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60 free Rosemary's Baby trivia questions with answers — entertainment quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
This Rosemary's Baby trivia quiz covers Ira Levin's 1967 novel, Roman Polanski's 1968 film and the odd afterlife of the story: the 1976 TV sequel, the 1997 novel Son of Rosemary, the 2014 Paris-set miniseries and the 2024 prequel Apartment 7A. Expect questions on the Bramford and its real-life stand-in, the tannis-root charm, the chocolate mousse with the chalky under-taste, the anagram that unmasks Roman Castevet and the last line about the baby's eyes. Behind-the-scenes history is here too: who was offered the director's chair before Polanski, who turned down the role of Guy, whose voice is really on the phone as the blinded actor, why Frank Sinatra's lawyer turned up on set, and what Ruth Gordon said when she collected her Oscar. There are easy questions for people who have only seen the film once and hard ones for readers who know the novel's Francoist censorship history. Every answer was checked against Wikipedia's articles on the film, the novel, the sequels and the people involved, and each question quotes the sentence that supports it.
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Q 01In what year was the film Rosemary's Baby released?
1968
It opened on June 12 and finished second only to The Lion in Winter in Film Daily's year-end critics' poll.
Q 02Who wrote and directed the 1968 film?
Roman Polanski
It was his American debut. He read the galleys in one night and finished a 272-page screenplay in about three weeks, lifting much of the dialogue straight from the book.
Q 03Which author wrote the 1967 novel the film is based on?
Ira Levin
It was only his second book, after A Kiss Before Dying; he later wrote The Stepford Wives, The Boys from Brazil and the play Deathtrap.
Q 04Who plays Rosemary Woodhouse in the 1968 film?
Mia Farrow
Her only prior feature credits were a supporting part in Guns at Batasi and the unreleased A Dandy in Aspic; her fame came from a TV soap and a headline-making marriage.
Q 05Who plays Rosemary's actor husband, Guy Woodhouse?
John Cassavetes
He was himself an acclaimed independent director; Polanski suggested him after they met in London.
Q 06Which cast member won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for the film?
Ruth Gordon
Her Minnie Castevet also won the Golden Globe. She was 72, had co-written Adam's Rib, and would soon play Maude in Harold and Maude.
Q 07What is the name of the Gothic New York building the Woodhouses move into?
The Bramford
Their friend Hutch warns them the building has a history of witchcraft and murder; in the novel he even suggests they take a place elsewhere.
Q 08Which real Manhattan building provided the exteriors for the film's fictional Gothic residence?
The Dakota
Levin had modeled his fictional building on it. Twelve years later John Lennon was shot dead outside its 72nd Street entrance.
Q 09What is the surname of Rosemary's elderly, meddlesome next-door neighbors?
Castevet
Polanski sketched how he pictured the supporting characters so casting directors could match faces to drawings; veterans Sidney Blackmer and a future Oscar winner got the parts.
Q 10The foul-smelling pendant Minnie gives Rosemary as a good-luck charm supposedly contains what?
Tannis root
Rosemary first admired it on Terry, the young woman the neighbors had taken in; later a receptionist's remark about the doctor's odour of the same stuff tips her off.
Q 11What dessert does Minnie bring the couple on the night they plan to conceive?
Chocolate mousse
Rosemary complains of a chalky 'under-taste' and secretly throws most of it away, which is why she half-wakes during what follows.
Q 12When Rosemary phones Donald Baumgart, the actor who mysteriously went blind, whose voice answers?
Tony Curtis
Farrow was not told who would read the lines; she recognized the voice but could not place it, and Polanski kept her genuine confusion in the scene.
Q 13Which producer, famous for gimmicky low-budget horror, bought the film rights before the novel was published?
William Castle
Q 21Along with Tuesday Weld, whom did Polanski originally want for the lead role?
Sharon Tate
He had pictured a robust, girl-next-door Rosemary; Robert Evans pushed for a bigger name, and Farrow's waif-like look won out.
Q 22Midway through filming, the star was served divorce papers on set by a lawyer for which husband?
Frank Sinatra
He had demanded she give up acting when they wed. Evans talked her out of quitting by showing her a rough cut and promising an Oscar nomination.
Q 23Which Polish jazz musician composed the film's score, including the lullaby 'Sleep Safe and Warm'?
Krzysztof Komeda
The studio let him produce but not direct. He appears in a cameo as the man waiting outside the phone booth Rosemary is using.
Q 14Hutch's cryptic dying message to Rosemary says that the name is what?
An anagram
He sends the message with a book on witchcraft, via his friend Grace Cardiff, after briefly regaining consciousness from his coma.
Q 15Rearranging her neighbour Roman's name, Rosemary uncovers which reputed Satanist?
Steven Marcato
The 2014 miniseries kept the same anagram but turned him into a Parisian billionaire who eats women's hearts.
Q 16Which veteran actor plays Dr. Abraham Sapirstein, the obstetrician the neighbors insist Rosemary use?
Ralph Bellamy
He and Sidney Blackmer had appeared together decades earlier in the 1934 pre-Code film This Man Is Mine.
Q 17When Rosemary finally sees the child, what does Roman say to explain how it looks?
He has his father's eyes
He then explains that the child is not Guy's son but Satan's, and that her 'dream' on baby night was real.
Q 18Which studio released the film?
Paramount Pictures
Studio head Robert Evans lured Polanski over with the script for Downhill Racer, knowing he was a ski buff, but slipped the novel's galleys in with it.
Q 19According to François Truffaut, which director was offered the film first and declined?
Alfred Hitchcock
Evans instead pursued Polanski, whose European films he admired, hoping this would be his American debut.
Q 20Who was the first choice to play Guy Woodhouse but turned the part down?
Robert Redford
Jack Nicholson was briefly considered next, before Polanski proposed the actor-director he had met in London.
He had scored Polanski's Knife in the Water and The Fearless Vampire Killers; Farrow herself sings the wordless lullaby over the opening titles.
Q 24Which piano piece is heard being practiced by a tenant throughout the film, improving as time passes?
Für Elise
The steadily improving playing is a quiet way of marking how many months of Rosemary's pregnancy have gone by.
Q 25When the star walked into real Fifth Avenue traffic for a scene, who operated the handheld camera?
The director himself
He reassured her that 'no one's going to hit a pregnant woman' and followed her into the traffic because he was the only one willing to do it.
Q 26Thanks to Polanski's habit of shooting up to fifty takes, how far over its $1.9M budget did the film run?
$400,000
By November 1967 the shoot was three weeks behind schedule; it still ended up a huge hit, grossing over $33 million worldwide.
Q 27In 2010, The Guardian ranked the film the second-greatest horror film ever, behind which movie?
Psycho
Levin's novel and Polanski's film are often credited with kicking off the demonic-horror boom that produced The Exorcist and The Omen.
Q 28What was the title of the 1976 made-for-TV sequel?
Look What's Happened to Rosemary's Baby
It premiered as the ABC Friday Night Movie on October 29, 1976, and follows the son from age eight to the birth of his own first child.
Q 29Who played Rosemary in the 1976 television sequel?
Patty Duke
She had been considered for the role in the 1968 film that went to Farrow; Ray Milland took over as Roman.
Q 30Sam O'Steen, who directed the 1976 sequel, had held which job on the original film?
Editor
Only one actor from the original returned for it, reprising Minnie Castevet.