Viola Davis has earned the rare and coveted EGOT status, becoming the third black woman in history to achieve the honor.
On Sunday, the 57-year-old actress won her first Grammy for her performance on the audiobook of her memoir «Finding Me.»
“It’s just been a great ride,” Davis said as he accepted the award. “Just EGOT!”
The award term «EGOT» refers to people who have won an Emmy, a Grammy, an Oscar, and a Tony over the course of their careers in entertainment. Only 18 people have achieved status, and Davis is the fourth black person along with Whoopi Goldberg, John Legend and Jennifer Hudson to complete the EGOT.
Davis already has an Oscar, two Tonys and an Emmy.
“Oh my gosh,” Davis said Sunday. “I wrote this book to honor 6-year-old Viola, to honor her, to honor her life, her joy, her trauma, her everything about her.”
Davis won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress in 2017 for her role as housewife Rose Maxson in 2016’s «Fences.» She won an Emmy in 2015 for her role as Annalize Keating in «How to Get Away with Murder.» «, making her the first black woman to win the award for best actress in a drama. She has two Tony Awards, one for «King Hedley II» and the Broadway production of «Fences.»
Davis reflected on her career and her Grammy nomination in a January interviewand said that achieving EGOT status would be a «great achievement».
“I think everyone wants their life to mean something,” he said. “I believe in the Cherokee birth blessing, which is, ‘May you live long enough to know why you were born.’ I think you literally want to burn a hole in this world any way you can.
“A lot of people don’t know how to do that. Many people have not found what they are passionate about, what they can do. Some have. But we are all looking for that, making a hole in this earth before leaving it. I think about that a lot in my work. I really found what I love to do. So I always want it to be meaningful.»