Biography in: John Wakeman, editor. "World Film Directors, Volume One, 1890-1945". Pages 351-357. New York: The H.W. Wilson Company, 1987.
Did not live to see "The Wizard of Oz", which he directed, become a sensation on television, and an all-time classic through its annual telecasts.
He directed 9 different actors in Oscar-nominated performances: Emil Jannings, Spencer Tracy, Vivien Leigh, Hattie McDaniel, Clark Gable, Olivia de Havilland, Frank Morgan, José Ferrer and Ingrid Bergman. Jannings, Tracy, Leigh and McDaniel all won Oscars for their performances in one of Fleming's movies.
Interred at Hollywood Memorial Cemetery (now called Hollywood Forever), Hollywood, California, USA, in the Abbey of the Psalms, Sanctuary of Refuge, #2081.
The only director to have two films listed in the top 10 of the American Film Institute's 1998 list of the 100 greatest American films, Gone with the Wind (1939) and The Wizard of Oz (1939).
When making Gone with the Wind (1939), he wanted Scarlett, for at least once in the film, to look like his hunting buddy Clark Gable's type of woman. So, when wearing the stunning low-cut burgundy velvet dress with rhinestones that Scarlett wears to Ashley Wilkes' birthday party in the second half of the film, to achieve the desired cleavage for Fleming, Walter Plunkett had to tape Vivien Leigh's breasts together.