It's way too long since we had a quiz

[dws1982]

I was trying to work out some connections on Wednesday night, but then my area got hit by tornadoes, and I forgot about it after the weather event was over. (No damage at my house!) Not that I was getting the answers. I knew Queen Elizabeth II and Hawking had a connection, because The Theory of Everything ends with him receiving some honor at the palace. And I knew that Piaf/Garland and Thatcher/Churchill probably crossed paths at some point, and that Lynn/LaMotta were both at that Oscar ceremony.

Katharine M. Hepburn (the mother) and Emma Goldman were both definitely involved with Margaret Sanger's birth control activism around the same time, but it never crossed my mind that Katharine (the daughter) and Goldman met. I was looking at all kinds of far-off connections, like the fact that Hepburn and Stapleton both played Amanda Wingfield (a role that they share with several other Oscar winning actress...and most recently with one constantly-nominated one in Amy Adams), and then trying to connect that back to Blanchett playing Blanche DuBois.

[Big Magilla]

Good to know.

I did know about Shaw and some of the others, but not Goldman.

[Uri]

I knew that Piaf and Garland met in real life and could have guessed that Churchill and the Iron Lady had met, but I probably would never have connected Hepburn and Goldman. That's quite a stretch. Just because Hepburn's mother entertained "the likes of Goldman" does not mean that she actually did entertain Goldman in her Connecticut home. From Hepburn's birth in 1907 to Goldman's deportation in 1919, Goldman spent most of her time either protesting or getting arrested. Unless her mother took her to one of her protests, young Katharine would likely not have ever met her.

According to at least one of the (quite a few) Hepburn's biographies I have, Emma Goldman did come to The Hebburn's home in Hartford, one of many Notable socialists of that era (even George Bernard Shaw). The children were encouraged to mingle with the guests and yes, young Kate did meet Goldman.

[Mister Tee]

I've been busy this week, and regret the whole thing was resolved before I had a chance to put my mind to it.

Thanks for posting it, Uri. By the way, it's looks like you never opened a private message I sent you a few months back. It's still sitting there, FYI.

[Big Magilla]

I was looking for on-screen connections, not real-life ones between the characters that the mentioned actors were playing.

I knew that Piaf and Garland met in real life and could have guessed that Churchill and the Iron Lady had met, but I probably would never have connected Hepburn and Goldman. That's quite a stretch. Just because Hepburn's mother entertained "the likes of Goldman" does not mean that she actually did entertain Goldman in her Connecticut home. From Hepburn's birth in 1907 to Goldman's deportation in 1919, Goldman spent most of her time either protesting or getting arrested. Unless her mother took her to one of her protests, young Katharine would likely not have ever met her.

[Uri]

Ok. A closure.

The point (if there's any) – actors winning Oscars for portraying real people who met along the way.

Magilla mentioned two such encounters – Jake LaMotta and Loretta Lynn meeting at the Oscars in 1981, Elizabeth II (who met everyone, from Churchill to Fredy Mercury, but contrary to persistent claims not Idi Amin) knighting Stephen Hawkins, and he referred to the fact that Anna Held and Funny Brice (who was a friend of Hepburn) inhabited the Ziegfeld universe. There’s a documentation of Garland meeting Piaf (and Brice and Hepburn and probably George M. Cohan). Margaret Thatcher (aka ER’s nemesis) met her idol Winston Churchill (who met with Gandhi, as well as, of course, with George VI and his daughter – and with Virginia Woolf). The Hepburns’ family home was a very progressive one and when Katharine Sr. entertained the likes of Emma Goldman, little Jr. was there to meet them.

There are plenty more. I avoided the obvious – The Miracle Worker, My Left Foot, that forgettable buyers’ club film and Oppenheimer featured two Oscar winners playing people who were connected (but not Julia. First – it was not suggested Dashiell Hammett met Julia, and second – Julia was most probably a fiction). And the Academy’s fascination with the British Royals provides a lot of pairings. Beyond those mentioned above I could’ve listed Charles Laughton & Paul Scofield and Laughton & Judi Dench.

And now we can play six degrees of separation.

[Big Magilla]

The real Fanny Brice, played by Streisand in Funny Girl, was featured in The Great Ziegfeld for which Rainer won her first Oscar.

[Uri]

They all won Oscars for playing real-life people.

Rainer and Streisand were Ziegfeld girls. DeNiro and Spacek won in the same year playing people who were still living and attended the Oscars with them. Blanchett and Stapleton played legends in bios of other legends. Cotillard and Zellweger played iconic singers. Streep and Oldman played British Prime Ministers. Redmayne and Mirren played Stephen Hawking and the Queen who gave him a title albeit in a different film.

The answer should be much more specific, and is actually indicated by you in two of the connections you mentioned.

[Big Magilla]

They all won Oscars for playing real-life people.

Rainer and Streisand were Ziegfeld girls. DeNiro and Spacek won in the same year playing people who were still living and attended the Oscars with them. Blanchett and Stapleton played legends in bios of other legends. Cotillard and Zellweger played iconic singers. Streep and Oldman played British Prime Ministers. Redmayne and Mirren played Stephen Hawking and the Queen who gave him a title albeit in a different film.

Others:

Paul Muni and Cillian Murphy - both played scientists
Jason Robards and Nicole Kidman - both played writers
Paul Scofield and Jennifer Jones - both played saints
James Cagney and Jamie Foxx - both played iconic singers
Daniel Day-Lewis and George Arliss - both played political leaders
Gary Cooper and George C. Scott - both played war heroes
Charles Laughton and Colin Firth - both played kings of England
Yul Brynner and Forest Whitaker - both played kings of countries associated with the British Empire
Katharine Hepburn and Helen Mirren - both played queens of England
Cate Blanchett and Martin Landau - both played actors more famous than themselves
Susan Sarandon and Julia Roberts - both played social activists
Ingrid Bergman and Joanne Woodward - both played women suffering from delusions
Susan Hayward and Charlize Theron - both played convicted killers

[Uri]

Luise Rainer & Barbra Streisand. Robert De Niro & Sissy Spacek. Cate Blanchet & Maureen Stapleton. Marion Cotillard & Rene Zellweger. Meryl Streep & Garry Oldman. Eddie Redmayne & Helen Mirren.

These pairs, along with quite a few more (I left out some more obvious ones), have something very particular in common. What is the common denominator, and can you come up with more pairings of this nature?