Only 18 artists have won what is popularly referred to as the EGOT, but was originally known as the Grand Slam of show business awards: the Emmy, Grammy, Oscar and Tony. Tina Fey made the acronym — coined back in the 1980s by Philip Michael Thomas of “Miami Vice” — famous in a 2009 episode of “30 Rock.” While moviedom’s top prize — the Oscar — dates back to 1927, two of the other kudos came about in the 1940s (Tonys, Emmys) while the first Grammys were not awarded until 1959. By the way, if you are looking for Harry Belafonte, James Earl Jones, Liza Minnelli or Barbra Streisand among this list, they aren’t listed because at least one of their awards was honorary and not given in competition.
They are (in chronological order of achievement) composer Richard Rodgers, actress Helen Hayes, actress Rita Moreno, actor John Gielgud, actress Audrey Hepburn, composer Marvin Hamlisch, orchestrator Jonathan Tunick, writer/director/composer Mel Brooks, director Mike Nichols, actress Whoopi Goldberg, producer Scott Rudin, composer Robert Lopez, singer and actor John Legend, composer Tim Rice, composer Andrew Lloyd Webber, and composer Alan Menken, actress/producer Jennifer Hudson and actress Viola Davis.
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Richard Rodgers
Image Credit: Fairchild Archive/Penske Media 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 and 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. The first of his two Grammys came in 1960 for the cast album of “No Strings,” and 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.”
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Helen Hayes
Image Credit: Fairchild Publishing he 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.”
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Rita Moreno
Image Credit: Mega 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.”
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John Gielgud
Image Credit: WWD 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.”
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Audrey Hepburn
Image Credit: Courtesy Image 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.”
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Marvin Hamlisch
Image Credit: Courtesy Image Composer Marvin Hamlisch had 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. 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.)
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Jonathan Tunick
Image Credit: Joseph Marzullo/WENN/Newscom/The Mega Agency 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.”
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Mel Brooks
Image Credit: Lee Roth/STAR MAX, Inc./Newscom/The Mega Agency 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.
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Mike Nichols
Image Credit: Steve Eichner/WWD 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.”
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Whoopi Goldberg
Image Credit: Fairchild Archive/Penske Media 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.”
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Scott Rudin
Image Credit: JM11/WENN 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.”
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Robert Lopez
Image Credit: MJ Photos/Deadline 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.
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John Legend
Image Credit: Peter Kramer/NBC Among John Legend’s many Grammy wins, his first three were in 2006 for Best New Artist, Best R&B Album (“Get Lifted”), and Best R&B Male Performance (“Ordinary People”). He then won an Oscar in 2015 for Best Original Song (“Glory” from “Selma”) and a Tony in 2017 for producing Best Revival of a Play (“Jitney”). He won an Emmy in 2018 for producing “Jesus Christ Superstar.”
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Tim Rice
Image Credit: DH1/Dimitri Halkidis / WENN/Newscom/The Mega Agency Tim Rice first won a Tony (“Evita,” 1980), Grammy (“Evita,” 1980), and Oscar (“Aladdin,” 1993). He won an Emmy in 2018 for producing “Jesus Christ Supertar.”
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Andrew Lloyd Webber
Image Credit: Stephen Lovekin/Variety Andrew Lloyd Webber first won a Tony (“Evita,” 1980), Grammy (1980), and Oscar (“Evita,” 1997). He won an Emmy in 2018 for producing “Jesus Christ Supertar.”
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Alan Menken
Image Credit: Stephen Lovekin/Variety Alan Menken first won an Oscar (“The Little Mermaid,” 1990), Grammy (“The Little Mermaid,” 1991), Tony (“Newsies,” 2012) and Daytime Emmy (“Rapunzel’s Tangled Adventure,” 2020).
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Jennifer Hudson
Image Credit: Michael Buckner for WWD Jennifer Hudson first won an Oscar (“Dreamgirls,” 2007), a Grammy (“Jennifer Hudson,” 2009), Daytime Emmy (“Baba Yaga,” 2021) and Tony (“A Strange Loop,” 2022).
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Viola Davis
Image Credit: Unique Nicole/Getty Images Viola Davis first won a Tony (“King Hedley II, 2001), Emmy (“How to Get Away with Murder,” 2015), Oscar (“Fences,” 2017) and Grammy (“Finding Me,” 2023).
