- Bought a small island for $1.00 in Windom, MN, so named for his great-grandfather, a one-time member of Abraham Lincoln's "Kitchen Cabinet". The island's a wildlife refuge.
- Was a tournament-level chess player and member of the International Chess Federation. His score was in the 1600s.
- His great-grandfather, politician William Windom (1827-91), served in both the US House of Representatives and Senate as a Republican from Minnesota; later became Secretary of the Treasury under Presidents James A. Garfield and Benjamin Harrison. His own character of Glen Morley in The Farmer's Daughter (1963) was also a congressman from Minnesota.
- During World War II he served as a paratrooper in the US Army's with B Co., 508th Parachute Infantry Regiment, 82nd Airborne Division and fought in Operion Market Garden (the invasion of Holland), the Battle of the Bulge and D-Day.
- As a five-year-old, he was a pupil of kindergarten teacher Margaret Hamilton until she threw him out for rambunctious behavior. She promoted him to first grade. She and Bill would work on the pilot for Is There a Doctor in the House (1971). They did not recall their past meeting until they began to talk about once living in Rye, NY. He would later visit her in New York City and they would go to The Russian Tea Room.
- Can be heard promoting his show The Farmer's Daughter (1963) shortly before ABC News pre-empted programming with the news of President John F. Kennedy 's assassination on 11/22/63.
- Has been profiled in "Chess Life" magazine twice (he is a tournament player with a penchant for unusual openings; one of his positions had turned up in a "Chess Life" problem column before the magazine interviewed him). The second time, in 1988, he appeared with his friend Claude Akins (who had been on Murder, She Wrote (1984) as "Capt. Ethan Craig" the season before Windom became "Dr. Seth Hazlitt") playing a game in Windom's back yard. During an interview for the article, Windom said that he planned to have a large Rook (the castle-shaped piece) made of Nubian marble and cap it with a compass rose, "and one day my ashes will be buried underneath it". The compass rose said the following: W.W. 1922 Wika. It also had two chess flags. The W.W. were Bill's initials, 1922 the year he was conceived and Wika was the name of a little girl he met in Holland during World War 2. It was also the name of his first boat.
- His third wife, Barbara, was the granddaughter of Louis B. Mayer.
- Chess enthusiast. Tennis enthusiast. Astronomy enthusiast. Sailor. Horse-riding enthusiast. A fan of W.C. Fields and burlesque comedies.
- Has owned seven different small boats since 1953 and won numerous sailing trophies.
- Married five times, he had four children: Rachel, Heather Juliet, Hope Teresa and Rebel Russell, the youngest. Also two step-daughters from his third marriage: Debora and Maggie. He was also a grandfather to two girls from Rachel, and a daughter and son from Heather.
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