The Volokh Conspiracy
[Puzzleblogger Kevan Choset, August 19, 2005 at 12:16pm] Trackbacks
Awards Categories:

  1. Who has won Oscars in the most categories?

  2. Who is the only person to win Emmys for acting, writing, and directing? (Hint: It was all for the same show.)

  3. Who has won Tonys in the most categories?

  4. Who is the only man to win a Tony for playing a woman? Who is the only woman to win a Tony for playing a man?

  5. Who has won Grammys in the most categories?

  6. Who are the only two people to win Nobel Prizes in two categories?

  7. Who, in 2005, was nominated for an Oscar, a Tony, and an Emmy?

UPDATE: Question 7 added.

DK:
6. Linus Pauling (peace + chemistry) and Marie Curie (physics + chemistry)
8.19.2005 1:21pm
Cal Lanier (mail) (www):
Harvey Fierstein won Tonys in the most categories: Best and Writer for a play, Best Actor and Writer for a musical.

I think he's the guy who won for playing a woman (the mom in Hairspray).
8.19.2005 1:25pm
Steve K:
The Emmy question winner has got to be Alan Alda on M*A*S*H.
8.19.2005 1:36pm
DK:
For 1, I would guess Walt Disney (the person, not the company) -- 32 oscars including multiple categories of special awards
8.19.2005 1:40pm
Steve K:
While we're at it, I believe B.D. Wong won a Tony for portraying an alleged woman in M. Butterfly.
8.19.2005 1:40pm
Steve K:
Oh yeah--Mary Martin won a Tony for playing Peter Pan.
8.19.2005 1:48pm
carpundit (www):
Question 2: Steve K beat me to Alan Alda, but Rob Reiner (All in the Family) and Jerry Seinfeld (Seinfeld) would be my second and third guesses.
8.19.2005 1:49pm
DK:
7. is also Alan Alda
8.19.2005 1:52pm
Kevan Choset (mail):
carpundit, Rob Reiner won for acting twice, but never for writing or directing. He did write for the show, but never directed.

Jerry Seinfeld only won one Emmy, and it was for Best Comedy Series (he was a producer). He was nominated for writing once ("The Pony Remark") and acting several times. He never directed an episode of Seinfeld.
8.19.2005 1:53pm
Steve K:
Coming very close to the correct answer to 7 is Laura Linney.
8.19.2005 1:54pm
Cal Lanier (mail) (www):
I'm not sure if BD Wong won a Tony or not, but he was a man playing a woman. Harvey was playing a woman.

7 is Alda, yes.
8.19.2005 1:57pm
Jamie:
#4, woman playing man, if "man" refers to sex rather than stage of development (so as to include "boy"), would, I think, be one of the several woman who've played Peter Pan on Broadway. I don't think the two more contemporary productions produced a Tony winner (Sandy Duncan and that gymnast-turned-Peter-Pan, I can't remember her name, didn't win I think), but the original portrayer might have. It might have been Mary Martin.
8.19.2005 3:21pm
Kevan Choset (mail):
Cal is correct. While B.D. Wong did win a Tony, he was not playing a woman. He was playing a man pretending to be a woman.
8.19.2005 3:22pm
Matt Barr (mail) (www):
It would be hard to believe #5 wasn't Henry Mancini.
8.19.2005 3:23pm
Jamie:
Sorry, Steve K, I'd only quickly scanned the comments before posting mine about Peter Pan and missed yours. I think you're right, obviously.
8.19.2005 3:25pm
Cal Lanier (mail) (www):
BTW, Keith, you forgot the other classic Tony/Oscar/Emmy question (or perhaps you asked it before and I missed): who has won an Oscar, a Tony, and an Emmy?
8.19.2005 4:48pm
John Armstrong (mail):
I'll do you one better, Cal. Who's the only person (AFAIK) who has won an Oscar, a Tony, an Emmy, and a Grammy?
8.19.2005 5:41pm
Steve K:
Actually, a number of people have won an Oscar, Tony, Emmy and Grammy--not even including honorary awards. They include Mel Brooks, John Gielgud, Marvin Hamlisch, Helen Hayes, Audrey Hepburn, Rita Moreno (who may be most famous for it), Mike Nichols, Jonathan Tunick and Richard Rodgers. Most of these only managed the final award in the last decade.

Another famous question is who won an Oscar, Tony and Emmy in the same year.
8.19.2005 5:50pm
Edward A. Hoffman (mail):
re: Cal Lanier's question:

At least nine people have won an Oscar, an Emmy, a Tony and a Grammy. I believe Rita Moreno was the first. The others are Helen Hayes, John Gielgud, Mel Brooks, Audrey Hepburn, Marvin Hamlisch, Richard Rodgers, Mike Nichols and Jonathan Tunick. Hayes and Moreno are the only ones to win all four as performers.

There are probably several others who have won an Oscar, an Emmy and a Tony but not a Grammy. Jack Albertson leaps to mind as one example.
8.19.2005 5:53pm
SP:
Okay, I can answer Steve K's question - Bob Fosse, who won for Cabaret (Oscar), Pippin (Tony), and a Liza Minelli special (Emmy) in the same year.
8.19.2005 6:38pm
jamie (mail):
The woman playing a man would be Julie Andrews in Victor/Victoria ... and Harvey Feinstein did win for a man playing a woman, but I believe it was for The Birdcage.
8.20.2005 6:47pm
Jim O'Sullivn (mail) (www):
Not to break chops, but Julie Andrews did not play a man in V/V. She played a woman who pretended to be a man. That, by the way, was the best movie about sexual identity of that year, much better than the grossly overrated Tootsie.
The woman who got an Oscar for playing a man was what's-her-name in The Year of Living Dangerously, I think.
8.20.2005 10:34pm
brightwinger (mail) (www):
Is the answer to #2 Orson Wells?
8.20.2005 10:55pm
gerschor (mail):
The actor who won a Tony playing a woman was George Hearn, who played Zaza/Albin in "La Cage Aux Folles".
8.21.2005 1:12am
Tuning Spork (mail) (www):
I'm just gonna guess that #1 is Barbra Streisand and #2 is Bill Cosby. The rest, I have no clue.
8.21.2005 2:54am
Kevan Choset (mail):
The answers I have are:
2) Alan Alda, for MASH
3) Harvey Fierstein
4) Harvey Fierstein for Hairspray and Mary Martin in Peter Pan. The rest of the answers provided all played their own gender pretending to be the opposite gender, but only these two actually played the opposite gender.
6) Marie Curie and Linus Pauling
7) Alan Alda -- The Aviator, Glengarry Glen Ross, The West Wing

As for #1 and #5, they're still open questions. Some people threw out some suggestions. Can anyone beat those?
8.21.2005 4:28pm
Milhouse (www):
Question 8: Other than question 6, who cares?
8.22.2005 4:44am
Big Tom:
Is #1 George Lucas?
8.22.2005 12:33pm

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