EGOT

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 performing art awards in the United States. Respectively, these awards honor outstanding achievements in television, audio recording/music, film, and Broadway theatre. Achieving the EGOT has been referred to as the "grand slam" of American show business. Including those with honorary or special awards, 28 people have achieved this status. Only one person, Robert Lopez, has won all four awards twice.

Background

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. The acronym gained wider recognition following a 2009 episode of 30 Rock that introduced EGOT status as a recurring plotline. There is some debate over whether only the Primetime Emmy Award should count towards an EGOT, as some (including Thomas himself) distinguish the other types of Emmy competitions as subordinate to the Primetime honor.

Starting in 2016, the Daytime Emmy Awards had a category 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, Rachel Bay Jones, Katrina Lenk, Ben Platt, 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.

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.

EGOT winners

Competitive EGOT

Non-competitive EGOT

Notes

Competitive EGOT awardees

Richard Rodgers

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.

• Academy Awards:

1. 1946: Best Song – "It Might as Well Be Spring" (from State Fair)

• Primetime Emmy Awards:

1. 1962: Outstanding Achievement in Original Music Composed for Television – Winston Churchill: The Valiant Years

• Grammy Awards:

1. 1961: Best Show Album (Original Cast) – The Sound of Music
2. 1963: Best Original Cast Show Album – No Strings

• Tony Awards:

1. 1950: Best Musical – South Pacific
2. 1950: Producers (Musical) – South Pacific
3. 1950: Best Score – South Pacific
4. 1952: Best Musical – The King and I
5. 1960: Best Musical – The Sound of Music
6. 1962: Best Composer – No Strings

• Special Awards:

1. 1962: Special Tony Award "for all he has done for young people in the theatre and for taking the men of the orchestra out of the pit and putting them onstage in No Strings"
2. 1972: Special Tony Award
3. 1979: Special Tony Award – Lawrence Langner Memorial Award for Distinguished Lifetime Achievement in the American Theatre

Helen Hayes

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 EGOT recipient to win the Triple Crown of Acting (with individual acting wins in each of the Emmy, Oscar, and Tony awards). 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.

• Academy Awards:

1. 1932: Best Actress in a Leading Role – The Sin of Madelon Claudet
2. 1971: Best Actress in a Supporting Role – Airport

• Primetime Emmy Awards:

1. 1953: Best Actress – Schlitz Playhouse of Stars (Episode: "Not a Chance")

• Grammy Awards:

1. 1977: Best Spoken Word Recording – Great American Documents

• Tony Awards:

1. 1947: Best Actress in a Play – Happy Birthday
2. 1958: Best Leading Actress in a Play – Time Remembered

• Special Awards:

1. 1980: Special Tony Award – Lawrence Langner Memorial Award for Distinguished Lifetime Achievement in the American Theatre

Rita Moreno

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. 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 is also the second EGOT recipient and the first Hispanic actress to win the Triple Crown of Acting.

• Academy Awards:

1. 1962: Best Actress in a Supporting Role – West Side Story

• Primetime Emmy Awards:

1. 1977: Outstanding Continuing or Single Performance by a Supporting Actress in Variety or Music – The Muppet Show (Episode: "Rita Moreno")
2. 1978: Outstanding Lead Actress for a Single Appearance in a Drama or Comedy Series – The Rockford Files (Episode: "The Paper Palace")

• Grammy Awards:

1. 1973: Best Recording for Children – The Electric Company

• Tony Awards:

1. 1975: Best Supporting or Featured Actress in a Play – The Ritz

John Gielgud

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 LGBTQ winner, and the first non-American.

• Academy Awards:

1. 1982: Best Actor in a Supporting Role – Arthur

• Primetime Emmy Awards:

1. 1991: Outstanding Lead Actor in a Miniseries or a Special – Summer's Lease

• Grammy Awards:

1. 1980: Best Spoken Word, Documentary or Drama Recording – Ages of Man

• Tony Awards:

1. 1948: Outstanding Foreign Company – The Importance of Being Earnest
2. 1961: Best Director of a Drama – Big Fish, Little Fish

• Special Awards:

1. 1959: Special Tony Award "for contribution to theatre for his extraordinary insight into the writings of Shakespeare as demonstrated in his one-man play Ages of Man."

Audrey Hepburn

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.

• Academy Awards:

1. 1954: Best Actress in a Leading Role – Roman Holiday

• Primetime Emmy Awards:

1. 1993: Outstanding Individual Achievement – Informational Programming – Gardens of the World with Audrey Hepburn (Episode: "Flower Gardens")

• Grammy Awards:

1. 1994: Best Spoken Word Album for Children – Audrey Hepburn's Enchanted Tales

• Tony Awards:

1. 1954: Distinguished Dramatic Actress – Ondine

• Special Awards:

1. 1968: Special Tony Award
2. 1993: Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award

Marvin Hamlisch

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".