Tuesday, February 17, 2015

2015 Oscars Quiz




The 87th Academy Awards will be held on Sunday, February 22, 2015 and will take place at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles, California.  As you prepare for the big night, why not challenge yourself and try Number 16's fifth annual Oscars quiz.  There are 10 questions.  Good luck!


NUMBER 16 OSCARS QUIZ 2015

1.  This year, 84-year-old Robert Duvall was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his role as Judge Joseph Palmer in The Judge.  How many Oscars has the veteran actor won in his lengthy career?




A.  Robert Duvall's nomination for The Judge is his seventh nomination, but has never won an Oscar.

B.  To date, he has won three Academy Awards.

C.  To date, he has won one Academy Award.

D.  To date, Duvall has won two Oscars.

E,  To date, he has taken home four Oscars.



2.  Dustin Hoffman has received seven Academy Award nominations, all for Best Actor.  How many Academy Awards has he won, and for which films?


Hoffman


A.  Hoffman has won three Best Actor Academy Awards for his performances in The Graduate, Midnight Cowboy and Kramer Vs. Kramer.

B.  Hoffman has won two Best Actor Academy Awards - for Kramer vs Kramer and Rain Man.

C,  He has won one Academy Award and it was for Kramer vs.Kramer.

D,  He has won four Academy Awards for his performances in Kramer vs, Kramer, Tootsie, Rain Man and All the President's Men.

E,  He has won two Academy Awards - for Midnight Cowboy and Rain Man.



3.  What is the longest film to have ever won the Oscar for Best Picture?

A.  Ben-Hur

B.  Titanic

C.  Gone with the Wind

D.  Mrs. Miniver

E.  Lawrence of Arabia



4.  What year were the Oscars first televised?

A.  1953

B.  1951

C,  1949

D,  1950

E.  1952



5.  Who are the only brother and sister to even win Oscars for acting.

A.  Shirley MacLaine and Warren Beatty

B.  Jane Fonda and Peter Fonda

C.  Julia Roberts and Eric Roberts

D.  Ethel Barrymore and Lionel Barrymore

E.  No sister and brother combination has ever won Academy Awards for acting.



6. Who was the first actor to refuse an Academy Award for Best Actor?

A.  Marlon Brando

B.  Woody Allen

C.   John

D.   Peter Fonda

E.  George C. Scott



7.  Who is the only Oscar winner whose parents were also Academy Award winner?

A.  John Barrymore

B.  Haley Mills

C.  Liza Minnelli

D.  Vanessa Redgrave

E.   Alan Ladd



8.  Did Robin Williams, who passed away on August 11, 2014, ever win an Oscar during his career?

A.  Yes, he won an Oscar for Best Support Actor for his performance in Good Will Hunting.

B.  Yes, he won an Academy Award for Best Actor in a Leading Role for his role in Dead Poets Society.

C.  Yes, he won for Best Actor in a Leading Role for Good Morning, Vietnam.

D.  Yes, he actually won two Oscars - for Fisher King and Good Will Hunting.

E.  No, Robin Williams never won an Oscar



9.   Five British actors have been nominated for acting Oscars in 2015.  Who was the first British actor to win an Academy Award?

A,  Charlie Chaplin

B.  Charles Laughton

C.  Vivien Leigh

D,  George Arliss

E.  Laurence Olivier


10.  True or false: To date, three actors have won Oscars for roles in which they didn't utter a single word?

A.  False.  Four actors have won Academy Awards for portraying characters that did not speak.

B.  False.  No actor has won an Oscar for a role for which they did not speak.

C.  False.  Only one actor has won an Academy Award for such a role.

D.  False   Two actors have won for non-speaking roles.

E.  True.  Three actors have won Oscars for roles in which they didn't utter a single word?




ANSWERS

1.  C

Robert Duvall's Oscar nomination for The Judge is his seventh.  He has won once, at the 56th Academy Awards in 1984.  Dolly Parton and Sylvester Stallone presented him with the Oscar for Best Actor in a Leading Role for his performance as Mac Sledge, an alcoholic country singer, in Tender Mercies (1983).

Duvall other Oscar nominations include Best Actor in a Supporting Role for A Civil Action (1998), Apocalypse Now (1979) and The Godfather (1972).  He was also nominated for Best Actor in Leading Role for The Apostle (1997) and The Great Santini (1979).


Duvall in his Oscar-winning role in Teder Mercies



Duvall's Oscar win in 1984.

2.  B

Dustin Hoffman has won two Oscars for Best Actor - for Kramer vs. Kramer in 1980 and Rain Man in 1989. He was nominated for The Graduate, Midnight Cowboy, Lenny, Tootsie and Wag the Dog but did not win.


3.  C



To date, Gone with the Wind (1939) is the longest film to have ever won an Oscar for Best Picture. Gone with the Wind clocks in at a whopping 234 minutes. (three hours and 54 minutes) - almost four hours.


4.  A

The first televised Academy Awards show was broadcast on March 19, 1953.  It was held simultaneously at the RKO Pannteges Theatre in Hollywood California and the NBC International Theatre in New York City.  Bob Hope hosted the main ceremony in Hollywood, while actor Conrad Nagel presided over the smaller ceremony in New York City so performers working on Broadway could take part.


5.  D

Ethel Barrymore's Oscar win 1945


Marie Dressler and Lionel Barrymore after winning Oscars in 1931

To date, Ethel and Lionel Barrymore are the only brother and sister to ever win Oscars for acting. Lionel Barrymore won an Oscar for Best Actor for his performance in Free Soul (1931), while Ethel Barrymore won for Best Supporting Actress in None But the Lonely Heart (1944).  She received her Academy Award in 1945.

Note:  Both Shirley MacLaine and Wareen Beatty have won Academy Awards.  Howver, Beatty's Oscar win was in the Best Director category.  He received an Academy Award in 1982 for directing the film Reds.


6.  E

George C. Scott as Patton

In 1971, the late George C. Scott became the first actor to refuse a Best Actor Oscar when he turned down the award for his role as General George S. Patton in the film Patton.  Scott wrote a letter to the Motion Picture Academy in which he stated that he didn't feel comfortable being in competition with other actors.  He was famously quoted as describing the Oscars as a "meat parade."  In 1972, Marlon Brando refused his Best Actor Oscar for The Godfather as a protest against Hollywood's treatment of native Americans.

The first person to refuse any Oscar was American screenwriter Dudley Nichols.  In 1935, Nichols turned down an Academy Award  for his screenplay of The Informer because the Screen Writers Guild of America was on strike against the movie studios at the time. He served as president of the organization in 1937 and 1938

Dudley Nichols

7.  C

To date, Liza Minnelli is the only Oscar winner whose parents (Judy Garland and Vincente Minnelli) also both won Academy Awards.  Liza won a Best Actress Academy Award in 1973 for her performance as Sally Bowles in the film Cabaret.

In 1940, Mickey Rooney presented Liza's mother, the great Judy Garland, with an Academy Juvenile Award for her work in 1939 in The Wizard of Oz and Babes in Arms.  Judy was nominated in the Best Actress category for her performances in A Star is Born (1954) and as Best Supporting Actress for Judgement at Nuremberg (1961) but did not win.

Judy was unable to attend the Academy Awards in 1955 when she was up for an Oscar for A Star is Born.  She was in hospital, having given birth to her only son, Joey Luft.  As it turned out, however, Grace Kelly won the Best Actress Award that year for The Country Girl.  In 1962, Rita Moreno received the Best Supporting Actress award for her performance in West Side Story over Judy's in Judgement at Nuremberg.

In 1959, Liza'a father, film director Vincente Minnelli won an Academy Award for directing the movie Gigi.



Liza celebrating her Oscar win


Judy Garland and Mickey Rooney in 1940

Vincente Minelli receiving Oscar from Millie Perkins

8.  A

Robin Williams with Oscar for Good Will Hunting in 1998

Robin Williams won an Oscar for Best Supporting Actor at the 70th Academy Awards in 1998.  He won for his portrayal of Dr, Sean Maquire, the psychology teacher who helps Matt Damon's character in the film Good Will Hunting (1997).

Williams also received Oscar nominations for Best Actor in a Leading Role for his performances in The Fisher King (1991), Dead Poets Society (1989) and Good Morning, Vietnam (1987).


9.  D

George Arliss

George Arliss was the first British actor to win an Academy Award.  He won an Oscar for Best Actor for his performance in the 1930 film The Green Goddess.  Arliss was born in London in 1868 and was also the earliest-born actor to win an Academy Award.

By the way, here is a list of the five British actors up for Oscars in 2015:
The nominees for Best Actor in a Leading role include Eddie Redmayne as Steven Hawking in The Theory of Everything and Benedict Cumberbatch for his role as Alan Turing in The Imitation Game. The nominees for Best Actress in a Leading Role include Rosamund Pike as Amy Elliott-Dunne in Gone Girl and Felicy Jones as Jane Wilde Hawking in The Theory of Everything.  In addition, Keira Knightley has been nominated in the Best Supporting actress category for her performance as Joan Clarke in The Imitation Game.


10.  E

It is true that three three actors have won Oscars for roles in which they didn't utter a single word. They are Jane Wyman, Johnny Belinda (1948); Sir John Mills, Ryan’s Daughter (1970); Holly Hunter, The Piano (1993).  In Johnny Belinda, Jane Wyman plays a deaf/mute  woman who is raped. In Ryan's Daughter, Sir John Mills plays Michael, a mentally impaired man, the so-called "village idiot."  In The Piano, Holly Hunter plays Ada McGrath, a woman who has not spoken since she was six years old, and no one knows why.

Jane Wyman in Johnny Belinda


John Mills in Ryan's Daughter

Holly Hunter in The Piano


- Joanne