Arts & Culture

Harvard meets Hollywood: A quiz

Illustrations by Liz Zonarich/Harvard Staff; Harvard file photos

Sy Boles

Harvard Staff Writer

March 12, 2026

1 min read

What, like it’s hard?

Ahead of the 98th Academy Awards on March 15, we’ve created our own shortlist: movies with a tie to Harvard. Find out how much you know about Crimson cinema by taking our quiz.

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1. What novel set partially at Harvard was written to drum up interest in a movie?

“Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow” by Gabrielle Zevin

“Angels and Demons” by Dan Brown

“The Idiot” by Elif Batuman

“Love Story” by Erich Segal

2. Erich Segal based aspects of the male protagonist of “Love Story” on an actual Harvard undergraduate he met while on sabbatical. Who was it?

Academy Award-winning actor Tommy Lee Jones

Nobel Prize-winning chemist Martin Chalfie

Film director and screenwriter Terrence Malick

NFL cornerback John Dockery

3. Michael Crichton ’64, M.D. ’69, whose novels “The Andromeda Strain” and “Jurassic Park” have been adapted as movies, used his experience as a medical student in the making of what hit TV show?

General Hospital

ER

M*A*S*H

Grey’s Anatomy

4. Ashley Judd, M.P.A. ’10, got her first starring role in the film “Ruby in Paradise,” which plays homage to what classic novel?

“To the Lighthouse” by Virginia Woolf

“The Age of Innocence” by Edith Wharton

“Northanger Abbey” by Jane Austen

“Wuthering Heights” by Emily Brontë

5. In the 1994 comedy “With Honors,” a Harvard student’s life is turned upside down when he meets whom?

A genie he releases from a lamp in the Harvard Art Museums

A homeless man living in the Widener Library boiler room

An eccentric law student who became the inspiration for Elle Woods in “Legally Blonde”

A gargoyle from a Memorial Hall tower come to life

6. The critically acclaimed 2019 film “Just Mercy” features Michael B. Jordan as which Harvard Law School alumnus?

Civil rights attorney Charles Hamilton Houston

Public interest lawyer Bryan Stevenson

Legal scholar David B. Wilkins

Boston Municipal Court Judge George Lewis Ruffin

7. Alumna Ursula K. Le Guin is said to have influenced or inspired which of the following books and films?

“Cloud Atlas,” based on the book by David Mitchell

“Spirited Away,” an animated film by Hayao Miyazaki

“Eragon,” based on the book by Christopher Paolini

All of the above

8. The films “Mississippi Masala” and “Salaam Bombay!” share a behind-the-scenes connection to Harvard. What is it?

Harvard scholars advised on both movies

Their director and screenwriter met while studying at Harvard

Both films were funded by Harvard-affiliated production grants

Harvard provided archival footage used in both films

9. What Oscar-winning film got its start as an assignment in a Harvard playwriting class?

“Saving Private Ryan”

“Shakespeare in Love”

“Good Will Hunting”

“Forrest Gump”

10. Who was the first Hasty Pudding Woman of the Year to receive her award in person?

Jane Fonda

Ethel Merman

Katharine Hepburn

Liza Minelli

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