Cary Grant, a dear friend of Ingrid Bergman, accepted her Anastasia Oscar at the 29th Annual Academy Awards (1957).
Anna Anderson's handwriting was pronounced identical with Anastasia's and medical experts found 17 points of similarity between her ear and the real Anastasia's. However, after her death it was discovered that her DNA did not match of England's Prince Philip, a blood relative of the Romanovs.
At the time of filming, the filmmakers were not aware that the real Anna Anderson was still alive. When this came to their attention, they flew straight to her home in Germany and asked permission to use her name.
Average Shot Length (ASL) = 15 seconds
Helen Haye was an actress who had impressed the film's producer. He sent a memo to the casting agent saying "Hire Helen Haye". This was taken to be a misprint by the agent and the popular actress Helen Hayes was hired.
In reality, Anna Anderson never met the Dowager Empress, the Czarevna Maria Feodorovna. The Empress believed that her son and his family had survived and were still in Russia. The Grand Duchess Olga, the younger daughter of Czarevna Maria Feodorovna, did meet Anna Anderson while the latter was convalescing in a sanitarium and visited her a few more times before making the determination that something was not right with the ailing woman's claims. The Grand Duchesses Olga and Xenia did not wish to upset the aged Empress and it is not known if they mentioned Anderson to her at all. The Dowager Empress Marie Feodorovna remained in Denmark until her death in 1928. In 2006, her remains were transferred to St. Petersburg where she was laid to rest beside her husband, Czar Alexander III.
The conspiratorial trio of Bounine, Chernov, and Petrovin in the film are purely fictional.
The original Broadway production of "Anastasia" by Marcelle Maurette (English adaptation by Guy Bolton) opened at the Lyceum Theatre on December 29, 1954, ran for 272 performances and closed on September 24, 1955.
This film marked Ingrid Bergman's Hollywood comeback, after being effectively blacklisted in 1949 for having an affair with director Roberto Rossellini and having a child out of wedlock.
This movie was based on the story of Anna Anderson, a woman who claimed to be the Grand Duchess Anastasia. It was later discovered that, in fact, she was not who she claimed to be; the mystery was solved through DNA examination of a small piece of tissue cut from Anna in an operation years before.
When the remains of the Romanov family were discovered at Ekaterinburg in 1991, only 9 of the 11 bodies were found. Only who was initially thought to be the Grand Duchess Anastasia and also her brother, Czarevich Alexei, still remained missing, further clouding the question of her fate. However, it was announced that the DNA and other forensic evidence from the remains determined that Anastasia was indeed among the 9 bodies that were unearthed from the pit in the forest outside of Ekaterinburg; and that the missing bodies were those of Alexei and one of his other sisters, the Grand Duchess Marie. After all examinations were completed, the remains of the nine individuals were transferred to St. Petersburg and ceremoniously interred at the Fortress Cathedral of Saints Peter and Paul. The two remaining bodies were believed to be discovered in 2007 and are fairly certain to be those of the Czarevich Alexei and the Grand Duchess Marie. When all examinations are completed and the results are announced, those remains, too, will be transferred to St. Petersburg for burial with the other members of the family.