McClintic's directorial style was distinguished by a strong visual component, evident in sets, costumes, lighting, and stage composition. He was also known for his ability to elicit outstanding performances from stars and supporting players alike.

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Cornell and McClintic were markedly dissimilar in personality and style of living, and they designed their living arrangements to accommodate these disparities. Offstage, Cornell was, like Greta Garbo (to whom she was often compared), reserved, self-effacing, and somewhat aloof. Over the years, she carried on a handful of long-term romances with women. In contrast, McClintic was nervous, hot-tempered, sociable, gossipy, and sexually promiscuous.

Early in their marriage, the couple rented (and later purchased) a large house at 23 Beekman Place in Manhattan, which they furnished with pieces used in their productions. By mutual agreement, the third floor of the residence was her exclusive domain, the fourth floor was his, while the floors below were open to both.

Their careers faltered after World War II, though McClintic and Cornell continued to enjoy some notable successes, as in their productions of Antony and Cleopatra (1947), which attained a long-run record for that play, and The Constant Wife (1951).

Cornell, who had long suffered from stage fright, retired shortly after McClintic's death, which occurred on October 29, 1961. Her last role was that of Mrs. Patrick Campbell in Dear Liar (1960), Jerome Kilty's dramatization of the Shaw-Campbell correspondence.

In later years, Cornell sold the Beekman Place house and, though she kept an apartment in New York, spent much of her time at her home in Vineyard Haven on Martha's Vineyard Island, Massachusetts.

Until her death on June 9, 1974, Cornell's neighbor and closest companion was Nancy Hamilton (1904-1985), a sketch writer and lyricist for several Broadway revues, who served as assistant manager and understudy when Cornell toured the European Theater of Operations in a revival of The Barretts of Wimpole Street during 1944-1945.

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