Matthew Macfadyen is Gold Derby’s odds-on favorite to win his second consecutive Best Drama Supporting Actor Emmy this year for playing the very tired Tom Wambsgans on HBO‘s “Succession.” Fun fact: if he were to prevail against co-nominees Alexander Skarsgard, Alan Ruck and Nicholas Braun from “Succession” and F. Murray Abraham, Will Sharpe, Michael Imperioli and Theo James from “The White Lotus,” that would tie him with four other dramatic supporting actors on Emmy’s all-time list.
Stuart Margolin (“The Rockford Files” in 1979-80), Michael Conrad (“Hill Street Blues” in 1981-82), Larry Drake (“L.A. Law” in 1988-89) and Ray Walston (“Picket Fences” in 1995-96) all took home back-to-back Emmy Awards in the Best Drama Supporting Actor category during their shows’ tenures.
However, two other stars have even more Best Drama Supporting Actor trophies on their mantels: four-time record-holder Peter Dinklage (“Game of Thrones” in 2011, ’15, ’18, ’19) and three-time champ Aaron Paul (“Breaking Bad” in 2010, ’12, ’14). Because this is the last year of “Succession,” the most Macfadyen can win is two, so the records for Dinklage and Paul will remain intact, at least for now.
Macfadyen lost his first bid for playing Tom in 2020 to Billy Crudup (“The Morning Show”), but he rebounded on his second at-bat in 2022. That year he bested his “Succession” co-stars Braun and Kieran Culkin (who has since moved up to lead), as well as Crudup, Park Hae-soo (“Squid Game”), John Turturro (“Severance”), Christopher Walken (“Severance”) and O Yeong-su (“Squid Game”).
During his 2022 Emmy speech (watch below), Macfadyen proclaimed, “I’m deeply flattered and thrilled to bits.” The English actor continued on, “I must say, it really is such a pleasure and a privilege for me to play this bonkers gift of a role in this wonderful show. My admiration and my gratitude to Jesse Armstrong and his remarkable writing team is boundless — they are truly amazing, they just are.”
“Succession” is up for more Emmys this year (27) than any other TV series. That number includes a whopping 14 nominations for its actors, a record it set last year and tied this year. Besides the four men mentioned above for Best Drama Supporting Actor, the other nominated performers are Culkin, Brian Cox and Jeremy Strong for Best Drama Actor, Sarah Snook for Best Drama Actress, J. Smith-Cameron for Best Drama Supporting Actress, James Cromwell and Arian Moayed for Best Drama Guest Actor, and Hiam Abbass, Cherry Jones and Harriet Walter for Best Drama Guest Actress.
PREDICT the 2023 Emmy winners through September 18
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