Copyleft: feel free to use these questions in your quizzes. This is not a game, there’s no scoring, and questions are provided as a service only. Some answers are a little lengthy as players requested clarification. “NEW” means less than a month old. Spanish flags denote Spanish-based questions.
Films & TV
180 questions in this category
Ernst Stavro Blofeld in ‘From Russia With Love’, ‘Thunderball’, ‘You Only Live Twice’, ‘On Her Majesty’s Secret Service’, ‘Diamonds Are Forever’, ‘For Your Eyes Only’, ‘Never Say Never Again’, ‘Spectre’, and ‘No Time to Die’ (as of 2021).
Major Boothroyd, known as ‘Q’.
With thanks to Harry Winfield, question master of the Marina Alta Pensionisters Association in Benitachell, Alicante, Spain, for amending the answer
What organisation do Mortadelo and Filemón work for?
TIA (Técnicos de Investigación Aeroterráquea)
François Truffaut
La Ponderosa
With thanks to Jim Welsh for spotting a duplicate question
Jack Nicholson and Michael Caine
Huston and Coppola (Walter Huston 1948, John Huston 1948, Anjelica Huston 1985 and Carmine Coppola 1974, Francis Ford Coppola 1970/72/74, Sophia Coppola 2003, Nicholas Cage 1995)
Toyota and BMW. He’s used a Bentley 3.5 Litre drophead coupé Park Ward, Aston Martin DB5, Lotus Esprit S1 ‘Wet Nellie’, Lotus Esprit Turbo, Aston Martin V8 Vantage Volante, and recently a BMW Z3, BMW 750i, and a BMW Z8. He used a Toyota 2000GT in ‘You Only Live Twice’. He’s now back with Aston Martin: Aston Martin V12 Vanquish, Aston Martin DB10.
With thanks to Dan Hall for correcting this question
Daniel Day-Lewis (1989 for ‘My Left Foot’, 2007 for ‘There Will Be Blood’, and 2013 for ‘Lincoln’)
Chitty Chitty Bang Bang
The Marx Brothers (Chico, Harpo, Groucho, and Zeppo)
Lina Wertmueller nominated for ‘Seven Beauties’ in 1976;
Jane Campion nominated for ‘The Piano’ in 1994;
Sofia Coppola nominated for ‘Lost in Translation’ in 2004;
Kathryn Bigelow who won the 2009 Academy Award for Best Director for ‘The Hurt Locker’;
Greta Gerwig nominated for ‘Lady Bird’ in 2017;
Emerald Fennell nominated for ‘Promising Young Women’ in 2020;
Chloé Zhao who won the 2020 Academy Award for Best Director for ‘Nomadland’.
Jane Campion nominated for ‘The Piano’ in 1994;
Sofia Coppola nominated for ‘Lost in Translation’ in 2004;
Kathryn Bigelow who won the 2009 Academy Award for Best Director for ‘The Hurt Locker’;
Greta Gerwig nominated for ‘Lady Bird’ in 2017;
Emerald Fennell nominated for ‘Promising Young Women’ in 2020;
Chloé Zhao who won the 2020 Academy Award for Best Director for ‘Nomadland’.
With thanks to David Regal for updating this question
La Concha de Oro (Golden Shell)
A red and white 1958 Plymouth Fury
Born to kill
The Age of Aquarius
Robbie Coltrane
Roberto Rosellini
Mickey Mouse
The Wonderful Wizard of Oz and sequels by L. Frank Baum
Graham Chapman
Margot Kidder
François Truffaut
Greece
With thanks to Barbara Ridgely for correcting this question
John Quincy Adams in ‘Amistad’ and Richard Nixon in ‘Nixon’.
Back to the Future
Maribel Verdú, Antonio Resines, and Jordi Mollà
Michael Crichton
In the Heat of the Night (1967).
‘Robin Hood, Prince of Thieves’, in 1991
Monty Python and the Holy Grail
Sister Act (1992). Directed by Emile Ardolino and written by Paul Rudnick (as Joseph Howard).
The Sound of Music (1965).
‘California Suite’ (1978) with Alan Alda, Michael Caine, Bill Cosby, Walter Matthau, directed by Neil Simon.
Murder She Wrote
Mel Brooks and Anne Bancroft
Springfield (The Simpsons)
Robin (in Batman) and, since 1984, Nightwing.
With thanks to Colin Dinnie for correcting and expanding the answer to this question
Knocking on Heaven’s Door
Colour: ‘Toll of the Sea’ 1922. The first sound film was ‘The Jazz Singer’ in 1927.
With thanks to RKN for correcting this question
‘The Third Man’ – allegedly narrated by Carol Reed
The Rocky Horror Picture Show
None. Arthur ‘Harpo’ Marx was a mime, not a mute.
Gummo (Milton Marx).
‘Outland’ 1981, directed by Peter Hyams, starring Sean Connery, Peter Boyle and Frances Sternhagen and set on Io.
‘The Battleship Potemkin’ (Бронено́сец «Потёмкин») by Sergei Eisenstein (Сергей Михайлович Эйзенштейн)
‘Dr. No’, but the first unofficial film was an episode of the series ‘Climax’ called ‘Casino Royale’ which was aired in 1954 on television in the US. Barry Nelson played Jimmy Bond, an American spy.
With thanks to Ian Gerrard for the info on the first Casino Royale
Ridley Scott
Felix Leiter
Julie Andrews
The Munsters
With thanks to Steven Malan for correcting this question
The pseudonym used by Hollywood film directors who do not want to be credited on the film. He directed among others: ‘Bloodsucking Pharoahs in Pittsburgh’, ‘Prostidude’, and ‘The Shrimp on the Barbie’.
Clint Eastwood, Lee van Cleef, Eli Wallach
Sophia Loren
Colonel Kilgore (Robert Duvall) in ‘Apocalypse Now’.
Groucho Marx in ‘A Day at the Races’…
HAL in ‘2001 A Space Odyssey’.
Anne Bancroft
Schindler’s List
The Godfather 2
With thanks to Oscar Nolan from Dublin for correcting this question
Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (known simply and more commonly as Dr. Strangelove) from 1964
Set in a post nuclear holocaust.
With thanks to Chris for correcting this question
Rick Blaine (Humphrey Bogart) in ‘Casablanca’.
The Rocky Horror Picture Show
Al Jolson in ‘The Jazz Singer’ (1927)
Woody Allen
Tina Turner
Diana Dors
Greta Garbo
Michael Caine
Nicholas Cage
Martin Sheen
Walter Matthau. As part of a lifelong love of practical jokes, Matthau created the rumors that his middle name was Foghorn and his last name was originally Matuschanskayasky (under which he is credited for a cameo role in the film ‘Earthquake’). His real name was Walter John Matthow.
With thanks to David Regal for clarifying the answer to this question
Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde
Balboa (Robert Balboa, Sr)
Fawlty Towers. The signs were changed at the beginning of each episode of the second season: Episode 8: ‘Watery Fowls’ Episode 9: ‘Flay Otters’ Episode 10: ‘Fatty Owls’ Episode 11: ‘Flowery Twats’ Episode 12: ‘Farty Towels’
The Tracey Ullman Show 1987-1989
Groucho Marx (in A Night at the Opera, Duck Soup, and A Day at the Races)
Paparazzo (played by Walter Santesso), the Italian plural is Paparazzi.
A MacGuffin (sometimes McGuffin) is a plot device that motivates the characters or advances the story, but the details of which are of little or no importance otherwise. Hitchcock said that “in a thriller the MacGuffin is usually ‘the necklace’; in a spy story it is ‘the papers’”.
Eli Wallach
Charlie’s Angels
‘Gentlemen Marry Brunettes’ in 1955 (the sequel to the book is called ‘But Gentlemen Marry Brunettes’).
Joan Fontaine (1941 for ‘Suspicion’) and Olivia de Havilland (1946 for ‘To Each His Own’ and 1949 for ‘The Heiress’)
Universal Exports
The Seven Samurai
Fred Flintstone’s newspapers
Laurel and Hardy: in Danish, Italian, Polish and German (el Gordo y el Flaco in Spanish).
Modern Times (1936)
Whose last words were ‘I should never have switched from Scotch to Martinis’ (on January 14th 1957)?
Humphrey Bogart
Atticus Finch (played by Gregory Peck) in ‘To Kill a Mocking Bird’ and Hannibal Lecter (played by Anthony Hopkins) in ‘The Silence of the Lambs’.
Farrah Fawcett
Buffy the Vampire Slayer
James Cagney, Humphrey Bogart, Pat O’Brien
Chocolate syrup (Bosco brand)
Paul Newman and Robert Redford
The Rembrandts
Charles Bronson
With thanks to Bob Clarke for correcting this question
Danny (Zuko) and Sandy (Olsson).
The only actor/actress to have won an Oscar portraying a character of the opposite sex. (This was not Linda Hunt playing a woman pretending to be a man, like Barbra Streisand did in Yentl or, in reverse, as Dustin Hoffman did in Tootsie, but playing a man in a serious drama.)
Gerry and Sylvia Anderson
Alan Rickman
It’s a Wonderful Life (1946).
Gone With The Wind
“…is his mother”.
Richard Roundtree and Samuel L. Jackson
John Cleese’s character is called Archie Leach which is Cary Grant’s real name
006, codename Janus, real name Alec Trevelyan.
Spiderman 2
With thanks to Dave Cohen, ex-teammate, for correcting this question
The Thin Red Line
Stewart Granger and Deborah Kerr
‘On the Waterfront’ (1954) and ‘The Godfather’ (1972).
Lee Strasberg (1901-1982)
With thanks to Sinead Fisher for correcting this question