Helen Hayes

Helen Hayes Brown was born in Washington, D.C., on October 10, 1900, and died on March 17, 1993. Her mother, Catherine Estelle "Essie" Hayes, worked in touring companies as an aspiring actress, while her father, Francis van Arnum Brown, held various positions including clerk at the Washington Patent Office and manager and salesman for a wholesale butcher. Her Catholic maternal grandparents had emigrated from Ireland during the Great Famine. Hayes began performing as a singer at age five at Washington's Belasco Theatre on Lafayette Square, and by age ten had appeared in a short silent film, Jean and the Calico Doll (1910). She attended Dominican Academy's primary school on Manhattan's Upper East Side from 1910 to 1912, where she performed in The Old Dutch, Little Lord Fauntleroy, and other productions, and later graduated from the Academy of the Sacred Heart Convent in Washington in 1917.

Hayes's Broadway career spanned from 1909 to 1987, encompassing productions that included the comedy Twelfth Night, the drama Candle in the Wind, Happy Birthday, The Wisteria Trees, and Mrs. McThing. She returned to Broadway in 1935 to play the title role in Gilbert Miller's production of Victoria Regina, with Vincent Price as Prince Albert, performing first at the Broadhurst Theatre and later at the Martin Beck Theatre for three years. In 1951, she appeared in a Broadway revival of J.M. Barrie's Mary Rose at the ANTA Playhouse. Her final Broadway production was a 1970 revival of Harvey, in which she co-starred with James Stewart. Asthma aggravated by stage dust forced her retirement from theater in 1971 at age 71.

Her Broadway work earned her two Tony Awards for Best Actress in a Play, in 1947 and 1958, as well as a Drama Desk Vernon Rice Award in 1968. Hayes became the second person and first woman to achieve the EGOT, having won an Emmy, a Grammy, an Oscar, and a Tony Award, and was also the first person to win the Triple Crown of Acting. Her sound film debut came with The Sin of Madelon Claudet, for which she received the Academy Award for Best Actress. Subsequent film roles included Arrowsmith opposite Ronald Colman, A Farewell to Arms with Gary Cooper, The White Sister opposite Clark Gable, and two films with Robert Montgomery, Another Language and Vanessa: Her Love Story. After suspending her career for a period following the death of her daughter Mary and her husband's declining health, she returned to film in the 1950s, appearing in My Son John (1952) and Anastasia (1956). She won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her portrayal of an elderly stowaway in the disaster film Airport (1970), and subsequently appeared in several Disney productions including Herbie Rides Again, One of Our Dinosaurs Is Missing, and Candleshoe. In 1953, she became the first recipient of the Sarah Siddons Award for her work in Chicago theatre, an honor she received again in 1969.

In 1955, the Fulton Theatre on 46th Street in New York City's Theatre District was renamed the Helen Hayes Theatre. When that venue was demolished in 1982 as part of a hotel construction project that included the Marquis Theatre, portions of the original structure were used to build the Shakespeare Center on the Upper West Side of Manhattan, which Hayes dedicated alongside Joseph Papp. The nearby Little Theatre on West 44th Street was subsequently renamed the Helen Hayes Theatre in 1983. Hayes received the Presidential Medal of Freedom from President Ronald Reagan in 1986 and the National Medal of Arts in 1988. The annual Helen Hayes Awards, recognizing excellence in professional theatre in greater Washington, D.C., have been presented in her name since 1984. She holds a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6220 Hollywood Blvd and is a member of the American Theatre Hall of Fame.

Hayes co-authored the book Twice Over Lightly, published in 1972, which resulted from an exploration of all five boroughs of New York City undertaken with her friend Anita Loos. In 1982, alongside Lady Bird Johnson, she co-founded the National Wildflower Research Center in Austin, Texas, now known as the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center, which works to protect and preserve North America's native plants and natural landscapes. She maintained a 49-year association with the Helen Hayes Hospital, a nonprofit rehabilitative center in West Haverstraw, New York, overlooking the Hudson River. Hayes wrote three memoirs: A Gift of Joy, On Reflection, and My Life in Three Acts, which addressed subjects including her return to Roman Catholicism and the polio-related death of her daughter Mary in 1949 at age 19. Her adopted son, James MacArthur (1937–2010), pursued an acting career that included a co-starring role alongside Jack Lord in Hawaii Five-O; Hayes herself guest-starred in the series' 1975 episode "Retire in Sunny Hawaii... Forever," and she and her son appeared together in an episode of The Love Boat. At the 1988 Republican National Convention in New Orleans, Hayes delivered a seconding speech for George H. W. Bush's presidential nomination.