Jeff Goldblum
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50 free Jeff Goldblum trivia questions with answers — trivia quiz, new questions added Oct 2026.
Few actors are as instantly recognizable as Jeff Goldblum. His unhurried, stop-start way with a line has carried him from bit parts in 1970s classics to some of the biggest box-office hits ever made, and along the way he has become a jazz bandleader and a documentary host as well. This quiz follows the whole career. There are questions on Jurassic Park, Independence Day and The Fly, on Thor: Ragnarok and Wicked, and on cult curiosities such as Earth Girls Are Easy and The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai. Others cover his television roles, his guest spots and voice work, his music, his marriages and his start on the New York stage. It is pitched for film fans of every level: the opening questions are ones most moviegoers can reason out, while the later ones reward anyone who has watched the deep cuts. Every answer comes with a brief explanation, so you will leave with a few stories about how the roles came about.
30 of 50 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Which branch of mathematics does Ian Malcolm, Jeff Goldblum's black-clad skeptic in Jurassic Park, specialize in?
Chaos theory
Chaos theory filled Malcolm's dialogue with math, and one draft of the script cut him entirely until Goldblum's audition convinced Steven Spielberg to bring him back.
Q 02In Independence Day, what does Jeff Goldblum's David Levinson upload to the alien mothership to disable its shields?
A computer virus
A computer virus drops the shields long enough for a nuclear missile to destroy the mothership. David builds it with Area 51 researchers after decoding the invaders' countdown.
Q 03Which ruler of the planet Sakaar does Jeff Goldblum play in Thor: Ragnarok, pitting Thor against the Hulk?
The Grandmaster
The Grandmaster has blue skin in the comics but not in the film, partly because Goldblum had already played a blue alien in Earth Girls Are Easy.
Q 04Beside which London landmark did a 25-foot statue of Jeff Goldblum appear to mark Jurassic Park's 25th anniversary?
Tower Bridge
Tower Bridge was the backdrop for the temporary statue, which went up in July 2018 and measured a foot for every year since the film's release.
Q 05Which character does Jeff Goldblum play in the 2024 film Wicked, a figure who invites Elphaba to the Emerald City?
The Wizard
The Wizard turns out to be an ordinary man who cannot read the spellbook himself, which is why he needs Elphaba. Goldblum returned to the part in Wicked: For Good.
Q 06For which technology company was Jeff Goldblum the voice of most US commercials for several years in the 1990s?
Apple
Apple had Goldblum narrate its ads for the iMac and the iBook, and he has also voiced commercials for Toyota.
Q 07Which actress, Jeff Goldblum's co-star in The Fly and Earth Girls Are Easy, was married to him from 1987 to 1991?
Geena Davis
Geena Davis met Goldblum on the set of the horror comedy Transylvania 6-5000, and a producer of The Fly opposed casting her because the two were already a couple.
Q 08Which instrument does Jeff Goldblum play on his jazz albums, a passion he credits to his late brother Rick?
Piano
Piano is what Goldblum plays at the head of his own jazz orchestra, which did not release a debut album until 2018, more than four decades into his acting career.
Q 09In which vigilante thriller did Jeff Goldblum make his film debut, playing a thug who attacks the hero's family?
Death Wish
Death Wish starred Charles Bronson as the architect Paul Kersey, and the home invasion Goldblum's thug takes part in is the crime that turns Kersey into a vigilante.
Q 10Which comic actor also auditioned to play Ian Malcolm in Jurassic Park before the role went to Jeff Goldblum?
Jim Carrey
Jim Carrey was terrific in his audition, the casting director recalled, but the team quickly fell for the idea of Goldblum. The two had already shared the screen in Earth Girls Are Easy.
Q 11Which actress did Jeff Goldblum begin dating while they made a 1993 blockbuster, a romance that ended in 1997?
Laura Dern
Laura Dern played Ellie Sattler, the scientist Ian Malcolm flirts with in Jurassic Park, and the pair shared the screen again almost three decades later in Jurassic World Dominion.
Q 12Which city does a Tyrannosaurus rampage through at the climax of Jeff Goldblum's sequel The Lost World: Jurassic Park?
San Diego
San Diego got its dinosaur only two months before filming began, when Steven Spielberg rewrote the ending because he wanted to see one attack the mainland.
Q 13Which director cast Jeff Goldblum in The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou, The Grand Budapest Hotel and Asteroid City?
Wes Anderson
Q 21Jeff Goldblum was born in West Homestead, a small borough on the Monongahela River just outside which American city?
Pittsburgh
Pittsburgh is where Goldblum's father became a hospital's chief of medicine. Goldblum left for New York at 17, and in 2006 played himself in a film named after the city.
Q 22Which novelist created Ian Malcolm, then made him the lead of a sequel after fans embraced Jeff Goldblum's performance?
Michael Crichton
Michael Crichton had Malcolm declared dead at the end of the first novel, then revealed in The Lost World that the report had been premature.
Q 23Which director made the 1986 horror film The Fly and proposed Jeff Goldblum for its lead, the scientist Seth Brundle?
David Cronenberg
Wes Anderson first cast Goldblum as Alistair Hennessey, the more successful rival oceanographer in The Life Aquatic, and has brought him back several times since.
Q 14Which Greek god did Jeff Goldblum play in the Netflix series Kaos, taking over the role from Hugh Grant?
Zeus
Zeus is all-powerful yet insecure in Kaos, where he keeps Prometheus shackled to a cliff as punishment for interfering with his rule. Grant had to withdraw because of a scheduling clash.
Q 15Which streaming service had The World According to Jeff Goldblum among its shows on the day it launched?
Disney+
Disney+ launched with the National Geographic series, for which Goldblum deliberately researched as little as possible before exploring sneakers, ice cream and tattoos.
Q 16In The Big Chill, Jeff Goldblum plays Michael Gold, a University of Michigan graduate who writes for which magazine?
People
People employs Michael, who spends the reunion weekend flirting and hunting for investors in a New York nightclub he wants to open.
Q 17In which 1985 western did Jeff Goldblum play the gambler Slick, appearing alongside his first wife Patricia Gaul?
Silverado
Silverado was directed by Lawrence Kasdan, who had already cast Goldblum in The Big Chill. His gambler betrays the heroes and ends up killed with his own knife.
Q 18Which British actress plays Kate, the nurse Jeff Goldblum's struggling actor falls for in the comedy The Tall Guy?
Emma Thompson
Emma Thompson's Kate meets Dexter when hay fever sends him to a doctor. He later lands the lead in a musical version of The Elephant Man, in the first film written by Richard Curtis.
Q 19Which actor did Jeff Goldblum replace on Law & Order: Criminal Intent when he joined as Detective Zack Nichols?
Chris Noth
Chris Noth left after the seventh season, and Goldblum's Nichols lasted two seasons before the actor quit over doubts about the show's future.
Q 20Emilie Livingston, who married Jeff Goldblum in 2014, competed for Canada at the Olympics in which sport?
Rhythmic gymnastics
Rhythmic gymnastics took Livingston to Russia to train at about eleven, and she won the all-around title at the 1999 Pan American Games before becoming a dancer and contortionist.
David Cronenberg rejected the producer's pick, Pierce Brosnan, and modeled Brundle's telepods on the engine cylinder of his own Ducati motorcycle.
Q 24The Fly, starring Jeff Goldblum as a scientist who merges with an insect, won an Academy Award in which category?
Best Makeup
Best Makeup went to Chris Walas and Stephan Dupuis, who designed the final creature first and then worked backwards through each stage of the scientist's decay.
Q 25Which animal is turned inside-out in a failed teleportation test early in The Fly, starring Jeff Goldblum?
A baboon
A baboon is the first victim of the telepods, which can move objects but mangle living tissue. A second one comes through unharmed once the machine is reprogrammed.
Q 26Which actor plays the Marine pilot who flies into the mothership with Jeff Goldblum's character in Independence Day?
Will Smith
Will Smith had no bigger hit for more than 20 years: Independence Day stayed his highest-grossing film until the 2019 remake of Aladdin passed it.
Q 27Which star of the sitcom Taxi plays Julius Levinson, father of Jeff Goldblum's character, in Independence Day?
Judd Hirsch
Judd Hirsch's Julius travels with his son to the White House, and it is Julius who inspires the plan that finally beats the invaders.
Q 28Which Star Trek actor plays psychiatrist David Kibner opposite Jeff Goldblum in 1978's Invasion of the Body Snatchers?
Leonard Nimoy
Leonard Nimoy was cast partly to break him out of typecasting, though the director admitted that Kibner and his pod double shared some of Spock's quirks.
Q 29Jeff Goldblum made his Broadway debut in the ensemble of a 1971 rock musical based on which Shakespeare comedy?
Two Gentlemen of Verona
Two Gentlemen of Verona beat Grease to the Tony Award for Best Musical, and Stockard Channing made her Broadway debut in the same ensemble.
Q 30Which famous acting teacher trained Jeff Goldblum at New York's Neighborhood Playhouse after he moved there at 17?
Sanford Meisner
Sanford Meisner coached Goldblum at the Neighborhood Playhouse, and Goldblum went on to teach acting himself at Playhouse West in North Hollywood.