by Eric Blume
I’m sure we’ve all found ourselves in some sort of YouTube hole at some point during lockdown. Mine has led me to rewatching snippets from Tony Awards ceremonies from about a decade ago. I had completely forgotten that Eddie Redmayne had won a Tony for his work in the play Red, which is strange because I saw his performance in that show and he was staggeringly good. He absolutely deserved that Tony.
I then realized that because he has since won an Oscar, he is only an Emmy away from the Triple Crown of Acting. This triple-crown honor (you can see the actors who have won all three big awards of the Tony, Oscar, and Emmy here) has been nabbed by only 24 actors in the history of show business awards! It’s a very elusive accomplishment and prestigious list of people. In just the last five years, though, there's been a lot of movement -- we've recently seen Helen Mirren, Frances McDormand, Jessica Lange, Viola Davis, and Glenda Jackson all secure this title.
That got me to thinking: wow, it seems highly likely that Eddie Redmayne would find a big role in a series or miniseries to win that Emmy and be in this company? He’s young, still at the top of his game, and while I don’t think he’s quite in the league of the other major actors who have won all three, he is surely a likely candidate.
But who are some others...
(Disclaimer: you may feel passionate about the EGOT; I do not. I think the Grammy is an award for non-actors, and I think the Triple Crown has more interest to lovers of acting. Sorry not sorry.)
Mark Rylance has a few Tonys and an Oscar. He also seems a strong contender for an eventual Emmy. It’s always wonderful when great British actors like him and Judi Dench don’t become “famous” until later in their careers after doing decades of noted stage work. He’d be a worthy addition to the list, and at least we’d get another one of his trademark weirdo acceptance speeches!
Laurie Metcalf almost joined this troupe a few years ago, when she just missed winning her much-deserved Oscar for Lady Bird. She has a few Emmys for her work on Roseanne, and two Tonys just in the past several years. Will she ever get another film role as good as Marion, or another scene partner who brings out as much in her as Saoirse Ronan did?
Then there are several actors who have two of those awards
TONY & EMMY. No Oscar
Mary-Louise Parker has a Tony and an Emmy, but her movie career has been nowhere in the past many years (which is a bummer, she’s special…maybe too special?). Cherry Jones, Hugh Jackman, Cynthia Nixon, John Lithgow, and Billy Porter all have their Tony and Emmy statues as well, but will any of them get a juicy enough part for Oscar?
I’m discounting some double-winners only because it seems unlikely that they’d land that third statue, but who knows? Maybe Tony Shalhoub, Neil Patrick Harris, David Hyde Pierce, Bette Midler, Courtney B. Vance, or John Larroquette could land an Oscar role, but…seems highly unlikely.
OSCAR & TONY. No Emmy
Marcia Gay Harden, Denzel Washington, Kevin Kline, Judi Dench, and Catherine Zeta-Jones all have their Oscar and Tony, but have yet to win for television. Any of them seem like strong possibilities to clinch an Emmy in the next decade? I'm leaving out Kevin Spacey because, Kevin Spacey.
OSCAR & EMMY. No Tony
Dianne Wiest has two Oscars and two Emmys, but despite being a regular theater actress, has no Tony. Same is true for Holly Hunter and Kathy Bates, though neither of them have returned to the stage in many years. Emma Thompson and Kate Winslet are shy a Tony, but neither perform onstage in NYC so Tonys seems highly unlikely. Julianne Moore had a rather disastrous turn in her Broadway debut a few years back (it pains me to say she was not good), and has stated she would not return. Nicole Kidman, who has been on Broadway once before (to lots of buzz) is an outside possibility for a Tony if she brings in a show the next decade. Helen Hunt, Halle Berry, and Gwyneth Paltrow also have the Osar and Emmy but those three seem highly unlikely for a Tony down the line.
Of course, Meryl Streep could do a play on Broadway and win the Tony handily. She did five Broadway plays in the 1970s but hasnt been on stage much since with the major exception of that acclaimed brief 2006 run of Bertol Brecht's Mother Courage at Shakespeare in the Park. Perhaps a Broadway return would be a final act move for her when she's older? Cicely Tyson and Glenda Jackson recently won the Best Actress Tony in their late 80s (and Meryl is just 71 next month).
Who am I forgetting, readers? There are likely others, and I think it’s just fun to take a look at these names. If you look at the 24 current Triple Crown folks, they are almost all major actors. It truly takes an incredible amount of talent and technique to deliver in all three of these mediums.
Personally, from this list, I’m rooting for Hugh Jackman to get a role that could bring him an Oscar. He’s phenomenally talented, with unique charisma and a smart judgment of what a role needs for it to soar. Or it’d be fantastic to see one of the character actors (Marcia, Cherry, Lithgow) bring it all home.
Who would you vote for? Sound off in the comments.