Who Was the First Female EGOT Recipient? Everything to Know About Helen Hayes
Each industry has its own way of honoring the celebrities within that circle. Some celebrities are talented and versatile enough to manage to snag an award or two in different areas. Some talented individuals, however, are so adept at shifting across different skills that they can get an honor from each of the four biggest and most prestigious awards: an Emmy, a Grammy, an Oscar, and a Tony.
The so-called EGOT is a rare feat, but as time goes on, the list grows. Who was the first female recipient of this coveted quartet of awards? None other than Helen Hayes.
What is an EGOT?
Understanding the real value and prestige of an EGOT takes knowing a bit more about the awards it contains.
An Emmy is awarded by one of three sister academies: the Television Academy (for primetime awards), National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences (for daytime, sports, news, and documentaries), and International Academy of Television Arts & Sciences (for international awards). Most often, Emmy discussions are about the primetime awards category, and more than 20,000 members of the Television Academy are split into peer groups to cast their votes for TV performances nominated each year. The first Emmy ceremony was held in January 1949.
The Grammy award started in 1959 and honors those in the music industry for their achievements. Through a complex process of committees and voting members, several awards across technical and performance categories are granted each year.
The Oscars began in 1929 (making them the oldest honor on this list) and are also referred to as the Academy Awards. They are awarded by the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences to recognize the achievement of those both in front of and behind the cameras in the filmmaking world.
The Tony awards started in 1947 with the American Theatre Wing, which is today joined by the Broadway League to present the honors. These awards go to those in the theater business who have helped make the industry what it is.
When someone gets an award in all four categories, it is an achievement of the highest (and rarest) caliber. As Town and Country reports, to date, only 16 individuals have managed the feat.
Helen Hayes was the first female EGOT recipient
The first person in history to receive an EGOT (even though the term was not yet coined) was Richard Rodgers (perhaps better known as one-half of Rodgers and Hammerstein). He achieved the feat in 1962.
The first female recipient was Helen Hayes, and while she did not get her final portion (the Grammy) until 1977, she was more than a decade ahead of Rodgers in starting her collection with her first of two Oscars achieved in 1932.
Interestingly, the third-ever EGOT recipient also achieved the honor in 1977. Rita Moreno got an Emmy to finish up her EGOT collection (for The Muppet Show, of all things!) just a few months after Hayes completed the task.
Helen Hayes had an impressive and long career
Born in 1900, Hayes is the oldest of the EGOT award winners. As Mental Floss reports, Helen Hayes took the longest of any recipient (forty-five years from Oscar to Grammy) to complete her long trek to the EGOT, but we have to remember that three-fourths of the coveted awards did not even exist when she snagged her first Oscar in 1932.
That year, she received the honor for her performance in The Sin of Madelon Claudet. Over the span of her career, she racked up 60 credits on her filmography (according to IMDb). Next up on her checklist was the Tony, which she achieved in 1947 for the play Happy Birthday. The Emmy joined the collection in 1953 for Schlitz Playhouse of Stars. The Grammy award, however, was more elusive, and it wasn’t until 1977 that Hayes received that accomplishment for Best Spoken Word Recording for Great American Documents.
