Everything about Helen Hayes totally explained
Helen Hayes (
October 10,
1900 –
March 17,
1993) was an
American two-time
Academy Award-winning actress whose successful and award-winning career spanned almost 70 years. She eventually garnered the nickname "First Lady of the American Theater", and was one of the nine people
who have won an Emmy, a Grammy, an Oscar and a Tony Award.
Biography
Early life
Hayes was born
Helen Hayes Brown in
Washington, D.C. Her father, Frank Van Arnum Brown, worked at a number of jobs, including as a clerk at the Washington Patent Office and as a manager and salesman for a wholesale
butcher. Her mother, Catherine Estella Hayes, or Essie, was an aspiring actress who worked in touring companies. She began a stage career at an early age. By the age of ten, she'd made a short film called
Jean and the Calico Doll, but only moved to
Hollywood when her husband, playwright
Charles MacArthur, signed a Hollywood deal.
Career
Her sound film debut was
The Sin of Madelon Claudet, for which she won the
Academy Award for Best Actress. She followed that with starring roles in
Arrowsmith (with
Myrna Loy),
A Farewell to Arms (with actor
Gary Cooper whom Hayes admitted to finding extremely attractive),
The White Sister,
What Every Woman Knows (a reprise from her Broadway hit), and . However, she never became a fan favorite and Hayes didn't prefer the medium to the stage.
Hayes eventually returned to
Broadway in 1935, where for three years she played the title role in the
Gilbert Miller production of
Victoria Regina, with
Vincent Price as Prince Albert, first at the
Broadhurst Theatre and later at the
Martin Beck Theatre.
In 1953, she was the first-ever recipient of the
Sarah Siddons Award for her work in
Chicago theatre, repeating as the winner in 1969. She returned to Hollywood in the
1950s, and her film star began to rise. She starred in
My Son John (1952) and
Anastasia (1956), and won the
Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her role as an elderly
stowaway in the
disaster film Airport (1970). She followed that up with several roles in
Disney films such as
Herbie Rides Again,
One of Our Dinosaurs is Missing and
Candleshoe.
Anastasia was considered a comeback having not acted for several years due to her daughter, Mary's death and her husband's failing health.
In 1955 the
Fulton Theatre was renamed for her. However, business interests in the 1980s wished to raze that theatre and four others to construct a large hotel that included the
Marquis Theatre. To accomplish razing this theatre and three others, as well as the Astor Hotel, the business interests received Hayes' consent to raze the theatre named for her, even though she'd no ownership interest in the buildings. As a result in
1983, the Little Theater on West 45th Street was re-named The
Helen Hayes Theatre in her honor; as was a theatre in Nyack, which has since been re-named the Riverspace-Arts Center.
The
Helen Hayes Award for theater in the Washington D.C. area is named in her honor. She has a star on the
Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6220 Hollywood Blvd.
Personal life
Hayes was a
Catholic and a pro-business Republican who attended many
Republican National Conventions (including the one held in New Orleans in 1988), but she wasn't as far-right as certain others (for example,
Adolphe Menjou,
Ginger Rogers,
John Wayne, etc.) in the Hollywood community of that time.
Hayes wrote three memoirs:
A Gift of Joy,
On Reflection and
My Life in Three Acts. Some of the themes in these books include her return to
Roman Catholicism after having been denied communion from the Church for the length of her marriage to MacArthur, who was a
Protestant and a
divorcé, and the death of her only daughter Mary, who was an aspiring actress, from
polio at the age of 19. Hayes's adopted son,
James MacArthur, went on to a career in acting also, starring in
Hawaii Five-O on television. (Hayes herself guest starred on a 1975 episode of
Hawaii Five-0, playing MacArthur's character's aunt.)
Hayes was hospitalized a number of times for her
asthma condition, which was aggravated by stage dust, forcing her to retire from legitimate theater. Her last Broadway show was a revival of
Harvey in which she co-starred with
James Stewart in 1970. She spent most of her last years writing and raising money for organizations that fight asthma.
Death
Hayes died on
St. Patrick's Day,
March 17,
1993 from
congestive heart failure in
Nyack, New York, aged 92, not long after the death of her friend,
Lillian Gish, with whom she'd been friends for many decades. Gish made Hayes the beneficiary of her estate, but Hayes only survived her by a month. Hayes was interred in the Oak Hill Cemetery,
Nyack, New York.
Quotes
- "The hardest years in life are those between ten and seventy." (at age 73)
Body of work
Stage and awards
| Year |
Production |
Other notes |
| 1905 |
Miss Hawke's May Ball |
Irish Dancer |
|
| A Midsummer Night's Dream |
Peaseblossom |
|
| 1908 |
Babe in the Woods |
Boy Babe |
|
| 1909 |
Jack the Giant Killer |
Gibson Girl, Nell Brinkley, Girl impersonators |
|
| A Royal Family |
Prince Charles Ferdinand |
|
| Children's Dancing Kermess |
Impersonation of "The Nell Brinkley Girl" |
|
| The Prince Chap |
Claudia, Age 5 |
|
| A Poor Relation |
Patch |
|
| 1910 |
Old Dutch |
Little Mime |
|
| The Summer Widowers |
Pacyche Finnegan, Pinkie's playmate |
|
| 1911 |
The Barrier |
Molly, an Alaskan Child |
|
| Little Lord Fauntleroy |
Cedric Errol |
|
| The Never Homes |
Fannie Hicks, Another Near Orphan |
|
| The Seven Sisters |
Klara, the Youngest Daughter |
|
| Mary Jane's Pa |
|
|
| 1912 |
The June Bride |
The Holder's Child |
|
| 1913 |
Flood Victim's Benefit |
|
|
| The Girl with Green Eyes |
Susie, the Flower Girl |
|
| His House in Order |
Derek Jesson, his son |
|
| A Royal Family |
Prince Charles Ferdinand |
|
| The Prince Chap |
|
|
| The Prince and the Pauper |
Tom Canty and Edward, Prince of Wales |
|
| 1914 |
The Prodigal Husband |
Young Simone |
|
| 1916 |
The Dummy |
Beryl Meredith, the Kidnapper's Hostage |
|
| On Trial |
His Daughter, Doris Strickland |
|
| 1917 |
It Pays to Advertise |
Marie, Maid at the Martins |
|
| Romance |
Suzette |
|
| Just a Woman |
Hired girl |
|
| Mile-a-Minute Kendall |
Beth |
|
| Rich Man, Poor Man |
Linda Hurst |
|
| Alma, Where Do You Live? |
Germain |
|
| Mrs. Wiggs of the Cabbage Patch |
Asia |
|
| Within the Law |
|
|
| Pollyanna |
Pollyanna Whittier, The Glad Girl |
|
| 1918 |
Penrod |
|
|
| Dear Brutus |
Margaret, his daughter |
|
| 1919 |
On the Hiring Line |
Dorothy Fessenden, his daughter |
|
| Clarence |
Cora Wheeler |
|
| The Golden Age |
|
|
| 1920 |
Bab |
Bab |
| 1921 |
The Wren |
Seeby Olds |
|
| The Golden Days |
Mary Ann |
|
| 1922 |
To the Ladies |
Elsie Beebe |
|
| No Siree!: An Anonymous Entertaiment by the Vicious Circus of the Hotel Algonquin |
|
|
| 1923 |
Loney Lee |
Loney Lee |
|
| 1924 |
We Moderns |
Mary Sundale, their Daughter |
|
| The Dragon |
|
|
| She Stoops to Conquer |
Constance Neville |
|
| Dancing Mothers |
Catherine (Kittens) Westcourt |
|
| Quarantine |
Dinah Partlett |
|
| 1925 |
Caesar and Cleopatra |
Cleopatra |
|
| The Last of Mrs. Cheyney |
Maria |
|
| Young Blood |
Georgia Bissell |
|
| 1926 |
What Every Woman Knows |
Maggie Wylie |
|
| 1927 |
Coquette |
Norma Besant |
|
| Ziegfeld Follies of 1927 |
|
|
| 1928 |
Coquette |
Norma Besant |
London version |
| 1930 |
Mr. Gilhooley |
A girl |
|
| Petticoat Influence |
Peggy Chalfont |
|
| 1931 |
The Good Fairy |
Lu |
|
| 1933 |
Mary of Scotland |
Mary Stuart |
|
| 1935 |
Caesar and Cleopatra |
Cleopatra |
|
| Victoria Regina |
Victoria |
|
| 1936 |
Victoria Regina |
Victoria |
Revival |
| 1938 |
The Merchant of Venice |
Portia |
|
| What Every Woman Knows |
|
|
| Victoria Regina |
Victoria |
Revival |
| 1939 |
Ladies and Gentlemen |
Miss Terry Scott |
|
| 1940 |
Twelfth Night |
Viola |
|
| 1941 |
Candle in the Wind |
Madeline Guest |
|
| 1943 |
Harriet |
Harriet Beecher Stowe |
|
| 1944 |
Harriet |
Harriet Beecher Stowe |
Revival |
| 1946 |
Alice-Sit-By-The-Fire |
Mrs. Alice Grey |
|
| Happy Birthday |
Addie |
Tony Award Best Actress in a Play |
| 1948 |
The Glass Menagerie |
Amanda Wingfield |
|
| 1949 |
Good Housekeeping |
|
|
| 1950 |
The Wisteria Trees |
Lucy Andree Ransdell |
|
| 1952 |
Mrs. McThing |
Mrs. Howard V. Larue III |
|
| 1955 |
Gentleman, The Queens |
Catherine, Lady Macbeth, Mary and Queen Victoria |
|
| The Skin of Our Teeth |
Mrs. Antrobus |
|
| 1956 |
Lovers, Villans and Fools |
Narrator, Puck and the Chorus from Henry V |
|
| The Glass Menagerie |
The Mother |
|
| 1957 |
Time Remembered |
The Duchess of Pont-Au-Bronc |
Tony Award Best Actress in a Play |
| 1958 |
A Adventure |
Lulu Specer |
|
| Mid-Summer |
Rose, the Maid |
|
| A Touch of the Poet |
Nora Melody |
|
| 1960 |
The Cherry Orchard |
Lyuboff Ranevskaya |
|
| The Chalk Garden |
Mrs. Maugham |
|
| 1962 |
Shakespeare Revisited: A Program for Two Players |
|
|
| 1964 |
Good Morning Miss Dove |
Miss Lucerna Dove |
|
| The White House |
Abigail Adams, Dolley Madison, Edith
Wilson, Julia Grant, Leonora Clayton, Mary
Todd Lincoln, Mrs. Benjamin Harrison, Mrs.
Franklin Pierce, Mrs. Grover Cleveland, Mrs.
James G. Blaine, Mrs. Theodore Roosevelt, Rachel Jackson |
|
| 1965 |
Helen Hayes' Tour of the Far East |
|
| 1966 |
The Circle |
|
|
| The School for Scandal |
Mrs. Candour |
|
| Right You Are If You Think You Are |
Signora Frola |
|
| We Comrades Three |
Mother |
|
| You Can't Take It With You |
Olga |
|
| 1967 |
The Show-Off |
Mrs. Fisher |
Tony Award - Vernon Rice-Drama Desk Award |
| 1968 |
The Show-Off |
Mrs. Fisher |
return engagement |
| 1969 |
The Front Page |
Mrs. Grant |
|
| 1970 |
Harvey |
Veta Louise Simmons |
Nominated - Tony Award Best Actress in a Play |
| 1971 |
Long Day's Journey Into Night |
Mary Cavan Tyrone |
|
| 1980 |
|
|
Tony Award - Lawrence Langner Memorial Award |
Filmography and awards
Television appearances and awards
Further Information
Get more info on 'Helen Hayes'.
|
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