Ernest Harden Jr. beat Colman Domingo and Jonathan Pryce to the Emmy: Louie Cloverfield of The Pitt was his first nomination in 5 decades of acting
Every awards season needs exactly one win that makes you cry into your group chat, and this year it arrived on Night 2 of the Creative Arts Emmys.
Ernest Harden Jr. — 73 years old, working since the 1970s (yes, that's Marcus from The Jeffersons), a career built almost entirely of guest spots and supporting parts — won Outstanding Guest Actor in a Drama Series for playing Louie Cloverfield, The Pitt's beloved "frequent flier" patient. It was his first nomination. Ever.
And the category was a bloodbath: Colman Domingo (Euphoria), Jonathan Pryce (Slow Horses), Bradley Whitford (The Diplomat), Jeff Hiller (Pluribus), and Harden's own castmate Jeff Kober. He beat all of them.
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"I am on cloud 25"
That's how Harden described his state backstage — a very Louie way to be happy. He also revealed how he found out his character was dying in Season 2: wardrobe people kept stopping him on set in tears. His response, asked directly to Noah Wyle, was that he planned on sticking around five more years — which in The Pitt's one-shift-per-season math is five days.
The Bette Davis of it all
The speech, though. In 1980, a young Harden starred opposite Bette Davis in the TV movie White Mama. Davis was Emmy-nominated for it and lost. Forty-six years later, accepting his own Emmy with his eyes closed, Harden dedicated the award to her:
"We didn't make it then but this one is for us!"
Five decades. One nomination. One win. Louie would've loved this.
Earlier we wrote: Julie Andrews is 90 and feels like 50 — and the one thing she does first every morning isn’t a diet or a pill
