Famous Patricks
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40 free Famous Patricks trivia questions with answers — trivia quiz, new questions added Oct 2026.
Patrick is a name that turns up everywhere. It belongs to Ireland's patron saint and to a founding-era American orator, to starship captains and dance-film heartthrobs, to quarterbacks, goaltenders and tennis champions, and to one very relaxed cartoon starfish. This quiz gathers them in one place. Some questions start with a well-known Patrick, such as Swayze, Stewart, Mahomes, Ewing or Dempsey, and ask what he did, who he played or where he made his name. Others reach for people who usually go by Pat, for authors and inventors you may know only by their work, and for a few fictional characters and surnames that carry the name too. It works for pub quiz hosts looking for a themed round, anyone planning a party for the Patrick or Pat in their life, a St. Patrick's Day get-together, and general knowledge fans who like their film, television, sport, history and music mixed together. Every answer comes with a short explanation, so you learn something even from the ones you miss.
30 of 40 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Vermont senator Patrick Leahy, a devoted comic-book fan, made cameo appearances in several films about which superhero?
Batman
Batman has given Leahy screen time since an uncredited cameo in Batman Forever, and in The Dark Knight he is the party guest who confronts the Joker.
Q 02The Order of St Patrick, founded in 1783, gave Ireland's patron saint which color, still on the presidential standard?
Blue
Blue, not green, was the order's choice, and the name St. Patrick's blue stuck; a field of the color still sits behind the harp on Ireland's coat of arms.
Q 03A 1944 film of Patrick Hamilton's play about a husband driving his wife insane lent its title to which now-common term?
Gaslighting
Gaslighting was Merriam-Webster's Word of the Year for 2022, more than eighty years after Hamilton's thriller Gas Light opened in London.
Q 04Super Bowl-winning quarterback Patrick Mahomes is the son of Pat Mahomes, a longtime professional in which sport?
Baseball
Baseball nearly claimed the son too: the Detroit Tigers drafted Patrick in 2014, but he never signed and stuck with football.
Q 05Patrick Swayze played a working-class dance instructor at a 1960s Catskills resort in which low-budget 1987 hit?
Dirty Dancing
Dirty Dancing cost about $5 million, less than half the average film budget of the day, and Swayze co-wrote and sang She's Like the Wind for its soundtrack.
Q 06English actor Patrick Stewart commanded the starship Enterprise as which captain in Star Trek: The Next Generation?
Jean-Luc Picard
Jean-Luc Picard made Stewart a star, though he so doubted the show would last that he had still not unpacked his bags when filming began.
Q 07In SpongeBob SquarePants, pink starfish Patrick Star lives under which object on the floor of Bikini Bottom?
A rock
A rock is home for Patrick, whose creator, marine biologist Stephen Hillenburg, chose a starfish because the animals look dumb and slow but are active and aggressive.
Q 08Which actor played murderous Wall Street banker Patrick Bateman in the 2000 film American Psycho?
Christian Bale
Christian Bale was director Mary Harron's pick, but the studio wanted Leonardo DiCaprio and fired her, then rehired her and let her cast her man.
Q 09Robert Patrick's liquid-metal T-1000 goes back in time to kill which future resistance leader in Terminator 2?
John Connor
John Connor's hunter was Patrick's breakout role, and he was cast as a slender figure on purpose, to contrast with the muscular T-800.
Q 10Sheriff Pat Garrett, born Patrick Floyd Garrett, shot which young outlaw dead at Fort Sumner in July 1881?
Billy the Kid
Billy the Kid made Garrett's name: the sheriff co-wrote a book about him that, errors and all, was treated as the standard account for decades.
Q 11Patrick Dempsey's neurosurgeon Derek Shepherd earned the nickname McDreamy on which long-running hospital drama?
Grey's Anatomy
Grey's Anatomy made Dempsey a household name, yet he said he would walk away from acting if he could race cars full-time, and he has driven at Le Mans.
Q 12Neil Patrick Harris played a teenage medical prodigy before starring as womanizer Barney Stinson in which sitcom?
How I Met Your Mother
How I Met Your Mother ran from 2005 to 2014 and brought Harris four Emmy nominations, and he went on to host the Tonys, the Emmys and the Oscars.
Q 13Patrick Henry, remembered for a 1775 speech demanding liberty or death, was the first governor of which state?
Virginia
Q 21Goaltender Patrick Roy won two Stanley Cups with the Montreal Canadiens and two more with which team?
Colorado Avalanche
The Colorado Avalanche retired his number 33, as Montreal did, and he is the only player to be named playoff MVP three times.
Q 22French midfielder Patrick Vieira captained which London club through an unbeaten league season in 2003–04?
Arsenal
Arsenal became the first English team in more than a century to finish a league season unbeaten, with the Senegal-born Vieira as captain.
Q 23Aged 18, Dutch striker Patrick Kluivert scored the winner in the 1995 Champions League final for which club?
Ajax
Ajax beat AC Milan in Vienna when Kluivert came off the bench to score in the 85th minute, the youngest player to score in the final.
Virginia made Henry its first governor in 1776, yet he later opposed ratifying the US Constitution, fearing a powerful central government.
Q 14Patrick Duffy's character Bobby Ewing returned from the dead in a shower, making a whole season a dream, on which soap?
Dallas
Dallas had killed Bobby off when Duffy left in 1985; a year later he stepped into view and the whole previous season became Pam's dream.
Q 15Pat Sajak, born Patrick Sajdak, worked as a TV weatherman before hosting which game show from 1981 to 2024?
Wheel of Fortune
Wheel of Fortune earned Sajak a Guinness World Record in 2019 as the longest-serving host of a single game show, passing Bob Barker.
Q 16Patrick J. Adams played Mike Ross, a college dropout practicing law without a license, in which legal drama?
Suits
Suits ran on the USA Network from 2011 to 2019, and Adams landed the part only after being fired from the pilot of another series.
Q 17Which daughter of Irish-born clergyman Patrick Brontë wrote Jane Eyre under the pen name Currer Bell?
Charlotte
Charlotte and her five siblings all died before their father, who was born Patrick Brunty in County Down and lived to 84.
Q 18Gynaecologist Patrick Steptoe and Robert Edwards developed which treatment, leading to Louise Brown's birth in 1978?
In vitro fertilization
In vitro fertilization made Louise Brown the first test-tube baby, but only Edwards received the 2010 Nobel Prize: Steptoe had died in 1988, and the prize is not given posthumously.
Q 19Which Australian serve-and-volleyer won back-to-back US Open singles titles in 1997 and 1998?
Patrick Rafter
Patrick Rafter reached world number one in 1999, but Wimbledon escaped him: he lost the final there in both 2000 and 2001.
Q 20Georgetown center Patrick Ewing was the first pick of the first NBA draft lottery in 1985, landing with which team?
New York Knicks
The New York Knicks won the draw when the commissioner pulled their envelope from a hopper, a result that still fuels claims the lottery was fixed.
Q 24Patrick O'Brian's novels about Captain Jack Aubrey and surgeon Stephen Maturin are set during which conflict?
Napoleonic Wars
The Napoleonic Wars fill 20 finished novels, three of which fed the film Master and Commander, with Russell Crowe as Aubrey.
Q 25German author Patrick Süskind wrote which 1985 novel about Grenouille, an orphan turned murderer in old France?
Perfume
Perfume follows a man born with an extraordinary sense of smell, and it has sold more than 20 million copies in 49 languages.
Q 26Patrick McGoohan created and starred as Number Six, a former secret agent in a strange coastal village, in which series?
The Prisoner
The Prisoner was filmed in the Welsh resort village of Portmeirion, which McGoohan had spotted while shooting an episode of Danger Man.
Q 27Patrick Troughton replaced William Hartnell in 1966 to become the second actor to play which television hero?
The Doctor
The Doctor had only ever been Hartnell, and the show's survival hung on viewers accepting a successor who neither looked nor sounded like him.
Q 28Patrick Warburton, Elaine's boyfriend David Puddy on Seinfeld, voices which police officer neighbor on Family Guy?
Joe Swanson
Joe Swanson is one of many Warburton voices: he is also Kronk in The Emperor's New Groove and has played Buzz Lightyear on television.
Q 29Patrick Wilson plays real-life paranormal investigator Ed Warren opposite Vera Farmiga in which horror film series?
The Conjuring
The Conjuring made Wilson a horror regular, a long way from 2004, when he played the romantic Raoul in the film of The Phantom of the Opera.
Q 30Poet Patrick Pearse read the Proclamation of the Irish Republic outside Dublin's General Post Office in which revolt?
Easter Rising
The Easter Rising began on Easter Monday 1916 with Pearse as its chosen president, and he was among the first leaders shot by firing squad days later.