Quiz: Can You Name These Celebrities Who Passed Away in 2018?

How closely were you paying attention to the celebrities who left the stage in 2018?

34 famous people (so far) are featured in Who2’s Died in 2018 list. But don’t look at that list just yet!  Instead, take this quiz to see how many of these famous figures you can identify just from the “Best Known As” line from their Who2 biography. For example, to take a figure from 2017, if the clue was “Founder of the Playboy empire,” you would answer Hugh Hefner.

Answers are at the end. Are you ready? Pick up your pencils and begin.

1. The co-founder (with Bill Gates) of Microsoft
2. ‘Mini-Me’ in the Austin Powers movies
3. The author of the books The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test and The Bonfire of the Vanities
4. The author of A Brief History of Time
5. Globetrotting “crusade” preacher and friend of many presidents
6. The mustachioed star of Deliverance and Smokey and the Bandit
7. The 7th U.N. Secretary-General, 1997-2006
8. The first astronaut to pilot the space shuttle
9. The New England poet who wrote Ox-Cart Man
10. The former POW who became a U.S. senator and 2008 presidential candidate
11. Lois Lane in the 1978 film Superman: The Movie
12. The founder of Japan’s Aum Shinri-kyo religion
13. The Queen of Soul who sang “Respect”
14. The sci-fi author of The Earthsea Trilogy
15. The Nobel-winning author of A House for Mr. Biswas
16. The director of the 1973 psycho-drama Don’t Look Now
17. The celebrity chef who starred in the TV shows No Reservations and Parts Unknown
18. The gorilla who used human sign language
19. The author of the novel Portnoy’s Complaint
20. The original host of the eerie radio show Coast to Coast AM
21. U.S. First Lady, 1989-93
22. President of the United States, 1989-93
23. The blonde box office idol of the 1950s who also sang “Young Love”
24. The sleight-of-hand magician who appeared in David Mamet movies
25. The author of “I Have No Mouth And I Must Scream” and “A Boy and His Dog”
26. The director of Amadeus and One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest
27. The Boston Irish gangster who was a fugitive from 1995-2011
28. The leader of Marvel Comics and co-creator of Spider-Man
29. The ‘Hee Haw’ host who sang “Yesterday When I Was Young”
30. The Oscar-winning director of The Last Emperor
31. Creator of the California Raisins
32. The Broadway legend who wrote The Odd Couple
33. The co-star of the TV series Coach
34. The writer of The Princess Bride and Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid

OK, put down your pencils. How’d you do? Check your answers below, and then use our key afterwards to rank your results.

1. Paul Allen
2. Verne Troyer
3. Tom Wolfe
4. Stephen Hawking
5. Billy Graham
6. Burt Reynolds
7. Kofi Annan
8. John Young
9. Donald Hall
10. John McCain
11. Margot Kidder
12. Shoko Asahara
13. Aretha Franklin
14. Ursula K. Le Guin
15. V.S. Naipaul
16. Nicolas Roeg
17. Anthony Bourdain
18. Koko the Gorilla
19. Philip Roth
20. Art Bell
21. Barbara Bush
22. George H.W. Bush
23. Tab Hunter
24. Ricky Jay
25. Harlan Ellison
26. Milos Forman
27. Whitey Bulger
28. Stan Lee
29. Roy Clark
30. Bernardo Bertolucci
31. Will Vinton
32. Neil Simon
33. Jerry Van Dyke
34. William Goldman

How alert to celebrity deaths were you this year?

34 right:  Outright liar

30-33 right:  Ghoulishly accurate celebrity death czar

20-29 right:  Highly-informed citizen

10-19 right:  Normally-informed citizen

1-9 right:  Not really paying attention in life

0 right:  Oh, c’mon!

Thanks for playing! Now see our full list of everyone who died in 2018 »