Hayes won the Primetime Emmy for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Limited Series or Special, contributing to her eventual EGOT status.
On January 25, 1981, Helen Hayes was awarded the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Limited Series or a Special for her performance in A Story to Be Told. This win added a television honor to her already extraordinary collection of awards spanning film, theatre, and recorded audio.
With this Emmy, Hayes completed—or nearly completed, according to varying institutional accounts—the rare distinction known as the EGOT, having previously won an Emmy, a Grammy (1979), an Oscar (twice, in 1932 and 1970), and a Tony (twice, in 1947 and 1958). This placed her among an extremely small group of entertainers in American history to achieve recognition across all four major entertainment award bodies.
Her Emmy win underscored her adaptability across the full range of 20th-century media technology: she had begun her career on the silent vaudeville and Broadway stage, transitioned into talking pictures, embraced radio drama, and now, in her eighties, continued to excel in television, a medium that had scarcely existed during the first half of her career. This achievement remains a testament to her singular versatility and enduring relevance across dramatically shifting entertainment landscapes.