Image: CBS
About This Quiz
When "The Twilight Zone" first premiered on Oct. 2, 1959, it was like nothing American TV audiences had ever seen. Each week, the ingenious anthology series told a stand-alone story about something bizarre, inexplicable and usually disturbing — from murderous dolls and creepy doppelgangers to time travel and atomic war. Presented by host and creator Rod Serling, whose opening and closing narrations have become legendary television fare, the show became famous for its cautionary takes and mind-bending twist endings. Shot entirely in black and white, the series also had a bold and unique look that inspired countless movies and TV shows to come, including a modern-day revival by acclaimed actor and director Jordan Peele.
"The Twilight Zone" also featured loads of celebrity guest stars, many of whom appeared on the show before they became household names. This makes the series even more fun to watch, as you never know who's going to pop up on the screen to pay a visit to this freaky fifth dimension.
How good is your recall of the show's special guests? This quiz will test your knowledge of notable celebrity appearances from the original "The Twilight Zone" series, as well as a number of well-known guests from Jordan Peele's recent revival. How many can you name? Strap in and get ready to find out. That's the signpost up ahead — your next stop is the Twilight Zone!
Leonard Nimoy
William Shatner
"Nightmare at 20,000 Feet," aired in 1963, has become one of the most well-known episodes of the original "The Twilight Zone" series. It was Shatner's second appearance on the show — he also starred in a 1960 episode called "Nick of Time."
George Tekai
DeForest Kelley
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Carol Channing
Lucille Ball
Carol Burnett
Entitled "Cavender Is Coming," this 1962 episode has more of a comedic tone than most episodes of "The Twilight Zone." It featured a laugh track when it first aired, which has since been removed from rerun, DVD and streaming versions.
Mary Tyler Moore
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Peter Fonda
Jack Nicholson
Dennis Hopper
This episode from 1963 is called "He's Alive." Reportedly, "The Twilight Zone" creator Rod Serling wrote a longer version of the script to be made into a feature-length film, but it was never produced.
Martin Sheen
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Tom Selleck
Telly Savalas
James Garner
Peter Falk
Falk played Ramos Clemente in this 1961 episode — a character modeled after Fidel Castro. The dictator becomes mad with paranoia when a magical mirror suggests his four confidants are traitors.
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Robert Duvall
Duvall is Charley Parkes in this 1963 episode, a man committed to a psychiatric hospital because he believes the figures inside a museum dollhouse are alive. The episode's twist ending reveals that all is not as it seems.
Robert De Niro
Harvey Keitel
Al Pacino
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Robert Redford
The opening narration for this episode states, "An old woman living in a nightmare, an old woman who has fought a thousand battles with death and always won. Now she's faced with a grim decision — whether or not to open a door. And in some strange and frightening way she knows that this seemingly ordinary door leads to the Twilight Zone."
Dustin Hoffman
Clint Eastwood
Paul Newman
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Patrick Stewart
James Doohan
Leonard Nimoy
The title of this 1961 episode, "A Quality of Mercy," comes from a well-known line from the Shakespeare play "The Merchant of Venice." Recited as part of the show's closing narration, the quote is, "The quality of mercy is not strained, it droppeth as the gentle rain from heaven upon the place beneath."
Walter Koenig
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Dana Carvey
Will Ferrell
Tracey Morgan
Originally aired on April 1, 2019, "The Comedian" also stars Kumail Nanjiani of "Silicon Valley" fame. It follows the story of a comedian who discovers that when he mentions a person as a part of his stand-up act, they mysteriously disappear.
Adam Sandler
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Ron Howard
Before he was Opie on "The Andy Griffith Show" or Richie on "Happy Days," Howard played a sweet young boy in a town where time seemed to stand still. This was Howard's third credited TV role.
Jodie Foster
Sean Penn
Mel Gibson
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Paul Newman
Burt Reynolds
Entitled "The Bard," this episode aired in 1963, while Reynolds was a regular on the popular Western TV drama "Gunsmoke." Reynolds starred on numerous TV shows before scoring his breakthrough film role in the 1972 thriller, "Deliverance."
Dustin Hoffman
Gregory Peck
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Betty White
Bea Arthur
Cloris Leachman
Considered by Time and TV Guide to be one of the best episodes of "The Twilight Zone" original series, "It's a Good Life" aired in 1961. It was based on a short story of the same name, written by author and screenwriter Jerome Bixby.
Charlotte Rae
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Patrick Stewart
George Takei
After "The Encounter" first aired in 1964, it was withheld from syndication due to its touchy (at the time) racial subject matter. It didn't appear on TV again until Jan. 1, 2016, as part of Syfy's annual "TheTwilight Zone" New's Year Eve marathon.
DeForest Kelley
James Doohan
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Don Rickles
Called "Mr. Dingle, the Strong," this episode tells the story of Luther Dingle, a meek, unsuccessful man (played by Burgess Meredith) who's given superhuman strength by a two-headed Martian. Rickles plays the gambling barfly who bullies him at the bar.
Bob Hope
Bob Newhart
Milton Berle
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Michael Landon
Lee Majors
Carroll O'Connor
Telly Savalas
Savalas was already a successful actor when he appeared in this 1963 episode, having been nominated for an Academy Award a year prior for his supporting role in the film "Birdman of Alcatraz."
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Nick Offerman
Chris Pratt
Adam Scott
This episode is entitled "Nightmare at 30,000 Feet," which is a play on the title of the 1963 "The Twilight Zone" classic, "Nightmare at 20,000 Feet." While both episodes take place on a plane, their plots are completely different.
Aziz Ansari
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Milton Berle
Jonathan Winters
Jonathan Winters's career spanned more than 60 years. He appeared on hundreds of television shows and films, including "Hee-Haw" and "Mork & Mindy," and received eight Grammy nominations for Best Comedy Album.
Bob Newhart
George Burns
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Mickey Rooney
Eli Wallach
Burgess Meredith
in addition to the 1959 episode, "Time Enough at Last," Meredith appeared in three other episodes of "The Twilight Zone" — "Mr. Dingle, the Strong", "The Obsolete Man" and "Printer's Devil."
Slim PIckens
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Jack Lemmon
Walter Matthau
Tony Randall
Jack Klugman
Between 1960 and 1963, Klugman appeared in the episodes "A Passage for Trumpet, "A Game of Pool," "Death Ship" and "In Praise of Pip." The actor ties with Burgess Meredith for the most guest appearances in a starring role on the series.
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Jackie Gleason
Art Carney
The title of this 1960 episode, "The Night of the Meek," comes from a biblical quote from Matthew 5:5, "Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth." More than 20 years later, Carney would play Santa again in the 1984 move "The Night They Saved Christmas."
Jerry Mathers
Tony Dow
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Charles Bronson
Starring opposite Bronson in this two-person episode from 1961 was Elizabeth Montgomery, the actress best known for playing Samantha Stephens on the popular television show "Bewitched."
Arnold Schwarzenegger
Robert De Niro
Clint Eastwood
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Greg Kinnear
This episode also stars Steven Yeun from "The Walking Dead." It's about a mysterious man who curiously claims to be named "A. Traveler" and crashes a small police station's Christmas party.
David Schwimmer
Ted Danson
Matthew Perry
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Frankie Darro
Carl Switzer
George McFarland
Mickey Rooney
Born in 1920, Mickey Rooney's career as an actor, comedian and radio personality spanned nine decades. He appeared in more than 300 films in his lifetime and worked well into his 90s.
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Patrick Stewart
James Doohan
This episode tells the story of Peaceful Valley, New Mexico, a remote town that possesses incredible extraterrestrial technology but refuses to share it with the rest of the world.
DeForest Kelley
Walter Koenig
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Julie Newmar
Newmar is perhaps best known for playing Catwoman on the '60s show "Batman." She also had guest roles on popular shows such as "F Troop," "Bewitched, "The Beverly Hillbillies" and "Get Smart."
Tina Louise
Eva Gabor
Marlo Thomas
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Fred MacMurray
Martin Landau
This was Landau's second appearance on "The Twilight Zone." Five years earlier, he played a sadistic bully in the 1959 episode "Mr. Denton on Doomsday," which was the third episode of the show's first season.
Peter Graves
James Cromwell
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Sydney Pollack
Pollack acted in over 30 movies and TVs shows during his career, and directed more than 20 films. He won an Academy Award for Best Director for his 1985 movie "Out of Africa," which also won the award for Best Picture.
Clint Eastwood
John Cassavetes
Warren Beatty
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Dennis Hopper
Dennis Weaver
Weaver won an Emmy Award for best supporting actor (continuing character) in a dramatic series for his work in the long-running television show "Gunsmoke." He also played Sam McCloud from 1970 to 1977 on the TV drama "McCloud."
James Garner
Steve McQueen
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Dean Stockwell
Stockwell began his career as a child actor in the 1940s and continued to work into his adulthood. He's perhaps best known for playing Al on the TV show "Quantum Leap," and was nominated for a best supporting actor Oscar for the 1988 movie "Married to the Mob."
Gene Hackman
Donald Sutherland
James Garner
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Denholm Elliott
Donald Pleasence
While his career spanned almost 50 years, Pleasence is perhaps best-known for his role as psychiatrist Dr. Samuel Loomis in the original 1978 "Halloween" film and four of its sequels.
Alec Guinness
Richard Burton
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Janet Leigh
Grace Kelly
Tippi Hedren
Vera Miles
Miles plays Millicent Barnes in this episode, a young woman who becomes convinced, while waiting for a bus, that her evil doppelgänger is trying to replace her. Reportedly, this episode was the inspiration for Jordan Peele's 2019 movie "Us."
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Karl Malden
Harry Morgan
Roddy McDowall
McDowall is best known for playing the characters of Cornelius and Caesar in the "Planet of the Apes" movies, along with the character of Galen in the "Planet of the Apes" spin-off TV show. He also starred in the 1985 hit horror flick "Fright Night."
Eli Wallach
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Jack Warden
Gary Busey
Lee Marvin
In addition to this Western-themed episode, Marvin appeared in a 1963 installment of "The Twilight Zone" called "Steel. That one was about a robotic boxer in the futuristic world of 1974.
Sam Elliott
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Charlie Chaplin
Buster Keaton
Entitled "Once Upon a Time," this episode cleverly opens and closes in the style of a silent film. Keaton also performs a number of the same slapstick gags he was known for in the 1920s.
Douglas Fairbanks
Harold Lloyd
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Jackie Cooper
This 1964 episode, entitled "Caesar and Me," is sometimes confused with the 1962 episode called "The Dummy." Both installments focus on ventriloquists with very problematic puppets.
Norman Fell
Jack Albertson
Red Buttons
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Jonah Hill
Seth Rogan
Jordan Peele also appears as himself in this episode, which was the finale for "The Twilight Zone" revival's first season. The very meta story is about one of the show's screenwriters trying to track down a mysterious figure.
James Franco
Paul Rudd
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You Got:
/35
