> Many of Singin in the Rain's characters are said to have been based on real people. Many silent stars struggled with the transition to sound and very few silent stars' careers continued to thrive in talkies. Some careers that were lost to the coming of sound, such as star John Gilbert, may not have been lost because his voice didn't match his image. Many people thought the studio just wanted rid of Gilbert and used the new technology to force him out of the business by tweaking speeds which changed the way his voice sounded on film. This combined with the poor scripts and directors Gilbert was assigned by MGM studio head Louis B. Mayer put his career in a tailspin. Many new stars were recruited by the studios from the Broadway and Vaudeville stages because they already knew how to act and speak well. While these actors could speak on film there were still adjustments to be made in their acting, as stage acting and film acting are much different.

> Jean Hagen's character Lina Lamont was based on the silent picture star Norma Talmadge whose career did not survive the transition to talkies. Some think Talmadge was also the inspiration behind the Norma Desmond character in Billy Wilder's film Sunset Boulevard (1950).

> The character R.F. Simpson, played by actor Millard Mitchell, is a combination of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer's head Louis B. Mayer and Arthur Freed who was the head of a production unit - known as the Freed Unit - which produced musicals. R. F. Simpson's initials are a reference to producer Freed. R.F. also uses one of Freed's favorite expressions - that he "cannot quite visualize it."

> Rita Moreno as Zelda Zanders, the "Zip Girl" and Lina's informant friend is based on silent film star Clara Bow who was nicknamed the 'It Girl' by author Elinor Glyn. "It" is that special something a person has that you just can't describe any other way than by calling it "It!"

> Judy Landon appears in an uncredited role as Olga Mara, a silent screen vamp who attends the premiere of The Royal Rascal. She is based on Pola Negri and Gloria Swanson, each of whom married men with titles. Pola Negri first married Count Eugeniusz Dambski, and later Georgian prince Serge Mdivani. Gloria Swanson's husband, the Marquis Henri de la Falaise de Coudray, was French and did a lot of work in Hollywood with Swanson and later with his second wife, actress Constance Bennett.