Trivia

One of only a few performers to receive an Oscar nomination for their movie debut, as Best Actress in a Leading Role for The Great White Hope (1970), and one of even fewer performers to receive an Oscar nomination for the same role in which they had already received Broadway's Tony Award as Best Supporting or Featured Actress (Dramatic) for "The Great White Hope" (1969), on stage one year earlier.

Portrayed Sara Delano Roosevelt, the mother of President Franklin D. Roosevelt in Warm Springs (2005), for which she won the Emmy Award as Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Miniseries or a Movie, almost 30 years after her most famous role, portraying Eleanor Roosevelt, the wife of President Franklin D. Roosevelt in the made-for-TV films Eleanor and Franklin (1976) and Eleanor and Franklin: The White House Years (1977), both of which brought her Emmy nominations as Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama or Comedy Special.

As of 2025, she has appeared in three films that were nominated for the Best Picture Oscar: All the President's Men (1976), Kramer vs. Kramer (1979) and The Cider House Rules (1999). Of those, only Kramer vs. Kramer (1979) won Best Picture. All three are winners in the Best Adapted Screenplay category.

Won Broadway's 1969 Tony Award as Best Supporting or Featured Actress (Dramatic) for "The Great White Hope," a role she recreated in an Oscar-nominated performance in the film, The Great White Hope (1970). Since winning the 1969 Tony, she has received seven additional Tony nominations: as Best Actress (Dramatic), in 1973 for "6 Rms Riv Vu," and in 1974 for "Find Your Way Home;" as Best Actress (Play), in 1979 for "First Monday in October," in 1992, for a revival of "The Visit," in 1993, for "The Sisters Rosensweig," in 1998 for "Honour" and as Best Featured Actress in a Play in 2021 for "Grand Horizons.".

Received the Women's International Center (WIC) Living Legacy Award in 1988.

She has appeared in one film that has been selected for the National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically or aesthetically" significant: All the President's Men (1976).

Received an Honorary Degree from Smith College in Northampton, MA. (1999)

Was the commencement speaker for Duke University's Class of 1996.

Mother of Jace Alexander.

Was the Commencement speaker for Bennington College's Class of 1997.

Named to Chair the National Endowment for the Arts by President Bill Clinton in August 1993.

Was the commencement speaker for Smith College's Class of 1999.

Mother-in-law of Maddie Corman.

Seyferth is her paternal grandmother's maiden name.