8 10 12 for Dinner

[BoyScoutKevin]

I discovered a variation of this topic on another board, but I thought it was so good, I thought I continue it here.

If you had the ability to invite up to a dozen guests for a special dinner, who would you invite? And it can be anybody. Living or dead. Male or female. Unknown or well-known. Young or old.

And if you also had the ability to ask each guest, one question, which they would have to answer truthfully, what question would you ask them?

My guests are the people for which I have the greatest respect. And this is the question, which I would ask them.

Alexandre Robert
(the bravest of the brave)
"After you saw what they did to your friend, what gave you the courage to defy your captors?"

Chris Pitt
(actor)
"When you auditioned for the role, and the director asked whether you'd do a nude scene, and you agreed, how did you define the word 'nude?'"

Fabrice K.
(equally brave)
"What gave you the courage to try to defend your young friend?"

Lord Guilford Dudley
(he can come with his head, or he can come without.)
"Historically, why do you have such a bad reputation, and is it truly deserved?"

Henry Bergh
(philanthropist and  ASPCA founder)
"If we were to put your life story on film, what actor do you want to portray you?"

Ken Russell
(and to make it interesting, the director)
"If you had been able to shoot the nude scene, how would you have shot it?"

Robert Leroy Ripley
(sports cartoonist, and a man who died too young.)
"If you had lived to be a hundred, what else would you have liked to have done, during your lifetime?"

Vincent Price
(well, someone has to cook dinner.)
"Actor. Art critic. Chef. If you could choose only one of these, which one would you choose?"

Walter Elias Disney
(filmmaker extraordinaire)
"Your public persona is so intermingled with your private persona, do you even know, where one begins and the other ends?"

And myself
"If you had an ability, what ability would it be?"--"The ability to control time."

[Allhallowsday]

Hey BoyScoutKevin, the idea of dinner guests from all of history comes from the original BOOK OF LISTS, probably published in 1976 or so...
Off the top of my head, in no particular order, and not well considered, here's my list:
Jesus
Constantine I
Charles Darwin
Franklin Roosevelt
Bette Davis
Elvis Presley
Ricky Nelson
Dorothy Parker
Oscar Wilde
Ben Franklin
Elizabeth I 
Eleanor of Aquitaine

[Torgo]

1) Frank Zappa
2) Stanley Kubrick
3) Jaco Pastorius
4) George C. Scott
5) Akira Kurosawa
6) Alfred Hitchcock
7) Ridley Scott
8) Edgar Allen Poe
9) H. P. Lovecraft
10) John Candy
11) Sam Kinison
12) Bill Hicks
13) Hunter S. Thompson

[CheezeFlixz]

hmmm? I'm going to assume the translators don't count.

Aside from myself ...

Nero
"Why did you do it?"

Leonardo de Vinci
"Is there really symbolism in the Last Supper?"

Capitan William Kidd
"Where's it buried?"

Venerable Bede
"What did you not write down?"

Sun Tzu
"What makes you an expert?"

Adolph Hitler
"What the hell were you thinking?"

Napoleon Bonaparte
"Would you care to discuss winter warfare in Russia with Adolph?

William Tecumseh Sherman
"And you reason for your scorched earth strategy was what? Not what history recorded, but the truth."

Jesus Christ
"Would you like to say the prayer?"

Peter the Great
"Can you help me design and build a boat?"

Suleiman the Magnificent
"So Mr Lawgiver, see what your bright idea has become, care to explain this?"

Bill Gates
"You do realize there is a $10 billion dollar cover charge you must pay me?"

Geoffrey Chaucer (Who is my Great X19 Grandfather)
"Tell me about your life?"

ok that's over 12 but it's my dinner and Bill's paying.

[frank]

Nice idea!

However, I’m going to choose my guests in pairs or triplets, so I don’t have to ask specific questions to get the conversations started. Basically I will place them together at the dinner table, sit back, watch/listen and enjoy.….

Charlie Chaplin / Ed Wood (!)

Douglas Adams / Bill Bryson (This is the rather intellectual, but still exceedingly funny part of the dinner table)

Vincent Price / Bela Lugosi / Peter Lorre (I’d like to see those as a kinf of rat pack. I think they would know how to party…with style)

God / Satan (Somehow I think they would get along pretty well for one evening, somewhat like in “The old man and Mister Smith” by Sir Peter Ustinov – when I think of it, I would like to seat Sir Peter right here with them. Still, I don't know if they fit with the others, but they just might)

Hm, I guess I go for the funny crowd.


PS: I was tempted to add some scientists and Darwin would have been the first choice. But then, I read he was pretty much a party-pooper, who left social gatherings several times when directly addressed by other guests. I wouldn’t mind a more private dinner and conversation with him, though.

[asimpson2006]

Here are my twelve.

Bill "Superfoot" Wallace - Famous kickboxer, former Middleweight world champion
Jean-Yves Theriault - Famous kickboxer, former Middleweight world champion
Ed wood - No explination needed
Malcolm McDowell - No explination needed
Mark Hamil - No explination needed as well
Jerry Seinfeld - Ditto Above
Miyamoto Musashi - Famous Japanese swordsman
Mas Oyama - Famous Martial artist
Sonny Chiba - Famous Japanese Actor
Muhammad Ali
Jake LaMotta
Jigoro Kano

[JaseSF]

I likes a good yarn and these folks would likely have plenty to say and the varied accents at work would be entertainment enough in and of itself...plus it would be fun to have a kinda Ed Wood reunion. not to mention all those Universal Monsters and there's also the wrestling in common between certain guests.

1) Bela Lugosi (Question: If you could have played one serious role in an American Hollywood movie, what would it have been?)

2) Vincent Price (Question: Which of your works proved the most fun for you personally?)

3) Lon Chaney Jr. (Question: What role did you never get a chance to play you would have grabbed if given a chance?)

4) Mad Dog Vachon (All the travel and wear and tear of old-time wrestling, are you saddened by what's the sham of its former self it's now become?)

5) Tor Johnson (You were both a pro wrestler and an actor, which life did you prefer?)

6) Baron Von Raschke (What's your best road travel story?, preferably also involving Mad Dog Vachon)

7) Ed Wood (If you could have had a choice of directing any story, what story would you most like to have tackled?)

8) Vampira (What do you think of all the goth girls nowadays?)

9) Peter Cushing (Which performance given by you do you feel was your very best?)

10) Christopher Lee (What's the greatest joy you get out of performing in films?)

11) Hazel Court (What was it like to work on the Raven and in Hammer films?)

12) Boris Karloff (Which do you feel was your finest performance ever given in a film or TV episode?)

[Rev. Powell]

Assuming there's an open bar, I'll invite:

Socrates
Alexander the Great
Edgar Allen Poe
W.C. Fields
Dylan Thomas
Ernest Hemingway
Hank Williams
Charles Bukowski
Brendam Behan
Richard Burton
Hunter S. Thompson
Shane McGowan

Question to all: "What'll you have?"

[BoyScoutKevin]

Hey BoyScoutKevin, the idea of dinner guests from all of history comes from the original BOOK OF LISTS, probably published in 1976 or so...
Off the top of my head, in no particular order, and not well considered, here's my list:
Jesus
Constantine I
Charles Darwin
Franklin Roosevelt
Bette Davis
Elvis Presley
Ricky Nelson
Dorothy Parker
Oscar Wilde
Ben Franklin
Elizabeth I 
Eleanor of Aquitaine

I know. I have the book. Actually, I think there are three books, and I have all three.