Who is the youngest person to win the ‘Triple Crown of Acting’?
Every actor in Hollywood will tell you that they don’t do what they do for awards recognition. It’s about the work, you see. The craft. That’s where the real reward lies.
Having said that, the vast majority of these stars will also tell you that they’re not going to turn their nose up at an accolade, either, because being honoured by Hollywood and your peers is a pretty special feeling. Sure, they can pretend they’ve never dreamed of waltzing up on stage to collect an Oscar, but that facade will likely drop in an instant if a nomination comes their way, and in often absurd acceptance speeches.
In truth, awards glory is the real currency that runs Hollywood, helping get better roles, negotiating lucrative contracts, and sprinkling the right amount of clout to get certain projects off the ground. From this perspective, it’s easy to see how much influence being a ‘Triple Crown of Acting’ wearer can exert. If you’ve got your name on an Oscar, an Emmy, and a Tony, you get a premium industry membership in a club that has only held 24 names in history.
The most recent star to complete the bingo is English actor Glenda Jackson, who won her Oscar in 1971, Emmy in 1972, and her Tony an incredible 46 years later in 2018. Preceding her is Viola Davis constructing her crown in a comparatively swift 16 years with twice the helping hand of August Wilson, netting a Tony in 2001 for her performance in his play King Hedley II, her Emmy in 2015 for How to Get Away with Murder, and her Oscar in 2017 for the film adaption of Fences, another Wilson play.
However, at 82 and 52 respectively, neither Jackson nor Davis is the youngest star to win the coveted ‘Triple Crown’. Other recent members of the club, include Jessica Lange at 67, Frances McDormand at 58, Helen Mirren at 70, Al Pacino at 64, and Christopher Plummer at 82, and they come nowhere near matching the achievement of the youngest winner, who completed her set back in 1960.
Indeed, when the numbers are crunched, there are only three stars whose wins were youthful enough to almost pip the youngest to the post, and Jeremy Irons was 49 when he achieved it in 1997, while Paul Scofield was 47 in 1969, and Rita Moreno was 46 when she snagged her third gong in 1977.
So, who was the youngest person to win the ‘Triple Crown of Acting’?
Amazingly, the youngest star to win an Oscar, Emmy, and Tony Award did it all when she was only one year younger than Moreno, which might eat away at the Singin’ in the Rain star (you know, if she cares about such things).
In 1945, Ingrid Bergman won her first Oscar for George Cukor’s thriller Gaslight, and two years later, she followed it up with a ‘Best Leading Actress in a Play’ Tony Award for Joan of Lorraine. The Swedish megastar was only 30 at this point, but she would need to wait 15 more years to land her first Emmy for NBC’s TV movie version of The Turn of the Screw.
With this win in 1960, Bergman made history that still stands to this day, and to be honest, it doesn’t look like anyone is going to break her record anytime soon. After all, even though there are tons of actors who’re stuck at the doorstep with one awaiting, including Denzel Washington, Nicole Kidman, Kate Winslet, Meryl Streep, and Hugh Jackman, all have waved goodbye to 45 many moons ago, are doubly beyond the scope of our entry.
