About This Quiz
These questions will ask you to identify the tough guys, womanizers and cool cats who played famous movie characters in the 1960s. Can you guess each bad boy?Sean Connery first appeared as Agent 007 sitting at a poker table in 1962's "Dr. No." Connery's turn as MI6's most suave agent launched him into super-stardom!
Jack Nicholson had a breakout performance in 1969's "Easy Rider." He was nominated for the Best Supporting Actor Oscar!
Steve McQueen raced automobiles in his spare time and did most of his own motorcycle riding for the memorable chase in "The Great Escape." Bud did you know that he didn't do the most memorable stunt? Stuntman Bud Ekins pulled off the famous motorcycle fence jump.
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Marlon Brando has been widely regarded as one of the greatest actors in film history. His ego was almost as famous. He was a definitive bad boy on the "Mutiny" set. He single-handedly drove up production costs by showing up late to set, constantly demanding rewrites and even demanding new directors!
1967's "Bonnie and Clyde" broke ground for boldly violent cinema. Warren Beatty starred in and produced the film, and was known for his maverick mentality in Hollywood.
In Connery's second outing as James Bond, 007 faces a killer trained specifically to assassinate him. Unfortunately for the killer, Connery went on to make five more films as Bond.
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Charles Bronson had unique experience for a role centered on digging expertise. Bronson was born and raised in a Pennsylvania coal mining town, where he started working in the mines at the age of 16!
Frank Sinatra may have played a man pursued by shady authorities in "The Manchurian Candidate," but did you know he was also investigated by the FBI? Justice officials thought he might have illegal connections to the Italian mob!
Dean Martin, the Clown Prince of the Rat Pack, is most famous for his music. But his performance as the boozing deputy Dude in Rio Bravo was critically acclaimed!
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Robert Mitchum had a history of playing bad guys very well in film. Besides his terrifying role in "Cape Fear" (to be remade in 1991 by Martin Scorsese starring Robert De Niro, with Mitchum in a cameo role) Mitchum was famous for playing a psychotic preacher in "The Night of the Hunter."
Paul Newman was arrested and kicked off the football team in college, then decided to study theater so he wouldn't have so study so much. The actor went on to star as many anti-heroes and wise guys, and was nominated for numerous Academy Awards for his performances.
Robert Redford wore the fasted gun and finest mustache in "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid." Redford went on to star in many films, including "The Sting" beside Paul Newman. He established the Sundance Film Festival--aptly named--for the discovery and promotion of independent film.
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Bronson played the leathery gunman who became a mentor to young villagers in "The Magnificent Seven." One critic once described Bronson's looks as like "Clark Gable...left out in the sun too long."
Steve McQueen and Yul Brynner, who was slated as the star of the film, often butted heads. Brynner thought McQueen was always trying to upstage him with little, attention-grabbing actions onscreen like fiddling with his cowboy hat.
Dennis Hopper directed the break-out hit "Easy Rider." He became known as a wild-card, insane performer in the 1970s--he was once called "the patron saint of the deranged!" He later tried to kick the crazy image he'd cultivated.
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Lee Marvin was a rebel from a young age. Did you know he was expelled from a boarding school for throwing a roommate out of a second-story window? He said that after a "sheltered childhood" he wanted to prove how tough he was!
Anthony Quinn often played exotic characters. He had great success as Zorba, who had a zest for life and "a little madness."
Only the "king of cool" could look intimidating in a turtleneck. Steve McQueen was a racing enthusiast and drove portions of the famous car chase in "Bullitt."
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Sean Connery took the helm of the 007 franchise for the third time in arguably the most loved Bond film, "Goldfinger." The film was the first for Bond to utter the iconic line, "A martini. Shaken not stirred."
"One-Eyed Jacks" was not a great success, but it was another installment in Marlon Brando's epic career. It is the only film directed by Brando.
"Once Upon a Time in the West" was spaghetti-Western director Sergio Leone's masterpiece, and it featured Charles Bronson in the lead role. Leone pursued Clint Eastwood for the role, but Bronson ultimately was the one playing the harmonica.
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"The Cincinnati Kid" was another success for McQueen in a string of successes, starting with "The Magnificent Seven." McQueen apparently insisted on the addition of a fight scene into the film to showcase his action prowess.
Clint Eastwood had gained fame in the television Western show "Rawhide," but his partnership with Italian director Sergio Leone would make him a Western icon. His character never gives his name in the film, adding to the mystique Eastwood brought to the squinting gunslinger in a green poncho.
"The Thomas Crown Affair" featured a sizzling cat-and-mouse game between McQueen as Thomas Crown and Faye Dunaway as a seductive detective on his tail. The film was remade in 1999 with Pierce Brosnan in McQueen's old role.
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Clint Eastwood tracked down the nine men who tried to kill him in "Hang 'Em High." The film was Eastwood's first Hollywood Western!
"Sometimes nothing is a pretty cool hand," Paul Newman said, with a defiant, relaxed air. Newman won audience's hearts as the convict who had "a failure to communicate."
Though George Clooney would later take up the role, Frank Sinatra originated the role of Danny Ocean. The film was a Rat Pack showcase, featuring many of the famous crooners of the '50s and '60s.
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Lee Marvin may have played the World War II commander of a motley crew, but Marvin himself actually served in the Marine Corps during World War II! Marvin no doubt used his combat experience to build his character.
Sean Connery once again played Agent 007 in "Thunderball." The jet pack that James Bond uses in the film was a Bell Rocket Belt, developed by the U.S. military!
Dean Martin played alongside John Wayne for the second time in 1965's "The Sons of Katie Elder." The film features a song performed by another bad boy of the era, Johnny Cash.
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Paul Newman made movie history as "Fast" Eddie Felson, the pool shark who doesn't know when to quit. Paul Newman reprised the role in "The Color of Money" (1986) and won his only Best Actor Oscar.
Lee Van Cleef played "The Bad" in "The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly." Van Cleef often played villains in Westerns, getting his start with small roles in classics like "High Noon" and "The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance."
Paul Newman played the role, partially based on Clark Gable's more selfish personas. On set, Paul Newman realized he had become a sex symbol; women were trying to break into his Texas motel room!
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Lee Marvin brought a mechanical, dauntless performance to "Point Blank." His character may have been a precursor to Arnold Schwarzenegger's Terminator!
"Killing generals could get to be a habit with me," Charles Bronson growls in this film, featuring the first suicide squad. Bronson himself, though he claimed to have had many altercations with the law, did not have a criminal record!