Question 1

True or false: Margolyes famously hates working with child actors and refuses to do so.

Accepted Answer

False. She has stated she dislikes working with children, but she still does it when required (e.g., 'Harry Potter'). It's a preference, not a rule.

Question 2

True or false: Miriam Margolyes is a trained opera singer who performed at La Scala.

Accepted Answer

False. She studied acting at Cambridge, not opera. While she sings occasionally on screen, she never performed professionally at La Scala.

Question 3

True or false: Miriam Margolyes was born in Australia, not the UK.

Accepted Answer

False. She was born in Oxford, England, in 1941. Her parents were Scottish and Jewish, but she is English through and through.

Question 4

True or false: She was a close friend of the late Queen Elizabeth II and visited Buckingham Palace often.

Accepted Answer

False. Margolyes is a republican who has openly criticized the monarchy. She never had a close friendship with the Queen.

Question 5

True or false: Miriam Margolyes publicly came out as a lesbian at the age of 67.

Accepted Answer

True. She came out in a 2013 interview, revealing she had been in a relationship with her partner Heather for decades. She was 72 at the time.

Question 6

True or false: She turned down the role of Professor McGonagall in 'Harry Potter' because she wanted to play a 'nasty' character.

Accepted Answer

True. She specifically asked to play the sweet-tempered but bumbling Professor Sprout, finding the stern McGonagall too close to her own personality.

Question 7

True or false: She was the first actress to win a BAFTA for playing a character under four feet tall.

Accepted Answer

True. She won the BAFTA for Best Supporting Actress in 1994 for 'The Age of Innocence', playing the diminutive, sharp-tongued Mingott.

Question 8

True or false: She voiced the character of the Sprite in the original 'Willow' film.

Accepted Answer

True. Yes, she provided the voice for the tiny, wise-cracking brownie in the 1988 fantasy classic 'Willow'.

Miriam Margolyes Trivia Questions