Celebrity Beginnings Trivia Quiz

Edna Mae Durbin was born December 4, 1921, in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada. Her parents had emigrated to Canada from Greater Manchester, England, but moved to California shortly after she was born because her father suffered health problems caused from Canada's cold winters. They became US citizens in 1923. From an early age Durbin loved to sing and dance, and she began formal voice training lessons at the age of ten. When she was just fourteen years old a talent agent recommended her to MGM, but she was soon dropped. By 1936 she starred in "Three Smart Girls" for Universal, and became a star. She was also credited with saving the company from financial ruin.

Durbin retired from Hollywood at the age of 28, but she did win a prestigious award during her brief time there. In 1938 she shared the Academy Juvenile Award with Mickey Rooney for their "significant contribution in bringing to the screen the spirit and personification of youth."

María de los Dolores Asúnsolo y López Negrete was born in Victoria de Durango, Mexico, on August 3, 1904, (according to most sources) to wealthy parents who had a lot of political connections. Although they lost much of their wealth in the 1910-1920 Mexican Revolution, the family was able to move to Mexico City and use their contacts to maintain a privileged lifestyle. Dolores became interested in ballet after seeing a performance by the great Anna Pavlova, and her mother arranged for her to take dance lessons. In spite of her good looks, Dolores didn't have much confidence in her appearance and suffered from an inferiority complex.

When she was seventeen she married and began a grand tour of Europe which allowed her to study both dance and voice. She became a famous actress in silent films, where many viewed her as a female Rudolph Valentino. After transitioning to talkies, she became a successful star of the 1930s. She went on to win one Gold and two Silver Ariel Awards from the Mexican Film Academy; they are the equivalent of Academy Awards in the United States.

Linda Cristal, whose birth name was Marta Victoria Moya Peggo Burges, was born on February 24, 1931, near Buenos Aires, Argentina. Her French father was a publisher, running a business in the country printing books and magazines. When Cristal was five years old her father moved the family to Uruguay; some sources say he fell out of favor with the ruling class, while others say he came into conflict with a criminal gang. While in Uruguay Linda was able to study voice and piano. She was discovered while traveling in Mexico and signed a contract to appear in Spanish speaking films that were produced there, rising quickly to stardom. After learning to speak English, she appeared in her first English speaking role, a movie called "Comanche" (1956).

In 1959 Cristal was awarded a Golden Globe as New Star of the Year - Actress for "The Perfect Furlough". The remainder of her Golden Globes and Primetime Emmys were given in recognition of her work on television's "The High Chaparral", which ran from 1967-1971. She played Victoria Cannon, the much younger wife of the ranch's owner.

Born in Islington, London, on January 31, 1929, Jean Simmons was the youngest of four children. Her father, Charles, was an Olympic gymnast who won a Bronze medal in artistic gymnastics at the 1912 Summer Olympics. After the family left London during WWII, he made a living as a physical education teacher in Winscombe. It was there that Jean began performing songs in productions along with her sister. She apparently had really hoped to become a acrobatic dancer and was enrolled in the Aida Foster School of Dance when she was discovered by a director who cast her in the 1944 film, "Give Us the Moon". She was fourteen years old.

Simmons was nominated for many awards during her career, and won a Golden Globe for Best Actress - Motion Picture Musical or Comedy for "Guys and Dolls" (1955). Toward the end of her career she also won a Prime Time Emmy for her role in "The Thornbirds" (1983). My choice for Jean Simmons night at the movies would be either "Spartacus" (1960), where she played Varinia, a slave girl loved by Spartacus, or "The Big Country", where she played Julie, owner of the Big Muddy Ranch. Her leading men in those movies were pretty great too!

Maria do Carmo Miranda da Cunha was born on February 9, 1909, in Várzea da Ovelha e Aliviada, Portugal. She was named because her father, who owned a barber shop in Rio de Janiero, liked the Bizet opera. Perhaps that influenced her eventual passion for singing and dancing. When she was eighteen months old, she, her mother, and sister joined him in Brazil. She attended a free school until the age of fourteen when her older sister was diagnosed with tuberculosis. At that time Carmen began to work at a tie shop to help support her family. Later she worked at a hat boutique, and eventually opened her own shop. Even though she performed at venues around Rio, Carmen's father was adamantly against her pursuit of a career in show business; he even beat her mother when she allowed Carmen to attend a radio audition. Nevertheless, Carmen made her first recording in 1929.

Those hats and costumes! WOW! Although Carmen Miranda never was nominated for what would be considered a prestigious award, she did star in "Down Argentine Way" (1940), which was nominated for Best Picture. She was seen as more of a cultural ambassador, known for her costumes and popularizing Brazilian samba dancing.

Greta Lovisa Gustafsson was born on September 18, 1905, in Södermalm, Stockholm, Sweden. She came from a poor family; her father worked a variety of jobs as a street cleaner or laborer, and her mother worked at a jam factory. The family lived in a working class slum. Greta was shy and preferred to play alone, but was known for staging make believe games for the children in her neighborhood. Her school days ended when she was fourteen after her father became ill. He died a year later, after which she worked in a barber shop as a soap-lather girl. After taking a job in a department store, she began to model hats for the store's catalog, which led to other jobs as a fashion model. She was discovered while filming fashion films and commercials.

Garbo had four Academy Award nominations and was awarded an Honorary Oscar in 1954 "for her luminous and unforgettable screen performances". Many called her movie, "Camille" (1936), about the life of a Parisian courtesan, a masterpiece, but - fair warning - it does not have a happy ending. It is interesting to watch, though, because of the story's setting and costumes.

Marie Magdalene "Marlene" Dietrich was born on December 27, 1901, in Schöneberg, which is now a district of Berlin, Germany. Her father was a police lieutenant and her mother came from a wealthy family that owned a jewelry and clock-making business. When her father died (either in 1906 or 1916, depending on the source), her mother remarried a military officer who died in 1917 during WWI. Tutored from home before attending school, Marlene learned French and English and was well trained in ballet, violin, and piano. Interestingly, her dream was to become a concert violinist, however, a hand injury led her in another direction. Her earliest show business career was working as a chorus girl, but by 1923 she began earning small parts in films. Her breakout role was considered to be in "The Blue Angel" (1930) as Lola Lola.

Dietrich was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actress in a Leading Role for "Morocco" (1931), and received many honors, including a Special Tony Award in 1968 for her successful Broadway concert run at the Lunt-Fontanne Theatre. But I will always remember her for Lola Lola's song, "Falling in Love Again (Can't Help It)" from "The Blue Angel".

Born on February 9, 1939, in Johannesburg, South Africa, Janet Suzman was a member of a well to do and influential family. Her father was a wealthy tobacco importer; his sister campaigned for South African civil rights against the apartheid system. Her mother's father was a member of the South Africa Parliament. Suzman was educated at at Kingsmead College and the University of Witwatersrand before enrolling at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art. In 1962 she made her stage debut at the Tower Theatre in Ipswich. The following year she joined the Royal Shakespeare Company.

Suzman was nominated for a number of awards, including a Best Actress Oscar for her role in "Nicholas and Alexandria" (1971). She played the ill-fated Alexandria, the last Czarina of Russia, who was clueless about what life in Russia was really like. This was quite an epic film, lasting over three hours!

Vivian Mary Hartley, known as Vivian Leigh, was born on November 5, 1913, in Darjeeling, Bengal Presidency, British India. Her British father, Ernest Hartley, worked in India as a stockbroker, while her mother, Gertrude, who had Armenian and Irish ancestry, was born and raised in Darjeeling. During WWI Ernest was an officer in the Indian Cavalry; the family returned to England when Vivian was six. After attending schools all over Europe during her parents' travels, she enrolled in the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in London in 1931.

Starring in many films that highlighted her physical attractiveness over her acting ability, Leigh is perhaps best known for her role in "Gone with the Wind" (1939), for which she won the Academy Award for Best Actress. She also won an Oscar for "A Streetcar Named Desire" (1952). I can't image any one else playing Scarlett or Blanche!

Born on October 22, 1917, to British parents living in Japan, Joan de Beauvoir de Havilland eventually took her mother's maiden name and became Joan Fontaine. Her father worked in Tokyo as an English professor and patent lawyer. A sickly child, Joan suffered from anemia and measles, among other ailments, and her family moved to California so that she might live in a warmer climate. After her parents divorced, Joan moved to Japan for a couple of years after her sixteenth birthday to live with her father, and then, influenced by her mother's return to a stage career, began to join theater groups. Her film debut was in "No More Ladies" in 1935.

Fontaine was nominated for a variety of awards during her career. She won an Oscar for Best Actress for "Suspicion" (1941), the only acting Oscar ever in a Hitchcock movie.