Helen Hayes (October 10, 1900 – March 17, 1993) was a two-time Academy Award-winning American 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.

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 ODonnell, a few years after her death, from her surviving son, actor James MacArthur (I).

Received the Women's International Center (WIC) Living Legacy Award in 1985.

Pre-eminent US stage actress.

Adoptive mother of actor James MacArthur (I).

Interred at Oak Hill Cemetery, Nyack, New York, USA.

Mother of stage actress Mary MacArthur who died in 1949 at the age of nineteen

Charter member of the National Women's Hall of Fame in 1973.

She had a career than spanned over 80 years beginning as a child actress at age 5.

She was regarded as the "First Lady of the American Theatre."

The lights of Broadway were dimmed for one minute at 8:00 p.m. on the day she died.

She made frequent trips to hospitals because of asthma attacks aggravated by backstage dust. When asthma ended her theatrical career, Hayes wrote books and raised funds for organizations that fight asthma.

In 1958, she became the second performer to win the Triple Crown of Acting. Oscars: Best Actress, Sin of Madelon Claudet, The (1931) and Best Supporting Actress, Airport (1970), Tony: Best Actress-Play, "Time Remembered" (1958), and Emmy: Best Actress of 1953.

Won three Tony Awards, two Best Actress (Dramatic) awards -- one in 1947 for "Happy Birthday," an award that was shared with Ingrid Bergman (I) 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."

Is one of only a few actors to win an Oscar for a supporting role after winning an Oscar for a leading role.

Was a supporter of the Republican Party, attending all the conventions up until her death.

Shares the distinction with actors José Ferrer (I), 'Fredric March (I)' and Ingrid Bergman (I) of being the first winners of acting Tony Awards when the annual event was established in 1947

First actress to win an Oscar for playing a prostitute in Sin of Madelon Claudet, The (1931), her first talkie

She was awarded the American National Medal of the Arts in 1988 by the National Endowment of the Arts in Washington D.C.

Although she played Ingrid Bergman (I)'s grandmother in Anastasia (1956), she was less than fifteen years older than her.

The Helen Hayes Awards are given out annually to worthy theatrical productions in the Washington, D.C., Maryland, Virginia area, her birthplace and where she gained her first acting experience.