- She was Margaret Mitchell's first choice to play Scarlett O'Hara in Gone with the Wind (1939).
- 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.
- In July, 1972, despite concerns about her health and a premonition that she shouldn't travel, she flew to New York to attend the special screening of "Story of Temple Drake," celebrating the 60th anniversary of Paramount Pictures, followed by a gala party in her honor at the Museum of Modern Art. Just as she had feared, she suffered a major heart attack and died in her hotel suite before getting back to her California home.
- In 1932, at a time when single-parent adoption was illegal in most states, she adopted a baby boy while between marriages. She adored her son, Michael, and always called him the most important man in her life.
- She is buried at Oak City Cemetary in Bainbridge, Georgia, USA (May 2011)
- She has appeared in three films that have been selected for the National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically or aesthetically" significant: Trouble in Paradise (1932), Becky Sharp (1935) and The Heiress (1949).
- In 1934, she was chosen by Cecil B. DeMille to play Delilah opposite Henry Wilcoxon as Samson, but the film was postponed for more than a decade. When DeMille finally started production on Samson and Delilah (1949), the role went to Hedy Lamarr.
- Had a long-running feud with Bette Davis that started before they even entered films, because of jealousy. They were both stage actresses with the same company where Hopkins had been the bigger star who first made it to Hollywood to become a star in films. They were both nominated for Best Actress Oscar in 1935, and Davis won and became the bigger star. She won her second Oscar for Jezebel (1938), which had been a flop on Broadway for Hopkins back in 1933. Davis had an affair with director Anatole Litvak, who at one point was married to Hopkins, although there have been conflicting reports whether the affair took place while he was still married to Hopkins. They competed with each other for screen time in the two films they acted together: The Old Maid (1939) and Old Acquaintance (1943). Long after Hopkins died, the only nice thing that Davis said about her was that she was a good actress, but otherwise she was a "real bitch".
- Director William Wyler cast her in four films that received Academy Award nominations: These Three (1936) and its remake The Children's Hour (1961), The Heiress (1949) and Carrie (1952).
- In 1932, she adopted a son, Michael T. Hopkins (March 29, 1932 - October 5, 2010), who had a career in the U.S. Air Force.
- Was good friends with actress Kay Francis.
- She was a lifelong progressive Democrat who strongly supported the presidencies of Franklin D. Roosevelt, Harry Truman, and Lyndon B. Johnson. In the 1930s and '40s she served as the second vice president of the Hollywood Democratic Committee.
- In January 2021, she was honored as Turner Classic Movies Star of the Month.
- Is portrayed by Sheilah Wells in The Scarlett O'Hara War (1980)
- On August 16, 2018, she was honored with a day of her film work during the TCM Summer Under The Stars.
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