Leonardo DiCaprio Trivia
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50 free Leonardo DiCaprio trivia questions with answers — entertainment quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
Leonardo DiCaprio was named after a da Vinci painting his pregnant mother was looking at in Florence, turned down a stage name of Lenny Williams, almost quit acting at 11 to breakdance, and calls a run of Matchbox car commercials his first real role. He went from Critters 3 and Growing Pains to an Oscar nomination at 19, to Titanic and Leo-mania, and then spent two decades deliberately dismantling the teen-idol image with Scorsese, Nolan, Tarantino, Iñárritu and Paul Thomas Anderson. This quiz covers the whole arc: his parents and childhood in Los Angeles, the early TV and film roles, the films he turned down, the Scorsese partnership, the Inception payday, the Revenant shoot, his production company and documentaries, the Formula E team, the foundation and the UN role, plus the odd detail about islands, stitches and a returned Marlon Brando Oscar. Fifty questions, four options each, with a short explanation after every answer. Play on your phone or print it for a movie night.
30 of 50 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01In which city was Leonardo DiCaprio born in 1974?
Los Angeles
Los Angeles. His parents divorced when he was a toddler and he was raised mostly by his mother; it was a stepbrother's well-paid TV advert that first pointed him towards acting.
Q 02DiCaprio's mother Irmelin was a legal secretary from which country?
Germany
Germany. His maternal grandmother lived there until her death in 2008, and a viral 2022 claim that she came from Odesa in Ukraine was never backed by any evidence.
Q 03DiCaprio's mother first felt him kick while looking at a da Vinci painting in which museum?
The Uffizi
The Uffizi. His parents were visiting Florence when the unborn baby kicked furiously in front of the painting, and they took it as a sign: the boy would be called Leonardo.
Q 04An early agent wanted DiCaprio to adopt which more 'American' stage name?
Lenny Williams
Lenny Williams. The agent thought his real name 'too ethnic'; DiCaprio refused to change it, went a long time without work, and was ready to quit until his father talked him round.
Q 05At age 11, DiCaprio nearly quit acting to pursue which hobby?
Breakdancing
Breakdancing. He had just taken second place in a small competition and earned the nickname 'Noodle', which was nearly enough to end his acting career before it began.
Q 06Which toy brand's commercials does DiCaprio describe as his first role?
Matchbox
Matchbox. He was 14 and played 'a little gangster' with slicked-back hair in the toy-car advert, and remembers being incredibly nervous.
Q 07On which sitcom did DiCaprio play Luke Brower, a homeless boy taken in by the family?
Growing Pains
Growing Pains. He joined the fading sitcom in 1991 and could not lift its ratings, though its star Alan Thicke lobbied the producers to save the show by giving him a bigger part.
Q 08DiCaprio made his film debut in 1991 in which low-budget horror sequel?
Critters 3
Critters 3. He played a landlord's stepson, and has since called it possibly one of the worst films of all time, a debut he would rather people forgot.
Q 09Which actor handpicked DiCaprio from 400 hopefuls to co-star in This Boy's Life?
Robert De Niro
Robert De Niro. Watching the auditions he said, 'I like the blond kid', and once filming began director Michael Caton-Jones had to drill the bad habits out of his young co-star.
Q 10Which 1993 film earned the 19-year-old DiCaprio his first Oscar nomination?
What's Eating Gilbert Grape
What's Eating Gilbert Grape. Director Lasse Hallström nearly passed on him as too good-looking to play Johnny Depp's disabled brother Arnie, then cast him on the strength of his audition.
Q 11Sharon Stone paid DiCaprio's salary herself on which 1995 Sam Raimi western?
The Quick and the Dead
The Quick and the Dead. Stone wrote that he was the only actor who nailed the audition, and when the studio told her she could pay the 'unknown' out of her own salary if she wanted him so much, she did.
Q 12Which rebellious teenage French poet did DiCaprio play in Total Eclipse (1995)?
Arthur Rimbaud
Arthur Rimbaud. The film charts his stormy affair with the older poet Paul Verlaine, who shot and wounded him in a drunken rage; the real Rimbaud gave up poetry by about 21 and ended up a trader in Africa.
Q 13Who played Juliet opposite DiCaprio in the 1996 film Romeo + Juliet?
Q 21The Beach (2000) was adapted from a 1996 novel by which author?
Alex Garland
Alex Garland. The film made its location, Thailand's Maya Bay, so famous that crowds of visitors wrecked its coral, and the authorities closed the beach to tourists in 2018 so it could recover.
Q 22DiCaprio says he was rejected for Moulin Rouge! (2001) because of his poor what?
Singing
Singing. He tried 'Lean on Me' with the director and a pianist, and when he went for the high note the director told him he didn't know if the conversation should continue.
Q 23DiCaprio and which close friend blocked the US release of their improvised film Don's Plum?
Tobey Maguire
Claire Danes
Claire Danes. DiCaprio said she was the only girl who looked him in the eye in auditions; Natalie Portman was also tried for the part, but the studio judged her far too young beside him.
Q 14Romeo + Juliet won DiCaprio a Silver Bear for Best Actor at which film festival?
Berlin
Berlin. He had nearly passed on the film, saying he didn't want 'to run around in tights, swinging a sword', until his father urged him to take a closer look at the director's work.
Q 15In Marvin's Room (1996), DiCaprio played Hank, the troubled son of which actress's character?
Meryl Streep
Meryl Streep. She was first lined up to play the saintly sister Bessie, but preferred the angry Lee, Hank's mother, and suggested Diane Keaton for the part she had given up.
Q 16Which 1997 film did DiCaprio turn down in order to make Titanic?
Boogie Nights
Boogie Nights. Paul Thomas Anderson wanted him as Dirk Diggler, but he was already committed to Titanic; in 2025 he called turning the part down his biggest regret.
Q 17In Titanic, DiCaprio's Jack Dawson wins his ticket at which game?
Poker
Poker. Jack lays down a full house as the ship's whistle sounds its final warning, then sprints aboard; the film went on to win 11 Oscars, matching Ben-Hur's record.
Q 18In which 1998 film did DiCaprio play both King Louis XIV and his secret twin?
The Man in the Iron Mask
The Man in the Iron Mask. On its opening weekend it finished in a virtual tie for number one in the US with Titanic, then in its thirteenth week, so DiCaprio's only real rival was himself.
Q 19Playing twins in a 1998 film earned DiCaprio a Golden Raspberry in which category?
Worst Screen Couple
Worst Screen Couple. The Razzies listed the winners as 'Leonardo DiCaprio and Leonardo DiCaprio', counting the twins as a pair, on the night Bruce Willis was named Worst Actor.
Q 20DiCaprio left an early version of American Psycho after disagreements with which director?
Oliver Stone
Oliver Stone. He had replaced Mary Harron, who was pushed out for resisting DiCaprio's casting; when star and director could not agree and both left, Harron returned and made the film with Christian Bale.
Tobey Maguire. They said the film, shot in six days and largely improvised, was only ever meant to be a short, and a 1999 legal settlement barred its release in the US and Canada.
Q 24Which Star Wars prequel role did DiCaprio turn down?
Anakin Skywalker
Anakin Skywalker. He met George Lucas about the part but said he 'just didn't feel ready to take that dive', so Hayden Christensen became the future Darth Vader in Attack of the Clones.
Q 25Catch Me If You Can is based on the life of which real con artist?
Frank Abagnale Jr.
Frank Abagnale Jr. The film follows his own account of posing as a pilot, a doctor and a lawyer while still a teenager, but later investigations found most of it unsupported: his best con may be his life story.
Q 26Who played the FBI agent chasing DiCaprio in Catch Me If You Can?
Tom Hanks
Tom Hanks. He went from playing a gangster in Road to Perdition to the dogged FBI man Carl Hanratty, who in the film ends by getting his quarry out of prison to help the Bureau catch other forgers.
Q 27What is the name of DiCaprio's Irish-American gang leader in Gangs of New York?
Amsterdam Vallon
Amsterdam Vallon. Martin Scorsese had long struggled to get his pet project financed, and it was only when DiCaprio, fresh from Titanic, wanted the part that the film finally took off.
Q 28Which of these production companies was founded by DiCaprio?
Appian Way
Appian Way. It shares its name with the ancient Roman road, and DiCaprio says he set it up to find unusual stories and keep too many hands from turning them into something else.
Q 29Which real-life figure did DiCaprio play in Martin Scorsese's The Aviator?
Howard Hughes
Howard Hughes. DiCaprio first developed the biopic with Michael Mann, who was expected to direct it; in the end Mann stayed on as a producer and handed the film to Martin Scorsese.
Q 30In The Departed, DiCaprio's undercover state trooper infiltrates the Irish Mob in which city?
Boston
Boston. DiCaprio went there before the shoot to meet people with real ties to the Irish Mob, and put on 15 pounds of muscle to play trooper Billy Costigan.