Left most of her $1-million estate to train dogs at Seeing Eye, Inc.
Was one of the many stars labeled "box-office poison" in an advertisement (not an article) published in "The Hollywood Reporter" in 1938. It was paid-for by the Independent Theatre Owners Association, then being hit by a financial double whammy: the Great Depression, and the studios owning their own theaters. It was intended to drive down the bargaining power of the under-contract top stars (who were overall still making money for the studios by the ton) so that their movies would be cheaper for the Independents to rent.
According to Vincent Sherman, Warner Bros. head Jack L. Warner publicly humiliated her after her Florence Nightingale biopic The White Angel (1936) failed at the office by announcing she would appear in B pictures. She reportedly said she'd scrub floors if necessary for her $4000-a-week salary.
Badly burned by a radiator in a 1948 accident.
Donated her press notice books and film stills to the theater and music collection of the Museum of the City of New York.
Her star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame is located at 6766 Hollywood
Blvd.
The year of her birth has been speculated about for some time, with dates anywhere from 1899 to 1908. Studio records (which
occasionally were used to her detriment when the studio got mad at her)
reflect the year of birth as 1899. However, her listing in the U.S.
Census taken in April 1910, when she was living at a convent school,
gives her age as five.
Because of a speech impediment, she was known around the Paramount lot
as "the wavishing Kay Fwancis."
After divorcing Kay, her husband James Dwight Francis married Lesley Frost, the daughter of poet Robert Frost.
Despite being engaged to Baron Raven Erik Angus Barkenow for several years, they never married. He returned to Germany at the advent of World War II in 1939, and died, by his own hand, on December 8, 1941, never returning to the United States.
Lived in retirement in Manhattan.
Engaged to Delmer Daves before meeting Eric Barnekow, through Countess Dorothy di Frasso in 1938.
Trade-paper articles in November 1933 announced that due to her conflicting schedule because she was working in Mandalay (1934), she had been replaced in Wonder Bar (1934) by Genevieve Tobin. Francis ultimately returned and completed her role in "Wonder Bar" as originally planned.
In January 2022, she was honored as Turner Classic Movies Star of the Month,.
On August 9, 2021, she was honored with a day of her filmography during the Turner Classic Movies Summer Under the Stars.
Worth over $20 million in 2025 dollars at the time of her death.
