ACTOR
Faye Dunaway
62 archived facts 4 topics 1 source Last reviewed Oct 2026
All facts (62)
- #001
Steve McQueen called Faye Dunaway the best actress he ever worked with.
- #002
According to John Waters's DVD commentary on Mommie Dearest (1981), Dunaway believes the film's reception ruined her career to some degree and refuses to discuss it (hence her absence from the premiere).
- #003
In a 1988 interview with Johnny Carson, Bette Davis described Dunaway as the worst person she had ever worked with, calling her "totally impossible," "uncooperative" and "very unprofessional." In her autobiography, Dunaway denied Davis's claims, writing: "All I could think of as I watched her was that she looked like someone in the throes of death, a last scream against a fate over which no one has control. I was simply the target of her blind rage at the one sin Hollywood never forgives in its leading ladies: growing old."
- #004
Her first husband, Peter Wolf, was the lead singer of the rock band the J. Geils Band.
- #005
Her performance as Bonnie Parker in Bonnie and Clyde (1967) ranked 34th on Premiere magazine's list of the 100 Greatest Movie Characters of All Time.
- #006
While working as a cocktail waitress in her final year of university, Faye was approached so often that she went out and bought herself a cheap wedding ring to keep men from making advances.
- #007
The role of Evelyn Mulwray in Chinatown (1974) was initially intended for Ali MacGraw, the wife of the film's producer, Robert Evans. By the time production began, MacGraw had left Evans for the actor Steve McQueen, and other actresses were being considered for the part. Dunaway's main rival for the role was Jane Fonda.
- #008
In August 2011, the owner of Dunaway's New York City apartment sought to evict her from a rent-stabilized one-bedroom unit, claiming she was not entitled to it because her primary residence was a house in West Hollywood.
- #009
In 1984, she presented the Palme d'Or to Wim Wenders for Paris, Texas (1984) at the 37th Cannes Film Festival.
- #010
She lived with Marcello Mastroianni (1968-1970). After their two years together, when Marcello refused to divorce his estranged wife and marry Faye, his wife left him.
- #011
Her small production company, Port Bascom, takes its name from her hometown.
- #012
She had a drug problem in her thirties.
- #013
Her role as Evelyn Cross Mulwray in Chinatown (1974) ranked 36th on Premiere magazine's list of the 100 Greatest Performances of All Time.
- #014
Along with Halle Berry, Sandra Bullock and Liza Minnelli, she is one of four actresses to have won both the Academy Award for Best Actress and the Razzie Award for Worst Actress (Dunaway shared her Razzie with Bo Derek).
- #015
She appeared in four films nominated for the Academy Award for Best Picture: Bonnie and Clyde (1967), Chinatown (1974), The Towering Inferno (1974) and Network (1976).
- #016
After playing the famous opera singer Maria Callas in the touring stage production of "Master Class" in 1996, Dunaway bought the rights to the play and announced her intention to write, direct and star in a film version. It remained in development limbo for about twenty years.
- #017
She is a devout Roman Catholic and has said she regularly attends morning Mass.
- #018
In an unprecedented envelope mix-up at the Oscars (2017), she announced La La Land (2016) as the Best Picture winner instead of the actual winner, Moonlight (2016).
- #019
She was born two and a half months premature.
- #020
Faye Dunaway is good friends with actress Sharon Stone.
- #021
Among Faye Dunaway's favorite actresses are Naomi Watts, Julianne Moore, Jennifer Lawrence and Melissa McCarthy. She is also a fan of Christian Bale and Bradley Cooper.
- #022
Faye Dunaway is a member of the Pi Beta Phi sorority.
- #023
The role of Bonnie Parker in Bonnie and Clyde (1967), which became Faye Dunaway's breakthrough, was offered to Jane Fonda, Ann-Margret, Tuesday Weld and Natalie Wood, but all of them turned it down. Other actresses considered for the part included Leslie Caron (rejected for being too old), Sue Lyon, Carol Lynley, Jean Hale, Cher and even Warren Beatty's older sister Shirley MacLaine (before Beatty signed on for the role of Clyde, of course).
- #024
Competing for beauty titles was seen as a must for Southern girls in the 1950s, and Dunaway recalls in her autobiography that she became convinced she could not leave Florida until she had somehow won such a title. At Leon High School in Tallahassee she missed being May Queen by only six votes, and in 1959 she came in second for Miss Florida University, narrowly missing a championship once again. Dunaway finally won a beauty crown when she was chosen Sigma Chi's Sweetheart, and she immediately transferred to Boston University.
- #025
On May 15, 2011, French Culture Minister Frédéric Mitterrand awarded her the Order of Arts and Letters.
- #026
While in Boston, Massachusetts, Faye Dunaway converted to Roman Catholicism.
- #027
On September 26, 1996, she was honored with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 7021 Hollywood Boulevard in Hollywood, California.
- #028
Faye Dunaway broke her leg a few days before shooting began on Inconceivable (2017), but director Jonathan Baker refused to recast the role because it had been written specifically for her, and rewrote her part so she could perform while seated.
- #029
Dunaway was fired from the Broadway play "Tea at Five" in July 2019 because of disputes between her and members of the crew. On August 14, the actress's former personal assistant sued her in Manhattan Supreme Court, alleging verbal abuse and discrimination. The case is currently ongoing.
- #030
She was born to John MacDowell Dunaway, Jr. (1920-1984), a cook in the United States Army, and Grace April Hartshorn (née Smith; 1922-2004), a housewife. They married in 1939 and divorced in 1955. Faye had a brother, Mac Simmion Dunaway (1942-2022), a lawyer living in Washington, D.C.
- #031
Before living in a very modest apartment in New York City on East 78th Street between First and Second Avenues, Dunaway resided in the vast, grand Eldorado on Central Park West.
- #032
She moved to the Dugway Proving Grounds in Utah (1954). She joined the "Skull Valley Players," and her first production was "Harvey" in the role of Nurse Kelly. She was 13 years old at the time and in the eighth grade. She stayed in Utah until her second year of high school in Dugway.
- #033
She was later considered for the role of "Betsy" in Martin Scorsese's Taxi Driver (1976), which went to Cybill Shepherd.
- #034
She no longer smokes (she quit in 1990), does not drink alcohol, and has removed most sugar, salt and grains from her diet.
- #035
She was replaced by Julie Andrews for the role of Stephanie Anderson in Duet for One (1986) and by Isabelle Huppert for the role of Jeanne Meyer in Macadam Stories (2015).
- #036
At 5' 7", Dunaway was taller than the real-life figures she portrayed on screen: bank robber Bonnie Parker, Argentine First Lady Eva Perón and film star Joan Crawford. Parker was only 4' 11", Perón was 5' 5" and Crawford was 5' 3".
- #037
Each of the three times Faye Dunaway was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actress — for Bonnie and Clyde (1967), Chinatown (1974) and Network (1976) — the film she appeared in was also nominated for Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor, Best Original Screenplay and Best Cinematography.
- #038
Faye Dunaway had a relationship with Robert Altman.
- #039
In an interview with The New York Times years ago, Faye Dunaway admitted that she and the late comedian Lenny Bruce were briefly lovers and lived together for a week around 1963. She was also engaged to director Jerry Schatzberg in the mid-1960s.
- #040
Faye Dunaway studied drama at HB Studio in Greenwich Village, New York City.
- #041
Faye Dunaway is of English, Irish and Scottish descent.
- #042
Faye Dunaway was offered the lead role in Julia (1977) but turned it down. Vanessa Redgrave was cast instead and won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her performance.
- #043
Alfred Hitchcock offered Faye Dunaway the role of Karen Black in Family Plot (1976), but she declined the offer without even reading the script. Dunaway later said she thought the film was about kidnapping children.
- #044
Faye Dunaway considers Puzzle of a Downfall Child (1970) her least valued film.
- #045
Faye Dunaway drives a 2007 Toyota Corolla.
- #046
Faye Dunaway turned down Requiem for a Dream (2000).
- #047
Faye Dunaway and her brother are the only two people in a family of 24 grandchildren to have graduated from university.
- #048
Faye Dunaway has stated that she finds therapy useless.
- #049
Faye Dunaway has a connection to the James Bond - 007 series: she was considered for the role of Domino Derval in Thunderball (1965) and for the female lead in Octopussy (1983) (the role went to Maud Adams). Faye got the chance to work with Pierce Brosnan (the fifth 007) in the remake of The Thomas Crown Affair (1999).
- #050
Faye Dunaway appeared in five films with Richard Chamberlain: The Woman I Love (1972), The Three Musketeers (1973), The Four Musketeers (1974), The Towering Inferno (1974) and Casanova (1987).
- #051
Faye Dunaway and Terry O'Neill made no press announcement when they married. In July 1983 the couple confirmed that they had secretly married the previous year.
- #052
Faye Dunaway wore braces as an adult.
- #053
Faye Dunaway's mother, Grace, wanted her to take dance, singing and piano lessons from the age of 5.
- #054
In 1986 Faye Dunaway was one of the presenters of the Golden Globe for Best Director (1985), which was awarded to John Huston for Prizzi's Honor. They had previously appeared together in the mystery film Chinatown (1974).
- #055
From 1987 to 1990 Faye Dunaway was in a relationship with Warren Lieberfarb, then president of Warner Bros. Home Video.
- #056
Faye Dunaway's father was a first sergeant in the army, which meant her early years were spent moving from one camp to another.
- #057
Faye Dunaway's son Liam O'Neill, whose father is her ex-husband Terry O'Neill, was born in 1980.
- #058
Faye Dunaway dated Frederick Forsyth in 1987 and Bernard Montiel in the mid-1990s.
- #059
Faye Dunaway was dating Harris Yulin when they appeared together in the film Doc (1971).
- #060
Faye Dunaway appeared alongside Marlon Brando in Don Juan DeMarco (1994). Dunaway played a villain named Selena in Supergirl (1984), and Brando played Superman's father, Joe-El, in Superman (1978).
- #061
Faye Dunaway turned down the role played by Jacqueline Bisset in Scenes from the Class Struggle in Beverly Hills (1989).
- #062
Faye Dunaway was born at 20:15 (CST).
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