If Viola Davis thinks that her lack of musical background will keep her from winning a Grammy and completing her EGOT, she needs to take a look at our roster of the 12 artists who have reached this pinnacle. Sure, the likes of arranger Jonathan Tunick and composer Marvin Hamlisch picked up these top prizes from the recording academy for musical works. But others among these dozen overachievers won for more accessible categories for the likes of Davis
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Musical Theater Album
Richard Rodgers, “No Strings” (1960)
Robert Lopez, “The Book of Mormon” (2012)
Scott Rudin, “The Book of Mormon” (2012)
Comedy Album
Mike Nichols, “An Evening with Mike Nichols and Elaine May” (1962)
Whoopi Goldberg, “Whoopi Goldberg on Broadway” (1986)
Mel Brooks, “The 2000 Year Old Man in the Year 2000.” (1999)
Spoken Word Album
Helen Hayes, “Great American Documents” (1976)
John Gielgud, “Ages of Man” (1979)
Children’s Album
Rita Moreno, “The Electric Company” (1977)
Spoken Word Album for Children (merged into Children’s Album in 2012)
Audrey Hepburn, “Audrey Hepburn’s Enchanted Tales” (1994)
Below, we recount all the wins across the four elements of the EGOT — Emmys, Grammys, Oscars and Tonys — by these dozen grand slam champs.
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Composer Richard Rodgers was the first to collect all four awards. In 1945, he took home the best song Oscar for “It Might As Well Be Spring” from “State Fair,” the only Rodgers & Hammerstein musical written directly for the screen. Two years after the creation of the Tonys, “South Pacific” won Rodgers the first of his six awards for score. He won the first of his two Grammys in 1960 for the cast album of “No Strings.” Rodgers rounded out his awards collection when he won his only Emmy in 1962 for his score for the documentary series “Winston Churchill: The Valiant Years.”
The first woman to win the EGOT, Helen Hayes, also took the longest with 44 years between the time she took home the first of her two Oscars (Best Actress, “The Sin of Madelon Claudet”) in 1932 and her Grammy in 1976 for Best Spoken Word Recording (“Great American Documents”). Dubbed the First Lady of the American theater, Hayes won the first of her two Tonys for Best Actress in a Play for her performance in “Happy Birthday” at the first ceremony in 1947, tying with Ingrid Bergman (“Joan of Lorraine”). She won her Emmy in 1953 for a role in an installment of “Schlitz Playhouse of Stars.”
Rita Moreno rounded up the EGOT in just 16 years winning her first kudo — the supporting actress Oscar for her role as Anita in “West Side Story” — in 1961 and her fourth — an Emmy for guesting on “The Muppet Show” — in 1977. In between, she earned a Grammy in 1972 for Best Recording for Children for “The Electric Company”and a Tony in 1975 for her featured performance in the play “The Ritz.”
John Gielgud was the oldest artist to complete the EGOT as he was 87 when he won his Emmy in 1991 for Best Movie/Miniseries Actor for “Summer’s Lease.” While Gielgud was best known for acting, he won the Tony in 1961 for directing the play “Big Fish, Little Fish.” The noted stage star won his Grammy in 1979 for “Ages of Man,” a recording of pieces from Shakespeare’s plays. Two years later, he won the Oscar for his sly performance as the wry butler to the irrascible “Arthur.”
Audrey Hepburn is the only artist to complete the EGOT posthumously. The road to the EGOT began with her first starring role in a film, winning the lead actress Oscar for “Roman Holiday” in 1953. Just weeks after that ceremony, Hepburn won a Tony for her leading performance in the play “Ondine.” The TV program “Gardens of the World with Audrey Hepburn” — the program for which she won the Emmy — premiered the day after her death at age 63 in 1993. Her Grammy came in 1994 for Best Spoken Word Album for Children for “Audrey Hepburn’s Enchanted Tales.”
Composer Marvin Hamlisch has the most Oscars of any of the EGOT holders with his three wins in 1973 for the song and score to “The Way We Were” and the score of “The Sting.” The following year, he won four Grammys, including Best New Artist as well as Song of the Year for “The Way We Were.” In 1976, he won the Tony for his score for the landmark musical “A Chorus Line.” He would have to wait almost two decades to complete the EGOT with his two Emmy wins for “Barbra Streisand: The Concert” in 1995. (While Streisand won competitive Emmys, Grammys and Oscars, her Tony is only an honorary one.)
While Jonathan Tunick is best known for his work in the theater, he had to wait until the Tony Awards created the category for best orchestrations in 1997, which he won for “Titanic,” before he could complete the EGOT. Tunick is a frequent collaborator with Stephen Sondheim and won the Oscar for adapting the composer’s score for the film version of “A Little Night Music” in 1977. His Emmy came in 1982 for music direction of the special “Night of 100 Stars,” and he won his Grammy in 1988 for the arrangement of “No One Is Alone.”
Mel Brooks won the Emmy — for co-writing the “Your Show of Shows” reunion special — in 1967 and the Oscar the following year for his original script of “The Producers.” Three decades later, he and Carl Reiner won the spoken comedy album Grammy for “The 2000 Year Old Man in the Year 2000.” And he celebrated the first year of the new millennium with a legit version of “The Producers” which won a record-breaking 12 Tonys, including awards for Brooks for book and score.
Mike Nichols has the biggest collection of EGOT awards with 14. While almost all of these came his way for directing, Nichols’ first win was for Best Comedy Performance at the 1961 Grammys for “An Evening with Mike Nichols and Elaine May.” He won the first of his eight Tonys for helming the play “Barefoot in the Park” in 1963. In 1967, Nichols won the Oscar for directing “The Graduate,” and in 2001 he took home Emmys for directing and producing the telefilm “Wit.”
Whoopi Goldberg was the first and only person to round out her EGOT collection with a Daytime Emmy. She won the Grammy in 1985 for Best Comedy Recording for an abridged version of her one-woman Broadway show. In 1990, she won the supporting actress Oscar for “Ghost.” The first of her Daytime Emmys came in 2002 as a producer of the special “Beyond Tara: The Extraordinary Life of Hattie McDaniel,” and a month later she won a Tony as co-producer of best musical “Thoroughly Modern Millie.”
Scott Rudin won all four of his awards as a producer beginning with an Emmy in 1984 for the children’s program “He Makes Me Feel Like Dancin’.” Since then, he has taken home eight Tonys beginning in 1994 for the Best Musical “Passion”; the 2007 Best Picture Oscar for “No Country For Old Men”; and the 2012 Musical Show Album Grammy for “The Book of Mormon.”
At age 39, composer Robert Lopez was the youngest ever to join the EGOT club. He first won a Tony Award in 2004 for the original score of “Avenue Q” and followed with two more wins in 2011 for “The Book of Mormon.” That musical also brought him a Grammy Award in 2012. He earned Daytime Emmys in 2008 and 2010 for music direction of “The Wonder Pets.” For his first Oscar nomination in 2013, he (and his wife) won for “Let It Go” from Disney’s animated hit for Best Original Song.
