Denis Leary
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50 free Denis Leary trivia questions with answers — trivia quiz, new questions added Oct 2026.
Denis Leary built a career on speed. A fast-talking stand-up act in the early 1990s turned into a run of film roles as burglars, detectives, villains and reluctant stepfathers, then a second life as a voice actor and as the creator and star of one of cable television's best-loved dramas. This quiz covers all of it. Expect questions on his 1990s movies and the films that followed into the 2000s, his animated characters, the firehouse drama Rescue Me, his comedy albums and the charity he founded for firefighters after a tragedy in his hometown. It is pitched for casual fans as much as completists. The early questions stick to the famous roles, and the later ones reward anyone who remembers the supporting parts, the co-stars and the stories behind the scenes.
30 of 50 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Which saber-toothed tiger has Denis Leary voiced in the Ice Age films since the 2002 original?
Diego
Diego begins the 2002 film as a spy for his pack, ordered to bring back a human baby alive, before turning on his own leader to save a mammoth.
Q 02In The Sandlot, Denis Leary plays the stepfather whose prized baseball was signed by which legend?
Babe Ruth
Babe Ruth signed the ball that young Scotty Smalls borrows for a game, not knowing who the slugger was or what the autograph was worth.
Q 03In Pixar's A Bug's Life, Denis Leary voices Francis, a hot-tempered male of which insect?
Ladybug
Ladybug is the running joke: Francis is constantly mistaken for a female, which fuels his temper, and he ends up den mother to a troop of young ant scouts.
Q 04Which late-night talk show host and fellow comedian is a third cousin once removed of Denis Leary?
Conan O'Brien
Conan O'Brien grew up in Brookline, Massachusetts, the same state where his distant cousin Leary was raised by immigrant parents.
Q 05Denis Leary turned down the role of Sergeant Dignam in which Martin Scorsese crime film?
The Departed
The Departed went on to win Best Picture, with Mark Wahlberg taking the sergeant's part that Leary passed up because of his Rescue Me schedule.
Q 06In The Ref, Denis Leary plays a burglar who takes a bickering couple hostage on which night?
Christmas Eve
Christmas Eve brings the couple's relatives to dinner, so the burglar has to pose as their marriage counselor to keep anyone from suspecting a thing.
Q 07What is the name of the troubled New York City firefighter Denis Leary plays in Rescue Me?
Tommy Gavin
Tommy Gavin was Leary's own creation: he co-created the series and served as an executive producer and head writer as well as its star.
Q 08In The Amazing Spider-Man, which actress plays Gwen, daughter of Denis Leary's police captain?
Emma Stone
Emma Stone plays Gwen, whose father George Stacy holds a grudge against Spider-Man, unaware the masked hero is one of her classmates.
Q 09Which actress starred opposite Denis Leary in Two If by Sea, a 1996 romantic comedy he co-wrote?
Sandra Bullock
Sandra Bullock plays Roz, longtime girlfriend of Leary's petty thief, and the pair spend the film on the run with a stolen Matisse painting.
Q 10Which actor plays the art thief hunted by Denis Leary's detective in The Thomas Crown Affair (1999)?
Pierce Brosnan
Pierce Brosnan plays the bored billionaire who lifts a Monet from the Metropolitan Museum of Art; Steve McQueen's Crown in the 1968 original robbed banks instead.
Q 11Denis Leary plays underground rebel leader Edgar Friendly in which Sylvester Stallone film?
Demolition Man
Demolition Man let Leary write his own comedy rants for the rebel, which then had to pass a long studio approval process before reaching the script.
Q 12Denis Leary is a citizen of the United States and which other country, his parents' homeland?
Ireland
Ireland is where both parents came from: they emigrated from Killarney in County Kerry, his mother working as a maid and his father as an auto mechanic.
Q 13On which cable channel did Denis Leary's high-speed rants make him famous in the early 1990s?
MTV
MTV followed the first sketch with several more spots, and one of the rants even served as the introduction to a House of Pain music video.
Q 21In which Massachusetts city was Denis Leary born, where a 1999 warehouse fire killed his cousin?
Worcester
Worcester lost six firefighters in the blaze, among them Leary's cousin Jerry Lucey and a childhood friend, which led him to set up his firefighters foundation in 2000.
Q 22At which Massachusetts school did Denis Leary found a comedy troupe that still performs on campus?
Emerson College
Emerson College kept him on after his graduation in 1981 to teach comedy writing for five years, and he met his future wife Ann there as her instructor.
Q 23Denis Leary is godfather to the son of which British actress, his co-star in the 2002 film Dawg?
Elizabeth Hurley
Q 14Which actor plays the kidnapped ex-Mafia figure in Suicide Kings, co-starring Denis Leary?
Christopher Walken
Christopher Walken plays Carlo Bartolucci, seized by a group of students who need ransom money, while Leary appears as Lono Veccio.
Q 15Which singer voices Shira, love interest of Denis Leary's sabertooth in Ice Age: Continental Drift?
Jennifer Lopez
Jennifer Lopez joined the series as first mate to the pirate captain Gutt; her character changes sides and ends the film as a member of the herd.
Q 16Which Hollywood star directed Denis Leary in True Crime, a thriller about a death-row inmate?
Clint Eastwood
Clint Eastwood also took the lead as a journalist who comes to believe the condemned man may be innocent, with Leary billed in support as Bob Findley.
Q 17In which animated series did Denis Leary voice himself, losing his phone to a prank-calling boy?
The Simpsons
The Simpsons episode Lost Verizon has Bart claim the phone Leary hurls away on a golf course, then impersonate the comedian in a string of prank calls.
Q 18Recount casts Denis Leary as a Democratic strategist in a disputed presidential vote count in which state?
Florida
Florida's count ended when the Supreme Court halted it on December 12, and Leary's turn as the real-life operative Whouley earned him an Emmy nomination.
Q 19Which cable network aired both Rescue Me and Sex & Drugs & Rock & Roll, starring Denis Leary?
FX
FX ran his firehouse drama from 2004 to 2011, then ordered ten episodes of his music-business comedy, which premiered in July 2015.
Q 20In Rescue Me, Denis Leary's character sees the ghost of a firefighter cousin killed in which event?
The September 11 attacks
The September 11 attacks killed Jimmy Keefe, the cousin and best friend, along with 59 other firefighters the character had known.
Elizabeth Hurley made Leary a godfather to her son Damian, and Dawg was the second film the two actors had starred in together.
Q 24Which fellow comedian's act was Denis Leary accused of copying when his 1993 debut album came out?
Bill Hicks
Bill Hicks had been a friend for years, and the charge that Leary had lifted his material and stage persona ended the friendship abruptly.
Q 25Which Denis Leary stand-up show, recorded at Irving Plaza in New York, became his 1993 debut album?
No Cure for Cancer
No Cure for Cancer was shown in Britain on Channel 4 more than two weeks before Showtime carried it in the United States.
Q 26Denis Leary plays the Fad King in which satire about spin doctors who fabricate a war in Albania?
Wag the Dog
Wag the Dog pairs Robert De Niro's spin doctor with Dustin Hoffman's Hollywood producer, who stage the fake conflict to bury a presidential sex scandal.
Q 27Which sitcom veteran won a 2009 Emmy for guest-starring in five episodes of Denis Leary's Rescue Me?
Michael J. Fox
Michael J. Fox won Outstanding Guest Actor in a Drama Series for the appearances, a year before he began a long-running guest part on The Good Wife.
Q 28Denis Leary narrated an official World Series championship film for which team he supports?
Red Sox
Red Sox fan Leary narrated the official film of their 2004 World Series win; he also follows the Bruins, the Celtics and, less predictably, the Green Bay Packers.
Q 29Denis Leary's rapid-fire voice-overs sold which pickup truck in ads, starting with the 2009 model?
Ford F-150
Ford F-150 ads were one of several voice jobs built on his rant style, which he also turned on baseball in commercials for the video game MLB 2K8.
Q 30Which Boston Bruins great asked Denis Leary to help stage the charity benefit Comics Come Home?
Cam Neely
Cam Neely set up his foundation after the deaths of both his parents, and the show, with Leary as presenter, became the longest-running comedy fundraiser in the United States.