- In 1930 he was the top box-office male star and Joan Crawford the top female.
- Following the Great Depression and a tight crackdown on morality, MGM mogul Louis B. Mayer insisted Haines leave his lover and publicly marry a woman. He refused and was fired. His relationship with longtime lover Jimmie Shields lasted 50 years.
- Under pressure to marry, he proposed to friend and frequent co-star Anita Page during the making of Are You Listening? (1932). She turned him down, and the two remained friends for a long time after.
- Was approached, along with fellow silent-screen veterans Buster Keaton and Anna Q. Nilsson, to play one of Gloria Swanson's bridge partners in Sunset Boulevard (1950). Swanson herself reportedly asked him to do it. Haines declined and fellow screen veteran H.B. Warner took the part.
- Almost three months after his death, his lifelong partner Jimmie Shields, broken-hearted, committed suicide with an overdose of sleeping pills.
- He created an interior decoration at the 1939-40 Golden Gate International Exposition in San Francisco, which boasted a painting by Georgia O'Keeffe.
- Won the "New Faces of 1922" contest sponsored by the Samuel Goldwyn Co. and was awarded a contract, which shifted to MGM upon the company merger. The other winner of the contest was Eleanor Boardman.
- While at MGM he was able to get stand-in and extra work for his partner Jimmie Shields. Shields, who was attractive and photogenic but apparently had no interest in an acting career, stopped taking bit roles after a year or so but remained a fixture, frequently visiting the set and bringing Haines home-made lunches.
- After involuntarily retiring from acting, he took up a successful, prolific, decades-long career as an interior decorator. Some of his clients included Carole Lombard and Mr. and Mrs. Fredric March.
- Remained on good terms with producer Irving Thalberg and wife Norma Shearer following his departure from MGM.
- He was an active supporter of the Republican Party and a close friend of Ronald Reagan.
- Decorated William Powell's home in 1934, probably on the recommendation of Carole Lombard with whom Powell was still on good terms despite their recent divorce.
- Met his partner Jimmie Shields in New York in 1926 during a promotional tour. They lived together until Haines' death.
- Decorated the home of Claudette Colbert in 1934, probably on the recommendation of mutual friend Carole Lombard.
- Proprietor of the interior decoration boutique Haines-Foster Inc., which he opened in late September 1930 at 1522 La Brea Ave. in Hollywood.
- In 1938 he decorated the homes of Joan Bennett and Constance Bennett. Both houses were designed in the French Provincial style by James Dolena.
- William Haines was the first MGM star to star in a talkie.
- During the early 1930s he leased his renovated house to Tallulah Bankhead.
- After winning a "New Faces of 1922" contest, he arrived in Hollywood for his first meeting with Goldwyn Co. studio brass. He waltzed in an announced, "I'm your new prize beauty".
- When asked by reporters if there was a special woman in his life, Haines almost always claimed to be hopelessly in love with Polly Moran. The two were close friends in real life but were never romantically involved.
- Redecorated the home of Jack L. Warner and his second wife Ann Boyar in 1937. The house was later bought by David Geffen, who completely renovated the property.
- His first clients as an interior decorator were Leila Hyams and her husband Phil Berg, Haines' agent.
- Haines and his frequent M-G-M costar Joan Crawford remained lifelong friends, and Crawford was among those who encouraged Haines to start an interior decorating business when his film career came to an end. She often referred to Haines and his lifelong partner Jimmie Shields, who were unabashedly, openly gay, as "The happiest couple in Hollywood...".
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