- She was not shown in the so-called Memorial Tribute during the telecast of The 78th Annual Academy Awards (2006), in which the Academy pays tribute to artists who passed away since the previous year's show, although she has been nominated for an Academy Award in 1940 and played roles in memorable movies.
- Due to her combative nature and refusal to appear in several Warner Bros. pictures, studio head Jack L. Warner would not allow her to take on the Mary Astor role in the classic The Maltese Falcon (1941) starring Humphrey Bogart.
- Once Vivien Leigh's school mate, she became a childhood and lifelong friend of Irish actress Maureen O'Sullivan.
- First husband Edward Lindsay-Hogg was an aristocrat who aspired to be a songwriter. The couple moved to New York from England in 1938 to further his ambitions. Second husband Stuart Scheftel was the grandson of Isador Straus, the co-owner of the R.H. Macy Co. who went down on the Titanic in 1912 along with Scheftel's grandmother. Scheftel, a baby at the time, was scheduled to sail with them, but caught a cold and was left behind in England with his nurse. He grew to become a prosperous businessman whose accomplishments include co-founding New York's Pan-Am Building. He first got a crush on Fitzgerald when he saw her on screen in Wilson (1944) and persuaded a mutual friend, actor / director Martin Gabel, to arrange an introduction.
- Was a redhead when she first went to Hollywood, but her hair photographed dark, so people have always assumed she was a brunette. In her only early color film, Wilson (1944), her hair was turned brown for her portrayal of Edith Wilson, so the public never saw her natural red hair.
- Showed signs of Alzheimer's disease in the early '90s. The death of her husband in 1994 aggravated the severity of her illness afterward.
- A role in Rachel, Rachel (1968) required her to sing. Displeased with the results, she took voice lessons. She later became a cabaret artist. Her show "Streetsongs" was a nightclub hit and appeared three times on Broadway over the years.
- Founded the Everyman Street Theater with B. Jonathan Ringkamp, which utilized children from all walks of life as street performers. Known for her liberal sense, she staged several street shows that were all-black productions.
- Was just 21 years older than Dudley Moore, who played her grandson in Arthur (1981) and Arthur 2: On the Rocks (1988).
- Mother of director Michael Lindsay-Hogg, Orson Welles was his biological father from a brief affair. She was also the mother of clinical psychologist Susan Scheftel, from her marriage to Stuart Scheftel.
- Daughter of William, a solicitor, and Mary Fitzgerald, she spent time in a convent school in London while growing up. William Butler Yeats and James Joyce were clients of her father's law firm and often visited the family home when she was a child.
- Appears in five Oscar Best Picture nominees: Wuthering Heights (1939), Dark Victory (1939), Watch on the Rhine (1943), Wilson (1944) and Rachel, Rachel (1968).
- In 1939, the same year she was Oscar nominated as Best Supporting Actress for Wuthering Heights, she also played her other best remembered role, that of Bette Davis' best friend Ann in Dark Victory.
- Her Broadway debut in 1938 was in the Mercury Theatre production "Heartbreak House" with fellow ex-Gate Theatre performer Orson Welles, who had been impressed by her talent back in Dublin.
- During her first marriage, she was Lady Lindsay-Hogg. Her son Michael inherited the title of Lord.
- Received the Handel Medallion, New York City's highest cultural award, for her civic work, particularly in finding theater work for ghetto students in her street theater company.
- Received critical kudos for her role as Mary Tyrone in "Long Day's Journey Into Night" on Broadway in 1971 opposite Robert Ryan.
- Reportedly a distant relative of Irish author James Joyce, her father's law firm, D. & T. Fitzgerald, is mentioned in Joyce's classic novel "Ulysses". His sister once worked for this law firm.
- Longtime friend of Anne Shirley, who attended a taping of Geraldine's guest appearance on The Golden Girls (1985).
- She has appeared in two films that have been selected for the National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically or aesthetically" significant: Wuthering Heights (1939) and The Pawnbroker (1964).
- Is a cousin of the famous Australian novelist Nevil Shute. whose novel "On the Beach" was made into a film, On the Beach (1959), starring Gregory Peck and Ava Gardner.
- Upon her death, her remains were interred at Woodlawn Cemetery in Bronx, New York in Chestnut Hill, Section 111 Lot 12461 (Scheftel family plot).
- She is the niece of Irish actress Shelah Richards, who brought her into Dublin's Gate Theatre, where both first worked with Orson Welles. Fitzgerald, in turn, is the grand-aunt of contemporary actress Tara Fitzgerald (Sirens (1994)), who continues the family tradition, along with Geraldine's son, director Michael Lindsay-Hogg.
- According to her listing in "Quinlan's Film Stars", published in 2000, the film Lovespell (1981) (aka "Tristan and Isolte") was made in 1979 and was unreleased.
- Biography in: "The Scribner Encyclopedia of American Lives". Volume 7, 2003-2005, pages 8120184. Farmington Hills, MI: Thomson Gale, 2007.
- She was considered for the role of Scarlett O'Hara in "Gone with the Wind" (1939).
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