How Matthew Rhys made Emmy history with unprecedented double lead wins and genre trifecta

Dubai: Hollywood actor Matthew Rhys appears to have decided that if you are going to have an Emmy night, you may as well have one that goes down in the history books.

The Welsh actor made television awards history at Monday’s ceremony by becoming the first performer ever to win two lead acting Emmys in the same night, picking up the lead actor award for a limited series for Netflix’s The Beast in Me before returning later in the evening to claim the lead comedy actor prize for Apple TV’s Widow’s Bay. As if that little double act were not enough, Rhys has now become the first male performer to win the three major lead acting prizes across drama, comedy and limited series.

In other words, while most actors spend an awards season hoping to get one category to go their way, Rhys has effectively completed the Emmy menu.

His first victory was arguably the more unexpected of the two. For The Beast in Me, he beat a field that included Oscar Isaac, Riz Ahmed, Jason Bateman and Charlie Hunnam, with Isaac having been widely regarded as one of the stronger contenders in the race. Rhys then returned to the winners’ circle for Widow’s Bay, overcoming Yahya Abdul-Mateen II, Steve Carell, Jason Segel and Martin Short in the comedy category.

The significance of the double win becomes even more impressive when you look at the rather peculiar history of the Emmys. Performers have managed two acting victories on the same night before, but never two lead acting trophies. James Earl Jones pulled off a two-category acting sweep in 1991, winning lead drama actor for Gabriel’s Fire and supporting actor in a limited series for Heat Wave, while Stockard Channing collected two supporting actress prizes in 2002 for The West Wing and The Matthew Shepard Story.

Rhys, however, has gone where neither of them did, taking the top acting prize in two separate lead categories on the same evening. And because the Emmys apparently felt that one piece of history was not quite enough, his latest victories have also completed a rather exclusive trifecta.

Rhys already had a lead drama Emmy, which he won in 2018 for his work as Philip Jennings in The Americans. With his new wins for The Beast in Me and Widow’s Bay, he now has lead acting trophies in drama, comedy and limited series, making him the first man to collect the full set.

The only performer to have previously achieved the equivalent feat was Barbara Stanwyck, who won all three lead actress categories between 1961 and 1983, although the Emmy categories were structured differently when she won her earliest award. Among male performers, Robert Young and Carroll O’Connor came close with victories in both drama and comedy, while Andre Braugher managed drama and limited series, but none of them completed the full three-category sweep.

There is also something rather satisfying about Rhys being the one to pull this off. His Emmy history began with the serious, finely calibrated world of The Americans, but his latest victories underline just how comfortably he has moved between genres. He can carry a prestige drama, command a limited series and, apparently, persuade Emmy voters that he is also the man they want making them laugh.

And then there is the small matter of those two executive producer nominations, because apparently acting in both shows was not quite enough. Rhys was also recognised behind the scenes for both The Beast in Me and Widow’s Bay, giving him an unusually strong presence across the evening.

For an awards ceremony that is normally built around carefully divided categories, separate campaigns and actors politely waiting their turn, Rhys rather spectacularly blurred the boundaries. He did not merely win an Emmy. He wandered across three acting categories, picked up the complete set and, for good measure, collected two of the lead prizes on the same night.

One suspects the Emmy voters will need a moment to recover before anyone attempts this again.