Five Ways Denzel Can Achieve His EGOT Dream

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Paging Tracy Jordan! To win an Emmy, a Grammy, an Oscar and a Tony is a stunning accomplishment in Hollywood. Last night at the Tonys, Denzel Washington got halfway there.

Washington, who won acting Oscars for Glory and Training Day, took home the Tony for Best Performance by a Leading Actor in a Play for his part in the revival of the August Wilson play Fences. He was joined in the race for EGOT by Catherine Zeta Jones, another former Oscar winner, who was named Best Actress in a musical for her performance in Steven Sondheim’s A Little Night Music.

Getting the EGOT is a rare milestone that only ten people in history have achieved: Mel Brooks, John Gielgud, Whoopi Goldberg, Helen Hayes, Audrey Hepburn, Marvin Hamlisch, Rita Moreno, Mike Nichols, Richard Rodgers and Jonathan Tunick.

The term was coined by Miami Vice actor Phillip Michael Thomas, who in the mid ’80s proclaimed his desire to win all four awards. (Thomas is currently 0/4 of the way there.) It was thrust into the public consciousness by an arc on the past season of 30 Rock, which featured Tracy Morgan’s character working to achieve the goal.

As many have noted, the E and the G are the easier pair to accomplish —  and Washington is closer than most, having already been nominated for both an Emmy (for producing the documentaries Half Past Autumn: The Life and Works of Gordon Parks and Hank Aaron: Chasing the Dream) and a Grammy (for narrating the tale of John Henry in a 1996 audiobook) To complete the EGOT, NewsFeed has a list of suggested careers steps for Washington to take (from most to least plausible):

–Star in an HBO original film and narrate another audiobook

— Guest star on 30 Rock and and release a children’s album

— Become a stand-up comic; record an album and a TV special

— Produce the visual effects for a miniseries and become an instrumental jazz soloist

— Become the costumer for a variety/musical program and release an album of Tejano music