Famous parents, famous kids — the warm-up round
Start here. Every question in this round has an answer most tables will get with a little prompting, which is exactly what a first round is for. The theme is the oldest one in show business: the child who goes into the family trade.
A few of these pairs are worth knowing as a matter of Hollywood history rather than gossip. Candice Bergen grew up alongside a radio superstar who was made of wood. Tatum O'Neal won her Oscar acting opposite her own father. And David Cassidy's television mother on 'The Partridge Family' really was his stepmother off camera.
Q1.Candice Bergen, the star of 'Murphy Brown', is the daughter of which famous ventriloquist?Tap to reveal
Answer: Edgar Bergen
Edgar Bergen's wooden sidekick Charlie McCarthy was one of the biggest stars of American radio in the 1930s and 40s, which made for an unusual childhood household.
Q2.Ben Stiller's father was a comedian who later played Frank Costanza on 'Seinfeld'. Name him.Tap to reveal
Answer: Jerry Stiller
Jerry Stiller and Anne Meara were a celebrated stand-up double act long before their son directed 'Zoolander'. Jerry died in 2020 at the age of 92.
Q3.Liza Minnelli's mother was Judy Garland. Which Oscar-winning director was her father?Tap to reveal
Answer: Vincente Minnelli
He directed Garland in 'Meet Me in St. Louis' in 1944, married her the following year, and won the Best Director Oscar for 'Gigi'.
Q4.Which Brat Pack actor is the son of Martin Sheen and the older brother of Charlie Sheen?Tap to reveal
Answer: Emilio Estevez
Martin Sheen was born Ramon Estevez. Emilio kept the family name while his brother adopted their father's stage one.
Q5.Caroline Kennedy is the daughter of which US president?Tap to reveal
Answer: John F. Kennedy
She was five when her father was assassinated in 1963, and she later represented the United States as an ambassador abroad, first to Japan and then to Australia.
Q6.Twins Jenna and Barbara, born in 1981, are the daughters of which US president?Tap to reveal
Answer: George W. Bush
They were named after their grandmothers, Barbara Bush and Jenna Welch. Jenna Bush Hager went on to a career in television and publishing.
Q7.Tatum O'Neal won an Academy Award at the age of 10 for a film in which she acted opposite her own father. Who was he?Tap to reveal
Answer: Ryan O'Neal
The film was 'Paper Moon' in 1973, and Tatum is still the youngest winner of a competitive Oscar. Ryan O'Neal died in 2023.
Q8.'The Partridge Family' star David Cassidy was the son of actor Jack Cassidy — and his stepmother played his mother on the show. Who was she?Tap to reveal
Answer: Shirley Jones
Jones married Jack Cassidy in 1956, so television's Shirley Partridge really was David's stepmother in life. David's own mother was the actress Evelyn Ward.
Q9.Mackenzie Phillips of 'One Day at a Time' is the daughter of which singer from The Mamas and the Papas?Tap to reveal
Answer: John Phillips
Her half-sister Chynna Phillips sang in Wilson Phillips alongside Carnie and Wendy Wilson, who are daughters of the Beach Boys' Brian Wilson.
Q10.Carrie Fisher made her Broadway debut in the chorus of a 1973 revival of 'Irene'. Which star of that show was her mother?Tap to reveal
Answer: Debbie Reynolds
Fisher left school for the run, having been cast while she was still in her teens. She and Reynolds died one day apart in December 2016.
Q11.Melanie Griffith's mother starred in Hitchcock's 'The Birds'. Name her.Tap to reveal
Answer: Tippi Hedren
That makes Hedren the grandmother of Dakota Johnson, Griffith's daughter with Don Johnson.
Q12.Mariska Hargitay was three years old when her mother, the actress Jayne Mansfield, died in 1967. What kind of accident killed her?Tap to reveal
Answer: A car crash
Mansfield died on a Louisiana highway in the early hours of 29 June 1967. Mariska and two brothers were asleep in the back seat and survived. Her father was the bodybuilder and actor Mickey Hargitay, Mr Universe of 1955.
Mothers and daughters
Hollywood loves casting real mothers and daughters as fictional ones, and the results are some of the most quotable facts in celebrity trivia. One of the pairs below made Academy Awards history simply by showing up in the same film, and another turned a horror sequel into a family reunion with a nod to 'Psycho' parked outside.
One caution for quizmasters: this round rewards film titles, so accept a close answer. 'The one where Emma Thompson is a widow in Scotland' should get the point.
Q1.Jamie Lee Curtis and her mother, 'Psycho' star Janet Leigh, appeared together in which 'Halloween' sequel?Tap to reveal
Answer: 'Halloween H20: 20 Years Later' (1998)
Leigh played a school secretary opposite her daughter's Laurie Strode, and the scene nods at 'Psycho' right down to the car parked outside.
Q2.Emma Thompson played a recent widow opposite her real mother in a 1997 film directed by Alan Rickman. Name the film and the mother.Tap to reveal
Answer: 'The Winter Guest', with Phyllida Law
Rickman's directing debut cast the two as mother and daughter, which is what they are. Law has appeared in several of Thompson's films.
Q3.Laura Dern and Diane Ladd became the first mother and daughter nominated for Oscars for the same film. Which film?Tap to reveal
Answer: 'Rambling Rose' (1991)
Dern was nominated for Best Actress and Ladd for Best Supporting Actress. The two have acted together in at least five films, starting with 'White Lightning' in 1973.
Q4.Kate Hudson, daughter of Goldie Hawn, shares a birthday with another famous daughter — an actress whose mother sang in The Judds. Who?Tap to reveal
Answer: Ashley Judd
Hudson was born on 19 April 1979 and Judd on 19 April 1968, to Naomi Judd, who performed as a duo with her other daughter, Wynonna.
Q5.Sharon and Ozzy Osbourne's eldest daughter refused to appear in MTV's 'The Osbournes'. What is her name?Tap to reveal
Answer: Aimee Osbourne
She moved out of the family home rather than be filmed, and later released music under the name ARO.
Q6.Which 'Saturday Night Live' and 'Bridesmaids' star is the daughter of Minnie Riperton, the singer of the 1975 hit 'Lovin' You'?Tap to reveal
Answer: Maya Rudolph
Rudolph was six when her mother died of cancer in 1979. Her father, the producer Richard Rudolph, co-wrote 'Lovin' You'.
Celebrity twins and siblings
Half the fun of this round is that most people have no idea the twin exists. Four of the nine stars below have one who never became famous, one of them shares a birthday with a brother who has spent his life outside the business, and in one case the twin sister appeared in a blockbuster without a credit most viewers noticed.
The saddest entry is also the most famous, and it is the reason this round belongs on a page about family rather than on a page about records: one of the biggest stars of the twentieth century was a surviving twin, and he spoke about the brother he never met for the rest of his life.
Q1.What is the name of Scarlett Johansson's fraternal twin brother?Tap to reveal
Answer: Hunter Johansson
The two were born minutes apart in New York in November 1984. Hunter went into politics and relief work rather than film.
Q2.Which rock and roll legend was a surviving twin, born in Tupelo, Mississippi, about half an hour after his stillborn brother?Tap to reveal
Answer: Elvis Presley
Graceland records the brother as Jesse Garon Presley, delivered stillborn roughly 35 minutes before Elvis arrived on 8 January 1935. Whether the twins were identical was never established, and Presley spoke about his brother throughout his life.
Q3.Ashton Kutcher has a twin brother who received a heart transplant as a teenager. What is his name?Tap to reveal
Answer: Michael Kutcher
Michael was born with cerebral palsy and had the transplant at 13. He now speaks publicly about both, and the brothers were born in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, in February 1978.
Q4.In which US state were the singer Aaron Carter and his twin sister Angel born?Tap to reveal
Answer: Florida
The twins were born in Tampa in December 1987. Their older brother Nick sang with the Backstreet Boys. Aaron died in 2022.
Q5.Linda Hamilton's identical twin sister doubled for her in which blockbuster?Tap to reveal
Answer: 'Terminator 2: Judgment Day' (1991)
Leslie Hamilton Gearren stood in as Sarah Connor's reflection and as the T-1000's copy of her, which is how the film put two Sarahs in one shot.
Q6.Isabella Rossellini and her twin sister Ingrid were born in Rome in 1952 to which two famous parents?Tap to reveal
Answer: Ingrid Bergman and Roberto Rossellini
Their mother's relationship with the Italian director was a scandal that kept her out of Hollywood for years. Ingrid Rossellini became a scholar of Italian literature.
Q7.Joseph Fiennes has an actor brother named Ralph and a twin brother who went into conservation. What is the twin called?Tap to reveal
Answer: Jacob Fiennes
The six Fiennes siblings are the children of the novelist Jennifer Lash and the photographer Mark Fiennes, and include the director Martha and the composer Magnus.
Q8.Which Canadian singer, born in Ottawa in 1974, has a twin brother named Wade?Tap to reveal
Answer: Alanis Morissette
Wade Morissette is a musician and yoga teacher. The twins also have an older brother, Chad.
Q9.'Without a Trace' star Poppy Montgomery was born Poppy Petal Emma Elizabeth Deveraux Donahue, and her four sisters were named on the same theme — all except one brother. What is the brother called?Tap to reveal
Answer: Jethro
Her Australian parents named all five daughters after flowers: Rosie Thorne, Daisy Yellow, Marigold Sun and Lily Belle. Only Jethro escaped the theme.
Unusual celebrity baby names
This round is a reliable crowd-pleaser, and it ages better than you would expect. Most of the children below were born between 1992 and 2007, and the oldest of them — Frank Zappa's four, Aretha Franklin's son Kecalf and Bill Lear's daughter — have been carrying their names since long before that. Apple Martin is in her twenties. Moxie CrimeFighter Jillette can vote.
A surprising number of the names are jokes with a key. Rob Morrow's daughter and Bill Lear's daughter are both puns on the family surname, Aretha Franklin gave one son a name you have to decode rather than read, and Mel B tucked a comedian's surname into the middle of her daughter's.
Q1.Gwyneth Paltrow and Coldplay's Chris Martin named their two children Apple and what?Tap to reveal
Answer: Moses
Apple Blythe Alison Martin, born in 2004, carries the names of both grandmothers — Blythe Danner and Alison Martin. Moses Bruce Anthony Martin, born in 2006, carries both grandfathers'.
Q2.Which Oscar-winning actor named his son Kal-El, after Superman's Kryptonian name?Tap to reveal
Answer: Nicolas Cage
Cage was born Nicolas Kim Coppola, nephew of 'Godfather' director Francis Ford Coppola, and changed his surname early so he would not be hired on it.
Q3.Which singer named her daughter Puma and her son Seven?Tap to reveal
Answer: Erykah Badu
Seven's father is Andre 3000 of OutKast; Puma's is the rapper and producer The D.O.C.
Q4.R&B singer Toni Braxton named her sons Denim and what?Tap to reveal
Answer: Diezel
Their father is Keri Lewis, the keyboard player from Mint Condition.
Q5.Which supermodel named her daughter Sailor Lee?Tap to reveal
Answer: Christie Brinkley
Sailor Brinkley-Cook became a model too, and stepped in for her mother on 'Dancing with the Stars' in 2018 after Brinkley broke her arm in rehearsal.
Q6.'Pulp Fiction' actor Ving Rhames gave his children the names Freedom and what?Tap to reveal
Answer: Reignbeau
It is pronounced 'rainbow'. Rhames was born Irving Rhames and trimmed his own first name down to Ving.
Q7.Which heartland rocker named one of his sons Speck Wildhorse?Tap to reveal
Answer: John Mellencamp
Speck and his brother Hud are Mellencamp's sons with the model Elaine Irwin. Their father spent the early part of his career billed as John Cougar.
Q8.Magician Penn Jillette named his daughter Moxie CrimeFighter. What is her younger brother called?Tap to reveal
Answer: Zolten
Zolten Penn Jillette takes his mother Emily's maiden name. Penn has explained that the middle name means his daughter can one day tell a traffic officer that CrimeFighter is on her licence.
Q9.Frank Zappa named his four children Moon Unit, Dweezil, Diva Thin Muscle and Ahmet Emuukha Rodan. Which of them spoke the vocals on his 1982 hit 'Valley Girl'?Tap to reveal
Answer: Moon Unit Zappa
She was 14, and the single became her father's biggest American chart success. Dweezil grew up to be a guitarist who tours Zappa's music.
Q10.Which member of the Jackson family named his sons Jaafar and Jermajesty?Tap to reveal
Answer: Jermaine Jackson
Jaafar Jackson plays his uncle Michael in the 2026 biopic 'Michael'. Jermajesty, born in 2000, has stayed out of the business.
Q11.Shania Twain's son has a three-letter name pronounced 'Asia'. How is it spelled?Tap to reveal
Answer: Eja
Eja was born in 2001. His father is the producer Robert John 'Mutt' Lange, who made Twain's biggest albums.
Q12.Aretha Franklin named one of her sons Kecalf. Where does that name come from?Tap to reveal
Answer: His parents' initials
Kecalf Cunningham's name is usually explained as Ken E. Cunningham And Little Franklin, after his father and his mother, Aretha Louise Franklin.
Q13.Actor Rob Morrow gave his daughter a first name that turns the family surname into a joke. What is it?Tap to reveal
Answer: Tu (Tu Morrow)
Her mother is the actress Debbon Ayer, whose own professional name runs the same trick on the word debonair.
Q14.The founder of the Learjet company gave his daughter a name that sounds like a light fitting. What was it?Tap to reveal
Answer: Shanda Lear
Bill Lear, the aviation inventor who also gave the world the eight-track tape cartridge, apparently could not resist.
Q15.Mel B of the Spice Girls named her second daughter, born in 2007, Angel Iris Murphy Brown. Which comedian is the girl's father?Tap to reveal
Answer: Eddie Murphy
Phoenix Chi's father is the dancer Jimmy Gulzar. Angel Iris's middle names also spell out the title of the sitcom in question one of this set.
Q16.Mick Jagger's children Georgia May and Gabriel Luke Beauregard share a mother. Who is she?Tap to reveal
Answer: Jerry Hall
Hall and Jagger had four children together between 1984 and 1997. Georgia May Jagger became a model.
Family connections nobody guesses
The last round is the one people repeat afterwards. Each question links two names that seem to belong to different worlds, and the link is a family one every time.
Three favourites, if you want to lead with the strongest: the Monkees guitarist whose mother invented an office staple at her kitchen table and sold the company for a fortune; the Boston Red Sox executive whose grandfather shared a screenplay Oscar for one of the most quoted films ever made; and the future Oscar nominee who grew up in a Maryland town his own grandfather had drawn on a map.
Q1.Liv Tyler grew up believing a different musician was her father before learning that Aerosmith's Steven Tyler was. Who raised her as his own?Tap to reveal
Answer: Todd Rundgren
Her mother, the model Bebe Buell, let Rundgren take the role. Liv worked out the truth as a child after meeting Steven Tyler's daughter Mia, who looked uncannily like her.
Q2.Actor Jason Patric is the son of the playwright who played Father Karras in 'The Exorcist', and the grandson of a television legend. Name both.Tap to reveal
Answer: Jason Miller and Jackie Gleason
Miller won a Pulitzer Prize for the play 'That Championship Season'. His wife, Linda, was Gleason's daughter. Patric played Jim Bowie in 'The Alamo'.
Q3.Elizabeth Montgomery of 'Bewitched' got one of her first television jobs on her father's own series. Who was he?Tap to reveal
Answer: Robert Montgomery
'Robert Montgomery Presents' ran on NBC from 1950 to 1957. He had been a twice Oscar-nominated film star before moving to television.
Q4.Before she married the Buddhist scholar Robert Thurman, Uma Thurman's mother was married to which figure of the 1960s counterculture?Tap to reveal
Answer: Timothy Leary
The Swedish-born model Nena von Schlebrugge married Leary in 1964; the marriage lasted about a year.
Q5.Which American novelist and essayist shared a stepfather with Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis?Tap to reveal
Answer: Gore Vidal
Hugh D. Auchincloss Jr. married Vidal's mother, Nina Gore, in 1935, and Jackie's mother, Janet Lee Bouvier, in 1942. Vidal's grandfather was Thomas P. Gore, one of Oklahoma's first two US senators, who was blind and used his grandson as a reader.
Q6.The sons of Henry Kissinger, Gabriel Garcia Marquez and New York Times editor Max Frankel all ended up working in the same industry. Which one?Tap to reveal
Answer: Film and television
Rodrigo Garcia became a director, David Frankel directed 'The Devil Wears Prada', and David Kissinger became a television executive.
Q7.Ari Gold, the shouting agent in HBO's 'Entourage', was modelled on the brother of which American politician?Tap to reveal
Answer: Rahm Emanuel
Ari Emanuel co-founded the Endeavor talent agency. Brother Rahm became White House chief of staff and mayor of Chicago, and a third brother, Ezekiel, became a well-known bioethicist.
Q8.The mother of Monkees guitarist Michael Nesmith invented an office product that made the family a fortune. What was it?Tap to reveal
Answer: Liquid Paper
Bette Nesmith Graham was a Dallas secretary who mixed the first correction fluid at home in the 1950s and sold the company to Gillette in 1979 for $47.5 million.
Q9.Theo Epstein, the general manager who ended the Boston Red Sox's 86-year championship drought, is the grandson of a man who co-wrote which classic film?Tap to reveal
Answer: 'Casablanca'
Philip G. Epstein wrote it with his twin brother Julius and shared the screenplay Oscar. Theo, hired at 28 in 2002, is a twin himself.
Q10.Edward Norton grew up in Columbia, Maryland — a town planned by his own grandfather. Who was he?Tap to reveal
Answer: James Rouse
Rouse built Columbia as a planned community in the 1960s and later developed Baltimore's Harborplace and Boston's Faneuil Hall Marketplace.
Q11.Ben Stein, the monotone teacher in 'Ferris Bueller's Day Off', is the son of an economist who chaired the Council of Economic Advisers under which president?Tap to reveal
Answer: Richard Nixon
Herbert Stein held the post from 1972 to 1974. Ben had worked as a Nixon speechwriter himself before turning to television.
Q12.Two-time Oscar winner Jack Lemmon was a Harvard man whose father ran a company that made what?Tap to reveal
Answer: Doughnuts
Lemmon's father was an executive with the Doughnut Corporation of America. At Harvard, Jack presided over the Hasty Pudding Club.
Q13.Maury Povich's father was one of America's great sports columnists, and his first name surprises people. What was it?Tap to reveal
Answer: Shirley Povich
Shirley Povich spent his whole working life at The Washington Post, joining as a teenager in the 1920s, and his last column ran the day after he died in 1998 at 92.
Q14.Paul Giamatti's father, Bart Giamatti, became commissioner of Major League Baseball in 1989. Which university had he led before that?Tap to reveal
Answer: Yale
He was president of Yale from 1978 to 1986, then ran the National League. He died of a heart attack five months into the commissioner's job, aged 51.
Q15.'Miss Lillian', who joined the Peace Corps at 68 and served in India, was the mother of which US president?Tap to reveal
Answer: Jimmy Carter
Lillian Carter, a trained nurse, worked at a clinic near Bombay in the late 1960s, a decade before her son won the White House.
Frequently Asked Questions
What makes a good celebrity trivia question?
One that will still be true next year. Questions about who is dating whom, who holds a record or who is the highest paid go stale within months. Questions about family — parents, twins, siblings, children's names — stay correct, which is why every question on this page is a family question.
How many celebrity trivia questions do I need for a game night?
Plan on about 30 for an hour of play, or three rounds of ten with scoring between them. This page gives you 58, so you can drop the rounds that suit your crowd and keep the rest in reserve for a tiebreaker.
Which celebrity family has the most famous relatives?
The Coppolas are hard to beat: Francis Ford Coppola, his sister Talia Shire, his children Sofia and Roman, and his nephews Nicolas Cage and Jason Schwartzman. The Fiennes, the Sheens and Estevez, and the Jacksons all field deep benches too.
Are the celebrity baby names on this page still accurate?
Yes. Every name in that round is long-established public record rather than tabloid rumour, and none of it depends on who is married to whom this year — the oldest of these names, Bill Lear's daughter and Frank Zappa's four children, date from the middle of the last century, and the most recent, Mel B's daughter Angel Iris, from 2007. Several of the children named here, including Apple Martin, Sailor Brinkley-Cook and Georgia May Jagger, are now adults with careers of their own.
Where can I play celebrity trivia online for free?
Use the free quiz widget on this page — no signup, answers revealed as you go. The Trivio.NET app runs the same kind of questions in its Personalities and Pop Culture categories, solo or as a live head-to-head battle against a friend.
