- During the second half of the 1960s and early 1970s, he wrote no fewer than eleven screenplays (consecutively) which were not filmed.
- Hayes first came to the attention of Alfred Hitchcock through his radio work. Hitchcock regularly listened to shows Hayes wrote for like Suspense, Sam Spade and Richard Diamond, and heard the writer's name time and again. But it was the April 12, 1951 episode of Suspense "Death on My Hands" that so impressed Hitch he asked to meet with Hayes about Rear Window (1954).
- Prior to their falling out during the filming of The Man Who Knew Too Much, Hayes and Alfred Hitchcock had been discussing ideas for a story Hitchcock had been calling "The Man in Lincoln's Nose" which eventually became North by Northwest. Hitchcock also wanted Hayes involved in selecting and writing stories for Alfred Hitchcock Presents.
- In the last fifteen years or so of his life, he suffered from ever-increasing problems with his eyesight and was eventually diagnosed as legally blind.
- Father of Garrett Michael Hayes, author of the posted minibiography.
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