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01
When she appeared on The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson in 1962, he originally intended to bring her on during the last few minutes. After talking with her before the broadcast, he threw out the entire program and put her on for the duration.
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02
Michael Caine named his older daughter Dominique after the heroine of the 1949 film The Fountainhead.
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03
Turned twenty-one during her voyage to America, and also changed her name, in part to protect her family back in Soviet Russia. Ayn, which rhymes with mine, came from a Finnish author. The exact origin of her last name is uncertain; however, in 1936, she told the New York Evening Post that Rand is an abbreviation of her Russian surname. An oft-repeated story claims that Ayn Rand took her last name from her Remington Rand typewriter while she was living in Chicago in 1926, but this is not true because the Remington and Rand companies did not merge until 1927; Rand did not appear on their typewriters until the early 1930s. Yet another theory is that Rosenbaum spelled out in Russian Cyrillic letters resembles Rand Ayn in English Latin letters. She kept her initials A.R.; explaining later Two kinds of people keep their initials when they change their names – criminals and writers, to her protégé Nathaniel Branden, himself born Nathan Blumenthal.
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04
She called her philosophy of rational selfishness Objectivism, and wrote what would be her last novel, Atlas Shrugged, as an illustration of it. She spent her later years writing articles, books and a newsletter on Objectivism.
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05
Shortly before her death in the early 1980s, when she appeared on the 1967 talk show Donahue, she expressed admiration for the TV series Charlie’s Angels from 1976, defending it as a form of romantic fiction.
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06
Never learned to drive. Her friends and associates believed that this was on purpose, so she would always depend on her husband Frank to do the driving, leaving him in control of that part of their relationship.
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07
Declined to apply for Medicare, even when her health began to fail, because she saw the idea as a betrayal of her principles. Did so reluctantly in her last years, after she was assured that her ongoing medical treatments would bankrupt her otherwise.
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08
She met future husband Frank O’Connor on the set of the 1927 film The King of Kings, and they married in part because her visa was about to expire.
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09
Victor Hugo was one of her favorite authors.
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10
Stayed with relatives in Chicago when she first came to the U.S., but nearly drove them crazy with her late hours spent typing and improving her English skills. Moved to Hollywood to get into the movie business, since it was still the silent-film era and the demand was more for scenarios than actual dialogue.
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11
Her philosophy of Objectivism: Rational selfishness is a virtue; altruism and self-sacrifice is a vice.
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12
First underwent surgery for lung cancer in 1974.
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13
She appears on a 33 cent U.S. postage stamp, which debuted 22 April 1999, in New York City.
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14
Was a friendly witness before the House Un-American Activities Committee, testifying on alleged Communist influences in Hollywood.
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15
At the time of her death, she was working on the script for a television adaptation of her novel Atlas Shrugged.
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16
Had a longtime amphetamine prescription for weight control; it is believed that this may have influenced some of her later behavior and decision-making. Biographer Barbara Branden asserted that the dosage was very low, and when Rand became aware of the side effects, she stopped using the drug.
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17
Once worked in the wardrobe department at RKO Pictures, for which she was paid $25.00 a week.
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18
Is portrayed by Helen Mirren in the 1999 film The Passion of Ayn Rand.
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19
Refused to allow her publisher to edit or prune her manuscripts.
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20
A keen admirer of the novels of Mickey Spillane and a supporter of Senator Joseph McCarthy.
