Was good friends with actress Maureen O'Hara, they starred together 6 times, first being The Black Swan (1942) and the last time being Only the Lonely (1991).
Was nominated for Broadway's 1961 Tony Award as Best Actor (Dramatic) for Becket.
Was scheduled to appear in the David Lean-directed "Nostromo" in 1991, but Lean died and the production came to a halt.
Was very fond of Keanu Reeves. They became friends during the filming of A Walk in the Clouds (1995).
While many biographies have the young Quinn, who was the son of an Irish father and Mexican mother, growing up on the streets of East L.A., the truth was that he grew up in Echo Park, attending Polytechnic (which at the time was located in downtown L.A. before it moved to North Hollywood) and Belmont high schools. In later years he would recount how, while growing up in Echo Park, young Chicano toughs would come over to his house to enlist his help in brawling with the Irish gangs, and that later in the same day, young Irish bruisers would visit him to enlist his services in fighting the Mexicans. He would always beg off choosing sides by having his mother chase the young delinquents out of her house, after which he would resume one of his favorite pastimes, drafting and drawing.
Won his second Oscar for a movie in which he only appeared on screen for a total of 23 minutes and 40 seconds.