He Was a Lizard. He Was Dracula. And Now, God Help Us, Frank Langella Is Bernie Madoff.

Are you seeing "Man and Boy" on Broadway? Do you want to know more about its star, Frank Langella? Here's a quiz that will make you an instant expert.

THE thing about Frank Langella is that he always seems distinguished but almost always a little dangerous too. At a still-sexy 73, he's starring on Broadway in Terence Ratigan's Depression-era drama "Man and Boy," playing a wealthy businessman who has built his financial empire on lies. Maybe Bernie Madoff will get a day off for good behavior to see it.

HOW WELL DO YOU KNOW FRANK LANGELLA?

1. Langella was born in

(a) New York City
(b) Bermuda
(c) Seattle
(d) Bayonne, New Jersey

2. He developed his resonant, distinctive voice by

(a) Listening to John Gielgud records
(b) Attending Broadway theater from age 9
(c) Taking acting classes with Uta Hagen
(d) Smoking three packs of cigarettes a day

3. Langella made his Broadway debut in

(a) Zorba (1969)
(b) Sheba (1974)
(c) Yerma (1966)
(d) Dracula (1977)

4. He's won three Tony Awards, but he didn't win one for

(a) Fortune's Fool (2002)
(b) Frost/Nixon (2007)
(c) Seascape (1975)
(d) Dracula (1977)

5. In the movie "Diary of a Mad Housewife" (1970), his character was

(a) The heroine's imperious, status-conscious husband
(b) The heroine's psychiatrist
(c) The bad boy the heroine has an affair with
(d) The fancy caterer whose omelets everyone is sick of

6. Langella has played many famous fictional men, but not

(a) Sherlock Holmes
(b) Ebenezer Scrooge
(c) Perry White
(d) Humbert Humbert

7. He had a longtime affair with a co-host of "The View." That woman was

(a) Barbara Walters
(b) Whoopi Goldberg
(c) Joy Behar
(d) Rosie O'Donnell


"Man and Boy," by Terence Ratigan, directed by Maria Aitken, American Airlines Theater, 229 West 42nd Street, (212) 719-1300, roundabouttheatre.org. Opening night: Oct. 9, 2011.



Read more about Langella on IMDB, IBDB and Wikipedia. And take a look at "The Art of Wreaking Havoc With Other People's Money," Ben Brantley's New York Times review of "Man and Boy."



WHAT'S MY SCORE?

Answers are below. Each correct answer is worth 10 points. This is a tough one, so if you earned 30 or 40 points, you're a winner. If you scored 60 or 70, Frank Langella should send you free tickets to every show he does.

1. (d) Yes, Langella is a Jersey boy.



2. (a) He listened to recordings of Gielgud's voice. And apparently learned a lot.



3. (c) "Yerma" was based on a Frederico Garcia Lorca story about a woman desperate to have a baby.



4. (d) "Dracula." He won for playing an effete Russian land owner in "Fortune's Fool," the disgraced Richard Nixon in "Frost/Nixon" and a real lizard in "Seascape." "Dracula" made him a star, but he didn't take home a Tony for it.




5. (c) He was an emotionally brutal, womanizing playwright who broke Carrie Snodgress's character's heart. Richard Benjamin played the husband.



6. (d) Langella never played Humbert Humbert, the protagonist of "Lolita," but he did portray the perverse Clare Quilty, with a full frontal nude scene no less, to Jeremy Irons's Humbert in Adrian Lyne's 1997 remake. He was Holmes in an '80s TV movie version of "Sherlock Holmes," Scrooge onstage in New York in "A Christmas Carol" and White (editor of The Daily Planet) in the movie "Superman Returns."



7. (b) Whoopi Goldberg. They were together for five years or so, beginning in the mid-'90s.



WANT MORE THEATERGOSSIP? Scroll on to read the quiz (the answers will show up first, so don't peek) about Samuel L. Jackson, now starring in "The Mountaintop." Then search to read about the stars of shows including "The Book of Mormon," "How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying" and "Anything Goes."