Celebrities Close to an EGOT: Cher, Lin-Manuel Miranda & Stars One Award Away

Celebrities close to an EGOT are the awards-season subplot fans track when a legend wins three of four competitive prizes — Emmy, Grammy, Oscar, and Tony — and needs exactly one more trophy to join the quadruple-crown club. As of 2026 canon, 22 artists have completed the sweep, with director Steven Spielberg the latest addition at the 2026 Grammy Awards. That leaves a crowded bench of icons one envelope away: Cher still needs a Tony, Lin-Manuel Miranda needs a competitive Oscar, Billy Crystal sits two legs short despite eight Emmys, and Hugh Jackman, Cynthia Erivo, and Billy Porter each hunt Academy gold. This evergreen Pillar G explainer maps every major near-miss by missing trophy, cross-links our EGOT winners complete list (#18622), and skips red-carpet outfit breakdowns (Pillar F owns fashion analysis).

We count only competitive category wins toward EGOT proximity — the same rule that defines the canonical 22-name roster in EGOT winners complete list. Honorary Oscars, special Tonys, and lifetime-achievement prizes make great trivia but do not close the gap for purist celebrities close to an EGOT rankings. Pair this guide with most awarded celebrities of all time for cross-ceremony totals and actors who won the triple crown of acting for the Oscar-Emmy-Tony acting subset.

Celebrities Close to an EGOT: How We Define “One Away”

A fair celebrities close to an EGOT list requires three counting rules. First, all four legs must be the American “big four” — primetime or related competitive Emmy, Recording Academy Grammy, Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Oscar, and Tony Awards competitive category. Second, near-misses must hold three of those four competitively; artists missing two legs belong in a separate “multi-decade chase” tier (Billy Crystal, Barbra Streisand with her special Tony). Third, we label the specific missing trophy so readers can track realistic paths — a Broadway return for Cher differs from an Oscar song race for Lin-Manuel Miranda.

The club grew from 21 to 22 completers when Spielberg’s Music by John Williams won Best Music Film at the 2026 Grammys, joining Oscars for Schindler’s List and Saving Private Ryan, Emmys including Band of Brothers, and a Tony as producer of The Lehman Trilogy (2022). Every new completer reshuffles who leads the near-miss conversation — which is why this celebrities close to an EGOT guide updates against 2026 canon rather than stale pre-Spielberg lists.

Stars Who Need a Tony: Cher, Kate Winslet, and Lady Gaga

The Tony leg is the hardest final puzzle piece for film and pop icons, making Broadway the most common gap among celebrities close to an EGOT. Cher is the headline name: she won an Oscar for Moonstruck (1988), a Primetime Emmy for Cher: Live at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas (1999), and a Grammy for Believe (2000) — leaving only a competitive Tony. She earned a Best Actress Tony nomination for Come Back to the Five and Dime, Jimmy Dean, Jimmy Dean in 1982 but has not claimed the theatre prize despite decades of comeback speculation.

Kate Winslet holds an Oscar (The Reader, 2009), an Emmy (Mildred Pierce, 2011), and a Grammy for the Leonardo DiCaprio: Most Wanted! audiobook narration (2022). A competitive Tony for a future stage role would complete her sweep. Lady Gaga owns an Oscar for A Star Is Born song “Shallow” (2019), multiple Grammys, and a Primetime Emmy as producer of Bradley Cooper: Live at the Apollo (2025) — yet still needs a Tony after her House of Gucci film work and stadium tours kept her off Broadway boards.

Director Martin Scorsese stacks Oscars and Emmys but lacks a competitive Tony despite producing theatre-adjacent projects for decades. Beatles legends Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr each need Tonys despite Grammy and Oscar footprints in music-film categories. Julie Andrews famously declined a 1996 Tony nomination for Victor/Victoria, keeping her one competitive Tony shy of EGOT status despite Oscars, Emmys, and a Grammy on the shelf.

Stars Who Need an Oscar: Lin-Manuel Miranda and the Film-Leg Hunt

The Oscar leg dominates today’s celebrities close to an EGOT headlines because theatre and television powerhouses already cleared their other hurdles. Lin-Manuel Miranda is the closest A-list name: he won Emmys for Hamilton’s America (2017) and related work, Grammys for Hamilton and In the Heights cast albums, and Tonys for In the Heights (2008) and Hamilton (2016). Only a competitive Oscar remains. Miranda earned nominations for Moana‘s “How Far I’ll Go” (2017) and Encanto‘s “Dos Oruguitas” (2022) but has not converted a film-song envelope — making every animated feature cycle a live EGOT watch.

Hugh Jackman collected a Primetime Emmy for hosting the 2004 Tony Awards, a Grammy for The Greatest Showman cast album (2019), and a Tony for The Boy from Oz (2004) — yet lacks a competitive Oscar despite Les Misérables (2013) and The Greatest Showman (2018) campaigns. Cynthia Erivo won a Tony for The Color Purple (2016), Grammys for the revival cast album, and a Daytime Emmy producing Harriet-adjacent television work, but still needs Academy gold after Harriet (2019) and Wicked (2024) nominations. Billy Porter sealed Emmy (Pose, 2019), Grammy (Kinky Boots cast album, 2014), and Tony (Kinky Boots, 2013) legs — leaving the Oscar as his final frontier after film and television roles.

Billy Crystal, Barbra Streisand, and the Two-Leg Gap

Not every famous awards fixture qualifies as one trophy away. Billy Crystal is a staple of celebrities close to an EGOT conversations because he owns eight Primetime Emmys and a Grammy for spoken-word albums — yet he still lacks both a competitive Oscar (despite hosting the Academy Awards nine times) and a competitive Tony (he received a special Tony in 2014 for 700 Sundays). Purist EGOT math places Crystal two legs short, not one, though a future Broadway revival or documentary Oscar could accelerate his timeline.

Barbra Streisand won Oscars, Emmys, and Grammys competitively but accepted only a special Tony in 1970 — the same honorary-versus-competitive split that keeps James Earl Jones, Quincy Jones, and Harry Belafonte off the canonical 22-name list in EGOT winners complete list. USA Celebs tracks both tiers so trivia fans can answer “honorary-inclusive” and “competitive-only” versions without mixing records.

Stars Who Need a Grammy or Emmy: The Rarer Final Legs

Most celebrities close to an EGOT hunt Tonys or Oscars, but a smaller cluster needs music or television hardware. Liza Minnelli won an Oscar (Cabaret, 1973), an Emmy (Liza with a Z, 1973), and a Tony (The Act, 1978) — yet reportedly lacks a competitive Grammy despite legend status. James Earl Jones earned Emmys, Grammys, and a Tony but received an Honorary Oscar in 2011 rather than a competitive acting win, keeping him off the canonical completers list while remaining an honorary-EGOT trivia answer.

Conversely, some film directors stack Oscars and Tonys early but wait decades for Emmys or Grammys — Spielberg’s path (Oscar-Emmy-Tony first, Grammy last in 2026) proves the finishing leg can arrive in any order. Tracking celebrities close to an EGOT by missing trophy clarifies who could join the club within a single awards cycle versus who needs a career pivot.

2026 EGOT Context: Why Near-Miss Lists Shift Every Season

Before Spielberg’s 2026 Grammy, Benj Pasek, Justin Paul, and Elton John completed the sweep in 2024 — compressing the near-miss window and proving the club is not a closed historical set. Each new member removes a name from celebrities close to an EGOT rankings and elevates whoever was “next in line.” Awards bloggers had flagged Spielberg for years because he already held Oscars, Emmys, and a Tony; his Grammy for Music by John Williams simply closed the last gap.

Looking ahead, a single Oscar song win could add Miranda overnight. A surprise Tony revival could vault Cher or Winslet. A competitive Grammy for a spoken-word or cast-album project could move Liza Minnelli from folklore into official proximity. That volatility is why USA Celebs maintains both this near-miss hub and the full chronological roster in EGOT winners complete list (#18622).

Explore More Pillar G Awards Guides

• Completers: EGOT winners complete list (#18622) — all 22 champions through Spielberg 2026.
• Cross-ceremony totals: most awarded celebrities of all time.
• Acting subset: actors who won the triple crown of acting.
• Tony overlap: actors who won both a Tony and an Oscar.
• Archive: Awards category on USA Celebs.