- When former lover Marlon Brando read in a newspaper that a reporter had found Veronica Lake working as a cocktail waitress in a Manhattan bar, he instructed his accountant to send her a check for a thousand dollars. Out of pride, she never cashed it, but kept it framed in her Miami living room to show her friends.
- During World War Two, the rage for her peek-a-boo bangs became a hazard when women in the defense industry would get their bangs caught in machinery. Lake had to take a publicity picture in which she reacted painfully to her hair getting "caught" in a drill press in order to heighten public awareness about the hazard of her hairstyle.
- Got her big break when teamed with the only actor in Hollywood relatively near to her in height, Alan Ladd. Ladd was 5' 6" and she was just 4' 11".
- Was 8 months pregnant with her daughter Elaine when she completed filming Sullivan's Travels (1941).
- Along with Rita Hayworth, Lauren Bacall, Jayne Mansfield and Gene Tierney she was one of five inspirations that helped create the character Jessica Rabbit.
- She has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame located at 6918 Hollywood Blvd.
- Birth year usually given as 1919 but her autobiography and Lenburg's highly negative biography both indicate 1922. The 1920 United States Census shows that her father Harry Ockelman is unmarried and childless, while in 1930 Constance is listed as seven years old.
- Her height variously given as "barely five feet" to 5' 2" Photos indicate the shorter height.
- An accomplished aviatrix, she took up flying in 1946 and in 1948 flew her small plane from Los Angeles to New York.
- When Lake's former husband, André De Toth, wrote his autobiography "Fragments" in 1964, his comments about his ex-wife were brief and relatively sympathetic. He paints her as a woman destroyed by a sad childhood and overly domineering mother.
- Lake's mother sued her daughter for non-support during the 1940s.
- Her ashes sat on a funeral home's shelf until 1976, when her cremation was paid for, and supposedly spread on the Florida coastline. Some 30 years after her death, her ashes resurfaced in a New York antique store in October 2004.
- Among the many reasons for her divorce from director Andre de Toth was her discovery that the reason her career largely went dormant during their marriage was not a lack of interest in her services, but the fact that de Toth, without consulting Lake, continuously turned down scripts submitted to his wife.
- She was survived by her mother, who died in 1992 at age of 89.
- She and Alan Ladd made 7 movies together: The Blue Dahlia (1946), Duffy's Tavern (1945), The Glass Key (1942), Saigon (1947), Star Spangled Rhythm (1942), This Gun for Hire (1942) and Variety Girl (1947). In Variety Girl (1947), Star Spangled Rhythm (1942) and Duffy's Tavern (1945) they appear as themselves.
- Returned to work 2 months after giving birth to her daughter Elaine to begin filming This Gun for Hire (1942).
- In a biography of Lake entitled "Peekaboo," Lake's mother claimed her daughter was diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia, which she alleges was responsible for her alcoholism, numerous infidelities, mood swings, and vindictiveness.
- Lake was among the first well-known film stars to embrace making appearances on television, which in the early 1950s was largely shunned by Hollywood. In her autobiography Veronica, Lake states that TV paid well and was often broadcast live at that time, which helped give her the confidence to seek work in live theatre as well.
- When her film career came to an end, Lake turned to live theatre and for many years appeared in touring companies of such plays as Voice of the Turtle, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof and Peter Pan, in which she played the title role.
- Despite being one of the most popular pin-ups of the World War II era, Lake personally professed to being at a loss to explain her success as a movie star, since she considered herself neither talented as an actress nor especially attractive.
- Children: Elaine Detlie, b. 21 August 1941; William Detlie, lived 8-15 July 1943; Andre Michael De Toth III, b. 25 October 1945; Diana De Toth, b. 16 October 1948.
- A 1943 Paramount newsreel shows her adopting an upswept hairdo at the behest of War Womanpower Commission, to discourage "peekaboo bangs" on Rosie the Riveter.
- Her third husband, Joseph Allen McCarthy, wrote lyrics for many Cy Coleman songs, among them "I'm Gonna Laugh You Right Out Of My Life" and "Why Try To Change Me Now?" sung by Frank Sinatra. McCarthy's father, Joseph McCarthy, was also a lyricist; his most famous songs are "You Made Me Love You" and "I'm Always Chasing Rainbows.".
- R&B singer/actress Aaliyah tailored her hairstyle from Veronica Lake's signature bangs.
- Daughter-in-law of Joseph McCarthy, the song-writer, not the infamous Senator from Wisconsin.
- Lake's parents were Constance Charlotta (Trimble) and Harry Eugene Ockelman, a seaman who died in a ship explosion in February 1932. Lake's paternal grandfather, Harry Ockelman, was German, and her paternal grandmother, Alice Marie Collins, was Irish. Lake's maternal grandparents, James F. Trimble and Frances Comer, were both born in New York, both of them to Irish immigrants.
- Kim Basinger won an Oscar as Best Actress in a Supporting Role for portraying a prostitute who is supposed to look like Lake in L.A. Confidential (1997).
- Lake was among the first movie stars of her stature to openly seek work in television at a time when TV was widely shunned by Hollywood. She made guest appearances on many a popular show in the early 1950s, often being broadcast live and, according to Lake, being well paid.
- Actor Stewart Stafford lived the first three years of his life in her old apartment in New York (her name was still visible inside the mailbox).
- Died five days after Betty Grable.
- At one point featured in advertisements for Chesterfield cigarettes.
- Cousin of actress Helene Marshall.
- Constance Frances Marie Ockelman (Veronica's real name) lived in Saranac Lake, New York for awhile. She attended St. Bernard's School in that Northern New York town.
- In Italy, all her films were dubbed by Rosetta Calavetta. She was only dubbed once by another actress: Clelia Bernacchi (in Hold Back the Dawn (1941)).
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