Several Scintillating Souls Trivia Quiz

Answer: Steven Spielberg

From movies such as "Jaws" (1975) and "E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial" (1982) through the Indiana Jones (1981-2008) and Jurassic Park (1993-97) series to "Schindler's List" (1993) and "Lincoln" (2012), everybody seems to have a favourite Spielberg directed movie.

The Academy Awards seem to like them too, as his films between 1975 and 2018 have been nominated for 131 Oscars, winning 34 of them including awards for Daniel Day-Lewis for "Lincoln" and Mark Rylance for "Bridge of Spies" (2015).

Answer: Sirhan Sirhan

Sirhan explained his actions in 1968 by saying that Jordan was betrayed by Kennedy's support for Israel in the Six Day War in the Middle East in 1967.
He shot Kennedy twice in the back and once in the head before being disarmed at the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles and Kennedy died the following day from his injuries.

Sirhan was sentenced to death, although this was later commuted to life imprisonment and, as with any high profile assassination, there are several conspiracy theories, most notable, the idea supported by Robert F. Kennedy Jr. that Sirhan did not commit the shooting and a second gunman was responsible.

Answer: Sidney Sheldon

Sheldon began his career as a writer of Broadway shows, before moving into film and TV work. An early success was "The Bachelor and the Bobby-Soxer" (1947) for which he won an Oscar for best screenplay, and he also wrote the screenplay for "Annie Get Your Gun" (1950), starring Howard Keel and Betty Hutton. It wasn't until he was 50 years old that he turned his hand to novel writing,
and his first novel, "The Naked Face" (1969) won him an Edgar Allen Poe Award, while his second, "The Other Side of Midnight" (1973) became the first of many to top the New York Times bestseller list.

Answer: Sonja Sohn

Although the character of Greggs is probably Sohn's best known, she also played homicide detective, Samantha Baker in the hit TV show, "Body of Proof" between 2011 and 2012. Sohn is also the recipient of a Grand Jury Prize from the Sundance Film Festival, when the movie "Slam" which she co-wrote and starred in won in 1998.

Answer: Soupy Sales

Soupy once estimated that he and the guests on his children's show "Lunch with Soupy Sales" had received over 20,000 cream pies to the face and kids certainly seemed to love this slapstick humour as the show ran from 1953 to 1966. He was one of two panelists to appear on every episode of the revamped show, "What's My Line?" between 1968 and 1975, the other being actress Arlene Francis, who first appeared on the original show in 1950.

Answer: Shel Silverstein

Kids everywhere loved Silverstein's madcap poems and tales, while their parents were also a fan of his, but for his songwriting abilities, rather than his books. As a songwriter, he penned such tunes as the Johnny Cash tracks, "25 Minutes to Go" (1962) and "A Boy Named Sue" (1969), along with hits for Dr. Hook and the Medicine Show, "Sylvia's Mother" and "The Cover of the Rolling Stone" (both 1972). "Uncle Shelby" as he was popularly known was also a talented cartoonist and drew many of the illustrations for his books himself.

Answer: Simone Signoret

The discussion regarding French Oscar winners can become quite heated, as Claudette Colbert is generally regarded as the first for "It Happened One Night" (1934), but although she was born in France in 1903, her family emigrated to USA and she became a naturalised American citizen in 1912. That would point to Signoret being the first, but her father was serving in the French army, and was stationed in Germany when she was born in Wiesbaden in western Germany.

The next French Oscar winner was Lila Kedrova, for "Zorba the Greek" (1964) in 1965 but she was born in Russia, and her family emigrated to France when she was 19, so does that mean that Juliette Binoche, as a French born, French citizen was actually the first when she won in 1997 for "The English Patient" (1996)?

Whatever your view, there is no doubt that Signoret was a talented actress and movies such as "Room at the Top", "Casque d'Or" (1952) and "Ship of Fools" (1965) are well worth checking out.

Answer: Sushma Swaraj

Sushma Swaraj, who is also a former Supreme Court of India lawyer entered politics at an early age, when she was elected as a Member of the Legislative Assembly for the state of Haryana in 1977, aged just 25. She was first elected to the Indian parliament in 1990, and was re-elected a further six times, holding the position of Minister of External Affairs of India from 2014.

In the 2019 elections she chose to not seek re-election as she was recovering from a kidney transplant operation.

Answer: Sammy Sosa

Although Sosa is remembered for his time with the Texas Rangers, it is for his 12 years (1992-2004) as a Chicago Cub that most people know him. During this period he was a seven time All-Star and in 2001, became the first player to hit 60 home runs in three seasons in his career, although amazingly he didn't top the stats charts in any of them.

In 1998, his 66 home runs were bettered by Mark McGwire who achieved 70 and in 1999 he again lost out to McGwire (65-63), while in 2001 his total of 64 home runs was bettered by Barry Bonds who managed 73.

Answer: Suraj Sharma

Not only was this movie Sharma's debut, but his performance was good enough to earn him a BAFTA nomination and a Saturn Award. He has gone on to star as Rinku Singh, the first Indian to play professional baseball in "Million Dollar Arm" (2014) and have a recurring role as Aayan Ibrahim in the popular TV spy thriller, "Homeland" between 2014 and 2015.