James Earl Jones died yesterday at the age of 93. He had a major, major career onstage, on television, in films. He was best known for his voice so I hope he got some work in radio in the early days, when radio was still a thing.
Here he is on Conan O'Brien back in the day. So charming. I wasn't aware that George Lucas originally wanted Orson Welles to be the voice of Darth Vader.
One thing I want to clear up, and I don't mean this to take away from James Earl Jones, his artistry, or his place in history. Our local NBC station did a feature on him this morning and they said he had an EGOT. He did NOT have an EGOT. His Oscar was honorary - - to have a proper EGOT all four award categories (Emmy, Grammy, Oscar, and Tony) have to be for competitive awards.
This is a nice opportunity for me to share my "Hymn to the EGOT," something I wrote in 2014 when Robert Lopez got the EGOT. I just did an update because THREE people added to the list with the Primetime Emmy Awards back in January. I had some stuff going on at the start of the year so I'll give myself a free pass. THIS TIME.
The new members are Elton John and the songwriting team Benj Pasek and Justin Paul. Pasek and Paul have two things that make their EGOT journey distinctive: first, at only seven years and seven months, they achieved the EGOT faster than anyone else (Helen Hayes had the longest EGOT journey, 45 years). Also Pasek and Paul, as a team, have the distinction of having a complete overlap with their six awards. Neither of them has anything on their list that the other doesn't also have.
The tune is a sturdy old hymn tune, "Beecher," written by John Zundel in 1870. I grew up singing it as "Love Divine, All Loves Excelling" though I imagine it's also sung with other words.
My new words list the 21 EGOT winners in the first half and address the Barbara Streisand, Liza Minnelli, and James Earl Jones issue in the final section. Harry Belafonte, Quincy Jones, and Frank Marshall are also near-EGOTs (aka non-EGOTs).
Please note that because there are so many darn EGOT winners it's now necessary to do a rewind on the 5th and 6th lines - - the music for those lines is the same as the 3rd and 4th lines.
Rodgers, Hayes, Moreno, Gielgud
Hepburn, Hamlisch, Tunick, Brooks
Nichols, Goldberg, Rudin, Lopez
Rice, Lloyd Webber, and John Legend
Menken, Hudson, Viola Davis
Elton John and Pasek and Paul
Not for Barbra or for Liza
James Earl Jones might like one, too
One of theirs is honorary
We don't count those, neither should you
Comments