Match the Actress with Her Role Quiz

Answer: Susan Sarandon

Susan Sarandon plays the part of the real life nun, Sister Helen Prejean, in the 1995 film "Dead Man Walking". The movie is about a nun befriending convicted murderer Matthew Poncelet, played by Sean Penn. Sarandon won a Best Actress Academy Award for her role.

She can also be seen in films like "Thelma and Louise" in 1991, "The Lovely Bones" as Grandma Lynn in 2009, and on the TV soap opera "Search for Tomorrow" as Sara Fairbanks, beginning in 1972.

Answer: Susan Hayward

In the 1958 movie "I Want to Live!", Susan Hayward plays Barbara Graham, a woman of dubious morals who ends up being convicted of murder and sentenced to death. Susan Hayward won the Oscar for Best Actress in a Leading Role. Hayward was born Edythe Marrenner in Brooklyn, NY in 1917.

Some of her other outstanding roles were: "I'll Cry Tomorrow" as Lillian Roth (1955), "With a Song in my Heart" as Jane Froman (1952) and "David and Bathsheba" as Bathsheba in 1951. On a somewhat ironic note, her last appearance was in a 1972 TV movie called "Say Goodbye, Maggie Cole".

Answer: Barbara Stanwyck

In this 1937 black and white film, Barbara Stanwyck is Stella Martin who marries the wealthy Stephen Dallas. They have a daughter named Laurel, but class differences cause problems and Stella and Stephen separate, leaving Laurel in the middle. Although Barbara Stanwyck was nominated for a Best Actress Oscar four times, she never won! She did get an Honorary Award in 1982. Stanwyck could do it all...comedy, e.g. "Ball of Fire" with Gary Cooper in 1941; drama, e.g. her amazing role as the duplicitous Phyllis Dietrichson in "Double Indemnity" (1944), and even on TV as the matriarch on "The Big Valley" (1965-1969).

Answer: Judy Garland

There's no way I was going to give you Dorothy Gale to match up with Judy Garland. Instead, I took Esther Blodgett from the 1954 version of "A Star Is Born" (my favorite version) which depicts Norman Maine (James Mason) helping Esther's star to rise, while his star is quickly on its way down. Listen, I could have given you Vicki Lester, Esther's stage name, but I thought that would be too difficult. By now, most of you trivia players know Judy was born Frances Ethel Gumm ('Baby' Gumm") in 1922 and went on to an illustrious (but all too short career) from Dorothy in "The Wizard of Oz" (1939) to "Judgment at Nuremburg" in 1961.

Answer: Charlize Theron

Charlize Theron put on weight and was virtually unrecognizable as serial killer Aileen Wuornos in the 2003 movie "Monster". Aileen killed seven men in Florida between 1989 and 1990, was convicted and put to death by lethal injection. Charlize, on the other hand, won a Best Leading Actress Academy Award for her portrayal.

She has made an imprint on other roles like Aeon Flux and, more recently, as Imperator Furiosa in "Mad Max: Fury Road" (2015), for which she was nominated for a Best Actress Oscar.

Answer: Vivien Leigh

Why it looks like Scarlet O'Hara herself...but this time the movie is Tennessee William's "A Streetcar Named Desire", and the setting is the French Quarter in downtown Louisiana. The movie was released in 1951 and Leigh played Blanche DuBois who has "become dependent on the kindness of strangers".

She moves in with her sister 'STELLA"! and Stanley Kowalski, and the explosions are about to begin. BTW, Leigh won Best Actress Oscars for this film and for "Gone with the Wind". She was born Vivian Mary Hartley in 1913 in India and appeared in other films like "Waterloo Bridge" (1940) and "Ship of Fools" (1965).

Answer: Joanne Woodward

Joanne Woodward seems to have appeared in almost every drama show on early TV. In 1957 she starred in "The Three Faces of Eve", a film where she portrayed a woman suffering from Multiple Personality Disorder, Eve White, Eve Black and Jane (known today as 'alters' in Dissociative Identity Disorder).

She only has one one Best Actress Academy Award though! Joanne Woodward starred in 11 movies with her husband Paul Newman, including "The Long, Hot Summer" (from Faulkner's novel) in 1958, and "From the Terrace" in 1960. Newman and Woodward were married on January 29, 1958 until Paul's death on September 26, 2008.

Answer: Bette Davis

While Bette Davis (1908-1989) won two Best Actress Oscars for "Dangerous" and "Jezebel" in the 1930s, I thought she certainly deserved one for "All About Eve". "All About Eve" was the 1950 Academy Award winning film where Davis played aging actress Margo Channing who lets an aspiring actress, Eve Harrington (Anne Baxter), into her circle of friends with disastrous consequences. Davis was Meryl Streep before Meryl Streep was born.

She appeared in movies from 1931 ("The Bad Sister") until her final appearance in "Wicked Stepmother" in the year she died.

Answer: Katharine Hepburn

So many roles to choose from for Katherine Hepburn like Tracy Lord from "The Philadelphia Story" or Rose Sayer from "African Queen" - nope! Instead I took Hepburn playing Christina Drayton opposite Spencer Tracy (in his last film) in "Guess Who's Coming to Dinner" from 1967. Christina and her husband Matt play 'seeming' liberals until their daughter brings home her African-American fiance (and he's a doctor); of course, that man is Sidney Poitier and, if it wasn't still the 1960s, what family wouldn't have been thrilled?! Hepburn won four Best Actress Oscars from 1934 in "Morning Glory" all the way to 1982 for "On Golden Pond".

Answer: Meryl Streep

I find it a little ironic that Meryl Streep played Miranda PRIESTly in a 2006 film called "The Devil Wears Prada". Streep as Priestly, is the editor-in-chief of a high fashion magazine, and impossible to work for; just ask Andy Sachs, Miranda's assistant, played by Anne Hathaway (no, NOT Shakespeare's wife!). Meryl was born Mary Louise Streep in Summit, New Jersey.

She has been nominated for an award more times than one could imagine, and has won Oscars for Best Supporting Actress for "Kramer and Kramer" (1979), and Best Actress for both "Sophie's Choice" (1982) and "The Iron Lady" (2011).