Matthew Rhys Makes Emmy History With Two Lead Acting Wins

Matthew Rhys did something no actor had done in 78 years of the Emmy Awards.

Rhys won two lead acting Emmys on the same night at Monday’s ceremony. Earlier in the night he shockingly took home the lead actor (limited) for his work in Netflix’s “The Beast in Me.” Later on, he nabbed the lead comedy actor prize for Apple TV’s “Widow’s Bay.”

He’s now the first person ever to claim both lead actor prizes in a single ceremony, and adding to his 2018 drama win for “The Americans,” the pair of statuettes also makes him the first male performer to win in all three lead acting categories.

Two performers had won two acting Emmys on one night before, but neither did it in the lead categories: James Earl Jones swept lead drama actor for “Gabriel’s Fire” and supporting actor (limited) for “Heat Wave” in 1991, and Stockard Channing took two supporting actress trophies in 2002, for “The West Wing” and “The Matthew Shepard Story.” Rhys is the first to do it at the top of two ballots at once.

Rhys, already a previous Emmy winner for lead drama actor in 2018 for “The Americans” and now, “Widow’s Bay” and “The Beast in Me” hands him the complete set of lead acting Emmys across drama, comedy and limited, a trifecta no actor had ever assembled. Three men have been close: Robert Young and Carroll O’Connor each won the drama and comedy leads, and Andre Braugher took drama and limited. The only performer of any gender to complete the set before Rhys is Barbara Stanwyck, who won all three lead actress categories between 1961 and 1983 — though the earliest of hers predates the split between the comedy and drama races. (Among the actresses still stuck one short is Claire Danes, Rhys’ “Beast in Me” co-star.)

In the limited race he pulled off the bigger surprise, edging the presumptive favorite Oscar Isaac (“Beef”) along with Riz Ahmed (“Bait”), Jason Bateman (“Black Rabbit”) and Charlie Hunnam (“Monster: The Ed Gein Story”). On the comedy side, Rhys topped Yahya Abdul-Mateen II (“Wonder Man”), Steve Carell (“Rooster”), Jason Segel (“Shrinking”) and Martin Short (“Only Murders in the Building”).

The Welsh actor also has two additional nominations as an executive producer on both of his series.

This year’s Emmy nominations were led by “The Pitt” with 25 nominations, followed by “Hacks,” “Widow’s Bay” and “Beef.”