With a Grammy win, Steven Spielberg's got his EGOT

Iconic Jewish director and activist adds music prize, won for producing documentary on composer John Williams, to his award haul; 9 of 22 EGOT winners have been Jewish

It’s official: Steven Spielberg is an EGOT winner.

The prolific Jewish director, 79, known for films ranging from 1975’s “Jaws” to “Schindler’s List” in 1993 to “Hamnet” last year, won a Grammy on Sunday night in Los Angeles.

That means he has entered exclusive company, as one of 22 people to ever win all four major performing arts awards — an Emmy, Grammy, Oscar and Tony. Others who have achieved the feat include Audrey Hepburn, Rita Moreno, Mel Brooks and Elton John.

Spielberg won the Grammy for best music film for his role as a producer of “Music by John Williams,” a documentary about the longtime film composer who has worked on the vast majority of Spielberg’s feature films, as well as many others.

In a statement posted to Instagram on Sunday, Spielberg thanked the voters who bestowed the music award on him, and wrote that the accolade “means the world to me.”

“This acknowledgment is obviously deeply meaningful to me because it validates what I have known for over 50 years: John Williams’ influence on culture and music is immeasurable and his artistry and legacy is unrivaled,” Spielberg added.

Spielberg got his first two Oscars in 1994 for “Schindler’s List,” his genre-defining Holocaust feature film, for which he won best director and best picture (and for which Williams won for best original score). He later won best director for “Saving Private Ryan” in 1999, and has been nominated for Academy Awards more than a dozen times.

His first Emmy came in 1996 for the children’s animated program “Animaniacs.” And he won his first Tony in 2022 for producing the musical “A Strange Loop.”

In addition to his work as a director and producer, Spielberg has devoted himself to Holocaust remembrance in the wake of “Schindler’s List.” He is the founder of the USC Shoah Foundation, which collects testimonies of survivors. He is now the foundation’s honorary chair.

Nine of the 22 EGOTs have been Jewish, including the first person to ever reach the status, composer Richard Rodgers. Rodgers and Marvin Hamlisch, who was also Jewish, are the only people to have added a Pulitzer Prize to the EGOT crown. The most recent Jewish winner before Spielberg was the songwriter Benj Pasek, who secured the status in 2024 with an Emmy.

JTA contributed to this article.