Every Performer Who Has Won An EGOT

After years in the business, established actors, musicians, and performers often rack up plenty of major awards, but it takes an incredible amount of talent to cross different media and earn recognition in multiple arenas. Over the years, a small yet incredibly diverse group of creative talents have won an elusive, nearly impossible distinction: the EGOT, a quadruple lineup of an Emmy, a Grammy, an Oscar, and a Tony.

Obviously, conquering the worlds of television, music, theatre, and film all at once is a pretty hard task to accomplish, but from composers to actors to directors, 15 artists to date have achieved this Herculean goal. However, it's important to note that everyone on this list has won their EGOT with competitive awards. There are also stars like Barbra Streisand, Quincy Jones, Liza Minnelli, and James Earl Jones who technically have all four awards, but at least one is a non-competitive recognition like a lifetime achievement award or an honorary statue.

As awards season comes around year after year, performers who have won three out of the four awards vie for their chance to close out their collection. To date, only these 15 people have achieved EGOT status. Here's the full list of these multitalented masters.

30 Rock's Tracy Jordan (Tracy Morgan) would have never become obsessed with earning an EGOT of his own if it wasn't for Richard Rodgers, the first ever artist to win all four awards in their lifetime. It makes sense that Rodgers would be able to cross over into several different artistic worlds with ease. Rodgers, who passed away in 1979, was a composer whose legendary talent spanned music, theatre, film, and television. He was best known for perennial favorites like The Sound of Music, South Pacific, The King & I, and Oklahoma!, many of which were written alongside his creative partner Oscar Hammerstein II.

Rodgers won his first of the four awards at the 1945 Academy Awards for Best Original Song thanks to State Fair's "It Might As Well Be Spring," following that with a whopping six Tony Awards between 1950 and 1962. In fact, 1962 was a lucrative year for Rodgers. In that year alone, he received a Primetime Emmy Award (for scoring Winston Churchill: The Valiant Years), one of his two Grammy Awards (this one for No Strings' cast album), and his final competitive Tony Award (also for No Strings). Rodgers is also one of two EGOT winners to also win a Pulitzer, which he received for South Pacific.

The second person (and first woman) to achieve EGOT status was the esteemed Helen Hayes, who passed away in 1993 after a long and illustrious career. Hayes won a whopping seven major awards in the time period between 1932 and 1980 — the longest span of any EGOT winner to date. Not only did she achieve EGOT status, she marked another milestone specifically for actors as the first ever person to win the "Triple Crown" of Acting, meaning that she won an Emmy, Oscar, and Tony, the three major acting awards. 

Hayes won her first award of the four at the 1932 Academy Awards, winning Best Actress in a Leading Role for The Sin of Madelon Claudet, later winning her second for Best Supporting Actress in 1970 for Airport. She also won two competitive Tony Awards — one in 1947 for Happy Birthday and one in 1958 for Time Remembered, both for Best Actress, Dramatic — winning her final major award in 1980 with a lifetime achievement award for Distinguished Lifetime Achievement in American Theatre at the Tonys. Before that, she also took home a Primetime Emmy Award for Best Actress for the anthology show Schlitz Playhouse of Stars and a Grammy for her spoken word album, Great American Documents. 

Rita Moreno made history when she achieved EGOT status in 1977 as the first Hispanic EGOT winner and the second woman to win all four awards, and the legendary actress continues to delight onstage and on the big and small screen today. The Puerto Rican actress is a true force of nature, and she didn't even stop at winning an EGOT. Beyond winning the Triple Crown of Acting (like Helen Hayes), she also has a Presidential Medal of Freedom from President George W. Bush, a National Medal of Arts from President Barack Obama, a Kennedy Center Honors Lifetime Achievement Award, and a Peabody Award for Career Achievement.

Moreno's first step towards an EGOT was for her career-defining role as Anita in the film adaptation of West Side Story, a part which netted her an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress in 1962. A decade later, in 1972, she picked up a Grammy Award for Best Recording for Children for The Electric Company. She then won a Tony Award for Best Supporting Actress for The Ritz in 1975 shortly thereafter. Moreno completed her EGOT in 1977 with a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Continuing or Single Performance by a Supporting Actress in Variety or Music for The Muppet Show, and would eventually win a second Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress for a Single Appearance in a Drama or Comedy Series thanks to her brief stint on The Rockford Files.

By the time Sir John Gielgud passed away in 2000, his incredible career had stretched across eight entire decades. It's not entirely surprising, then, that he was the fourth ever person to win a full EGOT. Gielgud made history beyond that as well, becoming the first gay actor to ever win an EGOT, as well as being the oldest winner in the club, winning his final award at the age of 87. Known for his extensive Shakespearean resume, Gielgud was knighted in 1953, and his eponymous theater, the Gielgud Theatre, is one of the busiest playhouses in London to this day.

Though he made his film debut in 1924, he had his first big hit in 1964 with Becket, kicking off his time on the big screen in a huge way, and Gielgud went on to appear in over 60 films by the late 1990s. Gielgud won an Oscar for Best Supporting Actor in 1981 for his role in Arthur, which was preceded by a Tony Award in 1961 for directing Big Fish, Little Fish. In 1979, Gielgud scored a Grammy Award for his spoken word album Ages of Man, and finally, he finished out his EGOT in 1991 with a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Miniseries or Special thanks to his starring role in the British series Summer's Lease. 

One of the most iconic actresses of all time, Audrey Hepburn might be most recognizable to younger generations from the Breakfast at Tiffany's poster on the wall of every girl's college dorm room, but don't overlook that Hepburn was one of the most accomplished actresses of Hollywood's Golden Age. Sadly, Hepburn was the first EGOT winner to complete her four award run posthumously, but even so, she performed important and inspiring roles both on and off screen. 

Besides her performing career, Hepburn was an accomplished and generous humanitarian, working in impoverished communities across the world as a UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador and earning a Presidential Medal of Freedom from President George H.W. Bush. Along with Jonathan Tunick, Hepburn is one of just two EGOT winners to only win one award in each category. Hepburn also holds one of the most glamorous distinctions in history as one of only three people to wear the famous Tiffany Diamond, which would go on to adorn Lady Gaga's neck during the 2019 Golden Globes.

After winning an Academy Award for Best Leading Actress for Roman Holiday in 1953, Hepburn won a Tony Award just one year later for her leading role in Ondine. However, her final two competitive awards — a Primetime Emmy Award for Gardens of the World with Audrey Hepburn and a Grammy Award for her children's spoken word album Audrey Hepburn's Enchanted Tales — were both awarded shortly after her death in 1993.

Another composer who went on to win an EGOT, Marvin Hamlisch surpassed Richard Rodgers' legacy by becoming the first EGOT winner to have the exact same project win multiple letters of the EGOT. Hamlisch also has the most Academy Awards of any Academy Award winner, with an impressive three Oscars (all in musical categories). If you're unfamiliar with Hamlisch by name alone, you've almost certainly heard his original scores and songs, from A Chorus Line to the music of The Way We Were.

In fact, The Way We Were was his ticket to EGOT status; Hamlisch scored the film, which stars Barbra Streisand and Robert Redford as two lovers who just can't make it work, and he also wrote the title song. Both the score and "The Way We Were" netted Oscars and Grammy Awards for Hamlisch in 1974, the same year he also won Grammy Awards for Best New Artist of the Year and Best Pop Instrumental Performance (for "The Entertainer"). He also won an Oscar for scoring 1973's The Sting. 

For his Emmys, Hamlisch worked with Streisand once again in 1995, netting two statues for music direction as well as music & lyrics for Barbra: The Concert, and went on to win two more Emmys for live concerts. Hamlisch's most famous project also ensured his legacy: not only did A Chorus Line win Hamlisch his sole Tony, but it also won the Pulitzer Prize.

Writing great music seems to be a surefire way to win an EGOT, a tactic which absolutely worked for composer Jonathan Tunick. Along with Audrey Hepburn, Tunick is one of two EGOT winners to only win one award at each ceremony, but his contributions to music certainly can't be overlooked.

Tunick achieved EGOT status over the course of exactly twenty years. In 1977, he won an Academy Award for Best Music, Original Song Score and Its Adaptation or Best Adaptation Score for A Little Night Music, which was directed by Harold Prince and based on the popular Broadway musical. 1982 brought Tunick his first and only Emmy award for his music direction of Night of 100 Stars, and shortly thereafter, he took home a Grammy award for arranging Cleo Laine's song "No One Is Alone." Finally, in 1997, Tunick completed the set with a Tony Award for Best Orchestrations for Titanic — not James Cameron's epic film, but a Broadway musical which swept the Tonys upon its release that same year.

It makes perfect sense that a comedic trailblazer and legend like Mel Brooks would have conquered all four major artistic awards, a feat which he completed in 2001. The mind behind beloved comedies like Blazing Saddles, Young Frankenstein, and The Producers, just to name a few, is an awards overachiever just like many of his EGOT cohorts. Beyond an EGOT, Brooks has a National Medal of Arts (bestowed by President Barack Obama), a 2009 Kennedy Center Honor, a 2013 AFI Lifetime Achievement Award, and most of his films hold the top spots on AFI's list top 100 comedy films of the 20th century.

Brooks picked up his first major award at the Oscars in 1968, where he won for Best Original Screenplay for The Producers, which proved unbelievably successful for the venerated director. The eventual Broadway adaptation of The Producers netted both Tony Awards (for Best Book, Best Score, and Best Musical) and Grammy Awards (for Best Original Show Album and Best Long Form Music Video, the latter of which is a making-of documentary about The Producers). Brooks has also won a total of four Emmy awards; though he kicked off his Emmy wins in 1967 for Best Writing in Variety for The Sid Caesar, Imogene Coca, Carl Reiner, Howard Morris Special, his more impressive Emmys feat is his three year streak as Outstanding Guest Actor in a Comedy for Mad About You from 1997 to 1999.

Mike Nichols — who passed away in 2014 — completed his EGOT in 2001, though he continued winning awards well past then. The Berlin-born comedian and director, who directed classic films like Silkwood and The Birdcage along with dozens of Broadway productions, might have an EGOT, but that's just the tip of his awards iceberg. When you look at Nichols' award-winning span (not just the time it took him to earn his EGOT), he has the longest winning streak of any EGOT winner (at 51 years), and is also the first EGOT winner to pick up multiple statues as a director.

Nichols broke onto the scene not as a director, but as a comedian. In the 1950s, he teamed up with Elaine May to create the comedy duo Nichols & May. Though the pair went their separate ways in 1961, their work still earned Nichols his only Grammy award for Best Comedy Performance (for An Evening with Nichols and May). He then went on to win Best Director at the Academy Awards for The Graduate in 1967 and won Emmys for Wit and Angels in America during the early 21st century. The Tonys, though, are where Nichols always truly shined. From 1964 to 2012, Nichols won an astonishing nine Tony Awards, seven of which were for directing and two of which were for the overall production winning Best Musical (Annie in 1977) or Best Play (1984's The Real Thing). 

One of the most beloved and recognizable faces in Hollywood also happens to be an EGOT winner, which should hardly come as a surprise when you study her storied career. Whoopi Goldberg completed her EGOT in 2002, when she made history as the first African American performer to ever win all four awards, as well as the first artist to win two parts of the EGOT during the same year.

In 1986, Goldberg kicked off her EGOT quest with a Grammy Award for, unsurprisingly, Best Comedy Performance. She followed that in 1991 with an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress in Ghost — not exactly a movie overflowing with typical Oscars appeal, which just goes to show how good her performance was. In 2002, she picked up her remaining two awards, with an Emmy for Outstanding Special Class Special for Beyond Tara: The Extraordinary Life of Hattie McDaniel (on which she served as a host) as well as a Tony Award for producing that year's revival of Thoroughly Modern Millie. 

Despite the fact that she won a second Emmy Award in 2009 for Outstanding Talk Show Host (for The View), neither of Goldberg's Emmys are Primetime Emmy Awards (they're both Daytime Emmys), which has led some to wonder if she should be included in the list — a point of view Goldberg herself lampooned on 30 Rock. 

If this list has taught you anything so far, you might think that the only surefire path to EGOT success is to be a composer, but as Scott Rudin has proven, being a producer works just as well. The powerful man behind the curtain completed his EGOT in 2012, building a career by supporting successful and worthy projects that have collectively earned him a whole shelf of awards — in fact, with 20 total trophies, he has more than any other EGOT winner.

Rudin got started early in 1984 with an Emmy Award for Outstanding Children's Program (specifically, He Makes Me Feel Like Dancin', a documentary about a former ballet star), and from then on, he was unstoppable. The Tony Awards are his strongest category, with an incredible 17 statues (he only has one award each in the other three categories), all for producing, which he first won in 1994 for Passion. After that, he picked up Tonys as a producer for hits like Doubt, The History Boys, The Book of Mormon, the Mike Nichols revival of Death of a Salesman (which also won the director a Tony), the 2017 revival of Hello, Dolly!, The Ferryman, and more. The Book of Mormon proved to be quite lucrative for Rudin, as it also earned him a Grammy Award for the show's original cast album. Rudin's lone Oscar, meanwhile, is thanks to the Coen Brothers' 2007 film No Country for Old Men.

The youngest ever EGOT winner in history, songwriter Robert Lopez rounded out his EGOT at just 39 years old, and even completed the feat in the shortest amount of time, winning all four awards in a span of just ten years. He is also the first ever performer to win what has since been termed a "Double EGOT," meaning that he has at least two wins in every single category. On top of all that, he is also the first artist of Filipino and Asian descent to take home EGOT gold.

Lopez officially began his EGOT journey in 2004 when he took home his first of three eventual Tonys for Avenue Q's score. He ended up winning Best Score again, alongside Best Book, in 2011 for The Book of Mormon, the latter of which is an award he shares with South Park creators Matt Stone and Trey Parker (Lopez also has a Grammy for Book of Mormon's cast recording). Lopez has two Daytime Emmys for music & composition for the children's show Wonder Pets, but his real prize pig is Frozen's hit song "Let it Go," which won him yet another Grammy in 2015, as well as one of his two Academy Awards, both of which he shares with his wife, Kristen Anderson-Lopez. The duo eventually won Best Original Song at the Oscars for a second time in 2018 thanks to "Remember Me" from the Pixar film Coco. 

It might seem crazy that it took until 2018 for Andrew Lloyd Webber, one of the all-time giants of musical theater, to achieve EGOT status, but in the end, he finally won a trophy in each category. Webber, of course, is the composer and songwriter behind classics like The Phantom of the Opera, Cats, Evita, Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, and Jesus Christ Superstar, which catapulted him to EGOT status nearly four decades after he won his first qualifying award.

Lloyd Webber started his EGOT off with his first Tony and Grammy Awards in 1980, both for Evita, winning more of both for Cats just three years later. 1997 brought Lloyd Webber an Academy Award for Best Original Song for "You Must Love Me," thanks to the Madonna-fronted Evita film adaptation. Still, Lloyd Webber's Emmy proved elusive for over 20 years, until NBC staged a live television production of Jesus Christ Superstar in April of 2018. Finally, Lloyd Webber took home Emmy gold, completing his EGOT.

2018 was a good year for EGOTs, thanks to Jesus Christ Superstar Live in Concert — three people joined the illustrious EGOT club, which is a lot, considering how low the total is to begin with. Tim Rice, alongside his long time collaborator Andrew Lloyd Webber, was one of the three. Rice, who has also been winning qualifying awards since 1980, shares many of his honors with Lloyd Webber, including the Emmy that made them both EGOT winners. 

Rice and Lloyd Webber share Tonys, Grammys, and an Oscar for Evita and its film adaptation, as well as the Emmy for Outstanding Variety Special for Jesus Christ Superstar Live in Concert, but Rice has plenty of awards in his own right. Rice won both a Grammy and an Academy Award for "A Whole New World" from the Disney film Aladdin, another Oscar for The Lion King's "Can You Feel the Love Tonight," and yet another Grammy and a Tony Award for Aida. 

The third Jesus Christ Superstar winner in 2018 was none other than John Legend, the multitalented musician who has won the most Grammy Awards of any EGOT winner (with ten since his win for Best New Artist in 2006). Legend made plenty of history upon his EGOT win; not only is he the first African American man to win the full set, but he is also the first winner to win all four of them in consecutive years.

Legend has been a Grammy darling ever since his Best New Artist trophy — that same year, he won Best R&B Album for Get Lifted as well as Best Male R&B Vocal Performance for his song "Ordinary People." Aside from his Grammys, Legend has found plenty of success throughout major awards shows. In 2017, he won a Tony Award for the Broadway revival of Jitney, which he produced, and in 2015, he won his first and only Academy Award (alongside Common) for "Glory," an original song he wrote for Ava DuVernay's Best Picture nominee Selma. However, his producing credit — as well as his leading role as Jesus Christ, for which he was nominated for an Emmy but did not win — helped propel him to EGOT status in 2018, solidifying his spot in Hollywood history.