Have Gun – Will Travel
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50 free Have Gun – Will Travel trivia questions with answers — trivia quiz, new questions added Oct 2026.
Have Gun – Will Travel gave 1950s television one of its most unusual heroes. Paladin was a gunfighter for hire who quoted poetry, loved the opera and preferred to talk his way out of trouble, and Richard Boone played him across six seasons and 225 half-hour episodes. This quiz covers the man and his methods, the hotel staff he relied on, the guest stars who rode through, and the writers and directors who went on to reshape film and television. It also follows the show's long afterlife: the theme song, the spoofs, the lawsuits and the film versions that never quite happened. It is written for fans who grew up with the series and for newcomers discovering classic TV Westerns. Every answer comes with a short explanation, so you will pick up a story or two even when you miss.
30 of 50 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Which rapper was announced in 2006 as the star of a Have Gun – Will Travel film that never reached cinemas?
Eminem
Eminem was lined up to play Paladin as a modern-day bounty hunter and to work on the soundtrack. Paramount took an 18-month option, but the film never materialised.
Q 02In which 1986 coming-of-age film do the young heroes sing the closing theme of Have Gun – Will Travel?
Stand by Me
Stand by Me, set in 1959, has its four boys belt out the show's closing ballad as they march along the railway tracks, a quick way to place the story in its era.
Q 03Which chess piece appears on Paladin's business card and holster in Have Gun – Will Travel?
A knight
A knight in white is engraved on the card, evoking the proverbial rescuer in shining armour. A platinum version of the emblem decorates his holster.
Q 04Which character in the 1977 animated film The Hobbit was voiced by Richard Boone, television's Paladin?
Smaug
Smaug the dragon was given Boone's gravelly voice, one of the last roles of a career that had made him a star as a gunfighter two decades earlier.
Q 05Which future science-fiction producer won a Writers Guild award for a 1957 Have Gun – Will Travel script?
Gene Roddenberry
Gene Roddenberry wrote more than 20 episodes of the series before creating Star Trek. His winning script, Helen of Abajinian, follows a vintner's runaway daughter.
Q 06Which author echoed Have Gun – Will Travel with his 1958 science-fiction novel Have Space Suit—Will Travel?
Robert Heinlein
Robert Heinlein wrote the novel for young readers, and it earned a Hugo Award nomination. The series had made the 'Have X, will travel' formula a 1950s catchphrase.
Q 07In which city does Paladin live in a luxury hotel between jobs in Have Gun – Will Travel?
San Francisco
San Francisco is home, where Paladin lives as a bon vivant with tailored suits, fine wine and nights at the opera. He rides out only when a client needs him.
Q 08Which film composer wrote the four-note opening theme of Have Gun – Will Travel?
Bernard Herrmann
Bernard Herrmann, who later scored Psycho, reused a short sequence he had composed for the 1951 film On Dangerous Ground. His motif plays as Paladin draws his revolver and aims it at the viewer.
Q 09Which cartoon duo parodied Have Gun – Will Travel in the 1962 short Tall in the Trap?
Tom and Jerry
Tom and Jerry rode the frontier for the spoof, in which Tom rolls into town on spurs as a hired gun whose calling card carries a mousetrap.
Q 10Which British period drama has an American-born character borrow the title phrase of Have Gun – Will Travel?
Downton Abbey
Downton Abbey gave the line to Lady Cora in its third season. It sounds like an anachronism, but 'Have X, will travel' adverts date from the early 20th century.
Q 11By what name is the Chinese bellhop at Paladin's hotel known in Have Gun – Will Travel?
Hey Boy
Hey Boy is what the guests call him, though one first-season episode gives his real name as Kim Chan. He appears in all but one of the six seasons.
Q 12What color is the outfit Paladin wears when he rides out on a job in Have Gun – Will Travel?
Black
Black Western clothes replace the elegant custom-made suits he wears at his hotel, a change that signals the man about town has gone to work.
Q 13Which military academy did Paladin attend before serving as a cavalry officer in Have Gun – Will Travel?
West Point
West Point trained him for the Union cavalry in the Civil War. That schooling shows in a hero who can quote classic literature, philosophy and case law.
Q 21Which hotel is Paladin's permanent home, where most radio episodes of Have Gun – Will Travel began and ended?
The Carlton
The Carlton is where Paladin lives in style between jobs. On radio, each story usually opened and closed with a short scene there.
Q 22Which actor voiced Paladin in the radio version of Have Gun – Will Travel, which ran for 106 episodes?
John Dehner
John Dehner took the microphone in November 1958. Before acting, he had worked as an assistant animator at Walt Disney Studios, helping to draw Fantasia.
Q 23Which horror-film star guest-starred as a Shakespearean actor in the Have Gun – Will Travel episode The Moor's Revenge?
Vincent Price
Q 14Which American network broadcast Have Gun – Will Travel on both television and radio?
CBS
CBS launched the radio version more than a year after the TV premiere, a rare case of a television hit spawning a successful radio series.
Q 15Which top-rated Western aired straight after Have Gun – Will Travel on Saturday nights and kept it from number one?
Gunsmoke
Gunsmoke was television's number one show from 1957 to 1961, while Paladin's adventures ranked third or fourth in each of those seasons.
Q 16Paladin of Have Gun – Will Travel takes his name from the legendary champions of which emperor's court?
Charlemagne
Charlemagne had twelve paladins in medieval legend, led by Roland, whose heroic death is told in a famous French epic poem.
Q 17Besides his Colt revolver, which small hideout pistol does Paladin conceal under his belt in Have Gun – Will Travel?
A derringer
A derringer rides out of sight on his jobs: in some episodes it is a two-shot Remington, in others a single-shot model.
Q 18Which comedian's 1954 memoir borrowed the tuxedo advert line said to have inspired the title Have Gun – Will Travel?
Bob Hope
Bob Hope called his 1954 memoir Have Tux, Will Travel, after an old line from performers' adverts in Variety. That phrase is said to have given writer Herb Meadow his title.
Q 19Which Western film star was the first choice to play Paladin before the role went to Richard Boone?
Randolph Scott
Randolph Scott was offered the series first and passed on it. The part he refused made Boone, his co-star in the 1957 Western The Tall T, a national star.
Q 20Richard Boone turned down the lead in which island crime drama while he was living in Honolulu?
Hawaii Five-O
Hawaii Five-O was shot entirely in the islands partly at Boone's urging. The lead went instead to Jack Lord, who had been a guest in Paladin's very first episode.
Vincent Price led a touring troupe performing Othello, alongside Patricia Morison, with Paladin on hand to protect the company.
Q 24Which actress, later a famous television mother, played frontier doctor Phyllis Thackeray in Have Gun – Will Travel?
June Lockhart
June Lockhart, later the mother in Lost in Space, came back as the doctor in The Return of Dr. Thackeray, in which Paladin helps her vaccinate a stubborn rancher's men against smallpox.
Q 25Which stuntman, later a hit film director, doubled for Richard Boone on Have Gun – Will Travel?
Hal Needham
Hal Needham got his first break on the series and can be spotted in bit parts in nearly 50 episodes, long before he directed Smokey and the Bandit.
Q 26In the 1985 Star Trek novel Ishmael, which Enterprise officer plays chess against Paladin of Have Gun – Will Travel?
Spock
Spock travels back in time in Barbara Hambly's novel and sits down to a game with a gunfighter who matches Paladin's description.
Q 27Which TV Western poked fun at Have Gun – Will Travel by mentioning a gunslinger who hands out business cards?
Maverick
Maverick mentioned the card-carrying gunman in its send-up episode Gun Shy, and a later comic episode featured a hired hero dressed just like Paladin.
Q 28Which instrument does Paladin, an opera-goer and wine lover, play in Have Gun – Will Travel?
Piano
Piano playing is one of many polished accomplishments: Paladin is also an expert at chess and poker and speaks several languages.
Q 29In which 1950s NBC hospital drama did Richard Boone star as Dr. Konrad Styner before Have Gun – Will Travel?
Medic
Medic made Boone a familiar face from 1954 and earned him his first Emmy nomination, three years before he strapped on Paladin's gun.
Q 30In which 1970s series did Richard Boone play an ageing gunfighter turned forensic detective in 1901 Oklahoma?
Hec Ramsey
Hec Ramsey prefers forensic science to his gun. Boone joked that the character was a lot like Paladin, only fatter.