After Tony Awards, will Sarah Paulson or Jeremy Strong join the Triple Crown of Acting club?

Tariq Khan
·5 min read

To date, there are 24 distinguished individuals (living and deceased) who have won competitive Oscar, Emmy and Tony Awards. The Triple Crown of Acting, as it’s known — see the list below. And there’s no horsing around.

Glenda Jackson became the most recent person to join the club when she received the Tony Award for Best Actress in a Play in for “Three Tall Women” in 2018. (Her two Best Actress Oscars came for 1970’s “Women in Love” and 1973’s “A Touch of Class,” while “Elizabeth R” delivered her a pair of Emmys in 1972.)

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While the recent 77th Tony Awards didn’t produce another Triple Crown Acting champion (there was no Tony-less Oscar and Emmy winner in contention), it is possible that some unsuspecting thespian was put on course to becoming the 25th name on the list above. And so the awards plot thickens.

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I’ll appropriately start with Sarah Paulson, who accepted the Tony Award for Best Actress in a Play for “Appropriate.” (It marked her first Tony nomination.) She previously picked up a Primetime Emmy Award for Best Lead Actress in a Limited Series or Movie for “The People v. O.J. Simpson: American Crime Story” in 2016. (She’s also racked up an additional seven Emmy noms in various categories over the past 12 years.) Could the Oscar be next?

While Paulson has yet to be singled out by the academy, she has appeared in a number of Oscar-nominated films. 2013’s Best Picture “12 Years a Slave.” 2015’s “Carol,” which reaped six bids — including Best Actress for Cate Blanchett and Best Supporting Actress for Rooney Mara. And 2017’s “The Post,” which posted nominations for Best Picture as well as Best Actress for Meryl Streep.

Paulson has also turned in standout performances in several other acclaimed movies. Like 2011’s “Martha Marcy May Marlene,” 2013’s “Mud” and 2020’s “Run.” As a highly respected actress with an impressive filmography, all it would take is the right role in the right movie for her to run away with the Oscar.

Bear in mind that we have seen a number of actresses prevail on their first try at the Academy Awards in recent years, like Ariana DeBose (Best Supporting Actress of 2021 for “West Side Story”), Michelle Yeoh and Jamie Lee Curtis (Best Actress and Best Supporting Actress of 2022, respectively, for Best Picture “Everything Everywhere All at Once”), and Da’Vine Joy Randolph (Best Supporting Actress of 2023 for “The Holdovers”). So it wouldn’t be out of the question to see someone like Paulson soon holding an Oscar herself.

Of course, it could be that the next Triple Crown recipient is someone else — someone else who was recognized at the recent Tony Awards.

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I’m referring to Jeremy Strong, Best Actor in a Play for “An Enemy of the People.” (Like Paulson, he landed the Tony on his first citation.) He can place his statuette alongside the Primetime Emmy Award for Best Lead Actor in a Drama Series that he earned in 2020 for “Succession.” Might the Oscar be the next in his series of successes?

It might seem premature to talk about Strong as someone with an Academy Award in his future. Like Paulson, he has yet to be nominated for cinema’s most prestigious prize. However, his film credits include quite a few Best Picture contenders — like 2012’s “Lincoln” and “Zero Dark Thirty,” 2014’s “Selma,” 2015’s “The Big Short” and 2020’s “The Trial of the Chicago 7.”  And most of those parts came before his acclaimed work on television’s “Succession.” One can only assume that Strong will continue to be gifted with even larger and more challenging big screen roles in the coming years. With the proper material in a prime vehicle, Strong could have a strong chance of adding the Oscar to his awards collection.

Then again, the next Triple Crown of Acting winner could turn out to be someone completely different. All that Glenn Close needs is that elusive Oscar. Meryl Streep only lacks a Tony. Even Catherine Zeta-Jones could do the trick with one little Emmy.

Time will tell who else will join the exclusive Triple Crown club. Now that’s a horse race definitely worth watching.

Here is the complete list of all 24 entertainers who have won an Oscar, Emmy and Tony: Helen Hayes. Thomas Mitchell. Ingrid Bergman. Shirley Booth. Melvyn Douglas. Paul Scofield. Jack Albertson. Rita Moreno. Maureen Stapleton. Jason Robards. Jessica Tandy. Jeremy Irons. Anne Bancroft. Vanessa Redgrave. Maggie Smith. Al Pacino. Geoffrey Rush. Ellen Burstyn. Christopher Plummer. Helen Mirren. Frances McDormand. Jessica Lange. Viola Davis. Glenda Jackson.

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