- She had a career than spanned over 80 years beginning as a child actress at age 5.
- Is one of only a few actors to win an Oscar for a supporting role after winning an Oscar for a leading role.
- Mother of stage actress Mary MacArthur, who died in 1949 at the age of nineteen, and adoptive mother of actor James MacArthur.
- Helen Hayes is the second recipient and first woman who are an "EGOT", meaning having won in competition at least one of all of the four major entertainment awards: an Emmy, a Grammy, an Oscar and a Tony. The other recipients are (chronologically) Richard Rodgers, Rita Moreno, John Gielgud, Audrey Hepburn, Marvin Hamlisch, Jonathan Tunick, Mel Brooks, Mike Nichols, Whoopi Goldberg, Scott Rudin, Robert Lopez, Andrew Lloyd Webber, Tim Rice, John Legend, Alan Menken, Jennifer Hudson, Viola Davis, and Elton John.
- Is one of only seven actors who have a 2-0 winning record when nominated for an acting Oscar, her two wins for The Sin of Madelon Claudet (1931) and Airport (1970). The others are Luise Rainer for The Great Ziegfeld (1936) and The Good Earth (1937); Vivien Leigh for Gone with the Wind (1939) and A Streetcar Named Desire (1951); Kevin Spacey for The Usual Suspects (1995) and American Beauty (1999); Hilary Swank for Boys Don't Cry (1999) and Million Dollar Baby (2004); Christoph Waltz for Inglourious Basterds (2009) and Django Unchained (2012); and Mahershala Ali for Moonlight (2016) and Green Book (2018).
- She was friends with Joan Crawford but also wrote that she was abusive to her children in her memoir "My Life in Three Acts" (1990) : "Joan was not quite rational in her raising of children. You might say she was strict or stern. But cruel is probably the right word".
- The lights of Broadway were dimmed for one minute at 8:00 p.m. on the day she died.
- Gave birth to her only biological child at age 29 by husband, Charles MacArthur: daughter Mary MacArthur (February 16, 1930- September 22, 1949), who died of polio at age 19. Hayes also had an adopted son, James MacArthur.
- Pre-eminent US stage actress. She was regarded as the First Lady of the American Theater.
- Hayes made frequent trips to the hospital owing to asthma attacks aggravated by backstage dust. When asthma ended her theatrical career, she concentrated on films and television. She also wrote books and raised funds for organizations that contribute to the fight against asthma.
- Fifth actress to win Best Actress Oscar and the first for playing a prostitute, in The Sin of Madelon Claudet (1931), her first talkie.
- Although she played Ingrid Bergman's grandmother in Anastasia (1956), she was less than fifteen years older than she.
- Became the first actress to have Academy Award wins for both Best Actress (for The Sin of Madelon Claudet (1931)) and Best Supporting Actress (for Airport (1970)).
- Hayes, José Ferrer, Fredric March, Ingrid Bergman, Arthur Miller, Patricia Neal, Elia Kazan, and Agnes de Mille were the winners at the first Tony Award ceremony, which was held in 1947.
- Was in three Oscar Best Picture nominees: Arrowsmith (1931), A Farewell to Arms (1932) and Airport (1970).
- In 1958, she became the second performer to win the Triple Crown of Acting. Oscars: Best Actress, The Sin of Madelon Claudet (1931) and Best Supporting Actress, Airport (1970), Tony: Best Actress-Play, "Time Remembered" (1958), and Emmy: Best Actress of 1953.
- Her likeness appears on a nondenominated USA commemorative postage stamp issued in her honor on 25 April 2011. Price on day of issue was 44¢.
- Was devoted to adopted son, James, who intermittently attended St. Anne's in Nyack, N.Y..
- At the age of 90, as a guest on The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson (1962) when Carson asked Hayes if she would return for her 100th birthday, she demurely lowered her eyes and softly said, "Oh no, I don't think so." She died in 1993, aged 92.
- Won three Tony Awards, two Best Actress (Dramatic) awards -- one in 1947 for "Happy Birthday," an award that was shared with Ingrid Bergman for "Joan of Lorraine," another in 1958, for "Time Remembered" -- and a third, Special Tony Award in 1980, namely: The Lawrence Langer Memorial Award for Distinguished Lifetime Achievement in the American Theatre. She was also nominated as Best Actress (Dramatic) in 1970 for a revival of "Harvey."
- Recipient of the Ellis Island Medal of Honor by the Statue of Liberty-Ellis Island Foundation in 1986.
- She has two stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame: for motion pictures at 6258 Hollywood Boulevard, and for radio at 6549 Hollywood Boulevard.
- Two Broadway theaters were named after her. The first, at 210 W. 46th Street, was named after Hayes in 1955. After it was demolished in 1982, another theater, at 240 W. 44th Street, was renamed in Hayes' honor.
- Charter member of the National Women's Hall of Fame in 1973.
- Daughter of Francis van Arnum Brown (1874-1940) and Catherine Estelle Hayes (1877-1953).
- Lived for many years in an historic house in Nyack, New York called "Pretty Penny." Located at 235 North Broadway, she regularly offered tours of her well maintained gardens to the local garden clubs. The house was purchased by television personality and actress Rosie O'Donnell, a few years after her death, from her surviving son, actor James MacArthur.
- She was awarded the American National Medal of the Arts in 1988 by the National Endowment of the Arts in Washington D.C.
- Was a supporter of the Republican Party, attending all the conventions up until her death.
- Interred at Oak Hill Cemetery, Nyack, New York, USA.
- The Helen Hayes Awards are bestowed annually to worthy theatrical productions in Washington, DC, Maryland, and Virginia. She was born in Washington D.C. and had her first acting role as a child there.
- Received the Women's International Center (WIC) Living Legacy Award in 1985.
- Was the 5th actress to receive an Academy Award; she won the Best Actress Oscar for The Sin of Madelon Claudet (1931) at The 5th Academy Awards on November 18, 1932.
- Is one of 12 actresses who won the Best Actress Oscar for playing a character who is pregnant at some point during the film; hers being for The Sin of Madelon Claudet (1931). The others are Luise Rainer for The Good Earth (1937), Vivien Leigh for Gone with the Wind (1939), Ginger Rogers for Kitty Foyle (1940), Olivia de Havilland for To Each His Own (1946), Jane Wyman for Johnny Belinda (1948), Anna Magnani for The Rose Tattoo (1955), Julie Christie for Darling (1965), Barbra Streisand for Funny Girl (1968), Liza Minnelli for Cabaret (1972), Sissy Spacek for Coal Miner's Daughter (1980) and Frances McDormand for Fargo (1996).
- She along with Jack Lemmon and Ingrid Bergman all won a Best Supporting Actor Oscar.
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