Who was the first actor to win the Triple Crown of Acting?
Everybody likes winning awards, but especially actors. To be recognised for your acting talents by a major body is one of the high points of any performer’s career, and usually leads to big things for them in the future. Not always, but often. When it comes to collecting trophies, there is one achievement that only a few of the very best have ever been able to pull off – the much-heralded ‘Triple Crown of Acting’.
As its name would suggest, the Triple Crown involves winning three of acting’s top prizes. The first is an Academy Award or Oscar, reserved for the finest performances in feature film. The second is an Emmy Award, doled out to those who have impressed in the medium of television. Finally, there’s the Tony Award, which celebrates an actor’s accomplishments on Broadway.
As it stands, just 24 people have been able to call themselves Triple Crown winners. Notable examples include Al Pacino, who sealed the achievement with an Emmy in 2004, Helen Mirren, who clinched it with a Tony in 2015, and the late Glenda Jackson, whose Tony in 2018 was the culmination of a journey that began 47 years earlier with her first Oscar win back in 1971. At the time of writing, Dame Glenda is the most recent person to receive this unofficial award. But who was the first?
That honour goes to the great Helen Hayes, nicknamed ‘The First Lady of American Theatre’. Hayes began her acting career at the age of five, appearing in her first silent film when she was just ten. As well as captivating stage audiences with her irreproachable stage presence, Hayes also had a successful stint in the movies, being directed by the likes of John Ford and Victor Fleming and playing leading lady opposite greats like Gary Cooper, Robert Montgomery, and Clark Gable.
How did Helen Hayes achieve the Triple Crown?
Hayes began her journey to the Triple Crown in 1932. At only the fifth ever Oscars ceremony, she won ‘Best Actress’ for her performance in The Sin of Madelon Claudet. In 1947, Hayes won a long-overdue Tony for her leading performance in the Anita Loos comedy Happy Birthday. Finally, in 1953, Hayes was awarded the ‘Best Actress’ prize at the Emmys, cementing her place in acting history. Due to the weird way the Emmys operated in those days, this award wasn’t for one particular performance. This was only the seventh time they’d held the ceremony, so cut them some slack.
In total, Hayes won five awards that counted towards the Triple Crown. In 1958, she won another Tony for ‘Best Actress in a Play’ for her stint in Time Remembered. 38 years after her first win, she snagged a second Academy Award, this time for ‘Best Supporting Actress’ in the classic disaster flick Airport. To top it all off, she claimed a Grammy for ‘Best Spoken Word Album’, making her the first woman (and second person overall) to win the coveted EGOT.
Spare a thought for poor Thomas Mitchell. The Irish-American star won the equally vague ‘Best Actor’ prize that same evening, and had been named ‘Best Supporting Actor’ at the 1940 Oscars for his role in Stagecoach. At the 1953 Tonys, Mitchell won ‘Best Actor in a Musical’ for Hazel Flagg, meaning he missed out on becoming the first Triple Crown winner by less than two months.
