Famous Pauls
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50 free Famous Pauls trivia questions with answers — pop culture quiz, new questions added Oct 2026.
Paul is a name that keeps turning up at the top of the bill. It belongs to a Beatle, to one half of a great folk-rock duo, to film stars, painters, athletes and coaches, and to a saint whose letters fill a good part of the New Testament. Add a pope, a giant lumberjack and one very famous octopus, and the list gets long quickly. This quiz works through them. Many questions give you a clue and four Pauls to choose from, so you have to tell the rock star from the crooner and the painter from the film director. Others start from a well-known Paul, real or fictional, and ask about the thing that made him famous: the role, the record, the invention or the turning point. It suits a themed round at a pub quiz, a birthday game for the Paul in your life, or anyone who likes general knowledge with a twist. Every answer comes with a short explanation, so you pick up a new fact even from a wrong guess.
30 of 50 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Which Paul formed the band Wings with his wife Linda and guitarist Denny Laine in the early 1970s?
McCartney
Paul McCartney had already written Yesterday for the Beatles, one of the most covered songs in history with more than 2,200 recorded versions.
Q 02Paul Revere, famous for his 1775 midnight ride, made his living in Boston in which trade?
Silversmith
Silversmith Paul Revere was also an engraver, and his best-known print shows the Boston Massacre of 1770. In 1800 he became the first American to roll copper into sheets for ships.
Q 03Which Paul, the star of Cool Hand Luke, co-founded a food company that gives its profits to charity?
Newman
Paul Newman started Newman's Own in 1982 with the writer A. E. Hotchner, beginning with a homemade salad dressing.
Q 04In American folklore, the giant lumberjack Paul Bunyan is accompanied by Babe, which kind of blue animal?
An ox
An ox named Babe is Paul Bunyan's pet and working animal, and one tall tale says the pair's footprints created the 10,000 lakes of Minnesota.
Q 05Which Paul played Phoebe's husband Mike Hannigan in Friends before becoming Marvel's Ant-Man?
Rudd
Paul Rudd first played the shrinking hero Scott Lang in Ant-Man in 2015, and he co-wrote the sequel Ant-Man and the Wasp.
Q 06Pope John Paul II, the first non-Italian pope in 455 years, was born in which country?
Poland
Poland was the birthplace of Karol Wojtyła, who grew up in the town of Wadowice and became the third longest-serving pope in history.
Q 07Which Paul flew to Johannesburg in 1985 to record with South African musicians for the album Graceland?
Simon
Paul Simon made the trip in secret with his engineer Roy Halee, and Graceland went on to win the 1987 Grammy for Album of the Year.
Q 08Paul the Octopus won worldwide fame in 2010 by picking the winners of matches at which event?
FIFA World Cup
FIFA World Cup predictions made Paul an animal oracle: he chose the winner of all seven of Germany's matches, then correctly picked Spain to win the final.
Q 09Which Paul, once a rigger on the Sydney Harbour Bridge, played the outback hero of Crocodile Dundee?
Hogan
Paul Hogan won a Golden Globe for the 1986 comedy and earned an Oscar nomination for its screenplay.
Q 10London's St Paul's Cathedral, rebuilt after the Great Fire of 1666, was designed by which architect?
Christopher Wren
Christopher Wren gave the cathedral its high dome in the English Baroque style, and the building was completed in 1710.
Q 11Which Paul played Brian O'Conner in the Fast & Furious franchise, starting with the 2001 original?
Walker
Paul Walker died before Furious 7 was finished, so his brothers Caleb and Cody stood in for him to complete the film.
Q 12The apostle Paul, then known as Saul, was blinded by a bright light while travelling to which city?
Damascus
Damascus was where he was heading to arrest Christians, and in that city a disciple named Ananias restored his sight.
Q 13Aaron Paul won three Emmy Awards for playing Jesse Pinkman in which crime drama series?
Breaking Bad
Breaking Bad ran on AMC from 2008 to 2013, and Paul returned to the role in the 2019 Netflix film El Camino.
Q 21Which comedian plays Paul Blart, the Segway-riding security officer of the 2009 comedy Paul Blart: Mall Cop?
Kevin James
Kevin James also co-wrote the film with Nick Bakay, and the pair teamed up again to write the sequel.
Q 22In Misery, novelist Paul Sheldon is held captive by obsessive fan Annie Wilkes, a role that won which actress an Oscar?
Kathy Bates
Kathy Bates was a stage actress little known to film audiences, and her win made Misery the first film of a Stephen King novel to take an Academy Award.
Q 23Folk trio Peter, Paul and Mary released a 1963 children's favourite about a magic dragon with which name?
Puff
Puff began as a poem by Leonard Lipton, a fellow student of the trio's Peter Yarrow at Cornell, and Yarrow set it to music.
Q 14Paul Atreides, whose family is sent to govern the planet Arrakis, is the hero of which novel?
Dune
Dune's hero was played by Kyle MacLachlan in David Lynch's 1984 film, and Timothée Chalamet took the part for director Denis Villeneuve.
Q 15Which Paul starred in the wine-country comedy Sideways and won an Emmy in the title role of HBO's John Adams?
Giamatti
Paul Giamatti reunited with Sideways director Alexander Payne for The Holdovers, which brought him a Golden Globe and an Oscar nomination for Best Actor.
Q 16The Les Paul, a solid-body electric guitar first sold in 1952, is made by which company?
Gibson
Gibson named the guitar after Les Paul, the musician who had hand-built a solid-body prototype nicknamed The Log.
Q 17Sean Paul, who topped the US Hot 100 in 2003 with Get Busy, comes from which country?
Jamaica
Jamaica's capital, Kingston, is where he was born Sean Paul Henriques, and he topped the US chart again with Temperature.
Q 18Pilot Paul Tibbets gave which name to the B-29 bomber he flew over Hiroshima in 1945?
Enola Gay
Enola Gay became the bomber's formal name on 5 August 1945, the day before the mission, in honour of the pilot's mother, Enola Gay Tibbets.
Q 19French composer Paul Dukas wrote The Sorcerer's Apprentice, which Disney's Fantasia made famous with which character?
Mickey Mouse
Mickey Mouse plays the apprentice, and Walt Disney bought the music rights in 1937 for a stand-alone short that grew into the full film.
Q 20Designer Jean Paul Gaultier created the cone bra worn on the 1990 Blond Ambition tour by which singer?
Madonna
Madonna was already a customer: she wore a Gaultier skirt with men's suspenders to the 1985 premiere of Desperately Seeking Susan.
Q 24John Paul Jones, born John Baldwin, played bass and keyboards from 1968 to 1980 in which English rock band?
Led Zeppelin
Led Zeppelin's bassist took his stage name as a session player, after a friend saw a poster for the 1959 film John Paul Jones.
Q 25Which actor played death row officer Paul Edgecomb in the 1999 film The Green Mile?
Tom Hanks
Tom Hanks was meant to play the elderly Edgecomb too, but make-up tests could not age him convincingly, so Dabbs Greer took those scenes.
Q 26Saint Paul, the capital of Minnesota, forms the Twin Cities with which larger neighbour?
Minneapolis
Minneapolis sits beside a capital that was first known as Pig's Eye, after the tavern of a bootlegger nicknamed "Pig's Eye" Parrant.
Q 27J. Paul Getty, who had a pay phone installed at his mansion Sutton Place, made his fortune in which industry?
Oil
Oil made Getty one of the richest men alive, yet he was famously reluctant to pay the ransom when his grandson was kidnapped.
Q 28Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen owned the NBA's Portland Trail Blazers and which NFL team?
Seattle Seahawks
Seattle Seahawks owner Allen was also a part-owner of the Sounders, the same city's Major League Soccer club.
Q 29Which Paul created the character Pee-wee Herman with the Los Angeles improv troupe the Groundlings?
Reubens
Paul Reubens launched The Pee-wee Herman Show on stage in 1981, after a failed audition for Saturday Night Live.
Q 30French philosopher Jean-Paul Sartre became the first person to voluntarily decline which award in 1964?
Nobel Prize in Literature
Nobel Prize in Literature winners rarely say no, but Sartre said he always declined official honours because a writer should not become an institution.