‘Daddy won!’: Henry Winkler FINALLY takes home Emmy award forty years after first nomination

The Happy Days actor was overjoyed at picking up his first statuette
Emma Powell18 September 2018
The Weekender

Sign up to our free weekly newsletter for exclusive competitions, offers and theatre ticket deals

I would like to be emailed about offers, event and updates from Evening Standard. Read our privacy notice.

Henry Winkler couldn’t contain his excitement at winning an Emmy award – four decades after he wrote his acceptance speech.

Winkler, 72, picked up his first Primetime Emmy gong – Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series – for his role as teacher Gene Cousineau in HBO hit, Barry at Monday night’s ceremony.

The New York-born actor told the audience he wrote his speech 42 years ago after being nominated for his first Emmy for playing Fonzie on Happy Days, a role he was nominated three times for in the 1970s, but never won.

“I only have 30 seconds but I wrote this 40 years ago,” he joked, before adding: “If you stay at the table long enough, the chips come to you, and tonight I got to clear the table.”

Long time coming: Henry Winkler holding on to his Emmy statuette
Kevin Winter/Getty

He went on to thank Barry co-creators Bill Hader and Alec Berg before wrapping up his speech with a shout out to his wife Stacey Weitzman and children Jed, Zoe and Max. He said: “You can go to bed now, daddy won!”

The veteran star received huge cheers and a standing ovation from the audience, including from his former Happy Days co-star Ron Howard.

Speaking to reporters backstage, Winkler said: “I was 27 when I started doing the Fonz. I’m now 72 standing in front of you with her [Emmy]. Wow.”

Winkler previously received two Emmy nominations for his narration of the 1979 documentary Who Are The Debolts? And How Did They Get 19 Kids?

Most recently, he was nominated in 2000 for a guest role on The Practice.

Emmy Awards 2018 - Best Moments

1/10

The 70th annual ceremony was held at the Microsoft Theatre in Los Angeles and saw a host of Brits walk away with the top prizes.

Thandie Newton – who accidentally swore during her acceptance speech – scooped Supporting Actress for her role in Westworld while Claire Foy and Matthew Rhys took home Lead Actress and Actor for their roles in The Crown and The Americans, respectively.

Game of Thrones won the coveted Outstanding Drama Series gong, beating The Handmaid’s Tale, Stranger Things, This Is Us, Westworld, The Americans and The Crown.

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in