Here are three of the most beautiful women to grace the silver screen. Who are they, and which countries do they call home?

Which was involved with Marcello Mastroianni?

Who won an Oscar?

Which were nominated for Oscars?

Who starred with Elvis Presley?

Which has parents as famous as she?

Who appeared nude in Playboy Magazine?

Who was up for the part of Honey Ryder?

Which have children?

Who was born in India?

Which one dated James Dean?

A leading man of the Thirties and Forties who is virtually forgotten today was the multi- talented Burgess Meredith. The shot above is from his most famous role, as Ernie Pyle in 1945′s The Story of G.I. Joe (costarring Robert Mitchum).

Actually, this may NOT be Meredith’s most recalled role, at least to younger readers. You’ll remember that the actor played Mickey Goldsmith, Rocky Balboa’s grizzled fight manager in 1976′s Rocky (and sequels).

Not to be overlooked is Meredith’s performance as George opposite Lon Chaney Jr.’s Lenny in Hollywood’s first — in 1939, two years after the source novel was published — adaptation of John Steinbeck’s Of Mice and Men.

Born in Cleveland, Ohio in 1907, Meredith at first turned himself into an accomplished stage actor before making his Hollywood debut in the mid-Thirties.  His career was a long one — a total of nearly 180 movie and tv credits.  He died at age 80 in 1997.

He also made his mark offscreen in the romance department.  Most famously he was married to Paulette Goddard (who also at different times was married to Charlie Chaplin Meredith and novelist Erich Maria Remarque). The couple costarred in Jean Renoir’s 1946 romantic drama Diary of a Chambermaid, which Meredith co-scripted.

A notable screen venture for Meredith was not as an actor but as a narrator.

The movie is A Walk in the Sun, based on a book written by Harry Brown, originally published in 1944 by Alfred A Knopf Inc., and reprinted in 1998 by First Bison Books, Univ. of Nebraska Press. When it first came out — the book about a WWII G.I. platoon taking a bridge and Nazi infested farmhouse in Southern Italy — was highly praised as one of the best written about the war conflict from the enlisted man point of view. Meredith is the perfect narrator for this project.

Although he referred to himself as primarily a character actor, Meredith was a marquee name at his peak.  An actor of solid skills, he was for a time a leading man.

To his enormous credit, he kept a sense of perspective about his career.  He had, for example, no compunctions about playing smaller character parts as he did in 21 episodes from 1966-68 of the Batman tv series (starring Adam West). Meredith said he had fun playing The Penguin, and besides, the role paid the bills.

How much did you know about Charlton Heston?

Sure, you knew he won an Oscar for his physically punishing role as the chariot-bound Jewish prince in director William Wyler’s 1959 classic Ben-Hur.  And perhaps you recall his muscular performance as an 11th century warrior who drove the Moors from Spain director Anthony Mann’s  1961 extravaganza, El Cid.

Both were huge hits — El Cid cost some $6.5 million to make and wound up grossing some $26 million in North America alone — and both are now unthinkable today without Heston’s powerful presence.  Director Martin Scorsese puts it this way about the Heston effect in El Cid:

There are very few actors commanding enough to work on a film of this scale — it’s easy to be diminished by the scope of such a production. Heston had a unique presence, a beautiful speaking voice as well as a sense of stillness and of dynamic movement, and he could hold the screen…

There’s something truly monumental about Heston at his greatest — he doesn’t play it but embodies it.

Ok, let’s get to the answers to our CH Quiz.  As usual, you can check on the questions by scrolling down to the blog below.  Here we go:

1) Answer: Charlton Heston’s outsized, “voice of God roles” include the following: a) as Moses in 1956′s The Ten Commandments; b) as John the Baptist in 1965′s The Greatest Story Ever Told; c) a Jewish prince in 1959′s Ben-Hur; and d) manager of a circus in 1952′s The Greatest Shown on Earth. 

2) Answer: The flagging career of (c) Orson Welles received an extraordinary boost when Heston suggested in a telephone call to Universal Pictures that Welles direct, write as well as act in the now-classic 1958 thriller Touch of Evil, set on the Texas-Mexican border with Heston as an upright lawman of Mexican heritage tracking down corrupt sheriff Welles. Heston, supposedly the lead, is obviously miscast in the picture but Welles is strongly effective — making the film one of the director-actor’s finest. Yes, Heston wielded that kind of star clout; Welles landed one of the best jobs of his career based on Heston’s mere telephone suggestion.

3) Answer: According to author Marc Eliot‘s recent biography  Charlton Heston: Hollywood’s Last Icon, the actor first realized he was losing sharpness mentally when (c) he found himself getting lost while driving to Paramount studios, a route he had taken countless times before. He went public with his condition in 2002, and died in 2008 of effects related to Alzheimer’s Disease.

4) Answer: Heston and Sophia Loren comprised the star duo in 1961′s epic hit, El Cid. The Italian actress and Heston, a upright sort from the American Midwest, didn’t exactly hit it off. He complained that she (a) was often late to the set, keeping the elaborate production waiting. She said simply that she was NOT a morning person, and shrugged.

5) Answer:  Heston was a man of diverse views, socially liberal but not a fan of PC.  He ruffled Hollywood feathers by (b) his strong advocacy of citizen gun rights. He was president of the National Rifle Association from 1998 to 2003.

One of Joe’s favorite Steve McQueen films is the underrated and almost forgotten film, Love With the Proper Stranger.

The 1963 release starred McQueen with Natalie Wood (she got top billing) when both were at the height of their popularity.

One reason the film is not remembered fondly is that at the time is was considered a box office flop. The Pakula /Mulligan production for Paramount had high hopes and a big budget for its time…. over $8.5 million. It only grossed about half that.

But it was a critical success. Wood was nominated for an Oscar. Both were nominated for Golden Globes. The film itself received four other Oscar nominations.

The romantic/comedy/drama has a serious side. Long before Roe vs. Wade this film dealt with back room abortions which were the only choice of young people who found themselves in trouble.

If you haven’t seen this film, do so. It gives both McQueen and Wood the chance to play serious drama and light comedy in the same parts.

In closing, we pass along a comment received earlier this week from reader Brittaney.  

I’ve been working my way through McQueen’s filmography this past year. I really fell in love with ‘Soldier in the Rain.’ He really was a star!

Soldier in the Rain is another one of McQueen’s less trumpeted titles, although it shouldn’t be.

It was released the same year as Love With A Proper Stranger in the U.S. by the now defunct Allied Artists, and it is not easy to track down on DVD. But try anyway.

McQueen’s costars here are Jackie Gleason — with whom he was pals offscreen — and a young Tuesday Weld. The movie based on a William Goldman novel with a script co-written by Blake Edwards. McQueen and Gleason play off each other well, and Steve shows off an underappreciated way with screwball romantic comedy. Another testament to her versatility.

Winding up our Steve McQueen week, we can agree –yes indeed, Brittaney, McQueen really was a Star.

This week is Steve McQueen Week on our blog. So you all should have no trouble recognizing the gentlemen awkwardly pictured in the police mug shot above .

He was an acknowledged bad boy.  Even during his heyday as a STAR everyone knew he’d been in reformatories.  It was part of his image.

McQueen was born in Indiana on March 24, 1930. (See, that date listed on the police clapboard is correct.) And, yes, he really did suffer a troubled childhood, and spent time in reformatories decades before this shot was taken.

After joining the Marines at the age of 17, McQueen found himself working as a tank driver and mechanic.  He also found himself in hot water (and fined $90) for going AWOL for 30 days. But after his discharge he parleyed the GI Bill to study acting.  Smart move.

Keep in mind that you are looking in this picture at the world’s most popular movie actor at the peak of his career in the 1970′s.

As far as we can determine, this mug shot was taken in 1972 when the actor was 42. The location is put as Anchorage, Alaska.

The offense?  Drunk driving.

McQueen doesn’t appear to be unduly upset at being apprehended. Note the wry smile and the left-handed peace sign. And as for his driving, he always had a way with controlled recklessness (see 1968′s Bullitt). McQueen posted bail, and departed Anchorage. He was subsequently convicted in absentia for (apparently uncontrolled) reckless driving.

We are not sure why McQueen was in Alaska.  His previous movie, the 1971 auto racing saga Le Mans, was filmed in France.  In 1972, McQueen starred in two memorable films from director Sam Peckinpah – Junior Bonner, filmed in Arizona and The Getaway, filmed in Texas.  So, again, why he was in Anchorage remains a mystery.

We surmise that 1972 was not McQueen’s happiest year personally.  He had just divorced his devoted first wife, Neile Adams, with whom he had two children. He was soon to sweep actress Ali MacGraw , then married to Paramount production chief Robert Evans, off her feet as his Getaway costar. (The couple married in 1973.)

This mug shot was taken about eight years before McQueen’s death in 1980, after a lengthy battle with lung cancer.  At the urging of his third wife, Barbara Minty, the actor became a born-again Christian shortly before he died.