HeadScratcher No. 73: Once Upon a Time

So, what do Morgan Freeman, Robert Redford, Kim Stanley, Spencer Tracy, and Joanne Woodward have in common? "They've all had sex with Paul Newman?" suggests reader Meredith Finn. (Well, Woodward has; don't know about any of the others.) Others assumed that the answer must be Oscar-related, since the nominations are out Tuesday. Actually, aside from the mention of Sundance guru Redford, this week's quiz isn't all that timely.

No, what these performers have in common is that they all did voiceover narration for movies they didn't otherwise act in. Freeman (pictured) narrated 2005's War of the Worlds. (He also narrated March of the Penguins that same year, a movie that neither he nor anyone else acted in.) Redford narrated (and also directed) A River Runs Through It. Stanley voiced the adult Scout in To Kill a Mockingbird. Tracy narrated How the West Was Won, and Woodward gave an Edith Wharton-esque voice to The Age of Innocence. Then again, all these movies were nominated for Oscars, so there's your topical connection. Reader Cliff Rives suggests some other narrators who could have made the list: "You could also have used Orson Welles (The Magnificent Ambersons), Rod Serling (Phantom of the Paradise), and yes, James Earl Jones (who read the opening crawl of Judge Dredd)." Right, Cliff, and how many Oscar nominations did Judge Dredd earn? One more, not on Cliff's list: current awards contender Little Children, whose social-anthropology-minded narrator is Will Lyman of PBS' Frontline.

A shout-out to the unseen PopWatchers who guessed correctly is after the jump.

Matt Bohlmann
Adam Bonin
David Lankford
Matt LaPierre
Nell Minow
Cliff Rives
Gary T. Sanginario
Dave Simanoff
Jan Willemsen
Patrick A. Yearout

Thanks to everyone for playing, and thanks to PopWatcher Harold Reynolds for coming up with this week's question. Come back Friday for another HeadScratcher...