- According to his daughter Patsy Sullivan, the 6' 3" actor had a difficult time playing Tom Buchanan opposite Alan Ladd as Jay Gatsby in The Great Gatsby (1949). Sullivan told his daughter that Ladd, who was nearly a foot shorter, had to stand on a crate while he had to stand in a hole during their shots together.
- Had two children from his first marriage: Johnny and Jenny Sullivan. Johnny was mentally challenged and eventually sent to the Devereux School in Santa Barbara, California, for help and evaluation. Jenny, an actress and playwright, wrote the play 'J for J' ('Journals for John'), which was prompted after she found a packet of unsent letters a year after her father's death which he had written decades earlier to Johnny, who was mentally disabled. The play premiered on October 20, 2001. John Ritter, who in real life had a handicapped brother, played Johnny, and Jenny played herself. Actor Jeff Kober portrayed Barry Sullivan. Eventually, Jenny began taking care of her brother.
- Ex-father-in-law of Jim Messina.
- Awarded two stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame for Motion Picture at 6160 Hollywood Boulevard; and for Television at 1500 Vine Street in Hollywood, California.
- His daughter by his second wife Gita Hall, Patsy Sullivan, was a model. She was the face of Yardley Cosmetics at the age of 12. She and her husband, songwriter Jimmy Webb, had six children together, five sons and one daughter. She subsequently adopted a child, thus giving her father seven grandchildren. Two of these grandsons formed the rock group "The Webb Brothers", and were later joined by two other brothers.
- Sullivan was the second actor to play Richard Rogue on NBC Radio's Rogue's Gallery (1946-47).
- His birthday is August 29, the fictional date of Judgement Day in Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991). He also starred in a TV show called Judgment Day (1981).
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