yearly benefit concerts on behalf of same, is a UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador and global representative for children all around the world, has raised millions of dollars to help victims of global disasters, speaks at functions to promote the value of world wide education, and is an ongoing activist for social justice on many levels. This lovely and talented woman in fact is a true inspiration.

Answer: Doctor Trout

Dr Robert J. Behnke (1929-2013) was a world famous fisheries biologist, conservationist and expert on the salmonid species. Born in Connecticut, and before he attended university to work his way up to the top of his profession, Robert was drafted into the US army during the Korean war. On his return home in 1954, he began his academic career, earning a Bachelor's degree in zoology, and a follow up with a Master's and Doctorate in ichthyology from the Berkeley University in California.

During his long career in this field of work, Dr Behnke authored more than 100 works and papers on fisheries and wrote a regular newspaper column on the side. His most notable work was the 2002 "Trout and Salmon of North America". Highlights of his career include discovering two species of trout which were previously believed to be extinct, promoting trout restoration and appreciation right throughout North America, and amassing more than sixty boxes of project research. And what did he receive as a reward for all his hard work? He had a new species of fish named after him - which promptly earned him the light-hearted nickname among all his colleagues of Doctor Trout. There's just no justice in this world.

Answer: Grabbed him by his lapels and shouted at him

Oh dear, that's not the behaviour one would expect of the President of the most powerful nation in the world. Lyndon Baines Johnson (1908-1973) was the 36th President of the USA from 1963 until 1969, assuming that position initially following the assassination of President John Kennedy. Highlights of Johnson's time in office included - all under the term the "Great Society" - millions of people being lifted out of the cycle of poverty, the banning of racial discrimination in "public facilities, interstate commerce, the workplace, and housing", the reformation of the immigration system, and the removal of "all national origin quotas".

Unfortunately though, Lyndon Johnson was known for his explosive temper and his abrasive nature which often saw him raising the hackles of those with whom he disagreed. In the case of Canadian Prime Minister, Lester B. Pearson, he did more than raise his hackles. In 1965, when Pearson gave a speech in Philadelphia suggesting that there be a pause in the US bombing of North Vietnam, Johnson was enraged at this public criticism of his policy by the leader of a nation considered to be an ally. He sent a message for the Canadian Prime Minister to attend him at Camp David the following day, and when Pearson entered, Johnson is said to have grabbed him by him lapels and shouted "Don't you come into my living room and piss on my rug!" in the Prime Minister's face. According to reports in "The Washington Post" and "The National View", that is. Pearson would seem to have backed the tale up, for, in suitably muted language, he has gone on record as stating the meeting was "acrimonious" but that they parted "cordially". One wonders who paid for the dry cleaning of the rug.

Answer: He trod on the tail of a lion

Harold Davidson (1875-1937) was a Church of England minister who was charged with immorality by his church and subsequently defrocked. That immorality consisted of befriending hundreds of girls and young prostitutes on the streets of London in order to save them from a life of vice. Calling himself the "Prostitutes' Padre", Davidson, a married man, was often caught in compromising situations with these young girls, but managed to fend off all accusations, until evidence of debauchery (in the form of a vindictive letter and one single photograph) was produced at his trial. Perhaps he started out with good intentions, but fell by the wayside. His earlier record as a preacher and man of God working with the elderly was impeccable at any rate and the conduct of his trial was controversial at the time - and later.

After being defrocked by his church as quickly as he apparently defrocked the girls however, Davidson went back to his old career as an entertainer/circus entertainer. Accompanying acts with whom he worked included a bearded lady, the world's fattest man, and Marilla the Gorilla Girl. Part of Davidson's own routine was either freezing in a refrigerated chamber, or being roasted in a heated oven while being poked with a pitchfork by a suitably dressed devil. This unfortunately led to his arrest on charges of attempted suicide. He next moved on to working with animals, but alas, that is when the latter day Daniel in the Lion's Den accidentally stood on the tail of a lion. Enraged at that ultimate indignity, the lion grabbed him round the throat and dragged him round the cage. Rushed to hospital, there was a chance the unlucky minister may have recovered to save more souls, but it was not to be. One of the hospital doctors, mistaking him for a patient with diabetes, gave him an insulin injection by mistake - and finished him off completely.

Answer: Willie Nelson

The other three singers above were deceased by that time. Willie Nelson, however, born in 1933, was still powering on at the beginning of 2015. This somewhat scandalous singer-songwriter, actor, activist, writer and, um, heavy smoker, is someone you just can't help but like, with his colourful history. With a mix of English, Irish and Cherokee in his veins, Willie was born in Texas during the Great Depression. Brought up by his grandparents after both parents deserted the poor little thing, Willie's early singing career was in a church choir (pause for laughter). He grew up picking cotton whenever he wasn't at school - great incentive to continue one's education - but by the time he was thirteen, he was already singing in honky tonks and taverns.

Over the years that followed, Willie's career and personal life had more ups and downs than a roller coaster, impossible to go into any lengths here, but this remarkable old entertainer has survived it all. He has one of the most unique easily recognised voices on the music scene, a bit cracked and wobbly now, but one that comes straight from the heart. Some of his biggest hits include "Funny How Time Slips Away" and "Pretty Paper", "Blue Eyes Cryin' in the Rain" and "Always On My Mind". It would, indeed be hard to pick a favourite. Willie's long time history with marihuana has seen him in more trouble than a scalded cat over the years as well, so one suspects that when smoking that drug was legalised in several areas in the US, Willie's eyes were more than twinkling in April 2015 when he released a statement that he would be marketing his own brand in those states - to be known as Willie's Weed. "Oh Willie, Willie, when will you be wise?"

Answer: Harriet Beecher Stowe

That's so sad, isn't it? Harriet Beecher Stowe (1811-1896) was an American author who gave the world the famous novel "Uncle Tom's Cabin" in 1852. This work, with its strong anti-slavery theme, tells the story of two American slave families about to be separated by being sold to other owners, and how one small family decides to run away instead. This brutal, sorrowful work is credited, many believe, with contributing to the later American Civil War (1861-1865) which tore the country apart.

Harriet, who grew up in an abolitionist family, later met and married the well known educator, Calvin Ellis Stowe, after she had moved to Ohio as a young woman. The couple were both ardent abolitionists, and sheltered several runaway slaves at their home in Ohio, as they made their way up to Canada. After Congress passed The Fugitive Slave Act in 1850, the couple moved to Maine, and it was there that Harriet began her great work. Initially published in weekly instalments in the paper, "Uncle Tom's Cabin came out in book form in 1852. When she met President Abraham Lincoln in 1862, he is supposed to have said to her "So you are the little woman who wrote the book that started this great war". Perhaps he did indeed, but that could of course be poetry. Harriet would go on to campaign for women's rights as well, became an editor of a magazine, and, on her return to Connecticut, became one of the founding members of the Hartford Art School which later was absorbed into the Hartford University. By the age of 77 however, this fine minded woman had developed dementia, and believed she was writing her famous book from its very beginning. The writer Mark Twain, who was her neighbour at the time, wrote that amazingly "passages of her book (were) almost exactly word for word". A true champion of civil liberties to the very end.

Answer: Improve the odour of flatulence

Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790), described as a polymath because of his skills in so many areas, was an American writer, printer, activist, politician, postmaster, inventor, scientist, statesman and diplomat - and one of the Founding Fathers of the United States. Polymath indeed. Born in that country when perhaps public behaviour by political figures was not quite so strictly monitored as it is today, this early American was also known for his somewhat bawdy sense of humour, his propensity to become a little infatuated with a pretty face, and for basically ignoring his poor old wife back in the colonies for many years during his time abroad.

Regarding that humour, which isn't even remotely to my liking, and because he was growing tired of the pretentiousness and irrelevance of the many scientific articles he perused while an ambassador to France, Franklin wrote a tongue in cheek article on how to improve the odour of passing wind - and sent it to the Royal Academy of Brussels. Oh dear. For any one in the civil service, that would be bad form, but an ambassador as well?? One wonders if the Academy directors told Franklin to go fly his famous kite. This infamous paper was called "Fart Proudly" and quite frankly (pardon the pun) it's vulgar and rather coarse. Can you imagine what would hit the fan if any ambassador of today submitted such a work?

Answer: Held a funeral for it

General Antonio de Padua María Severino López de Santa Anna y Pérez de Lebrón (1794-1876) commonly known as Santa Ana, was a Mexican politician and army man who was known by many as the Napoleon of the West. In a career spanning forty years, he served as a Mexican politician, president on five separate occasions, and an army general during the turbulent period of Mexico's attempt to break free from the yoke of their Spanish overlords. It has to be said, though, that Santa Ana's failures far outweighed his successes on all sides. Yet, time and again, he just picked himself up, ignored all consequences, and simply threw himself once more into the fray, whether this be political or military. One is inclined to scratch the head wondering how Santa Ana managed to hold power for as long as he did. His eloquence in public speaking no doubt played a great part in that. As would have his ability to switch sides on numerous occasions, not caring about the goal, but just as long as he was on the winning one. And he was also an expert at self promotion.

During a battle in the Pastry War with France (1838-1839 - makes interesting reading) Santa Anna was wounded in the leg. This necessitated its amputation, and, in keeping with his self styled image as the hero of Mexico, Santa Anna held a funeral for that leg and buried it with full military honours. Even funnier is the fact that, of his replacement legs, two of which he had to have made, these were captured during the 1846-1848 Mexican-American War by the Americans, and held for ransom. He was colourful, amusing, a show pony of the finest stable, corrupt, dishonest and apparently made of rubber, but he never, ever failed to entertain his masses of adoring followers. Oh - and the nickname "Napoleon of the West"? That wasn't because he emulated that French leader's life - but simply because he collected Napoleonic artifacts. What a fascinating rascal.