Notable Men from Alberta Trivia Quiz

Answer: James Gosling

James Arthur Gosling was born on May 19th, 1955 in Calgary, Alberta. He completed his Bachelor of Science in Computer Science at the University of Calgary in 1977 and continued his education at Carnegie-Mellon University (Pittsburgh, PA), completing his Masters and PhD and graduating in 1983.

Gosling was employed at Sun Microsystems for 26 years between 1984 and 2010, and while there, conceived and was the lead designer of the Java programming language (in 1994), amongst other projects and developments. This accomplishment garnered him the nickname, "Dr. Java". In addition to various awards of distinction within the field of computer-related science and technology, Gosling was also named an Officer of the Order of Canada in 2077.

Answer: Bill Borger

Bill Borger Jr. was born on December 15th, 1974 in Edmonton, Alberta. He began climbing mountains in the year 2000, and since then has climbed over 40 peaks around the world, including Mount Everest (in 2011). In addition to facing these challenging adventures for his own enjoyment and accomplishment, Borger has also raised hundreds of thousands of dollars for charities in the process.

Climbing is not Borger's only athletic passion. In the year 2000, he became the first Calgarian to swim the English Channel, and when combined with conquering Mt. Everest, this feat is referred to as 'Peak and Pond', and Borger was not only the first Canadian to do so, but was only the fifth person to manage it. And if that was not enough, Borger also cycled across Canada in the year 1996 in just 32 days. The Calgary-based construction business was founded in 1919 as Borger Brothers Ltd.

Answer: Nathan Fillion

Nathan Fillion was born on March 27th, 1971 in Edmonton, Alberta. In his early 20s while still living in Edmonton, Fillion got his first film credits in two locally produced Canadian films, and then he moved to New York City (in 1994) to pursue better career opportunities. Just three years later, he relocated again, this time to Los Angeles, where he got his first big budget movie role in "Saving Private Ryan" (1998).

Fillion's breakthrough role, however, would be the 2002 cult television series "Firefly". While it only lasted one season, it led to bigger and better opportunities, which culminated in the acclaimed series "Castle" (2009-2016) with Fillion in the title role. Fillion has made many other television appearances, and has been in over 30 movies (including voice roles in animated films), including 2021's "The Suicide Squad".

Answer: Bret Hart

Bret Sergeant Hart was born on July 2nd, 1957 in Calgary, Alberta. His father was a professional wrestler (Stu Hart), and Bret grew up learning the business, beginning his own training at the age of nine. As an amateur, he had many successes in local Alberta competitions and through school-based national competitions. Hart made the move to professional wrestling in the late 1970s with his father's Stampede Wrestling promotion, making a name for himself before being acquired by the World Wrestling Federation in 1984. In 1985, he began using the name 'Hit Man'.

Hart stayed with the WWF until 1997, when he signed with World Championship Wrestling (WCW). In 2000, he officially retired from professional wrestling due to post-concussion syndrome. Hart was inducted into the World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) Wrestling Hall of Fame in 2006. Amongst his many championships, he won the WWF Championship five times, the WWF Intercontinental Championship twice, the WCW United States Heavyweight Championship four times, and the WCW World Heavyweight Championship twice.

Answer: Bertram Brockhouse

Bertram Neville Brockhouse was born on July 15th, 1918 in Lethbridge, Alberta. He did his undergraduate schooling at the University of British Columbia (1947), and his Masters (1948) and PhD (1950) at the University of Toronto.

From 1950 until 1962, Brockhouse was a researcher with Atomic Energy of Canada, after which he accepted a position as a professor at McMaster University, where he stayed until his retirement in 1984. In 1994, Brockhouse shared the Nobel Prize in Physics for "pioneering contributions to the development of neutron scattering techniques for studies of condensed matter for the development of neutron spectroscopy."

Brockhouse was named an Officer of the Order of Canada in 1982, and that was upgraded to Companion in 1995.

Answer: Chad Kroeger

Chad Robert Kroeger (né Turton) was born on November 15th, 1974 in Hanna, Alberta. While still a teenager, Kroeger formed a grunge cover band by the name of Village Idiot along with two of his brothers (Brandon and Mike) and friend Ryan Peake. In addition to lead vocals, Kroeger also plays guitar with the band.

In addition to the commercial successes of Nickelback as a group, Chad Kroeger also received a Juno Award (Songwriter of the Year) in 2003 for his 2002 song "Hero", which was written for the first Tobey Maguire "Spider-Man" movie.

Answer: Ted Cruz

Rafael Edward "Ted" Cruz was born on December 22nd, 1970 in Calgary, Alberta. His parents had moved to Canada in 1967 (to an American mother and Cuban father). He only spent the first four years of his life in Canada, and in 1974 the family relocated to Texas.

Cruz received his BA in public policy from Princeton University in 1992, then went on to Harvard Law School, graduating in 1995. He practiced law privately for a time, then was appointed as the Solicitor General of Texas in 2003 (until 2008). He returned to private practice until running for a seat in the Senate in 2012.

It was only in 2013 that Cruz applied to renounce his Canadian citizenship, in the leadup to his 2016 presidential campaign as his eligibility was questioned. He officially ceased to be a Canadian citizen on May 14th, 2014.

Answer: Todd McFarlane

Todd McFarlane was born on March 16th, 1961 in Calgary, Alberta. His interest in comics and drawing began at a young age, and continued through his school years. While he was in college on a baseball scholarship (hoping to become a professional ball player) in the early 1980s, McFarlane also regularly sent examples of his work to comic editors. Eventually, his persistence paid off, and in 1984, he broke into the industry.

McFarlane achieved fame within the comic book community with his artwork in "The Amazing Spider-Man" from 1988 to 1990, and the subsequent "Spider-Man" series, for which he also wrote. In 1992, McFarlane co-founded Image Comics and his own publishing house Todd McFarlane Productions, which provided him the opportunity to introduce the character of Spawn to the world (which he created back when he was 16 years old).

Following his initial success, McFarlane branched out into other areas, forming a toy company and a film and entertainment company. In 2011, he was inducted into the Canadian Comic Book Creator Hall of Fame.

Answer: Mark Messier

Mark John Douglas Messier was born on January 18th, 1961 in St. Albert, Alberta. He played junior hockey in Edmonton (with his father as his coach) before getting an amateur tryout with the World Hockey Association's Indianapolis Racers. He played his first professional hockey game against the (WHA) Winnipeg Jets on November 5th, 1978. Messier concluded the season with the Cincinnati Stingers, and then the WHA folded, and Messier (under 20 years old) went into the NHL Entry Draft. He was selected 48th overall by the Edmonton Oilers.

Messier became a core component of the Edmonton Oilers dynasty in the 1980s, and he participated in winning five Stanley Cups with the team (1984, 1985, 1987, 1988, 1990), with the last one as their captain. After being traded to the New York Rangers in 1991, Messier led the New York Rangers to their first Stanley Cup win in 54 years in 1994. Doing so, he became the first player to captain two different teams to Stanley Cup wins.

After six years with the Rangers, Messier was traded to the Vancouver Canucks in 1997, where he stayed for three years. He then returned to the New York Rangers in 2000, where he finished out his career, retiring in 2004 with a career record of 694 goals and 1,193 assists for 1,887 points in 1,756 games. When he retired, he was second on the all-time points list behind only his former teammate Wayne Gretzky. Messier was inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame in 2007.

Answer: Michael J. Fox

Michael Andrew Fox, known professionally as Michael J. Fox, was born on June 9th, 1961 in Edmonton, Alberta. With his father in the military, the family moved around and finally settled in Burnaby, BC when his dad retired. Fox got his acting start in Vancouver, but moved south to Los Angeles at the age of 18 to have better opportunities.

Fox got his first film role in 1980 with "Midnight Madness", but it was television that would make him a young star when he landed the role of Alex P. Keaton on "Family Ties" (1982-89). And while still working on the show, Fox was sought out for the iconic role of Marty McFly in "Back to the Future" (1985).

Fox continued with his success in a number of films before returning to television with "Spin City" in 1996. In 1998, he publicly announced his 1991 diagnosis of Parkinson's disease, and in 2000 he left the show and greatly reduced further acting appearances, in order to focus on his health and on the Michael J. Fox Foundation, created to support research into a cure for Parkinson's.

During his career, Michael J. Fox won five Emmy Awards, four Golden Globe Awards, and even a Grammy Award (in 2010 for Best Spoken Word Album). In 2002 he received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, and in 2010 he was named as an Officer of the Order of Canada.