Famous Janes
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50 free Famous Janes trivia questions with answers — pop culture quiz, new questions added Oct 2026.
Jane may be the plainest name in English, but the people who carry it are anything but. There is a Jane who changed what we know about chimpanzees, a Jane who was queen for little more than a week, a Jane who became a legend of the American frontier, and a Jane whose novels are still being filmed two centuries on. This quiz gathers them all. You will meet the real Janes of history, science, film, television and music, and the invented ones too: the governess of Thornfield Hall, Tarzan's partner in the jungle, the space-age homemaker of a Hanna-Barbera cartoon, and the heroines of comic books and crime dramas. Some questions ask what a famous Jane did; others ask who shared the screen, the stage or the story with her. It suits a themed pub quiz round, a party for the Jane in your life, or anyone who likes general knowledge with a twist. Every answer comes with a short explanation, so even a wrong guess teaches you something.
30 of 50 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Jane Goodall, who arrived at Gombe in 1960 with no degree, watched chimpanzees do what supposedly human-only thing?
Make tools
Make tools is exactly what she saw them do, stripping leaves from twigs to fish termites out of a mound. Her mentor Louis Leakey said science must now redefine man, redefine tool, or accept chimpanzees as human.
Q 02Jane Austen's 1815 novel Emma was loosely reworked into which 1995 teen comedy set in Beverly Hills?
Clueless
Clueless turns matchmaker Emma Woodhouse into Cher Horowitz, a wealthy and popular teenager played by Alicia Silverstone. Director Amy Heckerling had read the novel in college and loved its heroine's positivity.
Q 03Jane Fonda starred in both the 1980 comedy 9 to 5 and Netflix's Grace and Frankie alongside which comedian?
Lily Tomlin
Lily Tomlin and Fonda play women whose husbands reveal they are in love with each other in Grace and Frankie. Back in 9 to 5, the third star beside them was Dolly Parton.
Q 04Which Brontë sister wrote Jane Eyre, first published in 1847 under the male-sounding pen name Currer Bell?
Charlotte
Charlotte picked Currer Bell to keep her own initials, just as her sisters became Ellis and Acton Bell. Her first novel, The Professor, had been rejected by publishers.
Q 05Calamity Jane, the frontierswoman born Martha Jane Canary, is buried in Deadwood beside which gunfighter?
Wild Bill Hickok
Wild Bill Hickok had been shot dead at a Deadwood poker table in 1876. Men who planned her funeral later said he had no use for her, so burying her at his side was a joke on him.
Q 06Mary Jane Watson, the green-eyed redhead known as MJ, is the main love interest and later wife of which superhero?
Spider-Man
Spider-Man spent two years of comics dodging a blind date with her, a running joke about his Aunt May's matchmaking. Readers did not see her face until 1966.
Q 07Lady Jane Grey, England's Nine Days Queen of July 1553, was deposed in favour of which royal cousin?
Mary I
Mary I at first spared the teenager's life. Jane was beheaded at the Tower of London in 1554, after her father joined a rebellion against the new queen's plan to marry Philip of Spain.
Q 08Which actress shaved her head to play Lieutenant Jordan O'Neil in Ridley Scott's 1997 military drama G.I. Jane?
Demi Moore
Demi Moore also went through two weeks of rigorous military training for the part. In her autobiography she called the film her proudest professional achievement.
Q 09In Stranger Things, Jane Hopper is far better known by which number, tattooed on her left forearm?
Eleven
Eleven gets her name when the boys notice the 011 tattoo she was given at Hawkins National Laboratory. Police chief Jim Hopper later adopts her with a forged birth certificate.
Q 10Jane Lynch broke through as Sue Sylvester, the aggressive cheerleading coach in which musical comedy series?
Glee
Glee ran on Fox from 2009 to 2015. Lynch went on to host the NBC game show Hollywood Game Night and the American revival of Weakest Link.
Q 11Jane Seymour became the third wife of Henry VIII in 1536, days after the execution of which queen?
Anne Boleyn
Anne Boleyn was executed on 19 May 1536, and Henry was betrothed to Jane the very next day. Jane was the only one of his wives given a queen's funeral, and he was later buried beside her.
Q 12Actress Jane Seymour, later TV's Dr. Quinn, played the psychic Bond girl Solitaire in which James Bond film?
Live and Let Die
Live and Let Die made her internationally famous in 1973. Born Joyce Frankenberg, she borrowed her screen name from a Tudor queen because it seemed more saleable.
Q 13Johnny Weissmuller, Tarzan to Maureen O'Sullivan's Jane in six MGM films, first won five Olympic golds in which sport?
Swimming
Q 21Jane Krakowski, a Tony winner for the musical Nine, first found TV fame as Elaine Vassal in which legal comedy-drama?
Ally McBeal
Ally McBeal ran on Fox from 1997 to 2002. Krakowski went on to earn four Emmy nominations as Jenna Maroney in the NBC satire 30 Rock.
Q 22Jane Curtin fronted which Saturday Night Live segment from 1976, later paired with Dan Aykroyd and Bill Murray?
Weekend Update
Weekend Update made her newscaster a foil for John Belushi's rambling, out-of-control commentaries. She went on to win back-to-back Emmys for the 1980s sitcom Kate & Allie.
Q 23Jane Addams, the first American woman awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, co-founded which social settlement in 1889?
Hull House
Swimming brought him 67 world records before Hollywood called. He also won an Olympic bronze medal in water polo at the 1924 Paris Games.
Q 14In The Jetsons, homemaker Jane Jetson leaves the housekeeping at the Skypad Apartments to which robot maid?
Rosie
Rosie handles the chores that the home's push-button gadgets do not. The Jetsons was Hanna-Barbera's Space Age counterpart to The Flintstones and the first programme ABC broadcast in colour.
Q 15Jane Wyman, who won an Oscar playing a deaf-mute woman in Johnny Belinda, was the first wife of which US president?
Ronald Reagan
Ronald Reagan was still an actor when they married. In the 1980s, while he was in the White House, she played the villainous matriarch of the prime-time soap Falcon Crest.
Q 16In the 2005 film Mr. & Mrs. Smith, Angelina Jolie plays assassin Jane Smith opposite which actor as husband John?
Brad Pitt
Brad Pitt was cast first, opposite Nicole Kidman, who dropped out over a scheduling clash with The Stepford Wives. The bored married couple turn out to work for competing agencies.
Q 17Which Oscar winner for Black Swan plays Jane Foster, a nurse in the original comics, in Marvel's Thor films?
Natalie Portman
Natalie Portman first played her in Thor in 2011. In the comics Jane was later deemed worthy to wield the hammer Mjolnir, taking over as Thor when the hero no longer could.
Q 18Singer and actress Jane Birkin gave her name to a coveted leather handbag created in 1984 by which French fashion house?
Hermès
Hermès chief Jean-Louis Dumas sat next to her on a flight when her straw basket spilled its contents. She sketched her ideal bag for him, and he had it made in supple black leather.
Q 19In Pride and Prejudice, Jane Bennet, the eldest of the Bennet sisters, accepts a proposal from which rich bachelor?
Mr Bingley
Mr Bingley rents the neighbouring Netherfield estate and takes to Jane early on. His friend Mr Darcy at first persuades him to leave, convinced that she is an unsuitable match.
Q 20In the 1962 thriller What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?, Bette Davis starred opposite which reputed real-life rival?
Joan Crawford
Joan Crawford had gone to director Robert Aldrich with the idea of starring alongside Davis. Rumours of feuding on set helped the film succeed, though both actresses later denied them.
Hull House gave social services to poor, largely immigrant families in Chicago. Before opening it, Addams had visited Toynbee Hall in London, the world's first settlement house.
Q 24New Zealand director Jane Campion became the first woman to win the Palme d'Or at Cannes with which 1993 film?
The Piano
The Piano follows a mute Scottish woman sent to New Zealand for an arranged marriage. Anna Paquin, picked from 5,000 girls to play her daughter, won an Oscar in her first major role.
Q 25Jane Torvill and Christopher Dean won ice dance gold at the 1984 Sarajevo Olympics skating to which piece of music?
Boléro
Boléro, by Maurice Ravel, earned the Nottingham pair twelve perfect 6.0s, including one for artistic impression from every judge. A public square in their home city is now named after it.
Q 26Jane Asher, the actress who later built a party cake business, was engaged in 1967 to which member of the Beatles?
Paul McCartney
Paul McCartney lived in her family's Wimpole Street townhouse for more than two years of their romance. She told the BBC in July 1968 that the engagement had been called off.
Q 27Perry Farrell created which touring music festival in 1991 as a farewell for his band Jane's Addiction?
Lollapalooza
Lollapalooza took its name from an antiquated word whose sound Farrell liked. In 2005 it was retooled from a travelling tour into an annual festival held in Chicago.
Q 28Which rocker's 1993 hit Mary Jane's Last Dance had a video starring Kim Basinger as a dead woman?
Tom Petty
Tom Petty plays a morgue assistant who takes her home in the video, which won the MTV award for Best Male Video. The song was first released on a Greatest Hits album.
Q 29Which actress played Jane Tennison, one of London's first female Detective Chief Inspectors, in ITV's Prime Suspect?
Helen Mirren
Helen Mirren won three consecutive BAFTA television awards for the role, which she played from 1991 to 2006. Tennison spends the series confronting sexism inside the Metropolitan Police.
Q 30Jane Hawking's memoir of her marriage to physicist Stephen Hawking was adapted into which 2014 film?
The Theory of Everything
The Theory of Everything stars Felicity Jones as Jane and won Eddie Redmayne the Best Actor Oscar as Stephen. Her 2007 memoir is called Travelling to Infinity: My Life with Stephen.