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EGOT, an acronym for the Emmy, Grammy, Oscar, and Tony Awards, is the designation given to people who have won all four of the major American performing art awards.[1][2] Respectively, these awards honor outstanding achievements in television, audio recording, film, and Broadway theatre.[3] Achieving the EGOT has been referred to as the "grand slam" of American show business.[1][4] Twenty-one people have achieved competitive EGOT status and six others have done so with honorary or special awards.[5] In 2018, Robert Lopez became the first and currently only double EGOT winner.[6] Five competitive and one non-competitive EGOT holder have been dubbed PEGOTs, for additionally having received either a Peabody Award (4) or Pulitzer Prize (2).
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The EGOT acronym was coined by actor Philip Michael Thomas in late 1984. While starring in Miami Vice, he stated a desire to achieve the EGOT within five years.[7][8] The acronym gained wider recognition following a 2009 episode of 30 Rock that introduced EGOT status as a recurring plotline.[9]
Starting in 2016, the Daytime Emmys had an award for Outstanding Musical Performance in a Daytime Program, which was removed after the 2019 ceremony because three of the four winners were Broadway ensembles, which between them included five people (Cynthia Erivo, Ben Platt, Rachel Bay Jones, Katrina Lenk and Ari'el Stachel) who had already won Tony and Grammy awards for the shows they were in, and with their Daytime Emmy wins only needed Oscars to complete their EGOT status.[10]
In 2023, TheaterMania writer Zachary Stewart criticized the practice of "selling" producer credits for shows favored to win a Tony as a "shortcut" to EGOT status. He drew a distinction between the producers who actually do the work of organizing the production of a show and investing producers who merely help finance it, often late in the award season.[11]
Name | Emmy | Grammy | Oscar | Tony | EGOT completed | Year span | Age at completion | Category(s) |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Richard Rodgers | 1962 | 1960[n 1] | 1946 | 1950[n 1][n 2] | 1962 | 16 | 59 years, 10 months | Composer, producer |
Helen Hayes[n 3] | 1953 | 1977 | 1932[n 1] | 1947[n 1][n 2] | 1977 | 45 | 76 years, 4 months | Actress |
Rita Moreno[n 3] | 1977[n 1] | 1973 | 1962 | 1975 | 1977 | 15 | 45 years, 9 months | Actress, singer |
John Gielgud | 1991 | 1979 | 1982 | 1961[n 1][n 2] | 1991 | 29 | 87 years, 4 months | Actor, director |
Audrey Hepburn | 1993[n 4] | 1994[n 4] | 1954[n 2] | 1954[n 2] | 1994 | 40 | 63 years, 8 months[n 4] | Actress |
Marvin Hamlisch | 1995[n 1] | 1974[n 1] | 1974[n 1] | 1976 | 1995 | 21 | 51 years, 3 months | Composer |
Jonathan Tunick | 1982 | 1988 | 1978 | 1997[n 2] | 1997 | 19 | 59 years, 1 month | Orchestrator, music arranger, composer, conductor |
Mel Brooks | 1967[n 1] | 1998[n 1] | 1969[n 2] | 2001[n 1] | 2001 | 34 | 74 years, 11 months | Writer, songwriter, actor |
Mike Nichols | 2001[n 1] | 1961 | 1968 | 1964[n 1] | 2001 | 40 | 69 years, 11 months | Director, comedian |
Whoopi Goldberg | 2002[n 1][n 5] | 1986 | 1991 | 2002 | 2002 | 16 | 46 years, 6 months | Comedian, actress, host, producer |
Scott Rudin | 1984 | 2012 | 2008 | 1994[n 1] | 2012 | 28 | 53 years, 6 months | Producer |
Robert Lopez[n 6] | 2008[n 1][n 7] | 2012[n 1] | 2014[n 1] | 2004[n 1] | 2014 | 10 | 39 years | Songwriter, librettist |
Andrew Lloyd Webber | 2018[n 8] | 1980[n 1][n 2] | 1997 | 1980[n 1][n 2] | 2018 | 38 | 70 years, 5 months | Composer, producer |
Tim Rice | 2018[n 8] | 1980[n 1] | 1993[n 1] | 1980[n 1] | 2018 | 38 | 73 years, 9 months | Lyricist, librettist, producer |
John Legend | 2018[n 8] | 2006[n 1] | 2015 | 2017 | 2018 | 12 | 39 years, 8 months | Singer, composer, producer |
Alan Menken | 2020[n 2][n 5] | 1991[n 1] | 1990[n 1] | 2012 | 2020 | 30 | 70 years, 11 months | Composer, producer |
Jennifer Hudson | 2021[n 5] | 2009[n 1] | 2007 | 2022 | 2022 | 15 | 40 years, 9 months | Singer, actress, producer |
Viola Davis[n 3] | 2015 | 2023[13] | 2017 | 2001[n 1] | 2023[14][15] | 22 | 57 years, 5 months | Actress, producer |
Elton John | 2024 | 1987[n 1][n 2] | 1995[n 1] | 2000 | 2024[16] | 37 | 76 years, 9 months | Singer, composer, pianist, producer |
Benj Pasek | 2024 | 2018[n 1] | 2017 | 2017[n 1] | 2024[17][18] | 7 | 39 years, 2 months | Composer, lyricist, producer |
Justin Paul | 2024 | 2018[n 1] | 2017 | 2017[n 1] | 2024[17][18] | 7 | 39 years, 8 months | Composer, lyricist, producer |
Name | Emmy | Grammy | Oscar | Tony | EGOT completed | Year span | Honorary Award | Category(s) |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Barbra Streisand | 1965 | 1964 | 1969 | 1970 | 1970 | 6 |
Special Tony Award | Actress and singer |
Liza Minnelli | 1973 | 1990 | 1973 | 1965 | 1990 | 25 |
Grammy Legend Award | Actress and singer |
James Earl Jones | 1991 | 1977 | 2011 | 1969 | 2011 | 42 |
Academy Honorary Award | Actor and voice actor |
Harry Belafonte | 1960 | 1961 | 2014 | 1954 | 2014 | 60 |
Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award | Activist, actor and singer |
Quincy Jones | 1977 | 1964 | 1995 | 2016 | 2016 | 52 |
Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award | Composer, musician, and producer |
Frank Marshall | 2023[n 9] | 2023 | 2019 | 2022 | 2023 | 4 |
Irving G. Thalberg Memorial Award | Director and producer |
Notes
American composer Richard Rodgers (1902–1979) received his fourth distinct award in 1962. Between 1946 and 1979, Rodgers received a total of 10 competitive awards. He was the first person to win all four and was primarily a composer.
American actress Helen Hayes (1900–1993) received her fourth distinct award in 1977. Between 1932 and 1980, Hayes received a total of six competitive awards. She was the first woman and the first performer to win all four. Hayes was also the first person to win the Triple Crown of Acting, with individual acting wins in each of the Emmy, Oscar, and Tony awards, winning her third in 1953. Counting only the first award of each type, she also has the longest interval (45 years) between her first and fourth award of any EGOT winner.
Puerto Rican actress, dancer, and singer Rita Moreno (born 1931) received her fourth distinct award in 1977. Between 1961 and 1978, Moreno received a total of five awards.[19] She is also the first Latina winner and the first winner to win a Grammy as their second award (both previous winners won Tonys as their second award). In addition, she became a Kennedy Center Honoree in 2015 and a Peabody Award winner in 2019. Moreno also became the second person and the first Hispanic actress to win the Triple Crown of Acting.
English actor and theatre director John Gielgud (1904–2000) received his fourth distinct award in 1991. Between 1948 and 1991, Gielgud received a total of five competitive awards. Gielgud was the first winner to win any award other than the Oscar as their first award (his first award was a Tony). At age 87 when he won his Emmy, he also became the oldest winner, the first male performer, the first LGBT winner, and the first non-American.
British actress and humanitarian Audrey Hepburn (1929–1993) received her fourth distinct award posthumously in 1994. Between 1954 and 1994, Hepburn received a total of four competitive awards. She was the fifth person to complete the feat and the first to do so posthumously. She was also the first winner to win two of their awards in consecutive awards shows (the 1994 Grammys were the first Grammys since her posthumous win at the 1993 Emmys). She is the only EGOT winner to not win multiple awards in any of the four award fields.
American composer and conductor Marvin Hamlisch (1944–2012) received his fourth distinct award in 1995. Between 1974 and 2001, Hamlisch received a total of 12 competitive awards. Before Alan Menken joined the group in 2020, Hamlisch had the most Oscars of any EGOT winner (three - all won in the same year). In 1974 he would win "General Field" Grammys, taking Song of the Year and Best New Artist, making him first EGOT to have this distinction. Hamlisch was also the first EGOT winner to have won multiple, qualifying awards for the same work – both an Oscar and a Grammy for the song "The Way We Were".
American orchestrator, musical director, and composer Jonathan Tunick (born 1938) received his fourth distinct award in 1997. Between 1977 and 2024, Tunick received a total of five awards. Tunick is the first EGOT winner to have won an Emmy as their second award as well as the first to win the Tony as their fourth award.
American actor, comedian, and filmmaker Mel Brooks (born 1926) received his fourth distinct award in June 2001. Between 1968 and 2002, Brooks received a total of 11 awards.[20] Brooks was the first person to win the Emmy as the first award, and the first winner to have won his Oscar for screenwriting.
Brooks is one of only two people to have two awards of each type, though unlike the other (Robert Lopez) one of Brooks's Oscars was honorary. When he appeared on the January 30, 2015 episode of Real Time with Bill Maher, Brooks called himself an EGOTAK, noting that he had also received awards from the American Film Institute and Kennedy Center.
American film and theater director, producer, actor, and comedian Mike Nichols (1931–2014) received his fourth distinct award in November 2001. Between 1961 and 2012, Nichols received a total of 15 awards. Nichols was the first EGOT winner to win the Grammy as their first award, the first winner to have won multiple awards for directing (an Oscar, several Tonys, and two Emmys) . When counting all awards won—not just the first of each type—Nichols has the longest timespan of awards among EGOT winners, at 51 years.
American actress, comedian and author Whoopi Goldberg (born 1955) received her fourth distinct award in 2002. Between 1985 and 2009, she received a total of five competitive awards.[21] Goldberg is the first African American winner, the first to win the Oscar as their second award, and the third person after Audrey Hepburn (1954) and Marvin Hamlisch (1974) to win two of their qualifying awards in the same year (she won both her Tony and her first competitive Emmy in 2002).
American film, television, and theatre producer Scott Rudin (born 1958) received his fourth distinct award in 2012. Between 1984 and 2021, Rudin received a total of 21 awards, tying with Alan Menken for winning the most competitive EGOT awards. Rudin is currently the only EGOT winner who is solely a producer and did not win any of his four awards for a creative endeavor (i.e. singing, writing, acting).
American songwriter Robert Lopez (born 1975) received his fourth distinct award in 2014. Between 2004 and 2022, he received a total of 12 awards. He is the first Filipino and Asian to achieve this feat. He is the youngest winner (39 years, 8 days) to receive all four awards in competitive categories, as well as, at the time, the fastest to complete his qualifying run of EGOT wins (9 years, 8 months). His second series of wins set a new shortest interval of 7 years, 8 months (June 27th, 2010 Emmy through March 4th, 2018 Academy Award) until 2024 when both Benj Pasek and Justin Paul topped this record with a qualifying run of 7 years and 7 months.
Lopez is the first person to win each EGOT award twice.[22][23] He is currently the only winner to have two of each EGOT award in competitive categories, as Mel Brooks' second Oscar in 2023 was a special award. His first two Emmys were Daytime Emmys, followed by a Primetime Emmy in 2021 for WandaVision. He is the only EGOT recipient to follow a Daytime Emmy win with a subsequent Primetime Emmy win.
Lopez received his Grammy Award for The Book of Mormon in collaboration with fellow EGOT winner Scott Rudin (among others), making them the first pair of EGOT winners to co-win the same award. Lopez is also the first person to have won the Oscar last, a prize he shared then, and again in 2018, with his wife Kristen Anderson-Lopez.[24] As of 2024, Kristen Anderson-Lopez lacks only a Tony to achieve EGOT status in her own right.
English composer and impresario of musical theatre Andrew Lloyd Webber, Baron Lloyd-Webber (born 1948) received his fourth distinct award in 2018. Between 1980 and 2018, Lloyd Webber received a total of 11 competitive awards. On September 9, 2018, Lloyd Webber, John Legend, and Tim Rice all simultaneously became EGOTs when they were collectively awarded the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Variety Special (Live) for Jesus Christ Superstar Live in Concert.[25]
English lyricist and librettist Tim Rice (born 1944) received his fourth distinct award in 2018. Between 1980 and 2018, Rice received a total of 12 awards, and shares all of his awards with fellow EGOTs Andrew Lloyd Webber, Alan Menken, John Legend, and Elton John. On September 9, 2018, Lloyd Webber, Legend, and Rice all simultaneously became EGOTs when they were collectively awarded the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Variety Special (Live) for Jesus Christ Superstar Live in Concert.[25]
American singer, songwriter, pianist, and record producer John Legend (born 1978) received his fourth distinct award in 2018. Between 2006 and 2022, Legend received a total of 18 awards. Legend has won the most Grammy Awards, 12, of any competitive EGOT recipient. In addition to being the first black man to achieve EGOT status, Legend is the first person to receive the four awards in four consecutive years.[27][28] John was also the first EGOT recipient to have won both a competitive Primetime and Daytime Emmy Award, an accomplishment matched by Robert Lopez in 2021. Legend, Andrew Lloyd Webber, and Tim Rice all simultaneously became EGOTs on September 9, 2018, when they were collectively awarded the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Variety Special (Live) for Jesus Christ Superstar Live in Concert.[25]
American composer Alan Menken (born 1949) received his fourth distinct award in 2020.[29] Between 1990 and 2020, Menken received a total of 21 competitive awards, tying with Scott Rudin for the most awards to individuals whose EGOT status was achieved solely by competitive wins. If Menken's special (non-competitive) Emmy Award is counted, he becomes the fully competing EGOT with the most overall awards. If EGOT status is recognized without regard to any qualifying awards being non-competitive, then Quincy Jones holds the record with his 30 fully competitive awards, including 29 Grammys. Alan Menken has the most Oscar wins (8) by an EGOT.
American singer, actress, talk show host, and producer Jennifer Hudson (born 1981) received her fourth distinct award in 2022.[30] Hudson received a total of five competitive awards between 2007 and 2022, making her the youngest competitive female EGOT to date.
American actress and producer Viola Davis (born 1965) received her fourth distinct award in 2023.[31] Between 2001 and 2023, Davis received a total of five competitive awards becoming the eighteenth person to competitively win each of the four awards. Davis acknowledged her new EGOT status while accepting her 2023 Grammy.[32][33] Davis also became the third person and the first African American actress to win the Triple Crown of Acting.
English singer, composer, pianist, and producer Elton John (born 1947) received his fourth distinct award in 2024.[35] Between 1987 and 2024, John received a total of nine competitive awards becoming the nineteenth person to competitively win each of the four awards.
American composer, lyricist, and producer Benj Pasek (born 1985) received his fourth distinct award in 2024.[36] Pasek and Justin Paul set a new record for achieving EGOT status in the fastest time by winning all four awards within 7 years and 7 months.[37] Between 2017 and 2024, Pasek received a total of six competitive awards becoming the twentieth person to competitively win each of the four awards. Pasek shares all six of his competitive award wins with his writing partner and fellow EGOT-recipient Justin Paul.
American composer, lyricist, and producer Justin Paul (born 1985) received his fourth distinct award in 2024.[36] Paul and Benj Pasek set a new record for achieving EGOT status in the fastest time by winning all four awards within 7 years and 7 months.[37] Between 2017 and 2024, Paul received a total of six competitive awards becoming the twenty-first person to competitively win each of the four awards. Paul shares all six of his competitive award wins with his writing partner and fellow EGOT-recipient Benj Pasek.
Six additional artists have received all four awards, though one was bestowed for an honorary or similar non-competitive distinction: Barbra Streisand does not have a competitive Tony; Liza Minnelli does not have a competitive Grammy; and Harry Belafonte, James Earl Jones, Quincy Jones, and Frank Marshall are all without a competitive Oscar.
American singer, actress, and director Barbra Streisand (born 1942) received her fourth distinct award in 1970. Between 1963 and 2001, Streisand received a total of 18 awards, three of which were non-competitive. Having obtained her fourth award with a special Tony at age 28, she is the youngest special EGOT winner. With just six years elapsing between her first award, a 1964 Grammy, and her 1970 Tony, Streisand held the record for completing the fastest special EGOT until 2023 when Frank Marshall did so within four years. Streisand is the only EGOT to win an Oscar in both a music and an acting category. She is the only winner to have three competitive awards for debut performances: first studio album, first feature film, and first television special. Additional distinctions include the Peabody Award, the AFI Life Achievement Award, the Kennedy Center Honor, the Cecil B. DeMille Award, the National Medal of Arts, the American Society of Cinematographers Board of Governors Award, and the Presidential Medal of Freedom.
American actress, singer, dancer, and choreographer Liza Minnelli (born 1946) received her fourth distinct award in 1990. Between 1965 and 2009, Minnelli received a total of seven awards, two of which were special.
American actor James Earl Jones (1931–2024) received his fourth distinct award in 2011. Between 1969 and 2017, Jones received a total of eight awards, two of which were special.
American singer, activist, and actor Harry Belafonte (1927–2023) received his fourth distinct award in 2014. Between 1954 and 2014, Belafonte received a total of six awards, including a Grammy Hall of Fame Award and the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Oscar (six special awards).
American record producer, musician, songwriter, composer, arranger, and film and television producer Quincy Jones (1933–2024) received his fourth distinct award in 2016. Between 1964 and 2024, Jones received a total of 33 awards — the highest number so far of any EGOT winner. He competed for and won 28 Grammys, one Tony, and one Emmy, also receiving a special Grammy Legend Award and two special Oscars (the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award and the Academy Honorary Award). Quincy's final qualifying award was a fully competitive 2016 Tony for The Color Purple.
American film producer and director Frank Marshall (born 1946) received his fourth distinct award in 2023. Between 2019 and 2023, Marshall received a total of four awards. He is the only EGOT winner to have won a Sports Emmy Award and to have received the Irving G.Thalberg Memorial Award. With just four years elapsing between his first award (a 2019 honorary Oscar), a long format TV sports documentary, and competitive Grammy and Tony music awards, Marshall completed his unique, if not eclectic, EGOT collection in the shortest time of all persons to have reached this status.
The following people have each won three out of the four major entertainment awards in competitive categories.[38] As of November 2024, 72 living people are one award away from achieving (competitive) EGOT status.
Notes
In addition to the above winners, the following people have each won three out of the four major entertainment awards in either competitive categories or non-competitive special and honorary categories.
Notes
The following people have not won all four awards in competitive categories but have received at least one nomination for each of them:
Notes
There are conflicting definitions for the PEGOT. Some say the "P" refers to the Peabody Award,[41] others say it is the Pulitzer Prize.[42][43][44] As of 2024[update], Mike Nichols, Rita Moreno, Barbra Streisand, and Mel Brooks have achieved this status by winning the Peabody;[45] while Richard Rodgers and Marvin Hamlisch have achieved it by winning the Pulitzer.[46]
EGOT winners who also won at least one Peabody Award:
EGOT winners who also won at least one Pulitzer Prize:
People who won a Peabody, lacking only one EGOT award:
People who won a Pulitzer, lacking only one EGOT award:
Notes
† – Person is deceased.
Another variation is the REGOT, which includes being awarded a Razzie.[48][49] Alan Menken has a REGOT due to his Razzie win with Jack Feldman for Worst Original Song for "High Times, Hard Times" from Newsies.[50] With her Razzie win for Worst Actress for Rent-a-Cop and Arthur 2: On the Rocks, Liza Minnelli has a REGOT if her non-competitive Grammy Legend Award is considered.[51]
The Emmy, Grammy, Oscar, and Tony Awards are presided over by industry bodies based in the United States, and as of 2024, 14 out of the 19 EGOT winners were American nationals. The remaining five ― John Gielgud, Audrey Hepburn, Andrew Lloyd Webber, Tim Rice, and Elton John ― were British. Many countries hold their own equivalent awards ceremonies honouring their own television, music, film, and theatre industries. In some cases, commentators in other countries have derived their own acronyms for individuals who have won at all four ceremonies.
In 2018, Leah Collins of CBC Arts proposed a Canadian equivalent of the EGOT: the Canadian Screen Awards (and their predecessors, the Gemini and Genie Awards) for film and television, the Juno Awards for music, and the Dora Mavor Moore Awards for theatre.[52] Toronto-based game show Trivia Club referred to this combination as the "Two-Can-Ju-Do".[53] No individual has won in all four categories.
In 2019, Caitlin Welsh of Nova Entertainment proposed the "LAHA" as an Australian equivalent: the Logie Awards for television, the ARIA Music Awards for music, the Helpmann Awards for theatre, and the AACTA Awards for film.[54] She also could not identify any winners of all four awards, although Noni Hazlehurst has received nominations in all four.
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