Ralph Fiennes
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50 free Ralph Fiennes trivia questions with answers — trivia quiz, new questions added Oct 2026.
Ralph Fiennes has one of the widest ranges in film. He can be terrifying as a concentration camp commandant or the noseless Lord Voldemort, heartbreaking as the burned Count Almásy in The English Patient, and unexpectedly funny as a fussy concierge or a tyrannical chef. Away from the camera he is a prize-winning Shakespearean on stage and a director in his own right. Many people come looking for Quiz Show, the 1994 drama in which he plays Charles Van Doren, the charming academic at the centre of America's 1950s television quiz scandal. This quiz gives that film a full set of questions: who directed it, who played the rival contestant, what the real scandal involved and how Fiennes prepared for the part. The rest runs through his life and career: his family of artists and film-makers, his early television and stage work, the Oscar-nominated performances, his years as M in the James Bond films, the animated characters he has voiced and the films he has directed. Every answer comes with a short explanation, so film fans of any level will pick something up.
30 of 50 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Ralph Fiennes's first name is not said the way it is spelled: it rhymes with which of these words?
Safe
Safe is the rhyme: the name is said 'Rafe', and the surname sounds like 'Fines'. A 1994 magazine profile of the newly famous actor used the pronunciation as its headline.
Q 02Ralph Fiennes first appeared as Lord Voldemort in which Harry Potter film, when the villain regains a body?
Goblet of Fire
Goblet of Fire keeps Voldemort as a weak, scratchy voice until its climax. Fiennes wore no nose makeup on set: his nose was erased digitally in post-production.
Q 03Ralph Fiennes took over the role of James Bond's boss M from which actress, who had held it since GoldenEye?
Judi Dench
Judi Dench's M dies at the end of Skyfall, her seventh Bond film in the part, and the job passes to Fiennes's Gareth Mallory.
Q 04Ralph Fiennes won a BAFTA and his first Oscar nomination as SS commandant Amon Göth in which Holocaust drama?
Schindler's List
Schindler's List made Fiennes a star. He looked so much like Göth in costume that a Holocaust survivor trembled with fear when she met him on set.
Q 05Ralph Fiennes leads the cast as Monsieur Gustave H. in which Wes Anderson comedy set in fictional Zubrowka?
The Grand Budapest Hotel
The Grand Budapest Hotel cast Fiennes as its fussy concierge. To build Gustave he drew on his own brief time as a young porter at Brown's Hotel in London.
Q 06In the 1994 film Quiz Show, Ralph Fiennes plays Charles Van Doren, a champion on which rigged 1950s game show?
Twenty-One
Twenty-One coached its contestants like actors and handed them the answers. Van Doren's winning streak made him a national celebrity before his confession to Congress.
Q 07In the romantic comedy Maid in Manhattan, Ralph Fiennes plays a Senate candidate who falls for a maid played by whom?
Jennifer Lopez
Jennifer Lopez plays Marisa Ventura, a single mother who is trying on a guest's designer coat when Fiennes's politician first meets her.
Q 08Ralph Fiennes made his feature film debut in 1992 as which brooding Emily Brontë hero, opposite Juliette Binoche?
Heathcliff
Heathcliff in Wuthering Heights was his first film role, with Binoche as Cathy. The dark performance helped persuade Steven Spielberg to cast him as a Nazi officer.
Q 09In The Menu, which simple dish does Margot ask Ralph Fiennes's Chef Slowik to cook, winning her freedom?
A cheeseburger
A cheeseburger with fries is her request, and Slowik takes real joy in making it himself. After one bite she asks to take the rest to go, and he lets her walk out.
Q 10Sir Ranulph Fiennes, a distant cousin of the actor Ralph Fiennes, became famous in which field?
Polar exploration
Polar exploration made Sir Ranulph's name: his Transglobe Expedition circled the world through both Poles using surface transport only. He is the actor's third cousin once removed.
Q 11Which Hollywood star directed Ralph Fiennes in Quiz Show, having watched the real rigged broadcasts as a young actor?
Robert Redford
Robert Redford was in his early twenties, taking art and acting classes in New York, when the programme aired. He recalled that the contestants looked like actors to him, yet he never doubted them.
Q 12Which actor plays Herb Stempel, the champion ordered to lose to Ralph Fiennes's Charles Van Doren, in Quiz Show?
John Turturro
John Turturro gained 25 pounds and reshaped his voice to match Stempel's. The real Stempel worked on the production as a technical adviser.
Q 13In Quiz Show, which English stage actor plays the poet Mark Van Doren, father of Ralph Fiennes's character?
Paul Scofield
Q 21Ralph Fiennes, the eldest of six children, was born in 1962 in which East Anglian town?
Ipswich
Ipswich, the county town of Suffolk, is where he was born. His father, Mark, was a farmer and photographer, and his mother was a writer.
Q 22Which brother of Ralph Fiennes played the title playwright in the Oscar-winning comedy Shakespeare in Love?
Joseph
Joseph Fiennes rose to stardom as the young Shakespeare in the 1998 film. His twin, Jacob, is a conservationist, and their brother Magnus is a composer.
Q 23Ralph Fiennes's nephew Hero Fiennes Tiffin played the 11-year-old Tom Riddle in which Harry Potter film?
Half-Blood Prince
Paul Scofield earned an Oscar nomination for the part. Paul Newman had been considered for it first, but he declined.
Q 14Which celebrated film director acts in Quiz Show, starring Ralph Fiennes, as the soft-spoken boss of the show's sponsor?
Martin Scorsese
Martin Scorsese was cast partly for his rapid way of talking. The idea was that a tough character played gently, and fast, would come across as extremely menacing.
Q 15In Quiz Show, Herb Stempel must lose to Ralph Fiennes's Van Doren by missing a question on which Best Picture winner?
Marty
Marty was one of Stempel's own favourite films, which made the order to miss it especially humiliating. On the real broadcast, that round actually ended in a tie.
Q 16To study Charles Van Doren for Quiz Show, Ralph Fiennes turned up at the real man's Connecticut home posing as what?
A lost motorist
A lost motorist was the cover story when Fiennes found Van Doren reading on his front porch. He later called the encounter crucial for nailing the man's transatlantic accent.
Q 17Quiz Show, with Ralph Fiennes as Charles Van Doren, was nominated for Best Picture but beaten by which 1994 hit?
Forrest Gump
Forrest Gump won six Oscars that night, Best Picture among them. Quiz Show converted none of its four nominations.
Q 18In Quiz Show, which health tonic sponsors the rigged programme that makes a star of Ralph Fiennes's Charles Van Doren?
Geritol
Geritol's maker sponsored the real programme too. For legal reasons the film gives the company's chief, Matthew Rosenhaus, an invented name.
Q 19Charles Van Doren, played by Ralph Fiennes in Quiz Show, taught English at which university during his winning streak?
Columbia
Columbia employed him as an English instructor, and he resigned the post after admitting the fix. His father, Mark Van Doren, was a Pulitzer Prize-winning poet.
Q 20Which star of TV's Northern Exposure plays investigator Richard Goodwin opposite Ralph Fiennes in Quiz Show?
Rob Morrow
Rob Morrow had rejected several film offers before this one, and read four of Goodwin's books to prepare. A chapter of the real Goodwin's memoir was the basis for the script.
Half-Blood Prince cast Hero, the son of Fiennes's sister Martha, out of thousands of boys who auditioned. He grew up to lead the After series of romance films.
Q 24Before switching to acting, Ralph Fiennes studied which subject at London's Chelsea College of Arts?
Painting
Painting came first, until he decided that acting was his true passion and won a place at RADA. He graduated from the drama school in 1985.
Q 25Which actress, later River Song in Doctor Who, married Ralph Fiennes in 1993 after they met at drama school?
Alex Kingston
Alex Kingston met Fiennes when both were students at RADA, and they were together for ten years before marrying. She later played the surgeon Elizabeth Corday in ER.
Q 26In 2017 Ralph Fiennes was granted citizenship of which country, where he had shot his first film as director?
Serbia
Serbia made him a citizen by decision of its prime minister, Ana Brnabić. He had filmed his directing debut, a Shakespeare adaptation, in the capital, Belgrade.
Q 27Ralph Fiennes's first screen lead, in the television film A Dangerous Man, was as which British war hero?
T. E. Lawrence
T. E. Lawrence is shown after his desert campaign, pressing the Arab cause at the Paris Peace Conference. Steven Spielberg watched the film before casting Fiennes in his breakthrough role.
Q 28In The English Patient, Ralph Fiennes's badly burned mapmaker Count László Almásy actually comes from which country?
Hungary
Hungary is the homeland of the so-called English patient, a cartographer surveying the Sahara in the late 1930s. The part brought Fiennes a Best Actor Oscar nomination.
Q 29Ralph Fiennes won the 1995 Tony Award for Best Actor for playing which Shakespeare title role on Broadway?
Hamlet
Hamlet was his Broadway debut, so the Tony came at his first attempt. He was nominated again in 2006 for playing a travelling faith healer in a Brian Friel play.
Q 30In the 1998 film of TV's The Avengers, Ralph Fiennes plays which secret agent opposite Uma Thurman's Emma Peel?
John Steed
John Steed was played on television by Patrick Macnee, who has a voice cameo in the film as Invisible Jones. Sean Connery is the villain bent on controlling the weather.