Robert Altman's A Wedding (1978) was shot during the summer of 1977 principally on the Armour estate in Lake Bluff, IL. Every shooting day Cromwell and Ruth Nelson could be seen, in costume, in a small first-floor room set aside for them. Sometimes, they could be seen talking, but most often they each were absorbed reading books.
1944-46: President of the Screen Directors Guild.
1945: Hosted the Academy Awards alongside Bob Hope.
1951-58: He was blacklisted in Hollywood during the Joseph McCarthy "Red Scare" period.
1952: Won Broadway's Tony Award as Best Supporting or Featured Actor (Dramatic) for "Point of No Return.".
Biography in: John Wakeman, editor. "World Film Directors, Volume One, 1890-1945". Pages 155-159. New York: The H.W. Wilson Company, 1987.
Ex-father-in-law of Julie Cobb.
Father of actor James Cromwell.
Has directed 10 actors to Oscar nominations: Bette Davis, Charles Boyer, Gene Lockhart, Raymond Massey, Monty Woolley, Claudette Colbert, Jennifer Jones, Gale Sondergaard, Eleanor Parker and Hope Emerson. None of them won. Davis' was a write-in nomination.
Often appeared on screen in uncredited cameos in films which he directed.