Trivia

In the film The Man Who Came to Dinner (1941), a film noted for dropping the names of famous persons of the day, Cornell's name is dropped more than that of any other celebrity.

At the age of 58, she recreated the role of "Elizabeth Barrett" in "The Barretts of Wimpole Street" episode of Producers' Showcase (1954) on live television in 1956, twenty-five years after she first played it in the original 1931 Broadway production.

Born in Germany to U.S. parents, but raised in New York State.

She appeared in only one Hollywood film (playing herself) - Stage Door Canteen (1943), but she is considered one of the great American stage actresses of the twentieth century.

Won Broadway's 1948 Tony Award as Best Actress (Dramatic) for a revival of Shakespeare's "Antony and Cleopatra" - an award shared with Judith Anderson for "Medea" and Jessica Tandy for "A Streetcar Named Desire".