50 free Uncle Buck trivia questions with answers — entertainment quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
45 free Uncle Buck trivia questions with answers. Uncle Buck put John Candy in a Chicago suburb with three kids, a drunk clown and a very large pancake, and topped the box office for a month in 1989. This quiz covers the film from every angle: the Russell children and the young Macaulay Culkin, Tia's boyfriend Bug, Chanice and her auto shop, the shoot inside a vacant high school, the mixed reviews and the two short-lived TV remakes. It also reaches into the wider Candy and Hughes partnership: Planes, Trains and Automobiles, The Great Outdoors and Home Alone. Easy questions ask who played Buck and why the parents leave. The hard ones want the filming start date, the name of the Malayalam remake, and the fictional Wisconsin town from The Great Outdoors. It suits a movie night or a round for anyone who grew up on late-80s comedies. Every answer was checked against Wikipedia's articles on the film, its cast and its makers, and each question carries the sentence that backs it up.
30 of 50 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Who wrote and directed Uncle Buck?
John Hughes
It was the first film he wrote, directed and produced under his multi-picture deal with Universal.
Q 02Who plays Buck Russell?
John Candy
Candy and Hughes made seven films together, from Vacation to Only the Lonely.
Q 03Why do the Russell parents have to leave their children with Buck?
Cindy's father has a heart attack
They rush back to Indianapolis, the city the family had just moved from.
Q 04What are the names of the three Russell children?
Tia, Miles and Maizy
Tia is the rebellious teenager, Miles is eight and Maizy is six.
Q 05Which future Home Alone star plays Miles Russell?
Macaulay Culkin
Home Alone the following year reunited him with Hughes and with Candy, who cameoed as polka king Gus Polinski.
Q 06Who plays Tia, the hostile teenage niece, in her film debut?
Jean Louisa Kelly
She later starred in Mr. Holland's Opus and played Kim on the sitcom Yes, Dear.
Q 07Who plays six-year-old Maizy?
Gaby Hoffmann
She had debuted in Field of Dreams the same year and grew up in New York's Chelsea Hotel.
Q 08What is the name of Buck's long-suffering girlfriend?
Chanice Kobolowski
She owns an auto repair shop, where Buck finally agrees to take a steady job.
Q 09Which actress, an Oscar nominee for Twice in a Lifetime, plays Chanice?
Amy Madigan
She also appeared in Field of Dreams that same year.
Q 10What is the name of Tia's self-centred boyfriend?
Bug
Buck ends up binding, gagging and locking him in a car trunk after catching him with another girl.
Q 11Who plays Marcy, the flirtatious neighbour who dances with Buck?
Laurie Metcalf
Tia's lie that Buck is having an affair with Marcy briefly ends his relationship with Chanice.
Q 12How does Buck make his living at the start of the film?
Betting on horse racing
He later skips a high-stakes race to go looking for Tia.
Q 13What is the name of the drunken entertainer who turns up late to Miles's birthday party?
Pooter-the-Clown
Mike Starr plays him; Buck sends him packing.
Q 21Which two films did Uncle Buck beat on its opening weekend?
Parenthood and The Abyss
It took $8.8 million from 1,804 theatres.
Q 22How many stars out of four did Roger Ebert give Uncle Buck?
One and a half
He found it unusually bitter and angry for a Hughes film.
Q 23Which studio released Uncle Buck?
Universal
Hughes made it under a multi-picture agreement with the studio.
Q 24Who played Buck in the 1990 CBS sitcom adaptation?
Q 14What is Mrs. Hogarth's job at Maizy's school?
Assistant principal
Buck memorably defends Maizy against her in one of the film's most quoted scenes.
Q 15Which future My Girl star appears as one of Maizy's classmates?
Anna Chlumsky
Two years later she and Culkin shared the MTV Movie Award for Best Kiss.
Q 16Where was much of Uncle Buck's production based?
A vacant high school in Northfield, Illinois
Three gyms at New Trier High School became sound stages holding the Russell house set.
Q 17In which suburb was the exterior of the Russell house filmed?
Evanston
The school scenes were shot at Romona Elementary in Wilmette.
Q 18On what date did filming begin?
January 4, 1989
The film was in cinemas by August 16 the same year.
Q 19For how many consecutive weeks was Uncle Buck the number one film in North America?
Four
It beat Parenthood and The Abyss on its opening weekend.
Q 20Roughly how much did Uncle Buck gross worldwide?
$79 million
It was the 13th-highest-grossing film of 1989 in North America, just ahead of Field of Dreams.
Kevin Meaney
In the show, Bob and Cindy die in a car accident, leaving Buck as the children's guardian.
Q 25What happens to the children's parents in the 1990 TV version?
They are killed in a car accident
Ratings collapsed after CBS moved it to Fridays.
Q 26Who played Buck in the 2016 ABC series?
Mike Epps
James Lesure played his brother and Nia Long his sister-in-law; ABC cancelled it after eight episodes.
Q 27How many episodes did the 2016 series last before cancellation?
Eight
It aired from June 14 to July 5, 2016.
Q 28The 1991 Malayalam-language remake of the film was called what?
Uncle Bun
It starred Mohanlal.
Q 29Which sketch comedy show made Buck's actor famous before Hollywood?
SCTV
He joined Toronto's Second City troupe in 1972.
Q 30Where was Buck's actor born?
Newmarket, Ontario
His father died of a heart attack at 35 on Candy's fifth birthday.