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1940s Celebrities by Picture

Guess the names of these people who would have been well-known to Americans living in the 1940s.
Quiz by Quizmaster
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Last updated: June 22, 2022
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First submittedJanuary 31, 2017
Times taken31,053
Average score55.0%
Rating4.44
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+1
Level 81
Jan 31, 2017
Very interesting quiz!
+3
Level 71
Feb 1, 2017
They seem so familiar, a great time.
+2
Level 79
Feb 3, 2017
Pretty easy for a child of the sixties.
+2
Level 62
Feb 15, 2017
born in the 70s, got em all with 2:55 left.
+2
Level 84
Jun 2, 2017
Really surprised the photo chosen for Carmen Miranda didn't show her with fruit in/on her hat. Wasn't that her signature look?
+3
Level 59
Jun 5, 2017
I'd have got her if it did!
+1
Level 59
Jun 2, 2017
I *almost* typed Tracy for Bogart, getting them briefly confused, but then I stopped myself and correctly typed Bogart. But then I completely missed Tracy! DUH.
+1
Level 66
Jun 2, 2017
Seeing Casablanca would probably help me on this quiz...
+1
Level 76
Dec 12, 2018
Only two of the actors on here were in Casablanca, so it wouldn't have helped all THAT much.
+1
Level 71
Aug 9, 2022
It would have helped me as I didn't get either of them
+4
Level 75
Dec 12, 2018
You should see it anyway. The iconic actors and lines, the shadows on the wall, and after many rewrites they finally came up with the only ending that could have worked. (But you do have to suspend belief at times for the plot to work - my only criticism of my favorite film.)
+1
Level 82
Jul 11, 2022
I watched it for the first time recently when I was in Marrakech.
+3
Level 94
Aug 2, 2018
Katherine Hepburn at 3%?! Surely the name 'Hepburn' is known enough for more people to just guess at from this era? Wouldn't think she is so much more less known than the rest given that the second least guessed is Spencer Tracy at 30%
+1
Level 37
Nov 24, 2018
Got Hepburn because I LOVE old movies (more substance, better acting), but perhaps lots of of quiz takers remember her later works (On Golden Bond), rather than her earlier ones.
+3
Level 86
Dec 12, 2018
"On Golden Bond" sounds like a James Bond movie.
+1
Level 67
Jul 11, 2022
The acting on average is better in new movies, and it's not even close. Most of the acting in old movies is awful because the actors were trained for stage acting, where you need big, broad emotive gestures. Those do not translate to the screen, where subtlety is preferred. Jimmy Stewart's "Do you want the moon?" scene from It's A Wonderful Life still makes me wince. Yes, the modern big-budget movie has terrible acting because the leads are chosen for their looks and charisma rather than their acting chops, but the best actors from today are better than the best actors from the 40s.
+1
Level 76
Dec 12, 2018
From a couple of earlier comments, I think she was added to the quiz later. Maybe that's why she's still so comparatively low, because she literally wasn't an option for earlier quiz-takers. Because, yeah, she's one of the most easily identifiable actors on here.
+4
Level 80
Dec 12, 2018
I'm pretty sure that's Bruce Willis in a military uniform
+1
Level 66
Oct 12, 2019
Yea at first glance he looks the picture looks so much like bruce willis! And degaulle looks like the dude with the bad accent from alloallo
+1
Level 82
Jun 22, 2022
Officer Crabtree
+1
Level 54
Dec 12, 2018
I typed Bogart thinking that MacArthur was him.
+1
Level 21
Jan 13, 2019
Me too!
+6
Level 56
Dec 12, 2018
MacArthur looks like Ronald Reagan to me. I had remember, Ronald Reagan did not look like that in 1940. He looked like that in 1980.
+2
Level 67
Aug 18, 2021
I see that
+1
Level 67
Aug 18, 2021
Hepburn and Bergman are pretty low
+2
Level 72
Sep 12, 2021
Just spent at least 30 seconds trying to figure out which actor was playing Douglas McArthur… time for a nap I think!
+4
Level 84
Jun 22, 2022
So THOSE are the Betty Davis eyes that Kim Carnes was talking about? :-)
+1
Level 84
Jun 23, 2022
Yeah, that really surprised me. I expected a lot more.
+1
Level 68
Jul 12, 2022
Almost missed Davis too, didn't remember her as a blonde. Eyes eventually gave it away but not the best picture of them either.
+1
Level 74
Nov 13, 2022
Davis was one of only two that I missed because that picture looks least like her of what I've seen of her in many movies. That picture doesn't do her eyes justice.
+2
Level 77
Jun 24, 2022
Thought about it for a couple minutes, but I didn't have a Hope on the one with the microphone.
+1
Level 82
Jul 11, 2022
I only missed 2. But I can't believe one of them was Judy Garland. I probably watched the Wizard of Oz 100 times as a child. Though to be fair she does not look like innocent simple Kansas farmgirl Dorothy Gale in that photo at all.
+1
Level 46
Jul 11, 2022
I was surprised by the lack of sports celebrities. Joe DiMaggio, Joe Louis, etc.
+2
Level 68
Jul 12, 2022
I typed Bacall for Bergman, heard of her but didn't have any idea what she looked like. Only one I missed.
+1
Level 69
Jul 12, 2022
Loved the quiz! Only slight disappointment, that nicknames and birth names were not accepted. That could be a fun extra for film buffs and the like.
+1
Level 71
Jul 14, 2022
Only missed DeGaulle - don't think I've ever seen a picture of him straight on, or without his hat.