Mary Me? Trivia Quiz

Answer: Denmark

Tasmanian native Mary Elizabeth Donaldson met Denmark's Crown Prince Frederik in a bar during the 2000 Sydney Olympics. Previously a dual Australian/British citizen, the Danish Parliament enacted "Mary's Law" to make her a Danish citizen when the couple married.

As Frederik is the heir apparent, Countess Mary of Monpezat will become Queen Consort of Denmark if/when he inherits the throne from his mother, Queen Margrethe II. The couple had their first child, Prince Christian, in 2005. Princess Isabella followed in 2007 and the twins Prince Vincent and Princess Josephine in 2011.

Answer: Mary Wollstonecraft

William Godwin was married to the feminist philosopher, writer and educator Mary Wollstonecraft. Ten days after the birth of her second child, Wollstonecraft died of puerperal fever, leaving Godwin to bring up his step-daughter Fanny and the baby Mary alone. Mary would eventually grow up to be Mary Shelley, wife of the poet Percy Bysshe Shelley and writer of the classic Gothic novel, "Frankenstein".

Answer: They were killed by the same person

Mary Ann Nichols, nicknamed Polly, was a 43-year old married mother of five and Mary Jane Kelly was a 25-year old of Irish decent. Both were unfortunate to be prostitutes working in the Whitechapel area of London in the autumn of 1888. In August of that year, Nichols become the first victim of the unidentified serial killer nicknamed Jack the Ripper. Three months later, following the murder and mutilation of Annie Chapman, Elizabeth Stride and Catherine Eddowes, Kelly became his last known victim.

Answer: Mary Pickford

Born Gladys Louise Smith in Toronto, Canada in 1892, actress Mary Pickford was called "America's Sweetheart, "Little Mary" and "The Girl with the Curls". She was named 24th on the American Film Institute's list of the "greatest female stars of all time". Pickford made her screen debut in April 1909 and made a remarkable 43 films that year, and another 34 in 1910, almost all directed by the legendary D.W. Griffith. By 1916, she was producing as well as acting, and sometimes even writing the scripts too.

In 1919, she was a founder member of United Artists along with Griffith, Fairbanks and Charlie Chaplin. She made her last screen appearance in 1950. Pickford won one of the very first Best Actress Oscars (in 1929) and was awarded an Honorary Oscar in 1975, shortly before her death in 1979 aged 87.

Answer: Ted Danson

Born in Newport AR in 1953, Mary Steenburgen made her screen debut in 1978 and won the Best Supporting Actress Oscar for her performance in Jonathan Demme's comedy-drama "Melvin and Howard" two years later. That same year, she married "Clockwork Orange" star Malcolm McDowell but they were divorced ten years later.

She remarried in 1995, to Ted Danson who played barman Sam 'Mayday' Malone in the hit TV sitcom "Cheers".

Answer: Mary of Teck

Born in London in 1867, Mary of Teck was the daughter of Princess Mary Adelaide of Cambridge (King George III's granddaughter) and Duke Francis of Teck. (Teck was a ducal castle in the Kingdom of Wurttemberg in what is now Baden-Württemberg in modern-day Germany).

In 1893, Mary married Queen Victoria's grandson, Prince George, The Duke of York, having earlier been engaged to his older brother, Prince Albert, who had died unexpectedly. When Edward VII ascended to the throne in 1901, the couple became Prince and Princess of Wales. Nine years later, her husband became King George V on the death of his father and she became Queen Mary. Of the alternatives, Marie of Saxe-Altenburg was Queen Consort to King George V of Hanover, another of George III's grandchildren. Mary Duchess of Gloucester & Edinburgh was the last surviving of George III's fifteen children. Mary of Modena was Queen Consort to King James II in the later 17th Century.

Answer: Mary Richards

Born in Brooklyn NY in 1936, Mary Tyler Moore made her film debut in 1957, but it was as Dick Van Dyke's wife, Laura Petrie, in "The Dick Van Dyke Show" during the early 1960s that she really made her name. In 1970, she began an 8-year run as Mary Richards, a Minneapolis news producer in the "Mary Tyler Moore Show".

She won a Golden Globe and earned a Best Actress Oscar nomination in 1980 for her performance in Robert Redford's "Ordinary People".

Answer: Vladimir Nabokov

The novel called "Mary" in its English translation, was originally published under the title "Mashen'ka". Its author was Vladimir Nabokov, who is best remembered today for his 1955 novel "Lolita".
Set in a boarding house in Berlin, "Mary" tells the story of Russian émigré Lev Ganin, who discovers that his former wife, Mary (of course), is married to his neighbor. Ganin is convinced that Mary still loves him and tries to find a way to become reunited with her when she arrives to join her husband. The reader never actually gets to meet Mary Alfyorov, except in Ganin's memories.

Answer: Sister

A former Brigadier General in the Union Army during the American Civil War, Chester Alan Arthur became President of the United States following the assassination of James Garfield in 1881. Arthur's wife, Ellen Herndon Arthur had died suddenly the year before his election as Vice-President, so his youngest sister, Mary, served as White House hostess during his administration.

Answer: Jeffrey Archer

Mary Weeden became Mrs Mary Archer in 1966 and she became Lady Archer of Weston-super-Mare when her husband was elevated to the House of Lords in 1992. She has twice given evidence in trials involving the best-selling author and former MP, in a libel case in 1987 and when he was accused (and subsequently convicted) of perjury in 2001.

She earned her DBE in 2012 "for services to the National Health Service as chair of the Cambridge University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust".