Q 01/05

Who was the first African American to win an Academy Award, for playing Mammy in Gone with the Wind?

A) Hattie McDaniel

B) Lena Horne

C) Ethel Waters

D) Butterfly McQueen

Answer · why

A) Hattie McDaniel

She could not attend the film's Atlanta premiere because it was held in a whites-only theatre.

Q 02/05

Sidney Poitier became the first Black actor to win Best Actor in 1964 for which film?

A) In the Heat of the Night

B) Lilies of the Field

C) The Defiant Ones

D) A Raisin in the Sun

Answer · why

B) Lilies of the Field

He was also the first Bahamian to win, and had been the first African American nominated for Best Actor for The Defiant Ones in 1958.

Q 03/05

Halle Berry became the first African American woman to win Best Actress for which 2001 film?

A) Introducing Dorothy Dandridge

B) Jungle Fever

C) Monster's Ball

D) Losing Isaiah

Answer · why

C) Monster's Ball

She had earlier played Dorothy Dandridge, the first African American woman ever nominated for Best Actress, for Carmen Jones in 1954.

Q 04/05

Louis Gossett Jr. became the first African American to win Best Supporting Actor for which 1982 film?

A) Roots: The Next Generations

B) Enemy Mine

C) Iron Eagle

D) An Officer and a Gentleman

Answer · why

D) An Officer and a Gentleman

He played the drill instructor Gunnery Sergeant Emil Foley, and had won an Emmy for Roots five years earlier.

Q 05/05

Denzel Washington's second Oscar came for which 2001 film, in which he plays a corrupt LAPD officer?

A) Training Day

B) Man on Fire

C) American Gangster

D) Flight

Answer · why

A) Training Day

His character Alonzo Harris takes rookie Ethan Hawke through one 24-hour shift; Hawke was nominated too.