1945 Sidney Howard Memorial Award (shared with Arthur Laurents).
Biography in: "American National Biography". Supplement 1, pp. 307-308. New York: Oxford University Press, 2002.
In 1950, Harry Cohn, president of Columbia Pictures, paid Kanin the then-record sum of $1,000,000 for the movie rights to Garson's Broadway comedy "Born Yesterday.".
MGM announced it was going to produce an original Kanin feature comedy called "Roses Are Blue" during its 40th-anniversary celebration. The project, along with numerous others, was quietly shelved in 1965, a casualty of studio cutbacks.
There is a 2009 biography of the lives and careers of the Kanin family (Garson, wife Ruth Gordon, brother Michael Kanin and sister-in-law Fay Kanin): "A Family Affair - The Kanins in Hollywood and on Broadway", written by Josh Kanin (his nephew) and Wayne Lindholm.
Was nominated for Broadway's Tony Award three times: in 1956, as Best Director for "The Diary of Anne Frank," and in 1961, as Best Director (Musical) and author of the Book for Best Musical nominee "Do Re Mi."
Wrote a book about his friendship with Spencer Tracy and Katharine Hepburn ("Tracy and Hepburn: An Intimate Memoir", 1971, Plume). Hepburn saw this as a deep betrayal, and didn't speak with Kanin for many years.
Younger brother of Michael Kanin.