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No, I’m not Ursula Andress
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No, I’m not Usher. (Blatant guess!)
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No, I’m not Ute. (If he has a last name, I’ve never heard it.)
And if I’m wrong, you know what to do…
Just giving a bump to see if anyone has thought of any more people with a ‘U’ for an initial.
The February thread: Botticelli, Feb. 2012 - Thread Games - Straight Dope Message Board
Sorry, I missed this thread earlier. I loves me some Botticelli!
IQs:
You were first written about by someone famous; did someone equally famous write a sequel, of sorts, to your story?
Did a fictional hero use this name as a pseudonym when he was on the run?
Did Gabriel Byrne play you early in his career?
I was wondering where you’d got to; I’ve missed your astonishing knack for disguising people and characters we all know with oblique references.
Nos. 1 and 3 stump me, although I find myself saying ‘I should know that!’. I feel certain I must have seen the film referred to in IQ3, having been a fan of Gabriel Byrne early on…
On editing, I’m going to take a wild guess on #1 and say ‘No, I’m not Ulysses’, on the basis that he was first written about by Homer, and Margaret Atwood has written ‘The Penelopiad’ as a sequel some ~2500 years later.
Number 2 is surely a reference to ‘Mr. Underhill’, the name under which Frodo Baggins checks into the inn at Bree, ‘The Prancing Pony’, in ‘The Fellowship of the Ring’. No, I’m not Mr. Underhill.
At least one DQ for you.
#2 was Tracy Ullman, who had a brief musical career before her television/film one took off. Sir Paul appeared in the video for “They Don’t Know”.
DQ: Known for any artistic achievements?
IQ1: Are you the superhero alter-ego of Principal Krupp?
IQ2: Did you unsuccessfully sue Nintendo for £60 million, claiming the Pokemon Kadabra was an unauthorized use of your likeness?
IQ3:
No.
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No, I’m not Captain Underpants
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Dagnabit, take a DQ.
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I’m drawing a blank…
**Summary - U
**
- Real person.
- Dead.
- Male.
- Born before 1900.
- Not a soldier.
- Not a politician.
- Not known for any artistic achievements.
Thanks for your kind words, Le Ministre. I’m glad to be here.
Your answer to the first is accurate, so I’ll rephrase:
You were first written about after 1600 by someone famous; did someone equally famous write a sequel, of sorts, to your story?
Correct as to Mr. Underhill.
The Gabriel Byrne role was Uther Pendragon, King Arthur’s father, in John Boorman’s Excalibur. Which… I now see was already asked earlier. Never mind.
Two more IQs:
Are you a famous actress who arguably peaked in the Seventies?
An author, did you create a character who bore the name of a fictitious place from another famous work of literature?
Boy, U is a tough letter!
I don’t know.
No, I’m not Liv Ullmann.
I’m stumped over the author, though.
That makes for two DQs.
Yes, although I wrote out a list of everybody I could think of who had a ‘U’ for an initial. Not only do I have a few that still haven’t come up, I’ve been totally stumped by some of the ones you and ChockFull have come up with.
The first is Roderick (?) Usher, of Poe’s The Fall of the House of Usher. Many years later, Ray Bradbury wrote the semi-sequel sf short story “Usher II.”
As to the famous actress, you got me there, so I’ll rephrase: Are you a famous American actress who arguably peaked in the Seventies?
The last is Umberto Eco, who wrote in In the Name of the Rose of William of Baskerville, an English monk whose description sounded a lot like Sherlock Holmes, clearly alluding to Conan Doyle’s The Hound of the Baskervilles.
DQs:
Last name begin with “U”?
American?
I need to think of some more IQs. Hmm…
No, and No.
**Summary - U
**
- Real person.
- Dead.
- Male.
- Born before 1900.
- Not a soldier.
- Not a politician.
- Not known for any artistic achievements.
- Last name does not begin with a ‘U’.
- Not American.
I want to think for an hour or two about your American actress who peaked in the '70s…
#2 is Uri Gellar. (Kadabra was a psychic-type pokemon that was always shown holding a spoon)
#3 How about… the Unvisible Man, one of H.G. Wells’ lesser-known works. Yeah, that’s it.
DQ: European?
IQ: Did you found a company that sold millions of its now obsolete product?
Yes.
Alright, I’m stuck. One DQ each for ChockFullOfHeadyGoodness and Elendil’s Heir
Summary - U
- Real person.
- Dead.
- Male.
- Born before 1900.
- Not a soldier.
- Not a politician.
- Not known for any artistic achievements.
- Last name does not begin with a ‘U’.
- Not American.
- European.
One DQ each for ChockFullOfHeadyGoodness and Elendil’s Heir
[/QUOTE]
You are not John Underwood, founder of the Underwood Typewriter Company.
DQ: Were you known as a scientist, researcher, or inventor of some sort?
Leslie Uggams.
DQ:
British?
Now I need to think about more IQs. I think my mental archive of famous “U” people has already just about been exhausted by this thread.
Ooo, here’s one:
Did an actor better known for playing a villain play you early in his career?
No.
I’m stuck - I can’t think of any roles that begin with ‘U’… Take a DQ.
**Summary - U
**
- Real person.
- Dead.
- Male.
- Born before 1900.
- Not a soldier.
- Not a politician.
- Not known for any artistic achievements.
- Last name does not begin with a ‘U’.
- Not American.
- European.
- Not British.
Heath Ledger, perhaps best known for playing the Joker, played a knight pretending to be Ulrich von Liechtenstein in A Knight’s Tale.
DQ:
German?
IQs:
Were you an ancient king best known for a dating reference?
Did you play the hero in a postapocalyptic TV show?
Although you played someone described as a Korean War veteran, were you a bit too young for that?
IQ1: Did you make Prime Minister from the Chief Whip’s office using skulduggery?
IQ2: Were you poisoned by cyanide, despite Archie Goodwin watching you closely?
IQ3: Do you haunt one of the North Barrow-Downs in Lord of the Rings Online?
First, to catch up on the existing DQs…
No. (I’m sorry, I missed this one yesterday evening.)
No.
Summary - U
- Real person.
- Dead.
- Male.
- Born before 1900.
- Not a soldier.
- Not a politician.
- Not known for any artistic achievements.
- Last name does not begin with a ‘U’.
- Not American.
- European.
- Not British.
- Not a scientist, researcher, or inventor of any sort.
- Not German.
I’ll return in about an hour to see if I can come up with some answers to the most recent IQs.
No, I’m not King Uzziah. (A blatant guess; I only know of three kings with the initial ‘U’. I confess I have no idea about the ‘dating reference’, I’ve just decided that Uzziah is the most likely to have had something happen in his reign that other events are dated from. This is the Botticellic equivalent of ‘fouling one off in the hope of staying alive’.)
I can’t even think of a post-apocalyptic TV show, let alone a ‘U’ actor in one.
And the only Korean War vets I can think of are Maurice from Northern Exposure, who was played by Barry Corbin, and President Bartlett (Martin Sheen) and Leo ? (John Spencer) from the West Wing.
So that’s at least two DQs for Elendil’s Heir.
- Is that the guy from ‘Yes, Minister’? I can’t remember Sir Humphrey’s last name…
- I have yet to read any of the Nero Wolfe mysteries. My loss, on so many levels…
- No idea.
And that’s three DQs for glee.
I’m bombing here, folks!!!
I know the answer to glee’s first question, and I loved that show! First initial: F.
Yes, King Uzziah. I think it’s the Book of Isaiah which has a section beginning, “In the year King Uzziah died…”
Skeet Ulrich was in Jericho.
President Bartlet of The West Wing wasn’t a Korean War vet; he never served in the military at all, which gave him some angst in dealing with Pentagon brass. And Leo was a USAF Vietnam War vet, IIRC. I was thinking of Robert Urich, who played the title role in Spenser: For Hire. Spenser was described in the early books as a Korean War vet, but Urich would’ve been too young.
I’ll think a bit about my two DQs.