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How Well Do You Know: Classic Film Stars

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Answers:

1.	Just to warm up the old brain-pan, let’s start with an easy one. After innumerable bit parts, this actor’s big break, pictured above, had him not only speechless, but uncredited. Who is he?
		Glenn Strange
		Boris Karloff
		Bela Lugosi
		Lon Chaney, Jr
		*By way of explanation.....* Only Boris Karloff was uncredited as Frankenstein's monster.

2.	They started as five in vaudeville, but only four made it on Broadway. Once Hollywood came calling, however, Minnie’s boys were soon reduced to three, and when the small screen became ascendant, only one was anointed a star. What’s the name of this famous brother act?
		The Ritz Brothers
		The Bacon Brothers
		The Marx Brothers
		The Fabulous Baker Boys

3.	This platinum beauty’s career took off after she got a grapefruit shoved in her mush, but was tragically cut short at its apex when she succumbed to uremic poisoning at the too-young age of 26. Who is this original blonde bombshell, pictured above?
		Jean Harlow
		Jayne Mansfield
		Judy Holliday
		RuPaul

4.	He haunted the sewers of Paris, went mad when he couldn’t be seen, fathered a werewolf, ordered an infanticide to protect one throne and usurped his brother for another, but he seemed most comfortable in the company of the usual suspects. Choose the right name, and it’ll be the start of a beautiful friendship.
		Charles Laughton
		Claude Rains
		Conrad Veidt
		Hans Conried

5.	This silent-film star became known as “America’s Sweetheart” because of her girlish, innocent roles. Off-screen, however, she became the most powerful woman in Hollywood, co-founding both United Artists and AMPAS. But like many early stars, the talkies were her undoing, though perhaps her lasting legacy was shaping the film industry into what we know today. Name the “Girl with the Curls”.
		Theda Bara
		Clara Bow
		Mary Pickford
		Lillian Gish

6.	This Shakespearean-trained actor pulled off the neat trick of portraying a number of criminals at the same time he was playing arguably the most famous law-enforcement figure in all of English literature. Who is the rakish gent pictured above?
		Leslie Howard
		Robert Donat
		Donald Cook
		Basil Rathbone

7.	In the age before latex and CGI, this silent-screen icon created the most stunning transformations the screen has ever seen. His expressiveness on-camera was attributed to being the hearing son of deaf-mute parents; ironically, just as talkies took off, and his career poised to scale those heights, his voice was silenced by throat cancer, which claimed him at the age of 47. Who is he?
		Lon Chaney Sr
		Jean Hersholt
		Adolphe Menjou
		Reginald Denny

8.	He rose to fame as one of Warner Bros’ stable of gangsters, going on to play a variety of roles from villains to heroes and everything in-between, but he always saw himself as a song-and-dance man, though he was given only one on-screen chance to display those talents. Who is this star, shown above in his favorite role?
		George Raft
		James Cagney
		Bert Lahr
		Paul Henreid

9.	The clipped accent resonating in every film he inhabited, this actor played opposite everyone from Judy Garland to Cary Grant to Laurence Olivier to Peter Ustinov, but is perhaps best known as the heavenly emissary who returns Warren Beatty to Earth in Heaven Can Wait. Whose is this quintessential English aristocrat?
		Frederic March
		Cedric Hardwicke
		James Mason
		Charles Boyer

10.	Another actor who rose to fame in Warner’s gangster stable was the exact opposite of his on-screen persona when off-camera. He played a variety of gangster roles, even being immortalized in an Academy Awards song Danny Kaye created listing Hollywood’s greats. Who is this actor that helped Charlton Heston discover the secret of Soylent Green?
		Edward G Robinson
		George Raft
		Broderick Crawford
		John Garfield

11.	One of only a handful of stars who made the transition from silent films to the sound era, this English stage-trained actor played a variety of romantic heroes and swashbuckling roles, but you likely know him and his most famous film role via Maxwell Smart. Who is this suave gentleman, pictured here in said role?
		Leslie Howard
		Gilbert Roland
		Ronald Colman
		Conrad Nagel

12.	A scion of an acting dynasty that continues to this day, this man was one of few actors of the Golden Age who spent the majority of his career performing from a wheelchair. Whether a villain in It’s a Wonderful Life or a kindly innkeeper in Key Largo, his booming voice and elegant elocution always stood out. Name this portly actor and inventor of the boom microphone.
		John Carradine
		Lionel Barrymore
		John Huston
		Alec Baldwin

13.	A bit of an easy one at our halfway point: name this English beauty, famous for playing American heroines, pictured above.
		Claire Trevor
		Veronica Lake
		Olivia De Havilland
		Vivien Leigh

14.	She began her show-biz career studying dance under Isadora Duncan, then became a hit on the English music-hall circuit before being brought to Hollywood by husband Charles Laughton. Though she played in any number of Disney films and TV shows, her most iconic role had her wrapped in bandages, screaming at her “husband”. Who is this very unconventional Bride?
		Joan Blondell
		Elsa Lanchester
		Greer Garson
		Angela Lansbury

15.	Who is the fine-looking swashbuckler pictured above?
		Douglas Fairbanks, Jr
		Errol Flynn
		Tyrone Power
		Basil Rathbone

16.	Though you’ve seen this next actor/stuntman a thousand times, you’d have been hard-pressed to pick him out of a line-up. A pioneer stuntman who frequently worked with John Wayne and John Ford, he helped to create many of the safety devices and techniques that are still used today to protect stunt players and animal actors. Who is this famous fall guy?
		Charles “Buddy” Rogers
		Raoul Walsh
		George “Gabby” Hayes
		Yakima Canute

17.	This blonde bombshell was equally at home in silents and talkies, drama and comedies, and her off-screen antics would put Lindsay Lohan to shame. Name this screen siren pictured above, who died under mysterious circumstances at the age of 29?
		Clara Bow
		Thelma Todd
		Jean Harlow
		Greta Garbo

18.	He became Hollywood’s go-to guy when a stand-up hero type was needed for a Western, though he was born deep in the South. He became one of the top box-office draws in the 1950s, then retired from film, investing shrewdly and living out his life as a gentleman millionaire. Name this square-jawed Western star.
		Francis X Bushman
		Gary Cooper
		Randolph Scott
		Walter Huston

19.	One of many Jewish stars of the German film industry who fled the growing threat of Nazism, he was one of the few to become as big a success in the United States as he had been in his homeland. At home in every kind of film, from drama to horror to the occasional comedy, his delivery and look were so distinctive that imitators continue to pay homage to this day. Name this character actor.
		Peter Lorre
		Fritz Lang
		F W Murnau
		Max Schreck
		*By way of explanation.....* Lang and Murnau were directors; Schreck never emigrated to the US

20.	This screen legend is pictured above, displaying those famous peepers.
		Joan Crawford
		Bette Davis
		Rita Hayworth
		Irene Dunne

21.	This titian-tressed temptress tamed John Wayne, seduced Sinbad, taught a young Natalie Wood not to believe in Santa Claus and fell into Haley Mills’ parent trap. What redhead accomplished all this?
		Lucille Ball
		Norma Shearer
		Maureen O’Hara
		Ginger Rogers

22.	She began her career as an ingénue, searching for King Solomon’s mines and falling under the not-so-tender care of Boris Karloff in a famous English insane asylum; she ended it as the matriarch of the Quartermain clan. Name this grande dame of soaps.
		Ruth Warrick
		Frances Reid
		Erika Slezak
		Anna Lee

23.	Adept at drama, but also a gifted comedienne, the beautiful actress pictured above died tragically in a plane crash at the age of 33. Name her.
		Claudette Colbert
		Carole Lombard
		Barbara Stanwyck
		Myrna Loy

24.	He was a major silent star of swashbucklers who married America’s sweetheart, and though talkies proved his downfall, his talent was immense enough to transfer to his progeny. Name this handsome star who lent one-half of his surname to a world-famous Hollywood mansion.
		Douglas Fairbanks Sr
		Ramon Novarro
		Rudolph Valentino
		Conrad Nagel

25.	We started easy, and we end easy. There’s no mistaking this fetching fellow pictured above, one of the classic horror greats. Who is he?
		Christopher Lee
		Bela Lugosi
		Peter Lorre
		Vincent Price