Viola Davis is wondering why there's an EGOT on her phone after winning a Grammy
Viola Davis may have been left out of this year's controversial Best Actress Oscar race, but she has at least one reason to celebrate: She just became an EGOT winner.
Davis picked up a Grammy Award on Sunday for Best Audio Book, Narration, and Storytelling Recording for narrating her audiobook Finding Me: A Memoir, making her just the 18th person to win all four major entertainment awards in competition.
"I just EGOT!" Davis said accepting her award, calling this her best chapter yet.
Frazer Harrison/Getty Viola Davis at the 2023 Grammys
Davis has more shiny metal than a smelting plant, having won her first Tony for Best Featured Actress in a Play in 2001 for King Hedley II, and a Best Leading Actress in a Play in 2010 for Fences. In 2015, she made history as the first Black woman to win Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series at the Emmy Awards for How to Get Away With Murder.
She reprised her role in Fences for the film, opposite her Broadway costar Denzel Washington (who also handled directing duties), winning the Best Supporting Actress Academy Award in 2017, thus completing the "Triple Crown of Acting." With four nominations to her name, Davis is the most nominated Black actress in Oscar history.
Jennifer Hudson was the last person to EGOT, a term which originated, interestingly enough, with Miami Vice actor Philip Michael Thomas. In 1984, after Miami Vice thrust him into the spotlight, Thomas declared that he wanted to win all four awards within five years. He never got there, EGOT bless 'im.
The "EGOT" grew further in popularity when Tracy Morgan's 30 Rock character, Tracy Jordan, made it his mission to secure the EGOT — and unlike Thomas, succeeded — rocking a baller chain to commemorate it. Here's hoping Davis will pull a Jordan and do the same.
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