- In 1967 he fathered a daughter, Sunshine, with a woman who called herself "Mountain Girl", who in the 1980s married musician Jerry Garcia.
- Never saw (nor wanted to see) the movie One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1975), based on his novel, because he had "other people in mind".
- In 1959 he volunteered for drug experiments at a hospital in Menlo Park, California, where he worked in the psychiatric ward. That served as his inspiration for "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest". He was not, as many have come to believe, a patient in the ward when he volunteered for those experiments. He worked there as an attendant.
- The motion picture Gerry (2002) directed by Gus Van Sant is dedicated to his memory.
- Through his ancestors William Terrell and Susannah Waters, he is an eighth cousin once removed to Jimmy Carter and a ninth cousin once removed to Barack Obama.
- His son Jed, killed in a 1984 van wreck on a road trip with the University of Oregon wrestling team, was buried in the back yard.
- Children: Shannon (b. 1960), Zane (b. 1961), Jed (b. 1964, d. 1984), and Sunshine (b. 1967)
- Graduated from the University of Oregon.
- The stage adaptation of his novel, "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest," was awarded the 1973 Joseph Jefferson Award for Best Play Production at the Arlington Park Theatre in Chicago, Illinois.
- Hospitalized after suffering a stroke. (September 25, 1997)
- His parents were dairy farmers.
- Studied writing at Stanford University.
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