Henry Winkler Finally Wins an Emmy, Gives the Acceptance Speech He Wrote 40-Years Ago
Henry Winkler has been a television legend for more years than I’ve been alive. And I’m very old.
Somehow, though, Winkler had never won an Emmy until tonight. Oh sure, he’d been nominated before; six previous times in fact. He was nominated for his work as Fonzie on Happy Days on three occasions, but never won. (“Heeeeeyyyyyyyy!”) He got two different Best Guest Actor nominations for The Practice and Battery Park. And who could forget his timeless, brilliant work on the outstanding informational program Who Are the DeBolts? [And Where Did They Get 19 Kids?]? (Look, I’m just reading this stuff straight from the IMDb.) Incredibly, in all those years and nominations, Winkler remained un-Emmy’d.
Finally the drought his over, as Winkler took home the Best Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series award for his performance on HBO’s Barry alongside Bill Hader — who also won an Emmy tonight as well.
Winkler had a long time to prepare for this moment and he was ready; he joked that he’d written his speech 43 years ago. “Skip Brittenham said to me a long time ago,” he added, “‘If you stay at the table long enough, the chips come to you,’ and tonight I got to clear the table.” And he concluded things in classic fashion, telling his kids they could finally go to bed now because “Daddy won!”
(Winkler’s son Max is 35 years old. He’s a film director.)
Be sure to keep following ScreenCrush throughout the night for more of the big winners from the 2018 Emmy Awards.
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