Lots Of Rs But No Pirates Trivia Quiz

Answer: Rick Rypien

Rypien was a Vancouver Canuck from 2005 to 2011, during which time he scored nine goals and recorded seven assists as a centre on the fourth line. In 2011, Rypien signed for the Winnipeg Jets, but died before he could play for them as the depression that had affected him for over a decade resulted in him taking his own life.

Answer: Ronald Reagan

Prior to WWII, Reagan was one of the most popular Hollywood stars, starring in movies such as "Santa Fe Trail" (1940) and "Kings Row" (1942). Following the war, he resumed his acting career, appearing in comedies such as "Bedtime For Bonzo" (1951) and "She's Working Her Way Through College" (1952) as well as action movies like "Prisoner Of War" (1954) and "Hellcats Of The Navy" (1957).

In the 1960s, Reagan became seriously interested in politics and by 1980, was President of USA.

Answer: Rosie Ruiz

Rosie Ruiz (Cuba) "won" the 1980 Boston marathon with a time of two hours, 31 minutes and 56 seconds, but was not sweating or out of breath at the finish and could not remember any of her interval times. Strangely, none of the other runners could remember seeing Ruiz at all on the course and when two students from Harvard University came forward to say that Ruiz had burst out of a group of spectators, just half a mile from the finish line, an enquiry was launched. Eight days after the event, Ruiz was stripped of her medal and the winner was declared to be Canadian, Jacqueline Gareau.

Answer: Robert Redford

Amazingly, given the size of Redford's film catalogue, he never won an Oscar for acting, although he did win one for directing "Ordinary People" in 1980. In fact he was only nominated once for an acting Oscar, in 1973 for "The Sting", when he lost out to Jack Lemmon for his role in "Save The Tiger", meaning he was nominated for as many acting Oscars as he was Golden Raspberry's.

In 1993, he was nominated for Worst Actor for his part in "Indecent Proposal", but lost out to Burt Reynolds for the movie, "Cop And A Half".

Answer: Ruth Rendell

Rendell was one of UK's best loved thriller writers, right up until her death in 2015, and as a Labour peer in the House of Lords (Baroness Rendell of Babergh), was the person that introduced the bill that became law as the Female Genital Mutilation Act 2003. My favourite Ruth Rendell anecdote is one she told of her time as a young newspaper reporter, when she was assigned to cover an awards dinner held by a local tennis club.

She couldn't be bothered to attend, but wrote the report, listing the award recipients, and filed it as if she had been there. Unfortunately due to her non attendance, she missed the fact that the guest speaker had died halfway through his speech. Needless to say she was fired by the newspaper and learned a valuable lesson.

Answer: Richard Ramirez

Ramirez terrorised California in 1984 and 1985, committing a series of rapes and murders in the Los Angeles and San Francisco areas. He was sentenced in 1989, to death in the gas chamber, against which he appealed. His first appeal, heard in 2006, was unsuccessful and he lodged a second but died in hospital in 2013 of complications caused by lymphoma before his new appeal could be heard.

Answer: Roland Ratzenberger

Ratzenberger had raced in Formula Ford, Formula 3 and Formula 3000 before securing a five race deal in F1 with the newly formed Simtek team. He failed to qualify for his first race, managed an 11th place finish in his second race and then came San Marino, where he was competing for the final spot on the starting grid. On the lap before his fateful one he had gone off the track, causing damage to his front wing, but as the final grid spot was so important to the team, he chose to continue rather that return to the pits. On the next lap, the wing broke off, and went under the car and the car failed to turn properly into Villeneuve Corner hitting the wall at 196 mph (315 kmh). Sadly the tragedy wasn't over, as in the race the following day, the great Ayrton Senna, driving a Williams died in an accident at Tamburello corner.

Answer: Randy Rhoads

Rhoads made his name as a founding member of California rock band Quiet Riot, and appeared on their first two albums in 1977 and 1978, which although they may not be spectacular, do feature interesting covers of Small Faces and Dave Clark Five tracks. By 1979, word had gotten around about how talented Rhoads was, and Ozzy Osbourne asked him to join the band he was setting up following his departure from Black Sabbath, and suddenly Rhoads, with his polka dot Flying V guitar was everywhere.

He co-wrote and played on well known Ozzy tracks such as "Mr. Crowley", "Crazy Train" (both 1980) and "Over The Mountain" (1981), before tragically dying in a light aircraft crash in 1982, aged just 25.

Answer: Robbie Robertson

Three of the best loved roots rock songs of the 1960s, were written by Robertson, these being The Band tracks, "The Weight" (1968), and from 1969, "The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down" and "Up on Cripple Creek". As a solo artist, his eponymous debut album in 1987 contained contributions from former members of The Band, Rick Danko and Garth Hudson, as well as Peter Gabriel, U2 and Maria McKee.

This album brought us tracks such as "Broken Arrow", which Rod Stewart had a Canadian hit with, "Somewhere Down the Crazy River" and "Fallen Angel" which was dedicated to the keyboard player for The Band, Richard Manuel, who took his own life in 1986.

Answer: Roy Rogers

Leonard Slye appeared in several westerns in the 1930s as a singing cowboy, but it was only when he changed his name to Roy Rogers in the late 30s that he started winning starring roles. His enormous popularity not only made him a household name, but also that of his wife, Dale Evans, his horse Trigger, Bullet his German shepherd and his co-stars such as "Gabby" Hayes and "Smiley" Burnette. Between 1946 and 1974, Rogers also had seven top 20 hits on the Billboard Country charts in USA, and also appeared in TV shows as diverse as "Wonder Woman" (1977) and "The Muppet Show" (1979).