Nebraskans in Hollywood: Take this quiz on who's who

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By the Lincoln Journal Star

For a low-population state, Nebraska has had an inordinate impact on Hollywood. Consider this: The man considered to be the greatest movie actor ever was born here.

So was the founder of one of Hollywood’s biggest studios — a hands-on mogul with little education beyond his Nebraska common sense.

There have been silent film stars from Nebraska and late-night TV icons. And that tradition continues with recent Oscar-winners for acting and screenwriting having Cornhusker connections.

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Marlon Brando (File photo)

Marlon Brando (File photo)

There aren’t any names being used here for a reason. We’ve compiled a quiz about Nebraskans in Hollywood — in both movie and TV with a couple of questions about music related to the screens, big and small.

Here’s a chance to see how much you know about Nebraska’s connections in the movies and on the tube: (See answers at bottom of quiz.)

1. This Lincoln-born actress has two Academy Awards. She won the first for playing another woman from Lincoln. Name the actress and the movie.

2. “The Catalog of Cool” lists “The President’s Analyst” as the coolest movie of all time. Name the Nebraskan who starred in the 1967 nutty political thriller.

3. A movie and a TV mini-series have been based on Charles Starkweather’s murder spree. Name the movie and its stars and the mini-series.

4.  This actor was born in Grand Island and became a major star in the 1940s. But he didn’t win an Academy Award until his final picture — in 1981. Name the actor, listed as the 10th greatest movie star of all time by Premiere magazine, and the film for which he won the Oscar.

5.  This Oscar-winner is one of Hollywood’s new rising stars — as a writer and as a director. He’s made three of his movies in Nebraska. But won his Best Adapted Screenplay Oscar for the fourth, which was set in California’s wine country. Name the writer/director and the movie.

6. Born in Omaha in 1899, this actor began his career at age 5 and was on Broadway and in vaudeville before he hit the big screen. Once he found a partner, he defined onscreen dancing from the 1930s to the 1950s. Name the actor and his partner.

7. This Hastings born jazz trumpeter and composer wrote one of the most enduring television theme songs — an instrumental that captured the spirit of the men-in-tights, comic-based show. Name the composer and the song.

8. Widely considered the greatest movie actor of all time, he was born in Omaha and grew up at the community playhouse there. He won two Oscars and exerted a profound influence on succeeding generations of actors that continues today.

9. She was born in Hastings, grew up in Kenesaw and Lincoln and attended the University of Nebraska and Nebraska Wesleyan University. A multiple Tony Award winner for her stage acting, she got a Best Supporting Actress Oscar for her work in one of the most important films of the 1960s. Name the actress and the movie.

10. This Omaha-born actor got kicked out of Central High and has played football players, bums, cops, ministers, criminals, Neal Cassady and Thomas Jefferson.

11. Born in Wahoo in 1902, abandoned by his parents at 13 and in the Army at 15, he was a genius at movie plots. In 1933 he left Warner Brothers to co-found Twentieth Century Films, which soon absorbed the bankrupt Fox. He ruled the studio for decades as the most “hands-on” studio boss. Name this movie mogul.

12. This Lincoln East High graduate got her start at the community playhouse and changed her first name when she moved to New York. After starring in films like “Parenthood” and “Arachnophobia,”she’s become a highly respected mystery writer.

13. This actor was a senior at Millard West when he was chosen by Alexander Payne to play a high school jock in  “Election,” then went on to co-star in the hit “American Pie” and was romantically linked with Katie Holmes.

14. Born Spangler Arlington Baugh in Filley, this actor was known as “The Man With the Perfect Profile” and starred in such films as “Camille” and “Quo Vadis.”

15.  This former fashion model from Omaha dated Kid Rock, played twins Goldie and Wendy in “Sin City” and had recurring roles on TV comedies “Kitchen Confidential” and “Class.”

16. This Burchard native became one of the biggest stars of the silent film era, earning more than $1 million a picture in the 1920s and is best known for his classic “Safety Last,” in which he’s seen hanging from the face of a clock.

17. This Omaha-born actress received an Oscar nomination playing opposite Gregory Peck in 1948’s “A Gentleman’s Agreement.”

18.  This member of the Omaha Tribe got his first national notice playing the intense Wind in His Hair in Kevin Costner’s 1990 Oscar winner “Dances With Wolves.”

19. This Lincoln-born rocker has had songs in 20 movies and TV soundtracks, including the “Austin Powers” pictures, “Beavis and Butt-head” and this summer’s “Nancy Drew.”

20. He was born in Kenesaw, grew up in Lincoln, worked for Jack Paar, hosted his own late-night talk show and has appeared in movies like “Forrest Gump” and “Annie Hall” playing himself.

21. This Norfolk-raised comedian/actor was a candidate to play Rob Petrie in a Carl Reiner-created sitcom, but became a cultural icon as a late-night talk show host instead.

22. The grandson of prominent Nebraska railroad builder John Fitzgerald, this late Omaha actor was best known as Bosley on the 1970s detective series “Charlie’s Angels.” 

23. This Omaha-born news personality recently concluded a longtime stint at CNN, which included hosting her own show, after holding positions at ABC, CBS and Fox News.

24. She starred as a cheerleader opposite “Spider-Man’s” Kirsten Dunst in the film “Bring It On.” The Omaha actress’s later credits include “Bad Boys II” and short-lived ABC drama “Night Stalker.”

25. This Lincoln actress gained fame as Ned Bigby’s pal “Moze” in Nickelodeon’s “Ned's Declassified School Survival Guide” and now will star in The CW’s new comedy “Aliens in America.”

26. This  Omaha actor got his start on CW’s “One Tree Hill” before landing the lead in the ABC drama “October Road.”

27. Before Harrison Ford played the big-screen “Fugitive,” this actor from Naponee played the accused doctor searching for the one-armed man in the 1960s TV series.

28. He recently appeared in episodes of  “The Office” and “Boston Legal,” but this Omaha actor is best known as an original cast member on the Fox sketch comedy series “MadTV.”

29. Raised in North Bend, she once worked in a Schuyler meat-packing plant before becoming a five-time Emmy nominee and a forensic investigator on the CBS drama “CSI: Crime Scene Investigation.”

30. This Lincoln-born, Emmy-nominated casting director has found actors for such TV shows as “Nip/Tuck,” “Saving Grace,” “Supernatural” and “Battlestar Galactica.”

31. Known for  his Holiday Inn commercial campaign, this Lincoln actor/stand-up comic recently has appeared in independent comedies about the Pinewood Derby and church league basketball.

32. This stand-up comedian from Lincoln  worked as a producer on his good friend Rodney Carrington’s sitcom for two seasons, meriting writing credits for two episodes.

33. This  Omaha-born actor’s first professional job was the Nebraska Shakespeare Festival’s “Shakespeare on the Green. Today, he plays a by-the-book, socially awkward detective on FX’s Emmy-nominated “The Shield.”

34. This actor from Omaha starred as Matthew in the original off-Broadway production of “Altar Boyz” before becoming the paralyzed high school quarterback on NBC’s Peabody-winning drama “Friday Night Lights.”

35. The Lincoln-born “Extra” host and correspondent was a running back at Nebraska before breaking into his broadcasting career.

36. This stand-up comedian grew up on a farm outside Pawnee City and is now one of the nation’s premier comics, a best-selling author, a movie star and creator of the catch-phrase “Git-R-Done.”

37. This Holdrege-born artist began drawing comic strips as a youngster. Today, he’s the technical director and lead animator for Comedy Central’s “South Park.”

38. She is Texas-raised, but Lincoln born. Her father was a pilot, which, coincidentally, was the occupation of the character she played on the quirky dramedy “Northern Exposure.”

39. From the 1920s through the 1940s, this cowboy actor from Tekamah was a major film attraction, ranking second only to Tom Mix as a Western film box office draw.

40. “American Pie’s” Seann William Scott will star in the big-screen comedy “Gary the Tennis Coach” this fall, the first movie from this screenwriting duo with Lincoln roots.  Name the pair of writers.

Bonus questionThis Tilden native is responsible for the book that was the basis of one of the worst movies of all time. His teachings have been embraced by the likes of Tom Cruise, John Travolta and Kirstie Allie. Name him, the group he founded and the terrible movie.

Answers

1. Hilary Swank, “Boys Don’t Cry”

2.  James Coburn

3.“Badlands” with Martin Sheen and Sissy Spacek and “Murder in the Heartland”

4.  Henry Fonda, “On Golden Pond”

5.  Alexander Payne, “Sideways”

6.  Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers

7. Neal Hefti, “The Batman Theme.”

8. Marlon Brando

9. Sandy Dennis, “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?”

10.  Nick Nolte

11. Darryl F. Zanuck

12. Harley Jane Kozak

13. Chris Klein

14. Robert Taylor

15.  Jaime King

16.  Harold Lloyd

17.  Dorothy McGuire

18.  Rodney A. Grant

19.  Matthew Sweet

20.  Dick Cavett

21.  Johnny Carson

22.  David Doyle

23.  Paula Zahn

24.  Gabrielle Union

25.  Lindsey Shaw

26.  Bryan Greenberg

27.  David Janssen

28.  Craig Anton

29.  Marg Helgenberger

30.  Eric Dawson

31.  Ross Brockley

32.  Mark Gross

33.  Jay Karnes

34.  Scott Porter

35.  Jon Kelley

36.  Dan Whitney, aka Larry the Cable Guy

37.  Ryan Quincy

38.  Janine Turner

39.  Hoot Gibson

40.  Rick Stempson, Andrew Stock

BONUS QUESTION

L. Ron Hubbard, Scientology, “Battlefield Earth”

Questions and answers compiled

by Jeff Korbelik and L. Kent Wolgamott.