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Jul. 04, 2006
Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal


FAMOUS LAST WORDS

By T.W. BLACK
SPECIAL TO THE REVIEW-JOURNAL

Illustration by David Stroud.

All of us are going to die one day. Some famous Americans met their maker with humor, others with regret or with vision from the past. See if you can identify the speakers of the following famous last words.

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1. This comedian's last words were: "That was the best ice-cream soda I ever tasted."

A. Lou Costello

B. Moe Howard

C. Jackie Gleason

2. What war hero and president's last words were: "I want to go. God take me."

A. Ulysses S. Grant

B. George Washington

C. Dwight Eisenhower

3. This man, rumored to have fixed the 1919 World Series, was gunned down by mobsters. When asked who shot him, his last words were: "My mother did it."

A. Jay Gatsby

B. Benjamin "Bugsy" Siegel

C. Arnold Rothstein

4. "Tell my mother I died for my country. I thought I did it for the best. Useless, useless," were the last words of what assassin?

A. John Wilkes Booth

B. Charles Guiteau

C. Lee Harvey Oswald

D. The man on the Grassy Knoll

5. This inventor looked out his bedroom window and said finis with the following: "It's very beautiful over there."

A. Thomas Edison

B. George Westinghouse

C. Philo Farnsworth

6. This poet's last line was: "Let us go in; the fog is rising."

A. Dorothy Parker

B. Edna St. Vincent Millay

C. Emily Dickinson

7. "Cool it, brothers," were the last words of what civil rights leader before he was shot?

A. James Baldwin

B. Malcolm X

C. Martin Luther King Jr.

8. This crooner and movie star had just finished a round of golf. His last words were: "That was a great game of golf, fellers."

A. Perry Como

B. Bing Crosby

C. Dean Martin

9. Speaking of actors, this silent screen star's last words were: "I've never felt better."

A. Rudolph Valentino

B. Tom Mix

C. Douglas Fairbanks

10. "I'm losin' " were his last lyrics:

A. Elvis Presley

B. Frank Sinatra

C. Sammy Davis Jr.

11. During the Civil War, this general stood up from behind cover and proclaimed his last words: "They couldn't hit an elephant at this dist... ." He was:

A. John Reynolds at Gettysburg

B. Stonewall Jackson at Chancellorsville

C. John Sedgwick at The Wilderness

12. He was a Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright whose deathbed words to his niece were: "My dear, before you kiss me goodbye, fix your hair. It's a mess."

A. George Kaufman

B. George Kelly

C. Tennessee Williams

13. This actor told his wife to "Hurry back" as she left for the grocery store. It was his check out line.

A. John Wayne

B. Cary Grant

C. Humphrey Bogart

14. Which Barrymore's last lines were: "Die, I should say not dear fellow. No Barrymore would allow such a conventional thing to happen to him."

A. Lionel

B. John

C. Ethel

15. This showman said: "The show looks good, the show looks good!" as his curtain call.

A. P.T. Barnum

B. Buffalo Bill Cody

C. Florenz Ziegfeld

16. This founding father is reported to have said: "A dying man can do nothing easy."

A. Alexander Hamilton

B. John Adams

C. Ben Franklin

17. Wanting to die on the 50th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, this founding father kept asking "Is it the fourth?" When told it was, he died.

A. John Adams

B. James Monroe

C. Thomas Jefferson

18. "It is well. I die hard, but am not afraid to go" were the last words of this great American:

A. George Washington

B. Abraham Lincoln

C. Harry Truman

19. "I knew it. I knew it. Born in a hotel room -- and goddamn it -- died in a hotel room" were the last words of which writer?

A. F. Scott Fitzgerald

B. Eugene O'Neill

C. John O'Hara

20. He was the world's first billionaire and left millions to his church. His last words were: "Goodbye, I'll see you in heaven."

A. John D. Rockefeller Sr.

B. Andrew Carnegie

C. J.P. Morgan

ANSWERS 1:A, 2:C, 3:C, 4:A, 5:A, 6:C, 7:B, 8:B, 9:C, 10:B, 11:C, 12:B, 13:C, 14:B, 15:C, 16:C, 17:C, 18:A, 19:B, 20:A SCORING 15-20 -- Macabre 11-14 -- Morbid Below 10 -- Normal

Sources used for this quiz include: Random House Webster's Quotation, Workman Publishing's Famous Last Words and Joseph Nathan Kane's standard Facts About the Presidents.

All of us are going to die one day. Some famous Americans met their maker with humor, others with regret or with vision from the past. See if you can identify the speakers of the following famous last words.

ANSWERS 1:A, 2:C, 3:C, 4:A, 5:A, 6:C, 7:B, 8:B, 9:C, 10:B, 11:C, 12:B, 13:C, 14:B, 15:C, 16:C, 17:C, 18:A, 19:B, 20:A SCORING 15-20 -- Macabre 11-14 -- Morbid Below 10 -- Normal

Sources used for this quiz include: Random House Webster's Quotation, Workman Publishing's Famous Last Words and Joseph Nathan Kane's standard Facts About the Presidents.


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