Just Say No Trivia Quiz

Answer: Julie Andrews

The star of "Victor/Victoria," outraged that the show received no other Tony nominations (including one for Best Musical while two shows that had closed months before the nominations, "Swinging On A Star" and "Chronicle Of A Death Foretold," were nominated), declined her nomination and said that she would remain with her "egregiously overlooked" fellow cast members. Patti LuPone won that award in 1980 for playing Eva Peron in "Evita"; Tyne Daly won in 1990 for her role as Mama Rose in "Gypsy"; and Bebe Neuwirth won in 1997 as Velma in "Chicago."

Answer: Marlon Brando

In 1955, Brando accepted his Oscar for his performance in "On The Waterfront" (1954). Brando won again for his role in "The Godfather" (1972). At the 1973 Academy Awards, he had Sacheen Littlefeather represent him. On his behalf, she refused the award and read a letter from Brando indicating that he was unable to accept because of the manner in which Hollywood historically had portrayed Native Americans.

His other Best Actor nominations were for "A Streetcar Named Desire" (1951), "Viva Zapata!" (1952), "Julius Caesar" (1953), "Sayonara" (1957), and "Last Tango In Paris" (1973).

Answer: Sinead O'Connor

O'Connor's second album, "I Do Not Want What I Haven't Got" (1990) made her an international star and led to four Grammy nominations for Best Album, Best Song ("Nothing Compares 2 U"), Best Female Vocalist, and Best Alternative Album. As a protest against what she called the extreme commercialism of the Grammy Awards, she did not attend the award ceremony and she declined her award for Best Alternative Album. "Nothing Compares 2 U" (written by Prince) was a worldwide hit, reaching Number One on the Billboard Top Pop 40 Hits chart. {O'Connor performed bald.]

Answer: Jean-Paul Sartre

Sartre, a founder of existentialism and author of dozens of plays, novels, short stories, and philosophical and critical essays, declined the Nobel Prize in 1964 stating that he always refused official honors and did not wish to become an institution. The other authors all accepted their Nobel Prizes in Literature: Gide in 1947, Mauriac in 1952, and Camus in 1957.

Answer: Le Duc Tho

Le Duc Tho (born Phan Dinh Khai) was a founder of the Communist Party in Indochina in 1930. After spending nearly all of 1930-1944 in a French prison, he was released and went to Hanoi where he became the head Viet Minh person in southern Vietnam. Following the Geneva Accord of 1954, he directed the Viet Cong insurgency during the Vietnam War, most of the time while hiding in South Vietnam.

His work as a member and then leader of the North Vietnamese delegation to the Paris Peace Conferences led to his Nobel Prize.

However, Le Duc Tho refused the award because he felt that Vietnam was not at peace.

Answer: Duke of London

For his extraordinary service, Churchill was offered the highest non-royal title in Britain, Duke. He declined the honor, possibly because he would have had to give up his seat in the House of Commons but more likely because his son, Randolph, wanted a political career.

As a side note, Churchill won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1953. [The hierarchy of titles goes from Duke to Marquess to Earl to Viscount to Baron.]

Answer: Axl Rose (Guns N' Roses)

William "Axl" Rose wrote an open letter in 2012 strongly declining his inclusion because he did not want to be inducted with a group that was quite different from the one he then led. He explained that he had tried to work with Hall of Fame persons to solve who would be inducted as Guns N' Roses, but no agreement was reached.

The Hall of Fame inducted Guns N' Roses, including Axl, anyway. [Pete Rose is nicknamed the Hit King.]

Answer: Sinclair Lewis

Awarded the Pulitzer Prize for "Arrowsmith," Lewis declined the honor in a long letter to the Pulitzer Prize Committee. In it, he states that "All prizes, like all titles, are dangerous" because authors might write only to try to win such prizes. Those who select the winners put "every compulsion ... upon writers to become safe, polite, obedient, and sterile." His views, however, did not prevent him from accepting the Nobel Prize in Literature for 1930. Each of the other authors won both a Pulitzer Prize for Fiction and a Nobel Prize for Literature: Pearl Buck's Pulitzer came in 1932 for "The Good Earth" and her Nobel in 1938; Steinbeck won the Pulitzer in 1946 for "The Grapes of Wrath" and the Nobel in 1962; and Faulkner's Pulitzer was for "A Fable" in 1955, after he won the Nobel in 1949.

Answer: Peace (1935)

Carl von Ossietzky was awarded the 1935 Nobel Peace Prize for exposing the re-armament of Germany after World War I. An opponent of Hitler and Nazism, he was arrested and imprisoned in 1933. His award outraged Adolf Hitler, who refused to allow him to get the award. Further, Hitler later decreed that no German could accept any Nobel Prize.

In 1938, Richard Kuhn won for Chemistry; and in 1939, Adolf Butenandt won for Chemistry and Gerhard Domagk for Physiology or Medicine. All were forced to refuse.

Answer: Rabindranath Tagore

Tagore was the first non-European to win the Nobel Prize for Literature (1913). A poet, dramatist, novelist, and painter, he was offered and accepted a knighthood in 1915. He said "no" in 1919, renouncing his knighthood after hundreds of Indians were shot down by British troops in the Jallianwala Bagh (Amritsa) massacre.

The others all won Nobel prizes for Literature: Kipling in 1907, Galsworthy in 1932, and Golding in 1983.