People Quiz: John Who?: 10 Questions | First Names

Answer: Runnymede

King John was a very unpopular monarch. He had lost most of England's land in France to Philip II of Spain. His ambition to regain these lands led to abuse of his feudal privileges, and excessive taxation of the barons. All of this led to an uprising of the barons who forced John to sign the Magna Carta (which is Latin for great charter).

The Magna Carta gave protection to the church, and the barons were less open to unreasonable taxation. This was not meant by King John to be a sign of surrender, but only a time buying appeasement strategy. Aspects of it are regarded as fundamental to the British constitution, especially the requirement that the king (government) is subject to the laws of the country and the right to a fair trial without which they cannot be punished by the courts.

Answer: John Parrott

John Parrott MBE was a very successful professional snooker player in the early 1990s and won the world championship in 1991. He has gone on to become a television commentator and snooker pundit, and is often paired with Steve Davis to discuss play. John is also very knowledgeable about horse racing and has been part of the coverage team for the BBC.

In 2011 John became the honorary patron of the British crown green bowling association.

Answer: John Goodman

John Goodman won a golden globe award for best actor for his portrayal of Dan Conner, Roseanne's husband in the long running series. Since then he has appeared in many movies for the Coen brothers including 'Raising Arizona' and 'Oh Brother Where Art Thou'. Other movies include 'The Artist', 'The Babe', 'The Flintstones' and 'Coyote Ugly'. John Goodman married Annabeth Hartzog in 1989.

Answer: East of Eden

'East of Eden' is the story of two families, the Hamiltons and the Trasks. The author himself saw this as his greatest work, and is quoted as saying that all that he had written before was in preparation of this book. The movie is based on the second half of the novel and tells the story of two brothers who compete for the attention of their very religious father.

It is the only movie starring James Dean that was released in his lifetime and the only one that he saw in its entirety. Also starring were Julie Harris and Raymond Massey.

Answer: Margaret Thatcher

Margaret Thatcher, was the longest serving British prime minister of twentieth century, and the first woman to hold the post. A Russian reporter referred to her as the 'Iron Lady and this nickname stuck because she was very inflexible in her politics and leadership style.

In 1990 she was forced from power and the next incumbent was John Major. He was in office during the gulf war of 1991, and negotiated the Maastricht Treaty of 1992. Despite the beginning of the return of economic growth and the start of peace talks regarding Northern Ireland being among the successes of his tenure, confidence in him as a leader waned owing to various scandals about conservative M.P.s, even members of the cabinet.

After the Labour Party led by Tony Blair moved more to the right in their policies Labour won the next election. John Major was been prime minister from 1990 to 1997.

Answer: John Wayne

John Wayne grew up in southern California and went to work at Fox Film Corporation when he lost his football scholarship due to a surfing accident. His first leading role was in a widescreen epic called 'The Big Trail', and although this was not a very successful movie it led to leading parts in B movies, mostly westerns, throughout the 1930s.

When he starred in John Ford's 'Stagecoach' he became a star instantly. After this he starred in many movies but did not win an Oscar until 1969 when he played a cantankerous elderly gun man in 'True Grit'.

He died in 1979, and in 1985 his family allowed his name to be used for the John Wayne Cancer Foundation which raises money to help improve the care of cancer patients.

Answer: John Everett Millais

The painter Elizabeth Sidall, who was the girlfriend of Dante Gabriel Rosetti John's friend and fellow painter, posed for this picture. It portrays Ophelia singing before drowning herself because she had been rejected by Hamlet. She lay fully clothed in a bath in Millais studio and as it was winter he placed oil lamps under the bath to keep her warm. Unfortunately on one occasion, absorbed in his work, he did not notice when they went out and the water became icy cold.

As a result Lizzie became very ill with a heavy cold, possibly pneumonia.

Her father was extremely angry and demanded that Millais should pay her doctor's bills, which he did. The picture hangs in the Tate Britain art galley in London.

Answer: John Betjeman

John Betjeman was a very popular poet who was the British poet laureate from 1972 until his death in 1984. He wrote about English life and two of his well known poems were 'Slough' deploring the modern building work in Slough, and 'A Subaltern's Love Song' which immortalises a typically English middle class young woman. Betjeman was a pioneer in appreciating Victorian architecture, which was not appreciated at the time, and canvassed to prevent the destruction of lovely buildings of that era. He was also quite a frequent broadcaster on radio and television and described himself in his 'Who's Who' entry as 'a poet and hack'.

Answer: John Lennon Airport

In 1957 John Lennon met Paul McCartney at a church fete. The pair went on to become a celebrated song writing partnership and with George Harrison and Ringo Starr they became the Beatles, arguably the most popular musical group of all time. The Beatles sold over 600 million records tapes and CDs as at 2004. John was also an influential peace activist famously staying in bed with his second wife Yoko Ono to draw attention to his peace message.

He wrote the songs 'Give Peace a Chance' and 'Imagine' to put forward his peaceful views. On December 6th 1980 John Lennon was shot dead by Mark David Chapman, a stalker, for whom John had signed an autograph earlier in the day.

Answer: Tom Gullikson

It was back in 1981 when a young McEnroe was playing Tom Gullikson at Wimbledon, that he challenged umpire Ted James with the well known words 'You can not be serious' followed by a stream of invective in which he called Ted James 'The pits of the world' and swore at the referee, Fred Hoyles.

The Swedish player Bjorn Borg, who was McEnroe's main rival at the time was of a very different nature, and always kept calm. The press dubbed Borg 'The Iceman' and often contrasted the two players. McEnroe was fined $1,500 for his behaviour, and the All England Club did not make him an honorary member as was the custom with singles winners.

In reply McEnroe did not attend the champions' dinner. However the honour was given to him the next time he won. John McEnroe has now written an autobiography called 'You can not be serious!'