Question 1

True or false: David Lean won the Academy Award for Best Director for 'The Bridge on the River Kwai'.

Accepted Answer

True. He won Best Director for both The Bridge on the River Kwai (1957) and Lawrence of Arabia (1962).

Question 2

True or false: Lean was born in the United States and later moved to England as a child.

Accepted Answer

False. He was born in Croydon, England, to English parents and spent his entire career in British cinema.

Question 3

True or false: Lean's first major directorial success was a horror film called 'The Curse of the Mummy'.

Accepted Answer

False. His breakthrough was the romantic drama Brief Encounter (1945), co-directed with Noël Coward, not horror.

Question 4

True or false: He collaborated with composer Maurice Jarre on several iconic film scores.

Accepted Answer

True. Jarre composed music for Lawrence of Arabia, Doctor Zhivago, and A Passage to India, among others.

Question 5

True or false: David Lean directed 'Star Wars: Episode IV - A New Hope' before Steven Spielberg.

Accepted Answer

False. George Lucas directed Star Wars. Lean is famous for epics like Lawrence of Arabia, not sci-fi blockbusters.

Question 6

True or false: Lean originally trained as a film editor before becoming a director.

Accepted Answer

True. He started as a clapper boy and rose to be a top editor in British cinema, editing films like In Which We Serve.

Question 7

True or false: David Lean directed only 16 feature films in his entire career.

Accepted Answer

True. Despite his fame, he was a perfectionist and made only 16 features over 40 years, including several epics.

Question 8

True or false: Lean's film 'Doctor Zhivago' was originally banned in the Soviet Union.

Accepted Answer

True. The Soviet government suppressed the film for decades, viewing it as anti-communist propaganda.

David Lean Trivia Questions