Sure, it's an honor just to be nominated. But to win any of the most prestigious awards in film, TV, theatre, and music puts an entertainer in a special club. Narrow that down to those who have won all four and you have an even more exclusive society. When someone in show business wins an Oscar, Emmy, Grammy, and Tony, it's said that they've achieved the EGOT. Only 16 people in history (so far) have marked this incredible milestone, and they run the gamut from songwriting to producing to performance. Keep reading to find out which stars have won the EGOT and what they were recognized for. And for more awards-worthy work, check out 13 Great Oscar-Winning Performances That Still Hold Up.
1 | Mel Brooks
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Mel Brooks is a show business legend, so it's no surprise to find him on this list. He marked EGOT Bingo in 2001 when he won three Tony awards (Best Musical, Best Book, and Best Original Score) for the blockbuster musical adaptation of his film The Producers. Prior to that, he had won a 1967 Emmy for writing The Sid Caesar, Imogene Coca, Carl Reiner, Howard Morris Special, plus three Guest Actor nods for appearing on Mad About You; the Original Screenplay Oscar for The Producers in 1968, and a 1998 Spoken Comedy Album Grammy for The 2000 Year Old Man in the Year 2000. (Following his Tony wins, he also nabbed two Grammys for The Producers musical.) And for more laughs, here are The 30 Funniest Movies of All Time and Where to Stream Them.
2 | Whoopi Goldberg
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Whoopi Goldberg went from GO to EGOT in just one year, winning a Tony for producing Best Musical Thoroughly Modern Millie and her first Daytime Emmy, for hosting the educational special Beyond Tara: The Extraordinary Life of Hattie McDaniel, in 2002. In 1986, she won a Grammy for a recording of one of her comedy specials, and took home the Academy Award for Best Actress in a Supporting Role for Ghost in 1991. In 2009, she added another Daytime Emmy to her trophy case for Outstanding Talk Show Host for her work on The View.
3 | Audrey Hepburn
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Though she became a household name back in the '50s, Audrey Hepburn didn't EGOT until 1994, the year after her death. She won the Best Spoken Word Album for Children Grammy for Audrey Hepburn's Enchanted Tales posthumously. The year before, she scored a Primetime Emmy Award in the category of Outstanding Individual Achievement in Informational Programming for a docuseries called Gardens of the World with Audrey Hepburn. These awards came decades after she got on her way to the grand slam, winning the Best Actress Oscar for her first major film role in Roman Holiday in 1953 and the Best Actress in a Play Tony for Ondine in 1954. For more star facts, here's The Most Famous Celebrity From Your State.
4 | John Legend
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Musician John Legend scored the E in his EGOT in 2018 when Jesus Christ Superstar Live in Concert, which he produced as well as starred in, won for Outstanding Variety Special Live. He has the historical drama Selma to thank for his Oscar; Legend and Common won Best Original Song for the anthem "Glory." His Tony comes from producing 2017 Best Revival of a Play, Jitney, and Legend is tied for the most Grammy wins with our next EGOT honoree—too many (11 total) to list here.
5 | Alan Menken
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Songwriter Alan Menken is the most recent addition to Club EGOT. An architect of the golden age of Disney animated musicals, he took his first major award in 1989, winning Best Original Score and Best Original Song ("Under the Sea") Oscars for The Little Mermaid, and then repeated that two-fer in 1991, 1992, and 1995, for Beauty and the Beast, Aladdin, and Pocahontas, respectively. Like Legend, he has 11 Grammys, all for music he's composed for Disney films. He won the Best Original Score Tony in 2012 for Newsies, an adaptation of the live-action Disney musical he wrote music for back in the '90s. And in 2020, he took the Daytime Emmy for Outstanding Original Song in a Children’s, Young Adult or Animated Program for "Waiting in the Wings" from Rapunzel's Tangled Adventure. For more from the House of Mouse, These Are the Best Movies to Stream on Disney+.
6 | Mike Nichols
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The multi-talented Mike Nichols started his EGOT journey in 1961 when he won a Best Comedy Performance Grammy for An Evening with Mike Nichols and Elaine May. Starting in 1964, he's won nine Tony Awards, mostly as a director. Directing the film The Graduate scored him his sole Oscar, for Best Director, in 1967. And his first of four Emmys for directing was announced in 2001.
7 | Rita Moreno
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In 1962, Rita Moreno burst onto the screen as Anita in West Side Story and won the Oscar for Best Actress in a Supporting Role. She achieved the G in 1972, winning a Best Recording for Children Grammy for her work on The Electric Company. Three years later, she took the Featured Actress in a Play Tony for The Ritz. And her two Emmy trophies are courtesy of guest appearances on The Muppet Show and The Rockford Files, both in the '70s.
8 | Andrew Lloyd Webber
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Like John Legend, West End and Broadway giant Andrew Lloyd Webber rounded the EGOT bases with the Emmy-winning Jesus Christ Superstar Live in Concert in 2018. In 1980, he took his first Tony and first Grammy both for his Eva Peron bio-musical Evita. Two more Grammys and five more Tonys (including Best Musical nods for Cats, The Phantom of the Opera, and Sunset Boulevard) followed. And he won his Best Original Song Oscar in 1997 for "You Must Love Me," the new composition featured in the Evita feature adaptation. And for more Hollywood news, sign up for our daily newsletter.
9 | Richard Rodgers
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Richard Rodgers (left, with songwriting partner Oscar Hammerstein) achieved EGOT status in 1962 when he won a Primetime Emmy for music he composed for a docuseries about Winston Churchill. Way back in 1945, he won a Best Song Oscar for "It Might as Well Be Spring" from the film State Fair. And 1950 brought him his first three (of a total of six Tonys) for the musical South Pacific. In 1960, another hit musical, The Sound of Music, earned him the first of two Grammys, both for cast albums.
10 | Helen Hayes
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In 1932, legendary actress Helen Hayes won her first of two Oscars, this one for The Sin of Madelon Claudet. She won Best Actress Tonys in 1947 and 1958, for the plays Happy Birthday and Time Remembered, respectively. In 1953, she was awarded a Best Actress Emmy for her role in an episode of the anthology series the Schlitz Playhouse ofStars. Finally, she got the last piece of the puzzle with a Spoken Word Grammy in 1977, for a non-fiction piece called Great American Documents. Hayes was the first woman to get the EGOT. For more Oscar gold, here are 11 Academy Award Best Picture Winners That Still Hold Up.
11 | Tim Rice
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Tim Rice makes the third person on this list to finish off with EGOT with a Jesus Christ Superstar Live in Concert Emmy. The lyricist was first on his way in 1980, sharing the Best Original Score Tony for Evita with Andrew Lloyd Webber and also taking Best Book of a Musical. His third Tony was awarded in 2000 for Best Original Score for Aida, which he wrote with Elton John. Rice's three Oscars are all for Original Song: "A Whole New World" from Aladdin, written with Alan Menken; "Can You Feel the Love Tonight?" from The Lion King, also written with John; and "You Must Love Me," from Evita, penned with Webber. And he has five Grammys, including two cast album awards for Evita and Aida.
12 | Scott Rudin
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Scott Rudin is a producer whose name even people who don't pay much attention to the behind-the-scenes of things probably know. He has his hands in all sorts of productions across different types of media, hence the EGOT. His sole Grammy came in 2012, thanks to the cast album of The Book of Mormon, for which he also won one of his 17 Tony Awards. In 1984, he won an Emmy for Outstanding Children's Program for a documentary entitled He Makes Me Feel Like Dancin', and he received his first (and so far only) Academy Award when No Country for Old Men won Best Picture in 2008.
13 | Marvin Hamlisch
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Composer Marvin Hamlisch started winning major awards in 1973, when he won three Academy Awards: one for the score of The Way We Were, one for the titular song, and another for score/music adaptation for The Sting. In 1974, he had another big night, this time at the Grammys, winning a total of four, including Song of the Year for "The Way We Were" and Best New Artist. Hamlisch has four Emmys, including two for collaborating again with The Way We Were star Barbra Streisand again for her 1995 special, Barbra: The Concert. And in 1976, he took home the Best Musical Score Tony for the genre-busting musical, A Chorus Line.
14 | Robert Lopez
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Songwriter Robert Lopez was 29 when he won his first major award: Best Original Score for the profane puppet musical Avenue Q at the 2004 Tonys. And he became the youngest person to achieve EGOT status in 2014, when he got his first of two Best Original Song Oscars, for "Let It Go," from Frozen. (The other was for "Remember Me," from the Pixar movie Coco.) Lopez also has two more Tonys, for The Book of Mormon, two Daytime Emmy Awards for Wonder Pets!, and three Grammys—one for Book of Mormon and two for Frozen. All of these honors combined also make the songwriter the first person ever to double EGOT.
15 | John Gielgud
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In 1948, actor John Gielgud won—along with his castmates—a Tony award for "Outstanding Foreign Company" (a now defunct category) for a production of The Importance of Being Earnest. (He won another, for directing, in 1961. In 1979, he was awarded a Spoken Word Grammy, and a Supporting Actor Academy Award for Arthur followed in 1981. Finally, 1o years later, he secured the sweep with a Outstanding Lead Actor in a Miniseries or Special Emmy for the BBC miniseries Summer's Lease.
16 | Jonathan Tunick
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A composer and arranger, Jonathan Tunick has one each of every major award: a 1977 Best Music Academy Award for A Little Night Music; an Outstanding Achievement in Music Direction Emmy for 1982's Night of 100 Stars; a 1988 Grammy for Best Instrumental Arrangement Accompanying Vocals, and a 1997 Tony for Best Orchestrations for Titanic.