FREE! Click here to Join FunTrivia. Thousands of games, quizzes, and lots more!
Quiz about Actors Other Lives
Quiz about Actors Other Lives

Actors' Other Lives Trivia Quiz


Many actors weren't mainly actors until their big break. Others retired from acting, only to return much later. Still others gave up acting altogether. How much do you know about their other lives?

A multiple-choice quiz by TonyTheDad. Estimated time: 6 mins.
  1. Home
  2. »
  3. Quizzes
  4. »
  5. Celebrity Trivia
  6. »
  7. Celebrities Mixture
  8. »
  9. Before They Were Stars

Author
TonyTheDad
Time
6 mins
Type
Multiple Choice
Quiz #
89,175
Updated
Dec 03 21
# Qns
10
Difficulty
Difficult
Avg Score
5 / 10
Plays
2819
- -
Question 1 of 10
1. Dennis Farina, star of such movies as "Midnight Run" and "Get Shorty" and TV shows "In-Laws" and "Crime Story", had this occupation before becoming an actor. Hint


Question 2 of 10
2. Charles Dutton, star of the TV show "Roc" and movies "Aliens 3" and "The Distinguished Gentleman", spent his early adulthood in prison. For what crime was he in jail? Hint


Question 3 of 10
3. Gloria Stuart, Oscar-nominated actress for her role in "Titanic" (1997), was first an actress before World War II, but then retired from acting to raise a family and excel at this profession: Hint


Question 4 of 10
4. Harrison Ford had little initial success in acting, so he taught himself this trade before making it big in movies like "American Graffiti" and "Star Wars". Hint


Question 5 of 10
5. Fred Thompson, of such movies as "No Way Out", "Baby's Day Out", "The Hunt for Red October", and "Die Hard 2", was first a(n) ______, then an actor, then a(n) _____ ? Hint


Question 6 of 10
6. Before making it in acting, which of these Academy-award winning actresses worked as a bricklayer, a bank teller, and in a mortuary applying make-up to corpses? Hint


Question 7 of 10
7. This character actor was a farmer, a rodeo rider, a body guard (to Howard Hughes), a blacksmith, all before becoming an actor. Hint


Question 8 of 10
8. Somewhere in California, there is a little girl named Roberta, named after the policeman that helped birth her in an emergency delivery. This policeman had been an actor in the 1960s and 1970s before joining the LAPD. He is ________ ? Hint


Question 9 of 10
9. Which beautiful silent-then-talkies movie actress worked as a soap-latherer in a barber's shop before making it big? Hint


Question 10 of 10
10. Burt Reynolds was drafted by which NFL team? 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. Dennis Farina, star of such movies as "Midnight Run" and "Get Shorty" and TV shows "In-Laws" and "Crime Story", had this occupation before becoming an actor.

Answer: Policeman

Once claimed in an interview that as a Chicago cop he was such a bad shot, he earned the nickname "The Great Wounder."
2. Charles Dutton, star of the TV show "Roc" and movies "Aliens 3" and "The Distinguished Gentleman", spent his early adulthood in prison. For what crime was he in jail?

Answer: Homicide

He fatally stabbed a man in a street fight when he was 17. (Whether it was murder or manslaughter I'm not sure.) He acquired the acting bug while participating in a drama group in prison. In his new life, he has received Tony, Emmy, Golden Globe, Image, and SAG nominations and awards for his powerful performances.
3. Gloria Stuart, Oscar-nominated actress for her role in "Titanic" (1997), was first an actress before World War II, but then retired from acting to raise a family and excel at this profession:

Answer: Painting

She has had one-woman shows of her work in New York, Austria, and Italy. She also said, after her nomination for "Titanic", "When I graduated from Santa Monica High in 1927, I was voted the girl most likely to succeed. I didn't realize it would take so long."
4. Harrison Ford had little initial success in acting, so he taught himself this trade before making it big in movies like "American Graffiti" and "Star Wars".

Answer: Carpentry

5. Fred Thompson, of such movies as "No Way Out", "Baby's Day Out", "The Hunt for Red October", and "Die Hard 2", was first a(n) ______, then an actor, then a(n) _____ ?

Answer: Lawyer / Senator

He was inadvertantly in Oliver Stone's "JFK", as he was on the Watergate committee as a lawyer, footage of which was in the movie. In 1994, he was elected senator for his home state of Tennessee. Also, before becoming a lawyer, he was a shoe salesman, truck driver, and a factory worker. And an update (2002): Thompson is once again an actor.

He decided not to run for his US Senate seat again, and is now playing District Attorney Arthur Branch on the long-running "Law & Order".
6. Before making it in acting, which of these Academy-award winning actresses worked as a bricklayer, a bank teller, and in a mortuary applying make-up to corpses?

Answer: Whoopi Goldberg

Was nicknamed Whoopi (as in "whoopi-cushion") because of being overly flatulent. She added the name Goldberg, taken from the Jewish side of her family.
7. This character actor was a farmer, a rodeo rider, a body guard (to Howard Hughes), a blacksmith, all before becoming an actor.

Answer: Wilford Brimley

8. Somewhere in California, there is a little girl named Roberta, named after the policeman that helped birth her in an emergency delivery. This policeman had been an actor in the 1960s and 1970s before joining the LAPD. He is ________ ?

Answer: Bobby Sherman

He was more famously known for his bubble-gum rock singing career.
9. Which beautiful silent-then-talkies movie actress worked as a soap-latherer in a barber's shop before making it big?

Answer: Greta Garbo

After World War II, Greta, by her own admission, felt that the world had changed perhaps forever and she retired, never again to face the camera. She would work for the rest of her life to perpetuate the Garbo mystique.
10. Burt Reynolds was drafted by which NFL team?

Answer: Baltimore Colts

Attended Florida State University on a football scholarship, but only played in two seasons. He was a star running back. His college football career was ended by a knee injury.
Source: Author TonyTheDad

This quiz was reviewed by FunTrivia editor ballykissangel before going online.
Any errors found in FunTrivia content are routinely corrected through our feedback system.
3/28/2024, Copyright 2024 FunTrivia, Inc. - Report an Error / Contact Us