A Star Is Born Trivia
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49 free A Star is Born trivia questions with answers — entertainment quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
A Star Is Born has been made four times: with Janet Gaynor and Fredric March in 1937, Judy Garland and James Mason in 1954, Barbra Streisand and Kris Kristofferson in 1976 and Lady Gaga and Bradley Cooper in 2018, and each version has its own legends. This quiz covers all four, plus the 1932 film that started it all, What Price Hollywood?. It asks about Esther Blodgett and Vicki Lester, Norman Maine's walk into the sea, the studio butchery of the 1954 cut and its 1983 restoration, Elvis nearly playing the 1976 lead, Evergreen and Shallow, Beyoncé's departure from the 2018 remake and how Bradley Cooper found Jackson Maine's voice. Easy questions ask who directed the 2018 version and which song won its Oscar. Harder ones dig into which Oscar statuette Janet Gaynor holds on screen, what Groucho Marx telegrammed Judy Garland, whose closet supplied Streisand's wardrobe, and where the 2018 concert scenes were filmed with only eight minutes to shoot. Every answer has been checked against Wikipedia's articles on the films and their songs, and each question shows its source once you have answered.
30 of 49 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01How many official film versions of A Star Is Born have been made, from the 1937 original to 2018?
Four
Four: 1937, 1954, 1976 and 2018, and between them they earned 25 Oscar nominations but won only three.
Q 02Which 1932 film's plot heavily inspired the original A Star Is Born?
What Price Hollywood?
What Price Hollywood? (1932) follows a waitress turned star and her self-destructing alcoholic mentor; RKO considered suing producer David O. Selznick over the 1937 film's similarities.
Q 03Who starred as Esther Blodgett in the 1937 original?
Janet Gaynor
Janet Gaynor played Esther Blodgett, a small-town girl who dreams of Hollywood; the role brought her a Best Actress nomination at the 1938 Academy Awards.
Q 04The 1937 original was the first Best Picture nominee of what kind?
A colour production
It was the first colour production nominated for Best Picture; shot in three-strip Technicolor, it also earned W. Howard Greene a special Academy plaque for colour cinematography.
Q 05What stage name does the studio give Esther Blodgett?
Vicki Lester
Vicki Lester is the name the studio invents for her; in the 1954 film Esther only learns it when she tries to collect her paycheck.
Q 06In the 1937 and 1954 films, how does Norman Maine die?
He walks into the sea and drowns
He walks into the sea and drowns after overhearing Esther plan to give up her career to care for him; in the 1932 precursor the equivalent character shot himself.
Q 07When Esther wins her Oscar on screen in the 1937 film, whose real statuette is she holding?
Janet Gaynor's own
The statuette is Janet Gaynor's own: she had won the very first Best Actress Oscar in 1929, for Seventh Heaven, Street Angel and Sunrise.
Q 08With what famous line does Esther end the 1954 film at a charity benefit?
'Hello, everybody. This is Mrs. Norman Maine'
She introduces herself with 'Hello, everybody. This is Mrs. Norman Maine' at the benefit; her old bandmate Danny McGuire had coaxed her out of seclusion.
Q 09Who directed the 1954 musical version starring Judy Garland?
George Cukor
George Cukor directed it; he had turned down the 1937 film, and the long 'Born in a Trunk' sequence was added after he left the production.
Q 10Which actor did the 1954 film's director want as the male lead, reading the whole script with him?
Cary Grant
Cary Grant turned it down even after Cukor read the entire script aloud with him; Cukor had directed Grant in Sylvia Scarlett, Holiday and The Philadelphia Story.
Q 11Which song from the 1954 film was ranked No. 11 on the AFI's list of top movie songs?
'The Man That Got Away'
Judy Garland's torch song 'The Man That Got Away', written by Harold Arlen and Ira Gershwin, ranked No. 11 and was nominated for the Best Original Song Oscar.
Q 12About how many minutes did Warner Bros. cut from the 1954 film after its premiere?
27
About 27 minutes: the 182-minute premiere cut was trimmed to 154 minutes so theaters could fit more daily showings, and Cukor, abroad at the time, was not consulted.
Q 13Which film preservationist reconstructed the 1954 film to 176 minutes in 1983?
Ronald Haver
Ronald Haver, film historian at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, rebuilt it with rediscovered footage and production stills; the 176-minute restoration premiered at Radio City Music Hall in July 1983.
Q 21Which love theme from the 1976 A Star Is Born, composed by Barbra Streisand, won the Academy Award for Best Original Song?
'Evergreen'
'Evergreen' made Streisand the first woman to win the songwriting Oscar as a composer.
Q 22How many weeks did the 1976 film's love theme spend at number one on the Billboard Hot 100?
Three
Three weeks, in March 1977: the theme was Streisand's second US number one after 'The Way We Were', and it also won the Grammy for Song of the Year.
Q 23Which Tempe, Arizona venue hosted the 1976 film's concert scenes?
Sun Devil Stadium
Sun Devil Stadium, Arizona State University's football ground, hosted the concert scenes in March 1976; the crowd was drawn by a real concert featuring Peter Frampton and Santana.
Q 14Whose 1954 Best Actress Oscar win over Judy Garland did Groucho Marx call 'the biggest robbery since Brink's'?
Grace Kelly
Grace Kelly won for The Country Girl; Groucho's telegram to Garland called it 'the biggest robbery since Brink's', a reference to the 1950 Boston armoured-car heist.
Q 15The 1954 film was Judy Garland's first movie since leaving which studio in 1950?
MGM
MGM released her from her contract in September 1950, after suspending her when she missed rehearsals for Royal Wedding; the 1954 film was billed as her comeback.
Q 16In the 1954 film, how does Esther save a drunk Norman Maine from humiliation on stage?
She pretends he is part of the act
She pretends he is part of the act, steering the drunken Norman through her number at the benefit; afterwards he takes her to an after-hours club and urges her to try movies.
Q 17The 1976 remake moved the story from Hollywood filmmaking to which world?
The music business
The music business, so the heroine wins a Grammy rather than an Oscar, a change the 2018 film kept.
Q 18Who plays fading rock star John Norman Howard opposite Barbra Streisand in 1976?
Kris Kristofferson
Kris Kristofferson played John Norman Howard and won the Golden Globe for Best Actor in a Musical or Comedy; his then-wife Rita Coolidge appears briefly as herself at the Grammy scene.
Q 19Which superstar did Streisand and Jon Peters want for the 1976 male lead, only for his manager to scupper it?
Elvis Presley
Elvis Presley wanted the part, hoping it would revive his film career, but his manager Colonel Tom Parker demanded top billing and a large fee, and the talks collapsed.
Q 20Where did the film credits say Barbra Streisand's wardrobe came from?
Her own closet
The credit reads 'Miss Streisand's clothes from... her closet'; she also served as executive producer.
Q 24How much did the 1976 film gross in North America against a $6M budget?
$80 million
It grossed about $80 million in North America, the second-highest total of any 1976 release behind Rocky, despite reviews that panned the screenplay and length.
Q 25Which pair of married writers co-wrote the 1976 screenplay with director Frank Pierson?
John Gregory Dunne and Joan Didion
Joan Didion and John Gregory Dunne wrote the early drafts, having conceived the rock-world update; Frank Pierson rewrote it and directed, later publishing a bitter account of the shoot.
Q 26At which festival did the 2018 A Star Is Born have its world premiere?
Venice Film Festival
The 2018 film premiered out of competition at the Venice Film Festival on August 31, 2018, then screened at Toronto before opening in US cinemas that October.
Q 27Which singer was attached to the 2018 film's lead role before Lady Gaga was cast?
Beyoncé
Beyoncé had been attached to the project for years; Cooper instead cast Lady Gaga after watching her sing 'La Vie en rose' at a cancer-research benefit in April 2016.
Q 28In which US state did Jackson Maine grow up on his father's pecan farm?
Arizona
Jackson grew up on a pecan farm in Arizona; when he returns there in the film he finds Bobby has sold the land and it has become a wind farm.
Q 29Which song from A Star Is Born (2018) won the Academy Award for Best Original Song, one of the film's eight nominations?
'Shallow'
'Shallow', written by Gaga with Mark Ronson, Anthony Rossomando and Andrew Wyatt, also won the Golden Globe.
Q 30Where was the scene of Ally joining Jackson on stage for the film's Oscar-winning song filmed?
The Greek Theatre in Los Angeles
The Greek Theatre in Los Angeles hosted the duet scene, shot in April 2017 in front of a live audience rather than extras.