F. Scott Fitzgerald based one of his most famous stories, "Crazy Sunday," on a party hosted by Shearer, who also inspired the story's main character, Stella Calman.
At the height of her career, she was earning $6,000 per week.
Biography in: "The Scribner Encyclopedia of American Lives". Volume One, 1981-1985, pages 726-728. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1998.
Children, with husband Irving Thalberg: Irving Jr. (1930-1988) and Katherine (1935-2006).
Daughter of Edith Shearer.
Even after retirement, Norma maintained her interest in the film industry. While staying at a ski lodge, she noticed a photo of the receptionist's daughter and recommended her to MGM - that girl, became the star known as Janet Leigh. She also discovered a handsome young businessman beside a swimming pool - now actor/producer Robert Evans.
Former mother-in-law of Richard Anderson.
Her daughter died in 2006 of cancer. A vegan, she headed the Society for Animal Rights in Aspen, Colorado, from 1989.
Her son died in 1988 of cancer. He was a philosophy professor at the University of Illinois at Chicago.
Her sons-in-law were skier Jack Reddish, actor Richard Anderson, and Aspen mayor Bill Stirling.
In 1927, she insisted on firing the director Viktor Tourjansky because he was unsure of her cross-eyed stare.
Interred at Forest Lawn, Glendale, California, USA, in the Great Mausoleum, Sanctuary of Benediction, alongside her first husband Irving Thalberg.
Said to have been a major influence on the life of Eva Perón after Peron saw her in the role of Marie Antoinette.
She and her brother Douglas Shearer were the first Oscar-winning brother and sister.
She converted to Judaism in 1927 in order to marry Irving Thalberg. Even after he died, she continued to observe Judaism until her own death in 1983.
She has three granddaughters from her daughter: Ashley (b. circa 1962), Brooke (b. circa 1964), and Deva (b. circa 1966).
She is commemorated on one of a set of postage stamps (issued in 2008) honoring prominent Canadians in Hollywood. The other stamps feature Marie Dressler, Chief Dan George and Raymond Burr.
She is one of the celebrities whose picture Anne Frank placed on the wall of her bedroom in the "Secret Annex" while in hiding during the Nazi occupation of Amsterdam.
She would not remove her wedding ring for a role, preferring to cover it up with flesh-colored tape.
Sister of Athole Shearer and twelve time Academy Award winning sound director Douglas Shearer