Henry Winkler Wins First-Ever Emmy for ‘Barry’

Henry Winkler won the best supporting actor in a comedy series award for his role as Gene Cousineau on HBO’s Barry at the 70th annual Emmy Awards ceremony. The award marks Winkler’s first win and his sixth nomination.

The actor received a standing ovation from the audience while walking onstage to accept his trophy. 

He was up against Louie Anderson (Baskets), Alec Baldwin (Saturday Night Live), Tituss Burgess (Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt), Brian Tyree Henry (Atlanta), Tony Shalhoub (The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel) and Keenan Thompson (SNL) for the award.

“I only have 37 seconds. I wrote this 43 years ago,” Winkler began his acceptance speech. “Can I just say Skip Brittenham said to me a long time ago, ‘If you stay at the table long enough, the chips come to you,’ and tonight I got to clear the table.

“If you get a chance to work with Bill Hader or Alec Berg, run don’t walk,” the actor added of the co-creators of Barry. “Thank you for producing us, for creating us, for directing us and for Bill for acting with us, and for all of our wonderful writers.”

After thanking his team and wife, he then shared a special message for his (now adult) children: “Kids, kids! Jed, Zoe and Max, you can go to bed now. Daddy won!”

Winkler was nominated three times in the outstanding lead actor in a comedy series category for his role as Arthur “Fonzie” Fonzarelli on Happy Days. Winkler was then nominated in the outstanding informational program category in 1979 for Who Are the DeBolts? And Where Did They Get Nineteen Kids? He was later nominated in the outstanding guest actor in a drama series category for his role on The Practice in 2000.

The 2018 Emmy Awards were hosted by Saturday Night Live‘s Colin Jost and Michael Che. The ceremony took place on Monday at the Microsoft Theater in Los Angeles.