Trivia

Never weighed more than 100 pounds.

She felt the scripts she was given by Warners after The Jazz Singer (1927) were awful, so when she married in 1929 she decided to retire. Warners gave out the story that her voice was unsuited for talkies because she had a lisp, which was untrue. When film historians began using Warners' face-saving statement as fact, she considered suing the studio but ultimately did not.

She bought herself out of her Paramount contract for $10,000 when the roles she wanted--Babbie in The Little Minister (1922) and the lead in Peter Pan (1924)--went to Betty Compson and the then unknown Betty Bronson, respectively. McAvoy also claimed that Cecil B. DeMille prevented her from getting more parts at Paramount after she refused the lead role in Adam's Rib (1923), as she would have been required to cut her hair and wear a skimpy costume.

Played a leading role in Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ (1925) and later finished her career as an extra in the subsequent adaptation, Ben-Hur (1959).

Sometimes referred to as the least-talented of American silent leading ladies, though this has come under dispute as more of her films have become available for viewing.

Her first film was a promotional commercial short for Domino Sugar filmed at Metro.

Treasurer for the Catholic Motion Picture Guild of America (per the 1931 Motion Picture Almanac).

Profiled in "Speaking of Silents: First Ladies of the Screen" by William Drew, 1997.