By Florence Mafomemeh
Actress Viola Davis has attained EGOT Status. Davis won a Grammy Award on Sunday for narrating the audiobook of her memoir “Finding Me,” becoming only the 18th person in history to achieve the coveted EGOT status by winning an Emmy, Grammy, Oscar and Tony Award.
Davis won her first Tony Award in 2001 for her supporting role in the play King Hedley II. In 2010 she won her second Tony for her leading role in the Broadway revival of the play Fences.
In 2015, Davis became the first person of color to win the Emmy for best lead actress in a drama for her role in the show How to Get Away With Murder. A year later she won the best supporting actress Oscar for the cinematic adaptation of the play Fences, in which she reprised her Tony-winning stage role.
Besides Davis, other actors to have completed the prestigious award sweep include Helen Hayes, Rita Moreno, John Gielgud and Audrey Hepburn.
Composers Alan Menken, Andrew Lloyd Webber, Jonathan Tunick, Marvin Hamlisch, Richard Rodgers and Robert Lopez. Directors Mel Brooks, Mike Nichols, Producer Scott Rudin and lyricist Tim Rice
Davis is the fourth Black performer to win the quartet of awards after Whoopi Goldberg, John Legend, and Jennifer Hudson.
Although Davis’ success was not much talked about until recently, she has quietly been a powerful force in the industry through the years. With her Oscar win in 2016, Davis became the first Black performer to achieve the coveted “Triple Crown” in acting—winning an Oscar, Emmy and Tony in acting categories.
In her acceptance speech at the Grammys, Davis said “I wrote this book to honor the six-year-old Viola and capped it with “I just EGOT.”
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