Share to ClassroomWelsh Actor Wins Two Emmys, Makes History
Matthew Rhys, a 51-year-old actor from Wales, made television history on Monday night at the 78th Emmy Awards in Los Angeles. He became the first actor to win two lead acting prizes at the same ceremony. He won one prize for the thriller The Beast In Me and another for the comedy Widow's Bay. When he took his second award, he thanked the people of Wales and spoke to the audience in Welsh.
The Emmy Awards are some of the biggest prizes in American television. They were first given in 1949, and people who work in television choose the winners. The trophy shows a woman with wings holding an atom. Its name comes from "immy", an old word for a tube inside early television cameras. Some famous actors had been chosen for two lead prizes in one year before, but nobody had ever won both.
After the show, Rhys said he was happy that his small country could "put our flag on the map". His old music teacher told the Daily Mail that his talent was clear 30 years earlier at a school in Cardiff. The school built a musical around him in 1993 because he looked like Elvis Presley.
