Oscar Trivia Quiz: Best Picture/Relatives Edition

[Big Magilla]

Liam Neeson certainly adds to the Redgrave family's stellar connection to Oscar best picture lore, but his only connection in the terms set for this thread (sibling, married couple, parent-child) is to Natasha Richardson, who didn't have a best picture win to her credit.

You could have made an exception for Neeson who has been intimately integrated into the Richardson-Redgrave clan in ways that no other actor we know of has ever been integrated into an acting dynasty clan.

One of his sons has legally changed his name to Richardson in honor of his mother. When he dies, Neeson will be buried with his wife in Saint Peter's Episcopal Cemetery near his home in New York's Dutchess County. Richardson is buried near her grandmother (Rachel Kempson aka Lady Redgrave) who died while on a visit to the Neeson-Richardson home in 2003. Richardson's aunt (Lynn Redgrave) who died in 2010, the year after Richardson died, is also buried there.

[Mister Tee]

As a kid of the 60s Patty Duke was enormously popular, with her eponymous sitcom sandwiched in between The Miracle Worker and Valley of the Dolls. My older sister was practically obsessed with the Patty Duke Show, and to this day I can sing much of its theme song (“a hot dog makes her lose control”).

I tested myself last night, and was able to do the theme song end-to-end from memory. I'd guess a lot of folks in our age range could do the same. Billy Crystal used it to parody Beauty and the Beast in his 1991 Oscar opening number. And SCTV once did a show where they showed blurbs for multiple proposed new TV shows, all of which used versions of the song. The one I remember is "But they're cheese hostesses...Identical cheese hostesses all the way..."

Good work, all, getting through the list. I never heard of the Astin family DNA test; had I, I might never have inaugurated this thread, which seems it would have deprived a number of people of fun.

Liam Neeson certainly adds to the Redgrave family's stellar connection to Oscar best picture lore, but his only connection in the terms set for this thread (sibling, married couple, parent-child) is to Natasha Richardson, who didn't have a best picture win to her credit.

[Big Magilla]

I know a lot of Oscar trivia, so I'd be more than happy to put something together when I find the time. Others can jump in as well.

Also, enough time has passed since the 2022 Oscars, so I'll do something on that later today or tommorow as well.

[CalWilliam]

Great job, Cal.

Uri, you are right about Liam Neeson.

Thank you. Please, Big Magilla, Mister Tee or whoever elaborate more quizzes of this sort focused in other categories if you fancy it and have the time. We should be doing the polls of this year’s Oscars as well.

[Big Magilla]

According to IMDb Trivia, though:

Son Sean Astin is not his biological child. He is ex-wife Patty Duke's son with her ex-husband Michael Tell. Duke claimed Sean's biological father was John Astin until the two blood-tested in 1990 and this became clear that Tell was the father.

For many years, the tabloids held onto the chance that Astin's father was Desi Arnaz Jr. with whom Patty Duke had an affair between Tell and Astin.

[Big Magilla]

Great job, Cal.

Uri, you are right about Liam Neeson.

[Uri]

I'm with CalWilliam. A great anal fun.

Speaking of which - Lydia Clarke, Charlton Heston's wife, made an uncredited appearance in The Greatest Show on Earth.

And shouldn't we include Liam Neeson among the Redgrave clan?

[CalWilliam]

And finally number 8, the fourth couple who met while shooting a Best Picture winner, John Ireland and Joanne Dru in All the King’s Men, although I read they met the year before on Red River.

This was a very funny game.

[CalWilliam]

Answer to 9 is Timothy Hutton and Debra Winger, who were married between 1986 and 1990.

[CalWilliam]

The answer to 2c must be Mark Wahlberg and Robert Wahlberg, both in The Departed, the latter with a very small appearance as an FBI agent. I can’t remember if he even speaks in the movie, but I remember a shot where he is introduced to Matt Damon.

[CalWilliam]

According to IMDb Trivia, though:

Son Sean Astin is not his biological child. He is ex-wife Patty Duke's son with her ex-husband Michael Tell. Duke claimed Sean's biological father was John Astin until the two blood-tested in 1990 and this became clear that Tell was the father.

[Big Magilla]

I did get Fiennes for number five but since I promised not to solve any more of these until someone else piped in, I didn't post it.

I do remember John Astin being in West Side Story now that you mention it, but I didn't make the connection.

I had completely forgotten about Isabel Jeans having been married to Claude Rains so I probably would never have gotten that one.

I give up on the remaining ones.

[danfrank]

By the way, The Addams Family lasted two seasons, not one, still short-lived for a series that was perpetually in re-runs and has spawned so many reboots and spin-offs, including the now-popular Wednesday.

As a kid of the 60s Patty Duke was enormously popular, with her eponymous sitcom sandwiched in between The Miracle Worker and Valley of the Dolls. My older sister was practically obsessed with the Patty Duke Show, and to this day I can sing much of its theme song (“a hot dog makes her lose control”).

As for Sean Astin, he did some pretty heavy lifting as an actor in the Rings series, playing a very moving character. A glance at IMDB shows he’s worked a lot, but besides the early Goonies and then the Rings movies, he hasn’t done much of note that I’m aware of.

[Mister Tee]

Okay, number 11: John Astin (of Addams Family fame) was in West Side Story briefly in the dance at the gym segment. He was married to Patty Duke (winner for The Miracle Worker), and son Sean Astin was in Oscar winner The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King.

Yes?

Thank you, for finally getting it!

When I saw West Side Story, in the Spring of 1963, it was pre-Addams Family, but I knew Astin from a show called I'm Dickens, He's Fenster. (On which his co-star was Marty Ingels, who also subsequently married a supporting actress Oscar winner from the era, Shirley Jones.) That's why he stuck out for me, despite the small size of the part. And i assume everyone who sees the film today recognizes him as Gomez.

[danfrank]

Okay, number 11: John Astin (of Addams Family fame) was in West Side Story briefly in the dance at the gym segment. He was married to Patty Duke (winner for The Miracle Worker), and son Sean Astin was in Oscar winner The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King.

Yes?