BIO

Helen Hayes was born Helen Hayes Brown in Washington, D.C., in 1900.   Her mother was a local actress who worked in touring companies.

Hayes began a stage career as a youngster, making her Broadway debut in 1909, at the age of 9.   Considered by many to be one of the greatest stage actresses of the 20th century, her Broadway output was prodigious.

Hayes appeared in 49 productions in a stage career spanning more than 60 years.   Her worsening asthma combined with backstage dust forced her to retire in 1970.

Hayes, along with Ingrid Bergman, won the first Tony Award for Best Lead Actress in 1947 for the smash hit Happy Birthday (1946-1948).   She won twice more for Time Remembered (1957-1958) and, her last play, a revival of Harvey (1970).   In 1980, she received a special Tony for “distinguished lifetime achievement in the American theatre”.

Other notable theatre achievements include starring roles in:

• Victoria Regina (1935-1938),
• Harriet (1943-1944) and
• Mrs. McThing (1952-1953).

The stage was her true love and Hayes’ film output is meager by comparison.   She made her silent film debut in a starring role for Edward Warren Productions in 1917 and did not return to the medium until after the introduction of sound.

Her reappearance in The Sin Of Madelon Claudet (1931) was a triumph and she received the Academy Award for Actress.   She appeared in less than 20 films during the entirety of her career and after a hiatus during the 1960s re-emerged in Airport (1970) and walked off with another Oscar for Actress in a Supporting Role.

Hayes also appeared in many television specials throughout the 1950s and into the 1980s.   She won a Primetime Emmy for Best Actress in 1953 and was nominated another 8 times for Best Actress between 1951 and 1978.

Hayes married Oscar-winning screenwriter Charles MacArthur (1895-1956) in 1928.   Their daughter, aspiring stage actress Mary MacArthur died of polio in 1949, at the age of nineteen.   Their adopted son, James MacArthur (1937-2010), went on to television fame co-starring in the long-running television series Hawaii Five-O (1968-1979).

Hayes died of congestive heart failure in Nyack, New York, in 1993.   She was 92 years old.

Additional Broadway stage history is available at:

Additional biographical information is available at:

NOTED FILMS

Complete filmography at: