Welsh actor Matthew Rhys makes Emmy Awards history with double winHe becomes the first person to win two lead acting prizes in one night at the prestigious TV ceremony.2 hrs agoCulture

Welsh actor Matthew Rhys has made history at the Emmy Awards, becoming the first person to win two lead acting prizes in one night.

Rhys was recognised at the prestigious US ceremony for his roles in supernatural TV comedy Widow’s Bay and psychological thriller The Beast In Me.

On stage, Rhys dedicated his second award “to the great and good people of Wales, who were as much a nurture as anyone else”.

“We are a small but mighty nation. This is incredible,” he said, adding “Diolch yn fawr iawn” – which means “thank you very much” in Welsh.

Other winners of the coveted US TV awards included Jean Smart, Allison Janney and Stephen Colbert, while there was an emotional tribute to Dolly Parton and a special humanitarian award for Michael J Fox.

Rhys was named best lead actor in a limited series for The Beast In Me, then won best lead actor in a comedy for Widow’s Bay.

A small number of actors, including Alan Alda, Sally Field, John Goodman, Elisabeth Moss and Ted Danson, have previously been nominated for two lead acting prizes in the same year, but Rhys is the first to score a double win.

Backstage, he said: “I’m from a small country, and I’m glad we get moments to kind of put our flag on the map and say, ‘we punch higher than our weight sometimes’.”

The Beast In Me follows a grieving author, played by Claire Danes, who becomes obsessed with a mysterious new neighbour suspected of murder.

Rhys said it was a “real shock” to win the award, and told Danes: “Thank you for letting me join the mystery machine and bringing out the beast, you are an intimidating scene partner, but I’m grateful for all this.”

Later in the night, accepting the comedy actor prize for playing the mayor in Widow’s Bay, he thanked the family, friends and colleagues who supported his career, including his parents who “kicked me on to the stage at a very early age”.

His Widow’s Bay co-star Kate O’Flynn was among the other British winners, being named best supporting comedy actress for playing Patricia in the show about a fictional island beset by a centuries-old curse.

“I want to thank our mayor and all the residents of Widow’s Bay, in front and behind the camera,” said O’Flynn, from Bury in Greater Manchester.

She added: “This is the role of a lifetime… Thank you for trusting this Lancashire lass to play a sassy broad like Patricia.”

Elsewhere, Jean Smart won best comedy actress for her role in the fifth and final series of Hacks.

It is the fifth Emmy she has won for the Hollywood satire. “What a ride this has been,” Smart reflected, and joked that the audience only gave her a standing ovation “because I’m old”.

It was Smart’s eighth Emmy win in total, and The Diplomat’s Allison Janney also picked up the eighth Emmy of her career, scoring best supporting actress in a drama series.

Smart and Janney have both now equalled the record for the most acting wins ever, shared with Cloris Leachman and Julia Louis-Dreyfus.

Despite her past success, Janney was a surprise winner on Monday and said she was “genuinely shocked” to see off competition from four stars of hospital drama The Pitt, among others.

Meanwhile, Rhea Seehorn won the first Emmy of her career for best lead actress in a drama series for Pluribus, the Apple TV show about a woman who discovers almost everyone else in the world has been taken over by a mysterious mind virus.

The Pitt won best drama, traditionally seen as the most prestigious award of the night.

And the show’s leading star Noah Wyle also picked up the trophy for best lead actor in a drama series for the second year in a row.

“I’m a Hollywood kid. I was raised on a television, and movie theaters were my place of worship,” Wyle told the audience. “This is all I’ve ever wanted to do and this is the only club I’ve ever wanted to join. Thank you for accepting me.”

The former ER star praised all of his fellow nominees, but singled out veteran British star Sir Gary Oldman, who was nominated for Slow Horses.

Wyle said he was inspired by Sir Gary’s performance as Sex Pistols bassist Sid Vicious in 1986 film Sid and Nancy, recalling how at the time he thought it was “the benchmark that I want to hit one day in my career”.

Michael J Fox was given a standing ovation as he received the Bob Hope Humanitarian Award for his campaigning for support for Parkinson’s disease.

The Back to the Future star, 65, who founded the Michael J Fox Foundation in 2000, said: “When it starts getting tough, you show up, you help, and if you get a little joy while you’re doing it, that’s even better.”

Appearing in a wheelchair, he told the audience he initially kept his condition secret after being diagnosed at the age of 29.

“I worried that it would affect my work and my relationships with audiences when they laughed if they knew I was sick,” he said.

But he added: “Eventually, I understood that accepting Parkinson’s didn’t mean I had to surrender to it. It just meant doing what I could for everyone living with this disease. So I set out to advocate for patients’ needs and raise money, and to propel us towards a cure.”

Actress Sally Field, who starred in Steel Magnolias opposite Dolly Parton, led a tribute to the country music star, who died last month.

Field described Parton as “genuine, humble, supportive and blisteringly funny” as she introduced a special performance by country singer Reba McEntire.

“She was a humanitarian whose contribution has made a profound difference across our country,” Field said of Parton, who won an Emmy herself in 2021.

“God bless you Dolly Parton my friend, I am not the only one on Earth who will love you for ever and ever.”

Earlier in the night, Field won best actress in a limited series or movie for Remarkably Smart Creatures, a Netflix film about an octopus who observes the staff in his aquarium.

Macaulay Culkin, Annie Murphy and Dan Levy delivered a poignant tribute to their late Home Alone and Schitt’s Creek co-star Catherine O’Hara. Culkin remembered her as “our mom”, and “like a good mom, she always showed up when I asked her to”.

Referring to the plot of the Home Alone films, he joked: “She may have forgotten me… twice! But we will always remember her.”

Noah Kahan then performed Bridge Over Troubled Water during the in memoriam segment, before Jamie Lee Curtis paid an emotional tribute to actor and director Rob Reiner.

Reiner, who died last December, received a posthumous Emmy last week for his guest appearance in The Bear.

In other award categories, Scottish TV presenter Alan Cumming accepted the best reality show prize for the US version of The Traitors, an honour he said would encourage the team to “do better and go bigger”.

“It is so beautiful that a show about treachery and betrayal brings people together,” he joked, as he also thanked his dog Lala, “the perfect co-host”.

On an evening otherwise light on political messages, Cumming concluded his speech by encouraging US citizens to register to vote ahead of the midterm elections in November.

Stephen Colbert won best variety series after presenting his final episode of The Late Show in May.

The presenter said nightly talk shows were a “fantastic incubator for young people to come in, work professionally, on a deadline, in collaboration, and that is the future of our business that we have to look after”.