The More, the Marrier Trivia Quiz

Answer: Henry VIII

Henry, once the most eligible prince in Christendom, worked his way through six wives.
Number one was Katherine of Aragon, whom he divorced in order to marry -
Number two, Anne Boleyn, whom he beheaded in order to marry -
Number three, Jane Seymour, who died as a result of childbirth. She was followed by -
Number four, Anne of Cleves, who apparently smelled nasty and was divorced in favour of -
Number five, the teenage Katherine Howard, who was accused of adultery and beheaded.
Number six was Katherine Parr, who was more a nurse than a wife to him, as by this time Henry was grossly fat and suffering from disgusting leg ulcers. She survived him, and remarried (it was her third marriage) to Thomas Seymour, and promptly died in childbirth.

The only one of his wives to have achieved anything like 'happy ever after' was Anne of Cleves, who retired to a nice house on a pension and was regarded as Henry's 'sister', presumably because it would have been politically impossible to execute her. She outlived Henry by ten years, and seems to have had a very pleasant life, never remarrying but lacking nothing for her comfort.

Answer: Zsa Zsa Gabor

Zsa Zsa was one of three Hungarian sisters who went to America in 1941, the others being Eva and Magda. Magda became a socialite, while Eva became an actress and businesswoman. Zsa Zsa made a career out of show business and marrying wealthy men. Zsa Zsa and Eva were not great actresses, but they were certainly good looking and Zsa Zsa could be very funny and charming . Zsa Zsa's husbands included Conrad Hilton and George Sanders; when she died in 2016, she was 99 and married to 73 year old Frederick von Anstalt. Not quite a toy boy.

She was well known for her memorable sayings, one of which was 'I am a marvellous housekeeper, every time I leave a man, I keep the house.'

Answer: Mickey Rooney

As a young man, Rooney played the part of Andy Hardy in 15 films, co-starring with Judy Garland in three of them.
He was a very versatile and talented performer who could dance, sing and play several musical instruments, and by the time of his death at the age of 94 in 2014, he was probably one the the few surviving people who had also been in silent films.
Rooney had many award nominations, but struggled with alcohol and prescription drug addiction, and was almost broke by the time he died. His many marriages must have taken a toll on his earnings, and despite all the millions of dollars he made during his career, he died with an estate worth only $18,000 and a lot of medical and tax debts unpaid.

Answer: Elizabeth Taylor

Elizabeth married, in order :
Conrad Hilton Jnr
Michael Wilding
Mike Todd (who died in a plane crash)
Eddie Fisher (who was married to Debbie Reynolds until Elizabeth stole him)
Richard Burton (twice)
John Warner (who she wanted to be buried with, at that point in time)
Larry Fortensky.

As a child actress, she starred in 'National Velvet', and was just as beautiful then as she was as an adult. She suffered from a lot of ill health, but survived and lived a full life until her death at the age of 79 in 2011. Apart from her acting career, and her legendary collection of fabulous jewellery, she also created her own line of perfumes, the best known of which are 'Passion' and 'White Diamonds'. She was the first celebrity to do this, and it was so successful that the bulk of her state at death consisted of revenue from this business.

Answer: Cary Grant

Cary Grant was at the top of his career for over 30 years and made well over 70 films. His success was due to his great acting skills, charm and very good looks - and it probably didn't hurt that he changed his name from Archibald Leach.

Grant's five wives included actresses Virginia Cherrill, Betsy Drake and Dyan Cannon, as well as the Woolworth heiress Barbara Hutton. His last wife was Barbara Harris, a British public relations agent, and they were apparently very happy together.

Answer: Tony Curtis

Curtis' wives included Janet Leigh, known for her part in 'Psycho'; she is the mother of their daughter Jamie Leigh Curtis..

I should think that the part most people will remember him for is 'Josephine' in 'Some Like It Hot' in which he starred with Jack Lemmon and Marilyn Monroe. Set in the 1920s, he and Lemmon play two musicians on the run for their lives after they witnessed a gangland slaying based on the St Valentine Day's Massacre. To save themselves, they dress as women and join an all-woman band. It's a classic and one of the all-time great comedy films.

Curtis also played a Viking - in 'The Vikings' - with Kirk Douglas.

Married six times with six children and numerous affairs, I'm not sure he was good husband material, and following his death in 2010 it appears he left his entire, very large fortune, to his sixth wife, so possibly not a great father either.

Answer: Judy Garland

Judy Garland was a child star who appeared in many musicals, probably the most famous one being 'The Wizard of Oz'. She also starred in some of the Andy Hardy films with Mickey Rooney.
She was married five times, and her husbands included Vincente Minnelli (father of Liza), and Sydney Luft (father of Lorna and Joey). Liza Minnelli, incidentally, has been married and divorced four times herself.

Judy developed a drug dependency problem thanks to the pills she was given by the studios. Many stars at that time were put on amphetamines and barbiturates, to which Judy became addicted, and she was also expected to diet constantly. Her health was ruined.
It was an overdose of pills that killed her in 1969 when she was appearing at the Talk of the Town in London . Her husband at that time was Micky Deans. She was 47.

Answer: Doris Day

Such was the wholesome image that Doris Day projected that Groucho Marx is reported to have said of her 'I knew her before she was a virgin'. (This remark has also been ascribed to others).

Doris' husbands were Al Jorden, George Weidler, Martin Melcher and Barry Comden, none of whom was the kind of man she really wanted. Jealous, controlling and violent, they didn't make her happy. She wanted the kind of ideal marriage so often depicted in Hollywood films, but never truly had it.

Answer: Frank Sinatra

Frank Sinatra, also known as 'The Chairman of the Board', ran with a group of friends known as 'The Rat Pack'. Members included all of the above, as well as Sammy Davis Jnr.

Sinatra was an excellent actor, and proved he could also dance as well as sing in films such as 'On the Town'.
Sinatra married four times but had children only with his first wife, Nancy. His other wives were Ava Gardner, Mia Farrow and Barbara Marx.

Answer: Rita Hayworth

Rita Hayworth's husbands included Prince Aly Khan and Orson Welles. She could dance as well as act, and Fred Astaire called her one of his favourite dance partners.
She was nothing like the characters she played, and said that men were attracted to her for the wrong reasons -'they go to bed with Gilda, but wake up with me'. She described herself as shy and having an inferiority complex, attracted to 'mean' men.
The men she married were often abusive, and none of the marriages last more than four or five years.
Sadly, Rita developed Alzheimer's Disease, from which she died in 1987 at the age of 68.