- He spent 8 months in the mid-1970s working on a script for a Star Trek movie. At this same time, his friend George Lucas was making the first Star Wars film. Due to the poor buzz surrounding Star Wars prior to its release, Paramount decided to pull the plug on Kaufman's Star Trek project, with one of the studio executives saying "there's no future in science fiction." His script, which centered on the character of Spock, was abandoned and Paramount went in another direction when they resumed production on the first Star Trek film following the success of Star Wars.
- Worked with George Lucas developing Lucas' "Indiana Jones" project, coming up with the basic story of the search for the Ark of the Covenant, leading to his story credit on Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981).
- Has directed 2 actors in Oscar-nominated performances: Sam Shepard, and Geoffrey Rush.
- Met Anaïs Nin in 1962. Later, in 1990, he made a movie called Henry & June (1990) about her, her affairs with Henry Miller, and his wife June.
- He has written three films that have been selected for the National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically or aesthetically" significant: The Outlaw Josey Wales (1976), Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981) and The Right Stuff (1983). He has also directed one film that is in the registry: The Right Stuff.
- Attended high school with director William Friedkin.
- Lives in his adopted home city of San Francisco
- Runs his production company Walrus & Associates out of San Francisco with his family.
- Tosca Cafe, of which he is a frequent visitor, in San Francisco's North Beach has various photos depicting the filmmaker. Kaufman is a San Francisco resident whose office is located in the same area.
- Father of Peter Kaufman
- Biography in John Wakeman, editor. "World Film Directors, Volume Two, 1945-1985," pp. 492-495. New York: The H.W. Wilson Company, 1988.
- Father-in-law of Christine Pelosi.
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