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Today's Oscar Challenge!
Check out how much more you know about the Oscars with our third Oscar quiz. Enjoy!
1. Ben Kingsley won the 1982 Oscar for Gandhi. He has been nominated once more in the Actor in a Leading Role category. For which film?
a. Bugsy
b. Sexy Beast
c. House of Sand and Fog
The correct answer is House of Sand and Fog. Something of a trick question! Sir Ben (he reportedly insists that he be referred to thus on the sets) was nominated in 2003 for House of Sand and Fog.
He was also nominated for Bugsy (1991) and 2001's Sexy Beast (he played gangsters in both movies; Don Logan in Beast was far more chilling than the almost caricaturish Meyer Lansky in Bugsy) -- but in the Actor in a Supporting Role category for those films.
The year he won, the actor born Krishna Pandit Bhanji beat a field that included Dustin Hoffman (Tootsie), Jack Lemmon (Missing), Paul Newman (The Verdict) and Peter O'Toole (My Favorite Year).
In Friday's quiz, we told you who he lost to (please check the Johnny Depp question) in 2003.
In 1991, along with Harvey Keitel (also nominated for Bugsy), Michael Lerner (Barton Fink) and Tommy Lee Jones (JFK) he lost to Jack Palance (City Slickers).
Ten years later, he lost out to fellow Englishman Jim Broadbent (who played novelist Iris Murdoch's husband John Bayley in Iris). There was another Englishman in the fray (Sir Ian McKellen for The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring), with Ethan Hawke (Training Day) and Jon Voight (Angelina Jolie's pa, for Ali).
Did you know Kinglsey also won a Grammy for Best Spoken Word or Nonmusical Recording for The Words of Gandhi.
Richard Attenborough's epic also won him the Padma Shri in 1985.
One last thing: Do you know Pankaj Kapur dubbed Kingsley's lines in the film's Hindi version. Kapur also played Mahadev Desai, the Mahatma's secretary, in the film. He had just one spoken word in the English version -- 'Bapu'. In the Hindi version, that word was spoken by Attenborough himself :-)
He was also nominated for Bugsy (1991) and 2001's Sexy Beast (he played gangsters in both movies; Don Logan in Beast was far more chilling than the almost caricaturish Meyer Lansky in Bugsy) -- but in the Actor in a Supporting Role category for those films.
The year he won, the actor born Krishna Pandit Bhanji beat a field that included Dustin Hoffman (Tootsie), Jack Lemmon (Missing), Paul Newman (The Verdict) and Peter O'Toole (My Favorite Year).
In Friday's quiz, we told you who he lost to (please check the Johnny Depp question) in 2003.
In 1991, along with Harvey Keitel (also nominated for Bugsy), Michael Lerner (Barton Fink) and Tommy Lee Jones (JFK) he lost to Jack Palance (City Slickers).
Ten years later, he lost out to fellow Englishman Jim Broadbent (who played novelist Iris Murdoch's husband John Bayley in Iris). There was another Englishman in the fray (Sir Ian McKellen for The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring), with Ethan Hawke (Training Day) and Jon Voight (Angelina Jolie's pa, for Ali).
Did you know Kinglsey also won a Grammy for Best Spoken Word or Nonmusical Recording for The Words of Gandhi.
Richard Attenborough's epic also won him the Padma Shri in 1985.
One last thing: Do you know Pankaj Kapur dubbed Kingsley's lines in the film's Hindi version. Kapur also played Mahadev Desai, the Mahatma's secretary, in the film. He had just one spoken word in the English version -- 'Bapu'. In the Hindi version, that word was spoken by Attenborough himself :-)
Today's Oscar Challenge!
2. What links Peter Finch and Heath Ledger?
a. Both of them played Robin Hood.
b. They are the only actors to win an Oscar posthumously.
c. Both Oscar winners were born in Australia.
The correct answer: They are the only actors to win an Oscar posthumously.
Finch was born in London, but moved to Australia when he was 10 after living for a bit in France and India with his grandmum.
Ledger was pucca Aussie, born in Perth, three years after Finch's death.
Though there are other film folk who won an Oscar after their death, Finch and Ledger are the only actors to have achieved this honour. We wish both of them were still around.
Both performers also won a BAFTA and a Golden Globe for their winning roles, which was also linked by the element of craziness.
Finch played what has been dubbed the 'crazed' television personality Howard Beale in Network.
Ledger, of course, was the spooky Joker in The Dark Knight, a film which is more chilling than all the vampire flicks which are the craze these days.
In another coincidence, both actors were also nominated for an Oscar for Best Actor in a a Leading Role for playing gay men. Finch played a homosexual Jewish doctor in Sunday Bloody Sunday; Ledger was the tormented cowboy in Brokeback Mountain. They didn't win, losing to Gene Hackman (The French Connection) and Philip Seymour Hoffman (Capote) respectively.
Finch died of a heart attack a few weeks before he was posthumously nominated for an Oscar.
Ledger's death was judged an accident caused by an overdose of prescription medicines.
Finch died on January 14, 1977.
Ledger died on January 22, 2008.
Finch was born in London, but moved to Australia when he was 10 after living for a bit in France and India with his grandmum.
Ledger was pucca Aussie, born in Perth, three years after Finch's death.
Though there are other film folk who won an Oscar after their death, Finch and Ledger are the only actors to have achieved this honour. We wish both of them were still around.
Both performers also won a BAFTA and a Golden Globe for their winning roles, which was also linked by the element of craziness.
Finch played what has been dubbed the 'crazed' television personality Howard Beale in Network.
Ledger, of course, was the spooky Joker in The Dark Knight, a film which is more chilling than all the vampire flicks which are the craze these days.
In another coincidence, both actors were also nominated for an Oscar for Best Actor in a a Leading Role for playing gay men. Finch played a homosexual Jewish doctor in Sunday Bloody Sunday; Ledger was the tormented cowboy in Brokeback Mountain. They didn't win, losing to Gene Hackman (The French Connection) and Philip Seymour Hoffman (Capote) respectively.
Finch died of a heart attack a few weeks before he was posthumously nominated for an Oscar.
Ledger's death was judged an accident caused by an overdose of prescription medicines.
Finch died on January 14, 1977.
Ledger died on January 22, 2008.
Today's Oscar Challenge!
3. What links Oscar winners Luise Rainer, Spencer Tracy, Katharine Hepburn, Jason Robards and Tom Hanks?
a. They all won for playing well-known historical characters.
b. They all won Oscars in consecutive years.
c. They all won just one Oscar, and never won again.
The correct answer: These actors all won Oscars in consecutive years.
Luise Rainer won the Best Actress Oscar for The Great Ziegfeld (1936) and The Good Earth (1937).
Spencer Tracy won Best Actor for Captains Courageous (1937) and Boys Town (1938).
Katharine Hepburn won Best Actress for Guess Who's Coming for Dinner (1967) and A Lion in Winter (1968).
Jason Robards won Best Supporting Actor for All the President's Men (1976) and Julia (1977).
Tom Hanks won Best Actor for Philadelphia (1993) and Forrest Gump (1994).
Barring Hepburn, none of these actors won an Oscar again.
Rainer won both times she was nominated. Even though The Toy Wife (1938) is considered her best role, she was not nominated again (perhaps the Academy was averse to a hat-trick!).
She retired from the movies soon after, studied medicine in her native Germany, and celebrated her 100th birthday on January 12 last year.
She lives in London, and is just as alluring at 101, as she was all theose years ago.
Tracy, perhaps the finest actor of his generation, was nominated six times after his Oscar winners, from 1950 to 1967 (the last one, posthumously) -- Father of the Bride, Bad Day at Black Rock, The Old Man and the Sea, Inherit the Wind, Judgment at Nuremberg, Guess Who's Coming to Dinner -- but failed to win the jury's favour.
Hepburn, Tracy's love interest for many years, was nominated 12 times, incredibly all the way from the 6th Oscars in 1932 to the 54th Oscars in 1981.
She won her first Oscar in 1933 (Morning Glory), and didn't win another one till 34 years later even though she was nominated for Alice Adams (1935); The Philadelphia Story (1940); Woman of the Year (1942); The African Queen (1951); Summertime (1955); The Rainmaker (1956); Suddenly, Last Summer (1959) and Long Day's Journey into Night (1962).
She altered that record most impressively by winning all three times she was nominated at the end of her distinguished career. Her final Oscar triumph came with On Golden Pond in 1981, where she was cast with another veteran, Henry Fonda.
Robards was nominated one more time, in 1980, for Melvin and Howard, playing billionaire Howard Hughes (Leo DiCaprio played the young Hughes in Martin Scorsese's The Aviator), but didn't win.
Tom was nominated for Saving Private Ryan (1998) and Cast Away (2000), but didn't win. It seems bizarre that the fine actor has not been nominated even once this last decade.
Luise Rainer won the Best Actress Oscar for The Great Ziegfeld (1936) and The Good Earth (1937).
Spencer Tracy won Best Actor for Captains Courageous (1937) and Boys Town (1938).
Katharine Hepburn won Best Actress for Guess Who's Coming for Dinner (1967) and A Lion in Winter (1968).
Jason Robards won Best Supporting Actor for All the President's Men (1976) and Julia (1977).
Tom Hanks won Best Actor for Philadelphia (1993) and Forrest Gump (1994).
Barring Hepburn, none of these actors won an Oscar again.
Rainer won both times she was nominated. Even though The Toy Wife (1938) is considered her best role, she was not nominated again (perhaps the Academy was averse to a hat-trick!).
She retired from the movies soon after, studied medicine in her native Germany, and celebrated her 100th birthday on January 12 last year.
She lives in London, and is just as alluring at 101, as she was all theose years ago.
Tracy, perhaps the finest actor of his generation, was nominated six times after his Oscar winners, from 1950 to 1967 (the last one, posthumously) -- Father of the Bride, Bad Day at Black Rock, The Old Man and the Sea, Inherit the Wind, Judgment at Nuremberg, Guess Who's Coming to Dinner -- but failed to win the jury's favour.
Hepburn, Tracy's love interest for many years, was nominated 12 times, incredibly all the way from the 6th Oscars in 1932 to the 54th Oscars in 1981.
She won her first Oscar in 1933 (Morning Glory), and didn't win another one till 34 years later even though she was nominated for Alice Adams (1935); The Philadelphia Story (1940); Woman of the Year (1942); The African Queen (1951); Summertime (1955); The Rainmaker (1956); Suddenly, Last Summer (1959) and Long Day's Journey into Night (1962).
She altered that record most impressively by winning all three times she was nominated at the end of her distinguished career. Her final Oscar triumph came with On Golden Pond in 1981, where she was cast with another veteran, Henry Fonda.
Robards was nominated one more time, in 1980, for Melvin and Howard, playing billionaire Howard Hughes (Leo DiCaprio played the young Hughes in Martin Scorsese's The Aviator), but didn't win.
Tom was nominated for Saving Private Ryan (1998) and Cast Away (2000), but didn't win. It seems bizarre that the fine actor has not been nominated even once this last decade.
Today's Oscar Challenge!
4. Martin Scorsese, the master director, has been nominated eight times for an Oscar. He has won only once. For which film?
a. The Departed
b. Gangs of New York
c. The Aviator
The correct answer is The Departed.
Just as one thought Marty was headed the Hitchcock way (the great British director, as we told you, never won an Oscar), the Academy finally smiled at him, giving him the Best Director trophy for a film remade from a Hong Kong gangster movie.
It ignored his original work -- Marty was not even nominated for Taxi Driver or Age of Innocence (he was nominated though for a Writing Oscar for his take on the Edith Wharton novel).
Raging Bull, The Last Temptation of Christ, Good Fellas, Gangs of New York and The Aviator didn't make it past the final post, losing to Ordinary People (director: Robert Redford), Rain Man (Barry Levinson), Dance with Wolves (Kevin Costner), The Pianist (Roman Polanski) and Million Dollar Baby (Clint Eastwood), respectively.
The Departed won against Babel (Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu), Letters from Iwo Jima (Clint Eastwood), The Queen (Stephen Frears) and United 93 (Paul Greengrass).
Scorsese was 64 years old when he won his first Oscar.
Just as one thought Marty was headed the Hitchcock way (the great British director, as we told you, never won an Oscar), the Academy finally smiled at him, giving him the Best Director trophy for a film remade from a Hong Kong gangster movie.
It ignored his original work -- Marty was not even nominated for Taxi Driver or Age of Innocence (he was nominated though for a Writing Oscar for his take on the Edith Wharton novel).
Raging Bull, The Last Temptation of Christ, Good Fellas, Gangs of New York and The Aviator didn't make it past the final post, losing to Ordinary People (director: Robert Redford), Rain Man (Barry Levinson), Dance with Wolves (Kevin Costner), The Pianist (Roman Polanski) and Million Dollar Baby (Clint Eastwood), respectively.
The Departed won against Babel (Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu), Letters from Iwo Jima (Clint Eastwood), The Queen (Stephen Frears) and United 93 (Paul Greengrass).
Scorsese was 64 years old when he won his first Oscar.
Today's Oscar Challenge!
5. Will Smith, perhaps the most successful star on Earth, has been nominated twice for an Oscar. Once for The Pursuit of Happyness. What other film was Will nominated for?
a. Hitch
b. Ali
c. I, Robot
The correct answer is Ali.
Will played Mohammad Ali with great aplomb in the Michael Mann film, moving like a butterfly and stinging like a bee, just as 'The Greatest' athlete of our time would have.
Both his nominated parts predictably haven't done as well at the turnstiles as his action flicks have.
Fourteen of his films have made over $100 million worldwide; 4 of them -- Independence Day, Men in Black, I am Legend, Hancock -- took in over $500 million!
He is also the only actor to 'have eight consecutive films gross over $100 million at the US box office and the only actor to have eight consecutive films in which he starred open at the No 1 spot in the US.'
Not for nothing did Newsweek magazine once call him the most powerful actor on the planet.
Even though Will has two Oscar noms and four Golden Globe nods (no wins, alas!), he has had better success at the Grammies where his singing talent has been honoured.
Four years ago, The New York Times reported that Will and Ronnie Screwvala's UTV had formed an alliance to make movies. Will even came down to Mumbai, but we haven't heard much about that since.
Will played Mohammad Ali with great aplomb in the Michael Mann film, moving like a butterfly and stinging like a bee, just as 'The Greatest' athlete of our time would have.
Both his nominated parts predictably haven't done as well at the turnstiles as his action flicks have.
Fourteen of his films have made over $100 million worldwide; 4 of them -- Independence Day, Men in Black, I am Legend, Hancock -- took in over $500 million!
He is also the only actor to 'have eight consecutive films gross over $100 million at the US box office and the only actor to have eight consecutive films in which he starred open at the No 1 spot in the US.'
Not for nothing did Newsweek magazine once call him the most powerful actor on the planet.
Even though Will has two Oscar noms and four Golden Globe nods (no wins, alas!), he has had better success at the Grammies where his singing talent has been honoured.
Four years ago, The New York Times reported that Will and Ronnie Screwvala's UTV had formed an alliance to make movies. Will even came down to Mumbai, but we haven't heard much about that since.