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50 free Breakfast at Tiffany's trivia questions with answers — entertainment quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
This Breakfast at Tiffany's trivia quiz covers the 1961 Blake Edwards film from every angle: the casting saga (who Truman Capote actually wanted as Holly Golightly, and who turned the part down), the Fifth Avenue opening shot, Henry Mancini and Johnny Mercer's Oscar-winning song, the Givenchy dress that sold for nearly half a million pounds, the nameless cat, and the Mickey Rooney controversy that still follows the film. It also goes back to the source: Capote's 1958 novella, its 1940s setting, the magazine that refused to print it, the women who claimed to be the real Holly, and the very different ending Capote wrote. There is even a stop at Deep Blue Something's 1995 hit that borrowed the title. Questions run from easy (who plays Holly) to expert (the working title of the song). Every answer was checked against encyclopaedia entries and primary sources before publishing, so you can settle arguments with confidence.
30 of 50 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Who plays Holly Golightly in the 1961 film?
Audrey Hepburn
She was 31 during filming; the Holly of the novella is 18 or 19.
Q 02Who wrote the 1958 novella the film is based on?
Truman Capote
He said Holly was the favourite of all his characters.
Q 03Which director made the film?
Blake Edwards
He was brought in after Hepburn's agent asked for a higher-profile name than the original director.
Q 04Who plays the writer Paul Varjak, Holly's new neighbour?
George Peppard
He got the part despite having appeared the previous year in the flop The Subterraneans.
Q 05What is the name of the film's Oscar-winning theme song?
Moon River
Hepburn sings it on the fire escape, accompanying herself on a guitar.
Q 06Who composed the film's score and the music for its theme song?
Henry Mancini
He won two Oscars for the film, for the score and the song.
Q 07Which lyricist wrote the words to the theme song?
Johnny Mercer
The song relaunched his career, which had stalled when rock and roll displaced jazz standards.
Q 08Which actor did Capote want to play Holly Golightly?
Marilyn Monroe
She turned it down for The Misfits after Lee Strasberg warned that playing a 'lady of the evening' would hurt her image.
Q 09Which actor's portrayal of Mr. Yunioshi has drawn decades of criticism as a racist caricature?
Mickey Rooney
He was the director's old roommate and later said he was 'heartbroken' by the criticism.
Q 10Where is the film set, and where were most of its exteriors shot?
New York City
Interiors, apart from parts of the Tiffany's scenes, were shot on the Paramount lot in Hollywood.
Q 11What does Holly call her pet, a marmalade tom?
It has no name
The performing cat, Orangey, is credited on screen alongside his trainer Frank Inn.
Q 12Where does Holly go every week to visit the mobster Sally Tomato?
Sing Sing
His lawyer pays her $100 a week to carry back 'the weather report'.
Q 13How much is Holly paid for each visit to Sally Tomato?
$100
The visits eventually get her arrested when the drug ring is uncovered.
Q 14What was Holly's birth name before she reinvented herself in New York?
Q 21Which relative's death sends Holly into a spiral of grief?
Her brother Fred
She trashes her apartment when the telegram arrives; in the novella he dies overseas in the war.
Q 22Which magazine bought the novella first but then refused to print it?
Harper's Bazaar
Hearst executives found the language unsuitable and worried about upsetting Tiffany's, a major advertiser.
Q 23Which magazine finally published the novella in November 1958?
Esquire
An outraged Capote resold it for $3,000, insisting the magazine use David Attie's photographs.
Lulamae Barnes
Capote's own mother was born Lillie Mae Faulk in Alabama and, like Holly, changed her name and left a teenage marriage.
Q 15What is Doc Golightly's profession in the novella?
Veterinarian
He married Holly when she was a teenager and comes to New York to bring her home.
Q 16Which state did Holly run away from?
Texas
In the film Doc explains that Holly ran away and he has come to take her back to their rural home.
Q 17Which actor plays Doc Golightly?
Buddy Ebsen
The role helped revive his career and led to his casting as Jed Clampett in The Beverly Hillbillies.
Q 18Patricia Neal plays Paul's wealthy 'decorator'. What is her character's nickname?
2E
Her full name is Emily Eustace Failenson; the nickname comes from her initials.
Q 19Which country is Holly planning to move to with José near the end of the story?
Brazil
In the novella she goes anyway after José breaks it off, and the narrator never learns what became of her.
Q 20What did Paul have engraved at Tiffany's as a gift for Holly?
A Cracker Jack ring
It was part of a day spent doing things neither of them had done before.
Q 24In which decade is Capote's novella set?
1940s
The film moved the action to 1960; the book opens in autumn 1943.
Q 25What was Holly's name in Capote's early drafts?
Connie Gustafson
A real Manhattan woman named Bonnie Golightly later sued Capote unsuccessfully, claiming Holly was based on her.
Q 26What did Capote call the guessing game over which real woman inspired his heroine?
The Holly Golightly Sweepstakes
Contenders included Gloria Vanderbilt, Oona O'Neill, Doris Lilly and the models Dorian Leigh and Suzy Parker.
Q 27Which Christopher Isherwood character has Holly been compared to as a literary ancestor?
Sally Bowles
Isherwood was one of Capote's mentors, and one critic called the novella his 'personal crystallization' of that character.
Q 28Who was the film's original director before he was replaced during pre-production?
John Frankenheimer
He had worked with screenwriter George Axelrod for three months on the project.
Q 29Which screenwriter turned the novella into a heterosexual romantic comedy?
George Axelrod
He had earlier adapted The Seven Year Itch, and he replaced a first, more faithful screenplay.
Q 30On what date did filming begin outside the Tiffany & Co. flagship store?
October 2, 1960
One report says the crowd-heavy opening shot nearly electrocuted a crew member; another says an unexpected lull in traffic made it quick.