Super Stars In Killer Cars Trivia Quiz

Answer: Ford Consul

Cochran had just finished his tour with a concert in Bristol and was in a Ford Consul taxi on his way to fly home from London on April 17, 1960. He had travelled to the UK to join Gene Vincent on his tour.

Vincent was also in the car, along with Cochran's girlfriend Sharon Sheeley and tour manager Pat Thompkins. The driver lost control on a bend. Cochran's injuries were to prove fatal. Vincent sustained a broken collarbone and Sheeley cuts and bruises.

Although he was only 21 and had been in the business for eight years, Cochran had already had hits with "Summertime Blues" and "C'mon Everybody".

In a strange twist of fate, as Martin Walker noted in an obituary of another car crash victim, Marc Bolan, in the "Guardian" newspaper, 18 years later, a young Bolan had carried a guitar onstage in London for Eddie Cochran. (Typically for a newspaper renowned for its spelling mistakes, the obituary referred twice to "Eddie Cochrane".)

Answer: Cadillac Model 75

History tells us that Patton was in a Cadillac staff car on a pheasant shooting expedition in December 1945 when it was involved in crash.

However, there has been persistent speculation that it was no simple car crash and that Patton had been assassinated because of his outspoken views on leaders of the new world order.

Patton had spoken of his admiration of the Germans and was viewed as an anti-semite. He was also outspoken about the Soviet Union and believed that the allies should declare war on them.

He was removed from his position as commander of the U.S. 3rd Army and placed in a lesser role.

On Sunday December 9, 1945, Patton, then aged 60, set off to shoot pheasants. He was in a Cadillac Model 75 with his chief of staff and an army driver.

Along the way, they encountered two US Army trucks parked at the side of the road. One pulled out into the path of the Cadillac and there was an impact at relatively low speeds. Patton appeared to have a head wound and was taken to hospital, where a fractured neck was diagnosed. He died on December 21st.

In 1981, in the biography "The Last Days of Patton", Ladislas Farago suggested that Patton had been deliberately killed.

Other biographies were to follow. In one, "Target: Patton: The Plot to Assassinate General George S. Patton", Robert Wilcox claimed the crash had been a set-up by a team of experienced saboteurs under the orders of America's OSS. He quoted one of them as saying he shot Patton using rubber bullet gun.

Answer: Rover P63500

Princess Grace of Monaco died in hospital on September 18, 1982, after her car plunged down a hillside near her home in the principality of Monaco. She was 52.

The star of 11 Hollywood movies, Philadelphia-born Grace Kelly won an Oscar for "Country Girl" in 1954. She also starred in "Rear Window" (1954; "High Noon (1952); "To Catch A Thief "(1955); and "High Society" (1956.)

In 1956 she married Prince Rainer of Monaco and retired from the movies.

In an obituary in "The New York Times", Clyde Haberman wrote: "It was [a] delicate balance of contrasts that helped give her legendary status - a remarkable achievement for an actress whose career encompassed only 11 films. She made more of that small portfolio than actors who lasted in Hollywood many more decades."

Answer: Mercedes-Benz S280 W140

Diana, Princess of Wales, was one of four people in the Mercedes that crashed into a structural support in an underpass in Paris. The car had been pursued by paparazzi on motorcycles. The only survivor was her personal bodyguard, who was in the front passenger seat and was the only person wearing a seat belt.

(A forensic pathologist who examined the remains was to claim that Diana would have survived had she been wearing a seatbelt.)

Diana was born on July 1, 1961, into an aristocratic family. Lady Diana Spencer was not academically outstanding and after leaving school worked as a kindergarten assistant. She was aged 16 when she first met Prince Charles, presumptive heir to the throne. He proposed when she was 20 and he was 32.

They had two sons together, William and Harry. The marriage was lived in front of the lenses of the Fourth Estate, and was to founder there, too.

It has been said that Diana felt out of place within the Royal Family. Charles was not the fairytale prince she thought he would be. In a telling television interview before their marriage, Charles was asked if they loved each other. His reply was "...whatever love is..."

She believed that Charles was having an affair with an old flame, Camilla Parker Bowles. "There were three people in the marriage..." she later said during a (different) television interview.

They separated in 1992. In the divorce settlement, Diana received a cash sum of around $22.5 million, plus another $600,000 a year. It was reportedly one of the biggest divorce settlement ever to that time, and financially brought Prince Charles to his knees.

Diana also had affairs during their marriage and continued a very public lifestyle in front of the cameras after her divorce.

Some sources have claimed that her boyfriend at the time of her death, Dodi Al Fayed, had bought her an engagement ring. He, too, died in the car crash, along with the driver, Henri Paul.

Diana's funeral was to become the most watched live television event in UK history, with 31 million people tuning in. History.com noted that 2.5 billion people worldwide watched the funeral on television.

Years after her death a story or photograph of "the people's princess" could add thousands of sales to a newspaper or magazine.

Answer: Cord Phaeton

Mix was famed for playing cowboys in scores of movies.

On that fateful day, it is thought he was driving at speed when his car rolled into the riverbed. He was aged 60. At the scene today, visitors can see a two-foot tall iron statue of a riderless horse.

Histoy.com noted that Mix was "...a genuine cowboy and swaggering hero of the Wild West."

Mix had lived a life worthy of the movies even before he appeared on the silver screen in 1909. He served in three wars - Spanish/American, Boxer Rebellion, and Boer War; served as a sheriff, a Marshal; and a Texas Ranger - and all this for an army deserter.

History.com added: "Mix made 370 full-length Westerns. At the peak of his fame, he was the highest-paid actor in Hollywood, earning as much as $17,500 a week (about $218,000 today)."

All but nine of those were silent movies and, like so many other stars of the silent era, he could not make the breakthrough into the 'talkies'.

In 1988, Bruce Willis played Tom Mix in "Sunset", a work of movie fiction. It portrayed Wyatt Earp, played by James Garner, acting as an adviser on a Tom Mix movie.

Answer: Buick Electra

On June 29, 1967, Jayne Mansfield (34) was a passenger in a car that crashed into the rear of a truck near New Orleans, Louisiana. She died instantly

Mansfield was one of three to die. The others were the driver, Ronald B. Harrison, and Mansfield's boyfriend, Samuel S. Brody.

Mansfield's children from her marriage to Mickey Hargitay, Mariska (3), Mickey Jr (8), and Zoltan (6), were also in the car, but survived. Mariska Hargitay went on to become an actress, most famously starring as Olivia Benson in TV's "Law & Order: Special Victims Unit".

From 1954, Mansfield had a busy career on television and in the movies. In 2014, IMdb created a list of the top 10 Mansfield movies. It included "Oh! For a Man!" (1957); "The Girl Can't Help It" (1956); and "The Wayward Bus" (1957).

Not all her movies were as memorable, and her career was said to be on the wane at the time of her death. The "Playboy" model born Vera Jayne Palmer was no dumb blonde when it came to publicity, milking her statuesque good looks for all they were worth.

For a brief time she vied with Marilyn Monroe as Hollywood's dominant sex symbol.

Answer: Renault Megane

Desmond Llewellyn had a busy acting career but was probably best known for playing Q in 17 'James Bond' movies.

On December 19, 1999, the 85-year-old actor was driving his Renault Megane from Wales to his home in Alfriston, Sussex, when it was involved in a head-on collision with another car.

Llewelyn was on the wrong side of the road at the time and had been overtaking a car. He was airlifted by police helicopter to hospital, but died.
In a 60-year career, Desmond Llewelyn had 123 acting credits on television and in the movies, according to IMdb. At the time of his death he had appeared in more 007 movies than any other actor.

Answer: Renault Laguna

Bannen was born in Lancashire in 1928, and was a lover of the movies from an young age. He made his acting debut in 1947 at the Gate Theatre in Dublin.

It was not until 1956 that he made his screen debut and roles came thick and fast. Over the next few years he mixed screen roles with performances on stage with the Royal Shakespeare Company.

He won an Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actor in the 1965 movie "Flight of the Phoenix" in 1965. James Stewart led the cast in that one.

More roles on the big screen and on television, too numerous to mention, followed.

Bannen died at the scene of a collision near Loch Ness on November 3rd, 1999 after his car went into a roadside ditch.

Answer: Triumph TR7

Chris Bell was born in Memphis, Tennessee, on January 12, 1951, and was to be a founder-member of the band Big Star.

He died on December 27, 1978, when the car he was driving struck a telegraph pole. He was aged 27, thus qualifying for the infamous "27 Club" of famous people who have died at that age.

In a biography on AllMusic.com, Mark Deming wrote: "Chris Bell is truly one of the unsung heroes of American pop music. During his short and troubled lifetime, his work with the band Big Star was celebrated only by a tiny cult, and his only solo single received little notice."

Big Star formed in 1971, though Bell had been instrumental in two previous outfits, Icewater and Rock City.

It was not long before Bell left to continue his struggles with depression and heroin addiction.

Reflecting on Bell, Big Star drummer Jody Stephens said: "Every song he wrote seemed to relate to some feeling or lifestyle he was living, it was really painful stuff but effective in showing us exactly what his subconscious looked like."

Some observers believe that Bell felt overshadowed by band mate Alex Chilton, and that he felt he did not get the credit he deserved.

Success eluded Bell as a solo artist, even though he relished a European tour. When it concluded, he ended up working in his father's hamburger restaurant.

In cruel twist of fate for someone who was so admired by those who came into contact with him, a local newspaper headlined news of his death as "Son Of Local Restaurateur, Killed At 27".

Answer: Ford Mustang

John D. Rockefeller III was a passenger in a Ford Mustang drive by his secretary when it was involved in a head-on collision with another car at Westchester County, New York State. The driver of the other car also died.

At the time Rockefeller, aged 78, was the eldest member of one of America's wealthiest families.

The Rockefeller family made their money originally in the oil industry. The Smithsonian Magazine noted that
John D. Rockefeller I was "the Richest Person To Ever Live." At its peak, his fortune was estimated at almost $900,000,000, the magazine stated. It's estimated he gave away about $540 million.

John D. Rockefeller III, grandson of the founder of the dynasty, served in the US Navy during World War 2, but apart from his philanthropy, did not appear much in public life thereafter.

He established several foundations and had interests in eastern Asian organisations. At home, he founded the United Negro College Fund in the 1950s to encourage educational opportunities for African Americans.