Q 01/05

Which Hollywood leading man, born Archibald Leach in Bristol, took US citizenship in 1942?

A) Clark Gable

B) Cary Grant

C) Errol Flynn

D) David Niven

Answer · why

B) Cary Grant

Cary Grant legally adopted his screen name only on 26 June 1942, the day he became a naturalised American at the age of 38.

Q 02/05

Which Motown prodigy, born a Judkins in Saginaw, Michigan, topped the Hot 100 aged 13?

A) Smokey Robinson

B) Marvin Gaye

C) Stevie Wonder

D) Lionel Richie

Answer · why

C) Stevie Wonder

Stevie Wonder was born six weeks premature, and the oxygen-rich incubator that kept him alive caused the retinopathy that left him blind.

Q 03/05

Which children's author, born Theodor Geisel, wrote a 1957 bestseller using just 236 different words?

A) Maurice Sendak

B) Roald Dahl

C) Shel Silverstein

D) Dr. Seuss

Answer · why

D) Dr. Seuss

Dr. Seuss built The Cat in the Hat from a publisher's list of beginner words; he first signed as Seuss, his mother's maiden name, after Dartmouth barr...

Q 04/05

Which centre, born Lew Alcindor, so dominated UCLA that college basketball banned the dunk?

A) Kareem Abdul-Jabbar

B) Wilt Chamberlain

C) Patrick Ewing

D) Hakeem Olajuwon

Answer · why

A) Kareem Abdul-Jabbar

Kareem Abdul-Jabbar took the name privately on converting to Islam in 1968 and used it in public only from 1971, after his first NBA title; the no-dun...

Q 05/05

Which author, born Eric Arthur Blair in British India, took his pen name from a Suffolk river?

A) Graham Greene

B) George Orwell

C) Evelyn Waugh

D) Aldous Huxley

Answer · why

B) George Orwell

George Orwell was one of four pen names he put forward in 1932, another being Kenneth Miles; the Orwell was a river he loved in his parents' home coun...