- As a child, family friend Peter Fonda had a crush on Sullavan's daughter Bridget. In adulthood, after Bridget committed suicide, he named his own daughter (Bridget Fonda) after her.
- She suffered from a congenital hearing defect, otosclerosis, that worsened as she aged, making her more and more hard of hearing. Her voice developed its distinctive throatiness because she could hear low tones better than high ones.
- Her first husband, Henry Fonda recalled: "I never knew I had a temper until I got married. Time after time that slender girl's words stung me like a wasp. It got to the point where we didn't live on love. We were at each other constantly, screaming, arguing, fighting. It's all a big blur now. I don't know whether I stamped out in a rage or whether Sullavan threw me out. It was just hot and cold all the time. And fights... we would be in desperate fights about anything." (From the 2017 dual biography of Henry Fonda and James Stewart, Hank & Jim, by film historian Scott Eyman).
- Her eldest daughter, actress Brooke Hayward, wrote an autobiographical book titled "Haywire" which was a best-seller in 1981. It was later made into the television movie Haywire (1980), starring Lee Remick.
- Her youngest daughter, Bridget, was found dead in her Manhattan apartment on October 31, 1960, only 10 months after her mother died. It was ruled a suicide by drug overdose, like her mother's death. She was 21 years old.
- Her son, William Hayward, also committed suicide. He died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the heart on March 8, 2008, in his trailer in Castaic, California. He was 66 years old.
- Gave birth to her 3rd child at age 31, a son William Hayward on March 27, 1941. Child's father was her 3rd husband, Leland Hayward.
- Former mother-in-law of Peter Duchin and Dennis Hopper.
- By 1960, her coming deafness compelled her to read lips. That increased her depression. She committed suicide via drug OD. A new biography is said to be coming out to explain her death and life further in August 2019.
- Turned down the part of Ellie Andrews in It Happened One Night (1934). Claudette Colbert was then given the role and won a best actress Oscar for her performance.
- She and Henry Fonda were divorced after two years. but separated after 4 months.
- Was considered for the role of Scarlett O'Hara in Gone with the Wind (1939).
- In a letter to his sister, Henry Fonda also described Sullavan as "cream and sugar on a dish of hot ashes." (From the 2017 dual biography of Henry Fonda and James Stewart, Hank & Jim, by film historian Scott Eyman).
- While attending Harvard University, she performed with the University Players opposite future stars like James Stewart, Henry Fonda and Kent Smith.
- Gave birth to her 2nd child at age 29, a daughter Bridget Hayward on February 18, 1939. Child's father was her 3rd husband, Leland Hayward.
- Joshua Logan said of her: "She was so attractive, and so beautiful, and she had so many little Southern tricks... to win you, but she was willful as all get out." (From the 2017 dual biography of Henry Fonda and James Stewart, Hank & Jim, by film historian Scott Eyman).
- As written in a 1940s Architectural Digest piece about her Brentwood, California home, Sullavan shared that she chose the Connecticut-style colonial home due to her love of New England. After years of searching for the quintessential property, she and her then-husband Leland Hayward purchased a rambling saltbox house on 100 bucolic acres in Brookfield, Connecticut.
- Gave birth to her 1st child at age 28, a daughter Brooke Hayward on July 5, 1937. Child's father was her 3rd husband, Leland Hayward.
- Sullavan and Robert Young were in three films together - Three Comrades (1938), The Shining Hour (1938), and The Mortal Storm (1940).
- Grandmother of Marin Hopper.
- In June 1934 it was announced in movie industry Trade Papers that Margaret Sullavan's next movie after The Good Fairy (1935) would be "Within These Present" based on a story by Margaret Ayer Barnes. The movie was eventually never made.
- Universal placed an ad in movie industry Trade Papers in early 1936 promoting Carl Laemmle's 30th Anniversary Celebration. The ad included a list of planned productions for 1936. One listed title was "Strangers At the Feast", to star Margaret Sullavan. She was soon replaced by Jane Wyatt before the project was canceled and the movie eventually was never made.
- Holds the somewhat grim distinction of being the first celebrity to die in the 1960s.
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