FREE! Click here to Join FunTrivia. Thousands of games, quizzes, and lots more!
Quiz about Enter Stage Right 2
Quiz about Enter Stage Right 2

Enter Stage Right [2] Trivia Quiz


This is a second quiz about the first movie a now deceased actor or actress performed in.

A multiple-choice quiz by rojan61. Estimated time: 5 mins.
  1. Home
  2. »
  3. Quizzes
  4. »
  5. Movie Trivia
  6. »
  7. Something in Common
  8. »
  9. Movie Firsts and Debuts

Author
rojan61
Time
5 mins
Type
Multiple Choice
Quiz #
320,738
Updated
Dec 03 21
# Qns
10
Difficulty
Average
Avg Score
6 / 10
Plays
778
Awards
Top 35% Quiz
- -
Question 1 of 10
1. Accomplished stage actor, Sydney Greenstreet, resisted the lure of movie stardom until age sixty-one, thirteen years before complications from kidney disease and diabetes ended his time on Earth in 1954. In 1941, he made his film debut as Kaspar Gutman aka The Fatman, a polite but dangerous kingpin who stopped at nothing to gain possession of a valuable bird statue. What was the name of the movie? Hint


Question 2 of 10
2. Forty-five years before he died of accidental asphyxiation at age seventy-two in 2009, David Carradine made his feature film debut as a gunslinger in an obscure 1964 B-level western. He played Cal Dodge, one of three hired guns killed by the man he was tracking. What was the name of the movie? Hint


Question 3 of 10
3. Vincent Price died in 1993 at the age of eighty-two from a combination of lung cancer and emphysema. Fifty-five years earlier in his 1938 movie debut, he played Robert Wade, a traditional man who fell in love with a nontraditional business woman. What was the name of the movie? Hint


Question 4 of 10
4. Paul Newman passed away from lung cancer at the age of eighty-three in 2008. He started out his career obtaining regular television work in the 1950s and then got his first feature film role in 1954 in a religious costume drama. He played Basil, an artisan commissioned to silverize a sacred cup. What was the name of the movie? Hint


Question 5 of 10
5. John Ritter died of an aortic dissection in 2003, just six days before he would have turned fifty-five. Thirty-two years earlier in 1971, he made his film debut in a supporting role in a Disney film. He played Roger, a snobbish television underling who sucked up to his TV network president uncle. What was the name of the movie? Hint


Question 6 of 10
6. Forty-five years after she created her first credited film role in 1940, Ruth Gordon suffered a life-ending stroke at the grand old age of eighty-nine in 1985. She played the wife of a very prominent U.S. president in her debut. What was the name of the movie? Hint


Question 7 of 10
7. Three years before her promising acting career was cut short by the homicidal Manson Family killers in 1969 at age twenty-six, Sharon Tate landed her first credited movie role in 1966. She played, Odile de Caray, a witch who exerted mysterious powers over a wealthy landowner. What was the name of the movie? Hint


Question 8 of 10
8. In 1992, Anthony Perkins died from complications related to AIDS at the age of sixty, thirty-nine years after he made his 1953 film debut in a supporting role. He played Fred Whitmarsh, the handsome youthful suitor of a young woman who desperately wanted to become an actress. What was the name of the movie? Hint


Question 9 of 10
9. After two uncredited movie appearances, William Holden got his feature film break in a 1939 movie about fighting and music. Forty-two years before he bled to death in a 1981 drunken slip-and-fall, he played Joe Bonaparte, a young man who was torn between his desire to be a professional boxer and his father's desire for him to become a concert violinist. What was the name of the movie? Hint


Question 10 of 10
10. DeForest Kelley passed away from stomach cancer in 1999 at the fine old age of seventy-nine. Fifty-two years earlier in 1947, he appeared in his first feature film role. He played Vince Grayson, an amnesic bank teller who thought he may have murdered someone. What was the name of the movie? Hint



(Optional) Create a Free FunTrivia ID to save the points you are about to earn:

arrow Select a User ID:
arrow Choose a Password:
arrow Your Email:




Quiz Answer Key and Fun Facts
1. Accomplished stage actor, Sydney Greenstreet, resisted the lure of movie stardom until age sixty-one, thirteen years before complications from kidney disease and diabetes ended his time on Earth in 1954. In 1941, he made his film debut as Kaspar Gutman aka The Fatman, a polite but dangerous kingpin who stopped at nothing to gain possession of a valuable bird statue. What was the name of the movie?

Answer: The Maltese Falcon

The plot centered around the quest of three ruthless scoundrels to possess a valuable twelve-inch bejeweled figurine of a falcon and the incorruptible but perhaps equally ruthless private detective, Sam Spade, who got in their way. Humphrey Bogart played Spade in arguably the best cinematic performance of his distinguished career.

The film was also John Huston's debut as a director. Greenstreet received an Oscar nomination for Best Actor In A Supporting Role and Huston received one for Best Writing, Screenplay.

The movie also received a Best Picture nomination. The film did not win any Oscars. "How Green Is My Valley" not only beat out "Falcon" for best picture, but also defeated Orson Welles' "Citizen Kane" and Alfred Hitchcock's "Suspicion", amongst others. Back then ten pictures rather than five were nominated each year.

Interestingly, the Academy reverted back to ten Best Picture nominations in 2010. Greenstreet also appeared in "Casablanca" released in 1942, "Strangers" released in 1946 and "Ruthless" released in 1948.
2. Forty-five years before he died of accidental asphyxiation at age seventy-two in 2009, David Carradine made his feature film debut as a gunslinger in an obscure 1964 B-level western. He played Cal Dodge, one of three hired guns killed by the man he was tracking. What was the name of the movie?

Answer: Taggart

The movie was a standard 'shoot-em-up' B-western. Tony Young starred as a man who gets revenge and is then pursued for revenge by some hired killers. In the end, he kills the bad guys and gets the girl, played by Jean Hale, and they live happily ever after. Lead man Young's movie career pretty much died after this film.

He did go on to have a decent television career and in his last role he played actor/director John Huston in a 1993 episode of Scott Bakula's TV series, "Quantum Leap". Carradine also acted in "Thieves" released in 1966, "Strangers" released in 1969 and "Stan" released in 2007.
3. Vincent Price died in 1993 at the age of eighty-two from a combination of lung cancer and emphysema. Fifty-five years earlier in his 1938 movie debut, he played Robert Wade, a traditional man who fell in love with a nontraditional business woman. What was the name of the movie?

Answer: Service de Luxe

Price opened his career as the male lead in a screwball romance opposite Constance Bennett. It was an innovative movie for its time because Bennett played a self-employed and self-sufficient business woman. The conflict in the movie was that Price's character wanted to marry a traditional stay-at-home mother type, but fell in love with Bennett, who tried to hide her self-reliance from Price's character.

In many ways, Bennett's character was decades ahead of its time. Eventually, Price ended up becoming best known for his roles in horror films. Price also starred in "Bernadette" released in 1943, "Laura" released in 1944 and "August" released in 1987.
4. Paul Newman passed away from lung cancer at the age of eighty-three in 2008. He started out his career obtaining regular television work in the 1950s and then got his first feature film role in 1954 in a religious costume drama. He played Basil, an artisan commissioned to silverize a sacred cup. What was the name of the movie?

Answer: The Silver Chalice

Newman starred along with Virginia Mayo, Pier Angeli, Jack Palance and Lorne Greene amongst others. The film was plodding and boring and Newman came across as someone born in Shaker Heights, Ohio rather than Greece. He genuinely feared that the role had ended his attempt to be taken seriously as an actor. Apparently, when the movie debuted in 1966 on television, he took out a full page ad in a newspaper apologizing for his performance and the film.

He later was quoted as calling it the worst movie made in the 1950s. Of course, it is hard to know today whether or not his tongue was at least partially planted firmly in his cheek.

In any event, his career survived and he became one of Hollywood's best regarded actors in time. Newman also appeared in "Likes Me" released in 1956, "Exodus" released in 1960 and "Outrage" released in 1964.
5. John Ritter died of an aortic dissection in 2003, just six days before he would have turned fifty-five. Thirty-two years earlier in 1971, he made his film debut in a supporting role in a Disney film. He played Roger, a snobbish television underling who sucked up to his TV network president uncle. What was the name of the movie?

Answer: The Barefoot Executive

Ritter had a supporting role in this movie that used a chimpanzee to poke fun at the suits in the television industry. Kurt Russell was the star of the film and in the midst of a ten year contract to make films for the Disney Company. Some other films he made during this period for Disney included "The Computer Wore Tennis Shoes", "Now You See Him, Now You Don't" and "The Strongest Man In The World". Ritter also acted in "Nickelodeon" released in 1976, "Moses!" released in 1980 and "Bad Santa" released in 2003.
6. Forty-five years after she created her first credited film role in 1940, Ruth Gordon suffered a life-ending stroke at the grand old age of eighty-nine in 1985. She played the wife of a very prominent U.S. president in her debut. What was the name of the movie?

Answer: Abe Lincoln in Illinois

Gordon appeared in a supporting role as Mary Todd Lincoln. The film was a biographical account of Abraham Lincoln's early years as a Kentucky woodsman up until he gained the presidency. Canadian-born actor Raymond Massey was nominated for an Oscar as Best Actor in a Leading Role for his effective portrayal of the great American president. Jimmy Stewart beat him out for the cherished statue with his portrayal of Macaulay Connor in "The Philadephia Story".

Other nominees that year in a stellar field included Laurence Oliver for "Rebecca", Charlie Chaplin for "The Great Dictator", and Henry Fonda for "The Grapes of Wrath". "The Jeffersons" was a popular TV show in the 1970s and 1980s. I made up the other two movie titles out of thin air.
7. Three years before her promising acting career was cut short by the homicidal Manson Family killers in 1969 at age twenty-six, Sharon Tate landed her first credited movie role in 1966. She played, Odile de Caray, a witch who exerted mysterious powers over a wealthy landowner. What was the name of the movie?

Answer: Eye of the Devil

Tate played a supporting role to stars David Niven, Deborah Kerr and Donald Pleasence. This occult thriller revolved around a vineyard drought and the pagan rituals used to end the drought. Kim Novak was cast originally to play Niven's vineyard-owner character's wife, but was replaced by Kerr when her acting range was apparently found to be wanting.

The movie is also known by its alternate title "13". Tate also appeared in "Waves", "Vampires" and "Dolls" all released in 1967. Two alternate titles for "Vampires" were "The Fearless Vampire Killers" and "The Fearless Vampire Killers or: Pardon Me, But Your Teeth Are in My Neck".
8. In 1992, Anthony Perkins died from complications related to AIDS at the age of sixty, thirty-nine years after he made his 1953 film debut in a supporting role. He played Fred Whitmarsh, the handsome youthful suitor of a young woman who desperately wanted to become an actress. What was the name of the movie?

Answer: The Actress

The movie was written by actress Ruth Gordon and concerned her early life growing up. She wrote the original play and then the screenplay. Spencer Tracy played her sometimes fear-inducing but funny and supportive ex-sailor father and he was the lead character despite the title of the film. Jean Simmons played Ruth Gordon Jones (Ruth Gordon's birth name), a young woman who had an innate desire to become a thespian. Teresa Wright played her mother.

Despite Gordon gaining later fame as an actress in movies such as "Rosemary's Baby" and "Harold and Maude", she was probably more of a prolific writer than actress.

For example, she wrote the screenplays for the Tracy/Hepburn classic films "Adam's Rib" and "Pat and Mike" in collaboration with her first husband Garson Kanin. Perkins also acted in "Elms" released in 1958, "Molly" released in 1974 and "My Name" released in 1978.
9. After two uncredited movie appearances, William Holden got his feature film break in a 1939 movie about fighting and music. Forty-two years before he bled to death in a 1981 drunken slip-and-fall, he played Joe Bonaparte, a young man who was torn between his desire to be a professional boxer and his father's desire for him to become a concert violinist. What was the name of the movie?

Answer: Golden Boy

Holden co-starred with Barbara Stanwyck, Adolphe Menjou and Lee J. Cobb in this bow-or-gloves conundrum film. Apparently, Holden got off to a rocky start on the set of the movie and was on the verge of being fired. He credits then-established veteran actress Stanwyck with taking him under her wing and saving his job on the film and perhaps his future acting career. Holden went on to garner three Academy Award nominations for Best Actor in a Leading Role, winning in 1954 for his work in 1953's "Stalag 17".

His other nominations were for his work in 1950's "Sunset Blvd." and 1976's "Network". Holden also starred in "Noon" released in 1947, "Profane" released in 1956 and "Lion" released in 1962.
10. DeForest Kelley passed away from stomach cancer in 1999 at the fine old age of seventy-nine. Fifty-two years earlier in 1947, he appeared in his first feature film role. He played Vince Grayson, an amnesic bank teller who thought he may have murdered someone. What was the name of the movie?

Answer: Fear in the Night

Kelley starred in this low-budget film noir about a man who awoke from a bloody nightmare and found out that his nightmare was real. Paul Kelly co-starred as his brother-in-law cop who at first dismissed his story and then helped him find out the truth.

It is interesting to watch a young, wrinkle-free Kelley in a rare leading role, long before he gained iconic status as Dr. Leonard "Bones" McCoy in the "Star Trek" TV series and feature films. "Fear in the Night" was remade as "Nightmare" in 1956 on a larger budget with Kevin McCarthy playing Kelley's role and Edward G. Robinson playing the brother-in-law cop. Kelley also appeared in "City" released in 1948, "Jake Wade" released in 1958 and "Lepus" released in 1972.
Source: Author rojan61

This quiz was reviewed by FunTrivia editor jmorrow before going online.
Any errors found in FunTrivia content are routinely corrected through our feedback system.
3/29/2024, Copyright 2024 FunTrivia, Inc. - Report an Error / Contact Us