Eminem, Kate Winslet, Ringo Starr And More Stars Who Are ONE Tony Award Away From EGOT Status

After bagging awards at the Creative Arts Emmy Awards ceremony on September 3, musicians Eminem, Adele, Ringo Starr, and Paul McCartney are one letter away from reaching the coveted EGOT status.

EGOT status is reserved for entertainment heavyweights who have won all four major entertainment awards — an Emmy, Grammy, Oscar, and Tony. Here are details about the four singers mentioned above and other celebrities close to attaining the EGOT status.

While Adele won her first Emmy Award in the Outstanding Variety Special (Pre-Recorded) category for the CBS special, "Adele: One Night Only," Eminem bagged the Best Variety Special (Live) award for his appearance at the Super Bowl halftime show in February.

80-year-old McCartney and 82-year-old Starr both received an Emmy in the documentary/nonfiction category for their roles as producers of "The Beatles: Get Back."

All four musicians, who already had multiple Oscars and Grammys under their creative belts before Saturday, are now just one award shy of earning the coveted EGOT status. The four stars would have to be involved in a Broadway production to get that Tony.

According to a breakdown by PEOPLE, each award represents four sectors — Emmy (television), Grammy (music), Oscar (film), and Tony (theater). It is worthy of note that the EGOT term was formulated by "Miami Vice" actor Philip Michael Thomas following a 1984 Associated Press interview at the peak of the NBC action show's success. The now-retired actor and musician told the publication at the time: 

"That stands for Emmy, Grammy, Oscar, and Tony. Hopefully, in the next five years, I will win all those awards."

Unfortunately, he never joined the 17 celebs who have swept all four awards. The 17 honorees of the EGOT status — and the year they clinched it — include Richard Rodgers (1962), Helen Hayes (1977), Rita Moreno (1977), John Gielgud (1991), Audrey Hepburn (1994), Marvin Hamlisch (1995), Jonathan Tunick (1997), Mel Brooks (2001), Mike Nichols (2001), Whoopi Goldberg (2002), Scott Rudin (2012), Robert Lopez (2014), Andrew Lloyd Webber (2018), Tim Rice (2018), John Legend (2018), Alan Menken (2020), and Jennifer Hudson (2022).

Those who, like Eminem, Adele, Starr, and McCartney, are yet to attain the status include actress Julie Andrews, composer Michael Giacchino, composer Ludwig Goransson, composer Kristen Anderson-Lopez, producer Brian Grazer, composer Hildur Guðnadóttir, producer/director Ron Howard, and director James Moll.

Others are the director and producer Morgan Neville, composer Randy Newman, director and producer Alex Gibney, sound editor Alex Gibson, composers Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross, composer Burt Bacharach, composer Alan Bergman, actress Cher, composer, and producer Common, director and producer Martin Scorsese, composer John Williams, actress Kate Winslet and actress and musician Barbra Streisand.

While the stars mentioned above have a chance to score that Tony, six people will not get that chance as they have already passed on. They include composer John Addison, actor George Burns, composer Sid Ramin, composer Marilyn Bergman, actor Peter Ustinov, and actor Robin Williams.

It is also worthy to note that even though Streisand received an honorary "Star of the Decade" Tony Award in 1970, it was not recognized enough to get her the status of an EGOT champion. 

If you thought earning an Emmy, Grammy, Oscar, and Tony was reserved for only entertainers, you have another thing coming. As The Guardian reported over the weekend, former President of the United States, Barack Obama, won an Emmy award following his two Grammy wins.

The former President landed the Emmy for the best narrator for his work on the Netflix documentary series, "Our Great National Parks." The five-part show highlights national parks worldwide and is produced by Barack and his wife Michelle's production company, Higher Ground.

His category included famous nominees such as Lupita Nyong'o, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, and David Attenborough. Obama would be the second president to have the prestigious trophy following Dwight D Eisenhower’s special Emmy in 1956.

The father-of-two previously won Grammy awards for reading the audiobook version of two of his memoirs — "A Promised Land" and "The Audacity of Hope." His wife also landed her own Grammy award in the Spoken Word Album category for the audio recording and reading of her memoir "Becoming" in 2020.