Understanding Performance in Theatre and Film Quiz - Test Your Knowledge

in the 1971 film Lawman, American actor Robert Ryan played the role of the sheriff under the name Cotton Ryan.

in 1915, Hollywood actress Anita King became the first female to ever drive an automobile across the continental United States alone and whose only companions, according to the Los Angeles Times, were "a rifle and a six shooter".

in the 1977 film That Obscure Object of Desire directed by Luis Buñuel, the leading role of Conchita is played by two actresses and voiced by a third.

radio DJ and blues expert Mike Raven also worked at various times as an actor in horror films, a sculptor, a sheep farmer, a presenter of religious TV programmes, and a ballet dancer.

the actor Jonathan Cecil, whose film roles include Hercule Poirot's assistant Hastings, has been called "one of the finest upper-class-twits of his era".

short leading men often stand on apple boxes to make themselves look taller on film.

for actress KaDee Strickland's role in The Grudge, she was inspired by Jane Fonda's Academy Award-winning performance in the 1971 film Klute.

during World War II, the Czech actor Oldřich Nový refused to divorce his wife, as a consequence of which they were both imprisoned in a German concentration camp.

Irish playwright George Farquhar (pictured) originally planned on an acting career, but gave it up after accidentally wounding a fellow actor severely on stage with a sword.

Shruti Haasan, the daughter of Indian actors Kamal Haasan and Sarika, is a singer turned model who is now also venturing into acting.

after actor Philip Loeb committed suicide, an article in the New York Times noting his passing commented that "He died of a sickness commonly called 'the blacklist'.".

after limited success in film, actor Patrick McVey won starring roles in three television series: Big Town, Boots and Saddles, and Manhunt.

although actress Matilda Vining was always billed as Mrs. John Wood, her fame greatly eclipsed that of her husband.

the actor Read Morgan of NBC's western television series The Deputy played basketball from 1950 to 1952 for the Kentucky Wildcats.

the actor Tyler MacDuff played Billy the Kid in the 1954 film The Boy from Oklahoma, which inspired the Sugarfoot television series.

the mother of Jamila Massey, an Indian actress and writer, refused to allow her to attend drama school, after the death of her father.

the former actor Adam Kennedy wrote the screenplay for the Gene Hackman film, The Domino Principle, about a convict turned assassin.

the primarily western television actor Chris Alcaide came out of retirement in 1987 to appear as the Chief Justice in Charles Bronson's film Assassination.

two of the three daughters of the Louisiana real estate developer and Springhill mayor Jesse L. Boucher became Hollywood actresses.

when the English actress Lucia Elizabeth Vestris (pictured) took over the Olympic Theatre in 1830, she became the first ever female actor-manager in the history of London theatre.

the Irish romantic comedy Little White Lie followed the attempts of an actor to attract the attention of a television presenter by pretending he was a psychiatrist.

the Mexican actress Leticia Palma's dispute with Jorge Negrete led to the end of a career described as "one of the most interesting presences" of the cinema of Mexico.

the actors Peter Helm and his sister Anne inherited a large estate from their banker-grandfather in the same month that Peter made his TV debut on CBS's Pete and Gladys.

the actor-stuntman Paul Stader broke both heels when he fell from the second floor of a burning building in the filming of the 1949 movie Mighty Joe Young.

the actress Viviane Romance rejected the offer of a Hollywood contract in the 1930s preferring to work in French cinema.

the Czech actor Bolek Polívka was involved in one of the oddest legal disputes in the history of the Czech Republic.

the film crew of actress Revathi's directorial debut Mitr, My Friend was entirely composed of women.

Ramon Zamora, the Filipino film actor popularly dubbed the "Bruce Lee of the Philippines," won an award imitating Adolf Hitler on the gag show Super Laff-In.

Patience Cooper, an Anglo-Indian actress, was the first to play a double role in an Indian film.

actress Michele Lee appeared in four episodes of Knots Landing without pay when the show suffered a budgeting problem.

actress Dorothy Kilgallen, who claimed to have information about the assassination of U.S. President John F. Kennedy, died under suspicious circumstances.

Brazilian actress Carmen Silva was diagnosed with the same illness, multiple organ dysfunction syndrome, as actor Oswaldo Louzada, who played her husband on the Brazilian telenovela, Mulheres Apaixonadas.

Canadian actress Cara Duff-MacCormick won a Theatre World Award for her role in Moonchildren, a play about coming of age during the Vietnam War era.

heavyweight boxer Joe Baksi recorded nine victories in his first year as a professional, including one over future actor Jack Palance.

Egyptian actor Omar Sharif's first film role was in the 1954 film Sira` Fi al-Wadi.

actor and acting teacher Bryan O'Byrne is credited with launching the acting career of Nick Nolte, whom he discovered while coaching Nolte's college roommate.

actor and mime artist Jack Birkett, who was often billed as "The Incredible Orlando", continued to perform on stage and in films after becoming totally blind.

actor Buck Taylor, though he still appears in mostly Western films, is also a prolific artist of the American West.

actor Jeff Bridges credits his mother, Dorothy Bridges, with passing down lessons she learned from acclaimed acting teacher Michael Chekhov to her children.

actor Michael Sellers, son of British actor Peter Sellers, died of the same cause (heart attack) and date, albeit twenty-six years later, as his father.

actor and broadcaster Dean Miller, who played the son-in-law on CBS's December Bride, later bought what became WMVR-FM radio in his native Ohio.

actor and environmentalist Ron Hayes worked to establish the first Earth Day in 1970 and to preserve the Grand Canyon National Park.

Irish actor Paudge Behan is the son of IRA Chief of Staff Cathal Goulding and Beatrice Behan, the widow of playwright Brendan Behan.

Russian critics considered Armenian actor and poet Petros Adamian one of the best tragedians of the world for his interpretations of Hamlet and Othello.

Joe Shishido transitioned from a moderately successful melodrama actor into a popular villain and then action star after he underwent plastic surgery to severely enlarge his cheeks.

Ira Eaker and Allen Zwerdling established Back Stage in 1960, considered the "casting bible" for theater performers.

Léonce Perret was a prominent movie director and actor, involved in more than four hundred films from 1909 to 1935.

Mahmoud el-Meliguy, an Egyptian actor famed for his villain film roles, was nicknamed "Marlon Brando of the East".

NTR Gardens (pictured), which was built in the memory of actor-politician N. T. Rama Rao, was actually a water body until 1994.

Elvira Popescu, an actress, theatre director, and recipient of the Légion d'honneur, was one of four women who inspired Henri Matisse's painting La Blouse Roumaine.

Edgar Buchanan was a dentist before becoming an American actor with a long career in both movies and television, and is probably best remembered as Uncle Joe Carson from the Petticoat Junction and Green Acres television sitcoms of the 1960s.

studio executive Simon Kornblit, who oversaw the release of Jurassic Park for Universal Pictures, became an actor after his retirement.

Scottish actor Richard Madden began his career at age 11 when he was cast in the film Complicity, followed by his 1999 role in the BBC television series Barmy Aunt Boomerang.

British actress Stephanie Beacham played a nun on American sitcom Sister Kate after playing the glamorous Sable Colby on the drama Dynasty.

Barry Coe, the winner of the Golden Globe award for "most promising" actor, missed out on becoming the fourth Cartwright brother on the television series Bonanza because of reported friction on the set.

Christopher Strauli was the actor recruited to fill the gap left by the early death of Richard Beckinsale when casting the movie version of Rising Damp.

actor Billy Bob Thornton provides drums and vocals for the country rock band The Boxmasters.

Understanding Performance in Theatre and Film

1 In ancient Greece and Rome and the medieval world, it was considered disgraceful for a woman to go on the stage, and this belief continued right up until the 17th century, when in ________ it was broken.

2 ________ for Indian cinema

3 Tony Awards for the theatre (specifically, ________)

4 (Shakespeare's use of ________ and wordplay, for example, often has this function of indirect contact.)

5 The gender-neutral term player was common in film in the early days of the ________, but is now generally deemed archaic.

6 Occasionally the issue is further complicated, for example, by a woman playing a woman acting as a man pretending to be a woman, like Julie Andrews in Victor/Victoria, or ________ in Shakespeare in Love.

7 ________ and Robin Williams have each appeared in a hit comedy film (Tootsie and Mrs. Doubtfire, respectively) in which they played most scenes dressed as a woman.

8 ________ for American film and television

9 ________ for gay pornographic film

10 Most of Shakespeare's comedies include instances of overt ________, such as Francis Flute in A Midsummer Night's Dream.

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