List-Mania: Glenda Jackson & Lots of Triple-Crown Acting Trivia
Tuesday, June 12, 2018 at 12:19PM This is a update/reworking of two previous posts about Triple Crowns!
Glenda Jackson is the oldest performer (82) to complete the Triple Crown
Since I'm on record as being annoyed that all anyone cares about is the EGOT it's time to celebrate our preferred obsession: The Triple Crown of Acting. That's when a performer manages the Emmy, Oscar, and Tony for acting. To date only 24* actors have accomplished this, with Glenda Jackson being the most recent recipient as of this past Sunday night at the Tony Awards. Triple Crowns have become much more commonplace in the 21st century since actors move much more fluidly through the three mediums than they did in before the turn of the century. TV has totally lost its stigma for movie stars and Broadway is more welcome to very short runs freeing major stars up to continue with their movie and TV careers without as much scheduling trauma. A TRUCKLOAD OF TRIVIA AFTER THE JUMP...
ALL THE TRIPLE CROWNERS
Note: We use film years for Oscar so don't try to correct us on dates -- Emmy and Tony don't run on January to December calendar so the dates coincide with the ceremony!
- Jack Albertson (Tony: 65, Oscar: 68, Emmy: 75)
- Anne Bancroft (Tony: 58, Oscar: 62, Emmy: 99)
- Ingrid Bergman (Oscar: 44, Tony: 47, Emmy: 60)
Ingrid is the youngest to complete the triple -she did it by 45 years of age. - Shirley Booth (Tony: 49, Oscar: 52, Emmy: 62)
- Ellen Burstyn (Oscar: 74, Tony: 77, Emmy: 09)
- Viola Davis (Tony: 01, Emmy: 15, Oscar: 16)
- Melvyn Douglas (Tony: 60, Oscar: 63, Emmy: 68)
Did you know that this Hud star was Illeanna Douglas's grandfather? I certainly didn't. - Helen Hayes (Oscar: 31, Tony 47, Emmy: 53)
IMDb does not state what her Emmy was for so who knows if she's a special case or not. We recently discussed her second Oscar win in Airport. - Jeremy Irons (Tony: 84, Oscar: 90, Emmy: 97)
- Glenda Jackson (Oscar: 70, Emmy: 72, Tony: 18)
The oldest triple crowner and also the one who took by far the longest to complete it --it took her almost half a century! - Jessica Lange (Oscar: 82, Emmy: 09, Tony: 16)
- Frances McDormand (Oscar: 96, Tony: 11, Emmy: 15)
- Helen Mirren (Emmy: 96, Oscar: 06, Tony: 15)
And yes she won all three for playing Queens named Elizabeth! Though she has multiple Emmys so she's won for other roles, too. - Thomas Mitchell (Oscar: 39, Tony: 53, Emmy: 53)
- Rita Moreno (Oscar: 61, Tony: 75, Emmy: 77)
The second youngest to the Triple. She was 46 when she completed it with the Emmy for The Muppet Show. She was also the first person of color to complete the triple. - Al Pacino (Tony: 69, Oscar: 92, Emmy: 04)
- Christopher Plummer (Tony: 74, Emmy: 77, Oscar: 11)
- Vanessa Redgrave (Oscar: 77, Emmy: 81, Tony: 03)
- Jason Robards (Tony: 59, Oscar: 76, Emmy: 88)
- Geoffrey Rush (Oscar: 96, Emmy: 05, Tony: 09)
- Paul Scofield (Tony: 62, Oscar: 66, Emmy: 69)
The youngest male to Triple. He was 47 when he completed it with the Emmy for Male of the Species - Maggie Smith (Oscar: 69, Tony: 90, Emmy: 03)
- Maureen Stapleton (Tony: 51, Emmy: 68, Oscar: 81)
- Jessica Tandy (Tony: 78, Emmy: 88, Oscar: 89)
Weird Statistic
The Emmy, which seems like the easiest to win since they have so many categories, is actually won last by the majority of Triple Crowners! How about that?
WHO DO YOU THINK WILL JOIN THE LIST NEXT?
Only missing the Oscar which is obviously the hardest to win!:
(number of Oscar nominations *acting only* in parentheses)
Jane Alexander (4), Mary Alice (0), Christine Baranski (0), Ellen Barkin (0), Stockard Channing (1), Kristin Chenowith (0), Glenn Close (6), Bryan Cranston (1), Tyne Daly (0), Blythe Danner (0), Dick Van Dyke (0), Laurence Fishburne (1), Neil Patrick Harris (0), Rosemary Harris (1), George Hearn (0), Judd Hirsch (1), Hal Holbrook (1), Cherry Jones (0), Shirley Knight (2), Swoosie Kurtz (0), Anthony LaPaglia (0), John Larroquette (0), Ron Leibman (0), John Lithgow (2), Laurie Metcalf (1), Debra Monk (0), Michael Moriarty (0), Bebe Neuwirth (0), Cynthia Nixon (0), Mary-Louise Parker (0), Mandy Patinkin (0), David Hyde Pierce (0), Amanda Plummer (0), Diana Rigg (0), Tony Shalhoub (0), Cicely Tyson (1), and Jeffrey Wright (0)
Only missing the Tony:
(number of Tony nominations in parentheses. If they haven't done any theater in New York in the last 25 years they have an x after the parentheses... the people with an x will never triple crown because they never do Broadway or stopped doing it after becoming famous or retired from acting or whatnot)
Patricia Arquette (0)x, Kathy Bates (1)x, Halle Berry (0)x, Michael Douglas (0)x, Faye Dunaway (0)x, Sally Field (1), Jane Fonda (2), Louis Gossett Jr (0), Anne Hathaway (0), Dustin Hoffman (1), Anthony Hopkins (0)x, Helen Hunt (0), Holly Hunter (0), Allison Janney (2), Tommy Lee Jones (0)x, Nicole Kidman (0), Cloris Leachman (0)x, Melissa Leo (0), Julianne Moore (0), Gwyneth Paltrow (0)x, Eva Marie Saint (0)x, Meryl Streep (1), Dame Emma Thompson (0)x, Dianne Wiest (0), Kate Winslet (0)x, and Joanne Woodward (0)x
Only missing the Emmy:
(number of Emmy *acting only* nominations in parentheses)
Dame Judi Dench (3), Joel Grey (1), Marcia Gay Harden (2), Kevin Kline (2), Eddie Redmayne (0), Mercedes Ruehl (0), Mark Rylance (1), Kevin Spacey (6), Denzel Washington (0), and Catherine Zeta-Jones (0)
NOTE: Anne Hathaway (35) and Eddie Redmayne (36) will break the "youngest to a triple crown" record if they manage to win their last of the big three prizes in the next nine years.
DEPRESSING THREE MEDIUM STATS
Annette Bening and Sigourney Weaver are the only living female performers with nominations in all three fields of acting without ever winning ANY of them. ARGH! On the male side of the equation the same is true of Mark Ruffalo and Ed Harris. Shaking my damn head! (Kathleen Turner and Jude Law are almost in a similar boat having delivered stellar work in all three mediums with only 1 measly Oscar nomination and 2 Tony nominations to show for it in Turner's case, and 2 measly Oscar nominations and 2 Tony nominations in Jude's case. It still horrifies us that Turner didn't get at least an Emmy nomination for her indelible work on Friends as Chandler's dad.)
Naturally those are some of our very favorite actors. The 'business we call show' loves to torture us!
Sarah Paulson, Patricia Clarkson, Mare Winningham, The Lovely Laura Linney, Marisa Tomei, Martha Plimpton and Joan Allen -- a seismic group of women as far as talent goes -- all work all three mediums regularly but only have the Emmy or the Oscar of the three key prizes.
TONY-WIN ONLY THOUGH THEY DO NOTABLE TV/FILM WORK
Bernadette Peters & Angela Lansbury
Multiple Tonys and Other Showbiz Nominations
Matthew Broderick (2 Tonys, 1 Emmy nomination), Brian Dennehy (2 Tonys and 6 Emmy nominations), Judith Ivey (2 Tonys and 1 Emmy nomination), Nathan Lane (3 Tonys, 6 Emmy nominations), Frank Langella (4 Tonys, 1 Oscar nomination, 1 Emmy nomination), Angela Lansbury (5 Tonys, 3 Oscar nominations and 1 Honorary Oscar, 18 Emmy nominations), Judith Light (2 Tonys, 3 Emmy nominations), Patti LuPone (2 Tonys and 1 Emmy nomination), and Bernadette Peters (2 Tonys and 2 Emmy nominations)
Single Tonys and Other Showbiz Nominations
Joan Allen (Tony + 3 Oscar nominations, 2 Emmy nominations), Blair Brown (1 Tony and 5 Emmy nominations), Diahann Carroll (Tony + 4 Emmy nominations and 1 Oscar nomination), Stephen Dillane (Tony + 1 Emmy nomination), Andrew Garfield (Tony + 1 Oscar nomination) John Benjamin Hickey (Tony + 1 Emmy nomination) Sir Ian Holm (Tony + 1 Oscar nomination, 2 Emmy nominations), Jane Krakowski (Tony + 5 Emmy nominations), Sir Ian McKellen (Tony + 2 Oscar nominations, 5 Emmy nominations), Janet McTeer (Tony + 2 Oscar nominations, 1 Emmy nomination), Brían F O'Byrne (Tony + 1 Emmy nomination), Denis O'Hare (Tony+ and 3 Emmy nominations), Sophie Okonedo (Tony + 1 Oscar nomination), Phylicia Rashad (Tony + 3 Emmy nominations), Liev Schreiber (Tony + 6 Emmy nominations), and B.D. Wong (Tony + 1 Emmy nomination).
When is Sutton Foster going to be Emmy nominated? She's already deserved nominations for two separate series: Bunheads and Younger.
Multiple Tony Honors ONLY despite notable work on TV and/or in film
Jennifer Ehle (2 Tonys), Boyd Gaines (4 Tonys), Sutton Foster (2 Tonys), and Donna Murphy (2 Tonys)
Single Tonys only. Though they've done notable work on TV and/or in film they've yet to receive Emmy or Oscar nominations
Billy Crudup, Harriet Sansom Harris, Bill Irwin, Scarlett Johansson, Robert Sean Leonard, Tracy Letts (1 Tony for acting -- his other awards are for writing) and Anika Noni Rose
SPECIAL CASES
* Notable legends like Judy Garland (her Oscar was a non-competitive juvenile Oscar), Liza Minnelli (her Emmy was for a televised concert), Barbra Streisand (her Tony was a special award), James Earl Jones (his Oscar is an honorary) and Whoopi Goldberg (her Emmy was not a Primetime Emmy which is all that people usually refer to when they talk about winning Emmys) have all three statues but they did not win them all in regular competitive categories or for acting.
If Bette Midler, Andrea Martin, Lily Tomlin, Hugh Jackman , Philip Bosco, Helen Gallagher, Cynthia Erivo or Audra McDonald wins an Oscar or Julie Andrews or Cher win a Tony they would join this "special cases" list since not all of their prizes were for acting per se or were not Primetime Emmys or whatnot. (Lin-Manuel Miranda is far more of a threat for the EGOT -- which you can win without acting and he just needs the Oscar to complete that. He currently has 3 Grammys, 3 Tonys, and 1 Emmy but none of those statues were for acting)
Reader Comments (60)
Cash -- the post is about the traditional triple crown of acting (i.e. a competitive win for performances at the Tonys, Oscars, and Emmys). Hence the need for a 'special cases' list for those who didn't win all three in the traditional way. James Earl Jones is in good company though!
Allison Janney would be my pick - she already has two Tony nominations and works very regularly in theater.
JJM: Surprising that Julianne Moore isn't a good stage actress. Most of her worst (film) work implies she'd probably be at least a decent one.
JJM & Volvagia -- i saw her one Broadway show and she wasn't good on stage. I think she's too internal/intimate an actress for the stage. She just wasn't doing anything with her body or very expressive with her face /voice so it was hard to read any emotions.
A friend of mine saw Indiscretions with The Turner and Jude Law. He says he loved it, but when I ask him about details he only remembers a beautiful staircase. Not even the frontal!
Kidman actually has two Olivier nominations for the only two plays she’s done so if she ever wants to set her sights on a Tony (not that she does it for the awards) she should begin there, maybe finally win the Olivier and do a Broadway transfer straight to a Tony. I do feel like out of the Hollywood actresses who are only a Tony away (Moore, Winslet and Streep) she’s probably the most likely. I doubt she does stage work until her kids are older though.
What color is Rita Moreno? (The answer I’m looking for is the specific color). Can’t people just say “latino” or “latin”?
Judith Light has two Daytime Emmys. People don’t count it, but since it was mentioned for Whoopi...
You forgot that James Corden just needs an Oscar to score a triple crown.. He has a Tony for Best Actor in a Play back in 2012 for "One Man, two guvnors" and a Primetime Emmy for Outstanding Actor in a Short form Comedy or Drama Series in 2018 for Next James Corden.. Wow!!
The fact that the gloriously talented and funny Harriet Sansom Harris never got an Emmy nom for her fabulous portrayal of Bebe Glazer on "Frazier" is a crime, IMO! Not to mention her amazing work as a guest artist on other great shows (American Horror Story, Desperate Housewives and X-Files, just to name a few!)
Can Jessica Lange narrate the new Anjelica Huston bio audio book so we can get her that EGOT?