Did any of these names seem familiar to you? John Wayne, Tom Hanks, Cary Grant, and many other well-known actors. Are you confident that you can recall some of the most appealing and successful actors in Hollywood history? Take this quiz right now to find out if you will pass or fail.
Who made Oscar an offer he couldn’t refuse in his leading role as Vito Corleone in “The Godfather”?
Marlon Brando
Marlon Brando Jr. was an American actor. After ten years of underachieving, he agreed to do a screen test as Vito Corleone in Francis Ford Coppola’s The Godfather (1972). He got the part and subsequently won his second Academy Award and Golden Globe Award in a performance critics consider among his greatest.
This handsome actor made movies like, Bedtime for Bonzo, Cattle Queen of Montana, and King’s Row, which elevated his acting career.
Ronald Reagan
Ronald Reagan began his career as a radio broadcaster and a baseball game announcer from afar. He did a screen test just for fun and went on to make 19 films in his first two years, including Knute Rockne, All American, in which he portrayed George “The Gipper” Gipp, a moniker he used for the rest of his life.
This young actor quickly made a name for himself before he tragically died in a car crash after making only three films; East of Eden, Rebel Without a Cause, and Giant.
James Dean
James Byron Dean was an American actor. He is remembered as a cultural icon of teenage disillusionment and social estrangement, as expressed in the title of his most celebrated film, Rebel Without a Cause (1955), in which he starred as troubled teenager Jim Stark.
Who is this intense and sometimes cruel actor known for such films as Young Man with a Horn, Spartacus and Lonely Are the Brave? He also left the legacy of a son who follows in his acting footsteps.
Kirk Douglas
Kirk Douglas was an American actor and filmmaker. His early films include Out of the Past (1947), Young Man with a Horn (1950), playing opposite Lauren Bacall and Doris Day, Ace in the Hole (1951), and Detective Story (1951), for which he received a Golden Globe nomination.
Long before his stint as James Bond, this actor was crowned as Mr. Universe. He has been in many classic films such as Darby O’Gill and the Little People, Hitchcock’s Marnie, with co-star Tippi Hedren, and Robin and Marian opposite Audrey Hepburn.
Sean Connery
Sir Sean Connery was a Scottish actor. He was the first actor to portray fictional British secret agent James Bond on film, starring in seven Bond films between 1962 and 1983. Originating the role in Dr. No, Connery played Bond in six of Eon Productions’ entries and made his final appearance in Never Say Never Again.
Which actor is famous for his smooth speaking voice as well as his gentlemanly demeanor and good looks in such films as “Random Harvest” with Greer Garson and “A Double Life” with Signe Hasso, for which he won an Academy Award and Golden Globe?
Ronald Coleman
Ronald Charles Colman was an English-born actor, starting his career in theatre and silent film in his native country, then emigrating to the United States and having a successful Hollywood film career. He was most popular during the 1920s, 1930s and 1940s.
This actor was quiet on the surface, but you always felt there was a depth of feeling beneath his calm exterior. Most of his roles were good, moral men with a do-good attitude, and he commanded respect whether in western films such as “Once Upon a Time in the West” or military films such as “Mister Roberts.”
Henry Fonda
Henry Jaynes Fonda was an American film and stage actor who had a career that spanned five decades on Broadway and in Hollywood. Fonda cultivated a strong, appealing screen image in several films now considered to be classics. In 1957, he starred as Juror 8, the hold-out juror, in 12 Angry Men.
Which pictured actor portrayed the title role in the popular television series ‘Leave It To Beaver’?
Jerry Mathers
Gerald Patrick Mathers is an American actor and singer. Mathers is best known for his role in the television sitcom Leave It to Beaver, originally broadcast from 1957 to 1963, in which he played Theodore “Beaver” Cleaver, the younger son of the suburban couple June and Ward Cleaver (Barbara Billingsley and Hugh Beaumont, respectively) and the brother of Wally Cleaver (Tony Dow).
The Haunting of Hill House, The Tell-Tale Heart, The Wax Museum, and The Fly, were among cult favorites starring this unusual actor. He was adept at bringing horror tales to life, but his suspenseful romance Laura starring Gene Tierney was equally as successful.
Vincent Price
Vincent Leonard Price Jr. was an American actor best known for his performances in horror films, although his career spanned other genres. He established himself as a recognizable horror-movie star after his leading role in House of Wax (1953). He subsequently starred in other horror films, including The Fly (1958), House on Haunted Hill (1959), Return of the Fly (1959), The Tingler (1959), The Last Man on Earth (1964), Witchfinder General (1968), The Abominable Dr. Phibes (1971), and Theatre of Blood (1973).
Who is this non-traditional classic film actor best known for his performances in White Christmas with Bing Crosby, The Court Jester with Glynis Johns, and both A Song is Born and The Secret Life of Walter Mitty with Virginia Mayo?
Danny Kaye
Danny Kaye was an American actor, singer, dancer, comedian, musician, philanthropist, and cook. Kaye starred in 17 films, notably Wonder Man (1945), The Kid from Brooklyn (1946), The Secret Life of Walter Mitty (1947), The Inspector General (1949), Hans Christian Andersen (1952), White Christmas (1954), and The Court Jester (1955).
Which actor played the not-so-intelligent Mike Seaver on the critically-trounced but popular 1980s sitcom ‘Growing Pains’?
Who was this handsome lady charmer that really shined in romantic comedies such as Bringing up Baby with Katherine Hepburn and My Favorite Wife with Irene Dunn, but was equally talented at his more serious roles in None but the Lonely Heart with Ethel Barrymore, and Hitchcock films North by Northwest with Eva Marie Saint and Charade with Audrey Hepburn?
Cary Grant
Cary Grant was a British-American actor. Known for his transatlantic accent, debonair demeanor, light-hearted approach to acting, and sense of comic timing, he was one of classic Hollywood’s definitive leading men from the 1930s until the mid-1960s.
Who are these actors that played in three movies based on real-life people, the most famous of whom was major league baseball player Monty Stratton in The Stratton Story?
Zsa Zsu Pitts and Milton Berle
Red Skelton and Lucille Ball
Jimmy Stewart and June Allyson
Gene Kelly and Ida Lupino
Jimmy Stewart and June Allyson
Playing such a great, solid married couple on screen landed Jimmy Stewart and June Allyson three films together. These classics included The Stratton Story (1949), The Glenn Miller Story (1954), and Strategic Air Command (1955). They were popular at the box office because of their portrayal of solid marriages and problem-solving.
He won the Best Actor Oscar in 1944 for “Going My Way,” but he’s probably best known as a singer. Who is he?
Bing Crosby
Harry Lillis Crosby Jr.known professionally as Bing Crosby, was an American singer and actor. The first multimedia star, he was one of the most popular and influential musical artists of the 20th century worldwide. Crosby won the Academy Award for Best Actor for his performance in Going My Way (1944) and was nominated for its sequel, The Bells of St. Mary’s (1945), opposite Ingrid Bergman, becoming the first of six actors to be nominated twice for playing the same character.
Which actor starred as an uber-intelligent child doctor in the popular television series ‘Doogie Howser, M.D.’?
Neil Patrick Harris
Neil Patrick Harris is an American actor, singer, writer, producer, and television host. On television, he is known for playing the title character on the ABC series Doogie Howser, M.D. (1989–1993), for which he was nominated for the Golden Globe Award for Best Actor – Television Series Musical or Comedy.
While this actor was frequently seen in tough guy roles in films like Dark Passage, Key Largo, and Dead End, he also had a softer side as seen in Sabrina. His most famous work, Casablanca, earned him an Academy Award nomination.
Humphrey Bogart
Humphrey DeForest Bogart nicknamed Bogie, was an American film and stage actor. His performances in Classical Hollywood cinema films made him an American cultural icon. In 1945, a few months after principal photography for The Big Sleep, their second film together, he divorced his third wife and married Bacall. After their marriage, they played each other’s love interest in the mystery thrillers Dark Passage (1947) and Key Largo (1948).
This handsome and soft spoken actor was famous for his singing and dancing in many films such as Brigadoon with Cyd Charisse, Singing in the Rain with Debbie Reynolds, and For Me and My Galplaying opposite Judy Garland.
Gene Kelly
Eugene Curran Kelly was an American actor, dancer, singer, filmmaker, and choreographer. Kelly is best known for his performances in An American in Paris (1951), which won the Academy Award for Best Picture, Singin’ in the Rain (1952), which he and Donen directed and choreographed, and other musical films of that era such as Cover Girl (1944) and Anchors Aweigh (1945), for which he was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actor.
Although he was well known for his serious roles in western movies such as The Fastest Gun Alive and Jubal, this actor also held his own in romantic comedies and dramas such as The Courtship of Eddie’s Father and Dear Heart.
Glenn Ford
Gwyllyn Samuel Newton “Glenn” Ford was a Canadian-American actor who often portrayed ordinary men in unusual circumstances. Ford was most prominent during Hollywood’s Golden Age as one of the biggest box-office draws of the 1940s, 1950s, and 1960s, who had a career that lasted more than 50 years.
Which actor played in several romantic comedies including Pat and Mike, Woman of the Year, and Desk Set opposite an actress he was openly having an affair with?
Spencer Tracy
Spencer Bonaventure Tracy was an American actor, known for his natural performing style and versatility. One of the major stars of Hollywood’s Golden Age, Tracy was the first actor to win two consecutive Academy Award for Best Actor from nine nominations.
This iconic actor portrayed a dishonest insurance salesman in the thriller Double Indemnity opposite Barbara Stanwyck, yet went on to later play America’s favorite bachelor-father in the television series, My Three Sons.
Fred MacMurray
Frederick Martin MacMurray was an American actor. He appeared in more than one hundred films and a successful television series in a career that spanned nearly a half-century. He played Steve Douglas in the television series My Three Sons. On the back of his success in films, he later became a highly successful businessman.
Which of these Best Actor Oscar winners is Angelina Jolie’s dad?
Jon Voight
Jonathan Vincent Voight is an American actor. He came to prominence in the late 1960s with his Academy Award-nominated performance as Joe Buck, a would-be gigolo, in Midnight Cowboy (1969). He is the father of actress Angelina Jolie and actor James Haven.
Which actor won the first of his two Best Actor awards for playing one half of the feuding parents in 1979’s “Kramer vs. Kramer”?
Dustin Hoffman
Dustin Lee Hoffman is an American actor and filmmaker. He is known for his versatile portrayals of antiheroes and emotionally vulnerable characters. Actor Robert De Niro described him as “an actor with the everyman’s face who embodied the heartbreakingly human”.
Which multiple-Oscar-winner who famously never attends the ceremony made an exception after the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001?
Woody Allen
As the first Oscars ceremony since the 9/11 terrorist attacks, the 74th Academy Awards presented a tribute montage of films made in New York City, introduced by Gothamite Woody Allen, who had never attended a ceremony.
This British actor brought a touch of class to the movies with his articulate speech and his firm, yet at times vulnerable, gaze.
David Niven
James David Graham Niven was a British actor, memoirist, and novelist. He won the Academy Award for Best Actor for his performance as Major Pollock in Separate Tables (1958).
This actor often played the part of men much older than his actual age. His wrinkled face and whiskers, set off by an exaggeratedly old voice made him the perfect pick for the sidekick in such films.
Walter Brennan
Walter Andrew Brennan was an American actor and singer. He won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his performances in Come and Get It (1936), Kentucky (1938), and The Westerner (1940).
Which Oscar-winning actor is a near-constant courtside presence at Los Angeles Lakers home games, and has been a season ticket holder since 1970?
Jack Nicholson
John Joseph Nicholson is an American actor and filmmaker whose career spanned more than 50 years. He is known for having played a wide range of starring and supporting roles, including comic characters, romantic leads, anti-heroes and villains.
Which young actor starred in the sitcom ‘Silver Spoons’ from 1982 to 1986?
Ricky Schroder
Richard Bartlett Schroder is an American actor and filmmaker. As a child actor billed as Ricky Schroder he debuted in the film The Champ (1979), for which he became the youngest Golden Globe award recipient, and went on to become a child star on the sitcom Silver Spoons.
Who won his only Oscar for playing Rooster Cogburn in “True Grit”?
John Wayne
John Wayne and nicknamed Duke, was an American actor and filmmaker who became a popular icon through his starring roles in films made during Hollywood’s Golden Age, especially in Western and war movies.
Two of this Oscar-winning actor’s most successful and high-profile films both hit theaters in November 1977: “Close Encounters of the Third Kind” and “The Goodbye Girl.” Who had a really, really good November?
Richard Dreyfuss
Richard Stephen Dreyfuss is an American actor. He is known for starring in popular films during the 1970s, 1980s, and 1990s, including American Graffiti (1973), Jaws (1975), Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977), The Goodbye Girl (1977).
Which Oscar-winning actor wisely ignored his agent’s advice to change his name to the more American-sounding “Lenny Williams” when he was 10?
Leonardo DiCaprio
Leonardo Wilhelm DiCaprio is an American actor and film producer. Known for his work in biopics and period films, he is the recipient of numerous accolades, including an Academy Award, a British Academy Film Award, and three Golden Globe Awards.
This classic film actor was frequently pegged in gangster roles – which he did well. In reality, some of his finest performances were on the good side of the law. Some were tender, like in Our Vines Have Tender Grapes.
Edward G. Robinson
Edward G. Robinson was a Romanian-born American actor of stage and screen during Hollywood’s Golden Age. During a 50-year career and is best remembered for his tough-guy roles as gangsters in such films as Little Caesar and Key Largo.
This American actor was in demand for film roles as a child, but his career really took off when he was cast as Frodo Baggins in Peter Jackson’s epic film.
Elijah Wood
Elijah Jordan Wood is an American actor and producer. He is best known for his portrayal of Frodo Baggins in the Lord of the Rings film trilogy (2001–2003) and The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey (2012).
This actor was equally at home on a horse in The Westerner as he was pitching a baseball in The Pride of the Yankees, as well as being a muddle-headed romantic in Mr. Deeds Goes to Town with Jean Arthur.
Gary Cooper
Gary Cooper was an American actor known for his strong, silent, and understated acting style. He won the Academy Award for Best Actor twice and had a further three nominations.
Whether in a suspense-filled film like North by Northwest or a somber drama like A Star is Born, this actor took his craft seriously.
James Mason
James Neville Mason was an English actor. He achieved considerable success in British cinema before becoming a star in Hollywood.
Which Best Actor winner is one of only five performers who have won Oscars in back-to-back years (as of 2018)?
Tom Hanks
Thomas Jeffrey Hanks is an American actor and filmmaker. Known for both his comedic and dramatic roles, he is one of the most popular and recognizable film stars worldwide, and is regarded as an American cultural icon.
This writer/director/actor was known for his work in film noir and was most famous for his role as Charles Foster Kane in the film Citizen Kane.
Orson Welles
George Orson Welles was an American director, actor, screenwriter, and producer who is remembered for his innovative work in radio, theatre and film.
Which actor starred as the young lead character in the 1993 series ‘Boy Meets World’?
Ben Savage
Bennett Joseph Savage is an American actor. He played the lead role of Cory Matthews on the ABC sitcom Boy Meets World (1993–2000) and its Disney Channel sequel Girl Meets World (2014–2017).
Which Hollywood director is responsible for the top two highest grossing movies?
James Cameron
James Francis Cameron is a Canadian filmmaker. Best known for making science fiction and epic films, he first gained recognition for directing The Terminator (1984).
Once playing a role where he described his character’s downfall and death in Sunset Boulevard, who is this actor that played everything from war movies such as Stalag 17?
William Holden
William Holden was an American actor, one of the biggest box-office draws of the 1950s. Holden starred in some of Hollywood’s most popular and critically acclaimed films.
For which film did Yul Brynner win the Best Actor Oscar?
The King and I
Yuliy Borisovich Briner known professionally as Yul Brynner, was a Russian, French, Swiss, and American actor, singer, and director, best known for his portrayal of King Mongkut in the Rodgers and Hammerstein stage musical The King and I.
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