EGOT

An EGOT is someone who has won an Emmy, a Grammy, an Oscar and a Tony. According to Wikipedia the acronym was coined in 1984 by the American actor Philip Michael Thomas, after his role as detective Ricardo Tubbs on the hit television series Miami Vice made him an overnight success. He said he wanted to become an EGOT within five years; to date he has not been nominated for any of the four awards.

The first EGOT was the composer Richard Rodgers; the second, the first woman and the first performer was Helen Hayes, who won her first Oscar in 1931 for her role in The Sin of Madelon Claudet and completed the quartet in 1977 with a Grammy for Best Spoken Word Album (shared with Henry Fonda, James Earl Jones and Orson Welles, for an otherwise long–forgotten release called Great American Documents). According to Wikipedia, Helen Hayes was "eventually" nicknamed The First Lady of American Theatre.

When Philip Michael Thomas stated his ambition there were still only three EGOTs – the third being Rita Moreno. At the time of writing there are 18; as well as the three already mentioned they include Audrey Hepburn, Mel Brooks, Whoopi Goldberg, Andrew Lloyd Webber, Tim Rice and John Gielgud.