Famous People Named Ben
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50 free Famous People Named Ben trivia questions with answers — pop culture quiz, new questions added Oct 2026.
Ben is one of those names that turns up everywhere once you start looking. There are Bens who collect Oscars, Bens who front bands, Bens who win Olympic medals and Bens who sit in cabinets and central banks. The name also belongs to a London landmark, a mountain, a tub of ice cream and some of the best-loved characters in film and television. This quiz covers the lot. Most questions hand you a clue and four Bens, so you have to tell the actor from the athlete and the novelist from the neurosurgeon. The rest ask about famous fictional Bens and the places and products that carry the name: who played them, where they are and how they got there. It suits a themed pub quiz round, a birthday game for the Ben in your life, or anyone who enjoys general knowledge with a twist. Every answer comes with a short explanation, so you pick up a new fact even when you guess wrong.
30 of 50 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Which Ben shared a screenwriting Oscar with Matt Damon for Good Will Hunting and later played Batman?
Ben Affleck
Ben Affleck went on to direct and star in the political thriller Argo, which won the Academy Award for Best Picture.
Q 02The nickname Big Ben strictly belongs to which part of the clock tower at the Palace of Westminster?
The Great Bell
The Great Bell weighs more than 13 tonnes. Its name is said to honour either Sir Benjamin Hall, who oversaw its installation, or the heavyweight boxer Ben Caunt.
Q 03Michael Jackson's first solo US number one, the 1972 ballad Ben, was the theme to a film about which animal?
A rat
A rat named Ben is befriended by a lonely boy in the 1972 horror sequel of the same name. The song won a Golden Globe and was nominated for an Academy Award.
Q 04Which Ben, born Krishna Bhanji in Yorkshire, won the Best Actor Oscar for playing Gandhi?
Ben Kingsley
Ben Kingsley was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II in 2002 for services to the British film industry.
Q 05In the original Star Wars film, which Jedi Master lives as a hermit on Tatooine under the name Ben?
Obi-Wan Kenobi
Obi-Wan Kenobi was played by Alec Guinness, who said he begged George Lucas to kill the character off because he hated the dialogue.
Q 06Which Ben sang lead for The Drifters before his 1961 solo hit Stand by Me?
Ben E. King
Ben E. King co-wrote the song, which returned to the US top ten in 1986 when it became the theme of the film of the same name.
Q 07Which Ben, whose parents were both comedians, directed himself as a male model in the 2001 film Zoolander?
Ben Stiller
Ben Stiller's parents were Jerry Stiller and Anne Meara. He went on to direct and executive produce the Apple TV series Severance.
Q 08Quarterback Ben Roethlisberger, nicknamed Big Ben, won two Super Bowls with which NFL team?
Pittsburgh Steelers
The Pittsburgh Steelers were his only team across 18 NFL seasons. At 23 he became the youngest quarterback to win a Super Bowl.
Q 09Which Ben opened an ice cream parlor in a renovated Vermont gas station with his friend Jerry Greenfield?
Ben Cohen
Ben Cohen has anosmia, a lack of the sense of smell, so he kept adding bigger chunks for texture. That became the signature Ben & Jerry's style.
Q 10Founding Father Benjamin Franklin, the face of the US $100 bill, invented which kind of eyeglasses?
Bifocals
Bifocals sit beside the lightning rod and the Franklin stove on his list of inventions. He never patented any of them, wanting others to benefit freely.
Q 11Which Ben led the 1987 surgery separating twins joined at the head and later became US housing secretary?
Ben Carson
Ben Carson became the youngest chief of pediatric neurosurgery in the United States at 33. Cuba Gooding Jr. played him in the TV film Gifted Hands.
Q 12In Marvel Comics, the killing of Uncle Ben by a burglar drives which teenager to fight crime?
Peter Parker
Peter Parker could easily have stopped the same burglar earlier and let him go. Guilt over that choice is what turns him into Spider-Man.
Q 13Which Ben won the 1988 Olympic 100 metres in Seoul, then lost the gold after failing a drug test?
Ben Johnson
Ben Johnson had run a world record 9.79 seconds, but his sample contained the steroid stanozolol and he was disqualified three days after the final.
Q 21Which Ben, a piano-playing songwriter, named his 1990s rock trio a Five because it sounded better than Three?
Ben Folds
Ben Folds later teamed up with two namesakes, Ben Kweller and Ben Lee, in a supergroup called The Bens that toured Australia in 2003.
Q 22Which Ben won a Tony Award for originating the title role in the Broadway musical Dear Evan Hansen?
Ben Platt
Ben Platt was 23 when he won, the youngest solo winner of that award at the time. Film fans know him as Benji Applebaum in the Pitch Perfect series.
Q 23Which Ben voices Sonic the Hedgehog in the live-action films and played Jean-Ralphio in Parks and Recreation?
Ben Schwartz
Q 14The 1959 epic Ben-Hur, starring Charlton Heston, is best remembered for which nine-minute action sequence?
A chariot race
A chariot race pits Judah Ben-Hur against his former friend Messala. The film won eleven Academy Awards, including Best Picture.
Q 15Ben Nevis, the highest mountain in the British Isles, stands close to Fort William in which country?
Scotland
Scotland's highest peak is all that remains of a volcano that collapsed in on itself around 350 million years ago.
Q 16In the cartoon Ben 10, which alien device on Ben Tennyson's wrist lets him change into different creatures?
Omnitrix
The Omnitrix is shaped like a wristwatch and starts out with ten alien forms, which is where the series gets its name.
Q 17Which Ben chaired the US Federal Reserve through the 2008 financial crisis and later shared a Nobel Prize?
Ben Bernanke
Ben Bernanke was named Time Person of the Year for 2009 for his response. His 2022 Nobel honoured research on banks and financial crises.
Q 18Which actor plays Ben Braddock, the young man seduced by Mrs. Robinson in the 1967 film The Graduate?
Dustin Hoffman
Dustin Hoffman got the part after Robert Redford tested for it. Director Mike Nichols felt Redford lacked the underdog quality the role needed.
Q 19Which Ben voices Paddington in the films and plays gadget master Q in the Daniel Craig Bond movies?
Ben Whishaw
Ben Whishaw was a late replacement for Colin Firth, who stepped aside after filming when the studio decided his voice did not suit the character.
Q 20Which Ben, born in New Zealand, was man of the match when England won the 2019 Cricket World Cup final?
Ben Stokes
Ben Stokes top-scored in England's innings and then batted in the tied Super Over. He had moved from Christchurch to England as a child.
Ben Schwartz has also voiced Dewey Duck in DuckTales and Leonardo in Rise of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.
Q 24Which Ben played Cory Matthews in Boy Meets World and returned to the role in Girl Meets World?
Ben Savage
Ben Savage is the younger brother of Fred Savage of The Wonder Years, who guest-starred in one episode as a college professor.
Q 25Which Ben, once a Richard Nixon speechwriter, played the economics teacher in Ferris Bueller's Day Off?
Ben Stein
Ben Stein later hosted the Comedy Central game show Win Ben Stein's Money, with Jimmy Kimmel as his first co-host.
Q 26Which Ben survived a head-on crash with a bus in 1949 and won three golf majors in 1953?
Ben Hogan
Ben Hogan was driving home from a tournament when a Greyhound bus overtaking a truck hit his car. The press dubbed his 1953 season the Hogan Slam.
Q 27Which Ben went undrafted yet won four NBA Defensive Player of the Year awards and a 2004 title with Detroit?
Ben Wallace
Ben Wallace tried out for a team in Italy after no NBA club drafted him. He entered the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 2021.
Q 28Which Ben co-wrote the sitcoms The Young Ones and Blackadder and wrote the Queen musical We Will Rock You?
Ben Elton
Ben Elton was 23 when The Young Ones gave him his first TV success. Blackadder went on to win four BAFTAs and an International Emmy.
Q 29Which Ben edited The Washington Post during its Watergate coverage and was later played on film by Tom Hanks?
Ben Bradlee
Ben Bradlee backed reporters Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein as they probed the break-in. Jason Robards won an Oscar playing him in All the President's Men.
Q 30In Marvel's Fantastic Four, test pilot Ben Grimm is turned by cosmic rays into which rock-skinned hero?
The Thing
The Thing blames teammate Reed Richards for his condition, because Richards had dismissed the danger of the rays that Grimm took seriously.