California, US: Actor Matthew Rhys and actress Jean Smart made Emmy history at Monday’s ceremony in Los Angeles, with both achieving landmark feats in the acting categories.
Rhys became the first actor in Emmy history to win two lead acting awards in a single ceremony. He won the lead actor award in a limited series for Netflix’s 'The Beast in Me' and later took home the lead comedy actor prize for Apple TV’s 'Widow’s Bay.'
The wins also completed a rare sweep for the Welsh actor, who previously won the lead drama actor Emmy in 2018 for The Americans. Rhys is now the first male performer to win in all three lead acting categories — drama, comedy and limited series.
According to Variety, two performers had previously won two acting Emmys on the same night, but neither had won both in lead categories. James Earl Jones won lead drama actor for 'Gabriel’s Fire' and supporting actor in a limited series for 'Heat Wave' in 1991, while Stockard Channing won two supporting actress awards in 2002.
In the limited series category, Rhys beat nominees including Oscar Isaac for 'Beef', Riz Ahmed for 'Bait', Jason Bateman for 'Black Rabbit' and Charlie Hunnam for 'Monster: The Ed Gein Story'. In the comedy category, he prevailed over Yahya Abdul-Mateen II for 'Wonder Man', Steve Carell for 'Rooster', Jason Segel for 'Shrinking' and Martin Short for 'Only Murders in the Building'.
Meanwhile, Jean Smart made history by becoming the first female performer to win an Emmy for every season of the same show. She won her fifth lead comedy actress Emmy for her portrayal of Deborah Vance in the fifth and final season of HBO Max’s 'Hacks.'
Smart received a standing ovation as Zendaya announced her name. In her acceptance speech, she joked about the competition among the actresses before dedicating the award to Hacks creators Lucia Aniello, Jen Statsky and Paul W. Downs.
Smart is now an eight-time Emmy winner, tying Julia Louis-Dreyfus and Cloris Leachman for the most Emmy wins by an actor of any gender. Allison Janney also reached eight career Emmy wins on Monday with her award for 'The Diplomat', according to Variety.
The only performer previously known to have swept the Emmys for every season of a show was Bill Cosby, who won for all three seasons of 'I Spy' between 1966 and 1968.
This year’s Emmy nominations were led by The Pitt with 25 nominations, followed by Hacks, Widow’s Bay and Beef. The awards ceremony is underway in Los Angeles.
(With inputs from ANI)
