Joy to The Max Trivia Quiz

Answer: Max von Sydow

Max von Sydow starred in eleven of Ingmar Bergman's films, and later in many foreign films, playing villains and heroes with equal finesse. Carl Adolf Max von Sydow was born in 1929 in Sweden and became a French citizen in 2002.
He is well remembered for his roles as the knight who plays chess with Death in "The Seventh Seal", the priest in "The Exorcist" (1973), and 'Lassefar' in the 1987 Danish film "Pelee the Conqueror". More recently he has appeared in "Minority Report" (2002) and "Shutter Island" (2010). Von Sydow has won many awards and is a well-respected actor in many genres.

Answer: Maria Schell

Maximillian Schell was born is Austria in 1930, but the family moved to Switzerland to escape the Nazis. Max has been in many films, and won an Oscar for best actor in "Judgment at Nuremberg" in 1961. His first US film was 1958's "The Young Lions" and he has acted on stage, with Hamlet as his favorite role.

He has also produced some films, one about his sister, Maria and her life as an actress (Grushenka in "The Brothers Karamazov", for example), her illness and retreat from life and eventual death in 2005. Two other siblings were also active in the theatre.

Answer: Max Planck

Max Planck (1858-1947) was a German theoretical physicist who devised the Quantum Theory, naming the individual particles quanta (plural of quantum, and later called photons). His work influenced Nils Bohr in 1913 with his own studies of the structures of atoms, as well as Albert Einstein in 1905 in his work on the photoelectric effect. Planck was awarded the Nobel Prize for physics in 1918. Both Planck and Einstein became friends and often got together to play music (Planck was also a gifted musician) or to discuss physics.

When Planck retired from the University of Berlin he was succeeded by Erwin Schrodinger, who may or may not have brought his cat with him (perhaps even in a box).

Answer: Robespierre

Maximilien de Robespierre (1758-94) was devoted to the works and philosophies of Rousseau, and was prominent in the creation of the Jacobin Society which even had its own religion, "The Cult of the Supreme Being". Max was against the monarchy and its power and saw to it that King Louis "must die so that a country may live." The former king was guillotined as 'citizen Louis Capet' in 1793.

Max sought to eliminate anyone opposed to the revolution, and began a reign of terror that guillotined an estimated 16,500* people, and may have disposed of as many as a further 25,000* more across France between June, 1793 and July, 1794. When the people turned against him, Max was guillotined on July 28, 1794 along with 21 others, followed by a further 80 the following day.

*These figures are a rough estimate, as it was far more difficult to number deaths in the 18th century for several reasons.

Answer: Max Beerbohm

Beerbohm (1882 England - 1958 Italy), came from a talented family of several children and half-siblings. He studied at Oxford where he met Oscar Wilde. Among his friends and visitors were Aubrey Beardsley, Ezra Pound, Truman Capote, John Gielgud, Lawrence Olivier and Somerset Maugham. Beerbohm became drama critic for The Saturday Review, succeeding George Bernard Shaw. In 1939 he was knighted by King George VI.
Beerbohm's caricatures were kind, rather then critical, and he often put himself up as a model as well as other well known contemporaries of his day.

Answer: Schmeling

Max Schmeling (1905-2005) was a German prize fighter who moved to the US in 1928; starting in the lower weight classes he gradually moved up to the heavyweights and took on Joe Louis. They fought in 1936 (Schmeling won by a k.o.), Joe Louis beat Braddock in 1937 and k.o.'d Schmeling in 1938. Louis and Schmeling later became lifelong friends. Schmeling was the first boxer to win a bout because of a foul, being accidentally hit below the belt by Jack Sharkey in 1930. Of his 70 prize fights, Max won 56, 40 by knockout.

He was World Heavyweight Champion from 1930 to 1932.

Answer: Franz Josef I of Austria

Frederick III and Eleanor of Portugal were the parents of Maximilian I of Mexico who ruled from 1864 to 1867. Max was helped into that throne by Napoleon III who wished to extend European (French) power to the new world. There was speculation that Max was really the son of Napoleon Bonaparte, but there is no sound evidence to prove this. During his tenure, Max brought some reforms to Mexico for the poor and for land reform; he also strengthened the naval power of Mexico. President Benito Juarez refused to support the leadership of Max and when French troops left the country he had 8,000 loyalists put to death and Max executed by firing squad.

Answer: Max Ernst

Max Ernst (1891-1976) was a Garman painter, poet, graphic artist and sculptor, who was one of the founders of the Dadaist movement. His earliest works were criticised as being junk and obscene or nonsense collages, but some of it became popular and his methods such as frottage (pencil rubbings) and grattage (a method of paint lamination) caught on in the art world.

Many of his works represent combinations of machinery and inanimate objects mixed with animal and human forms.

Answer: Max Mermelstein

American Max Mermelstein(1943-2008) got involved in the Colombian Medellin Cartel's drug trafficking and then into organisation and increasing profits, for which he was brilliant.
He later became an informer and he and 16 members of his family were put into the witness protection plan after Max testified and gave so much useful information to the authorities that he had a $3 million dollar price tag on his head.

Answer: Max Factor

Born in Poland in 1877, Maksymilian Faktorowicz was a cosmetician who later moved himself and his family to Los Angeles where he developed cosmetics for the quickly changing and growing film industry. From stage greasepaint to more durable and complimentary shades under the stage lights and film conditions, he perfected waterproof makeup, and lipstick that didn't wear off. Max understood color and chemistry and became the expert on how to make actors look good on screen.

He even made camouflage makeup for the USMC to use during WWII. Max died in 1938.

The company was sold in 1973 for $500 million, and again in 1991 to Proctor & Gamble.