The 72nd Primetime Emmy Awards is a memorable one for Eddie Murphy. The movie star and comedian picked up the Outstanding Guest Actor in a Comedy Series statuette for ‘Saturday Night Live’ (SNL).
This is coming 40 years after he started acting on the comedy series; and this will be Murphy’s fifth Emmy nomination.
He was nominated alongside Adam Driver (Saturday Night Live), Fred Willard (Modern Family), Dev Patel (Modern Love), Brad Pitt of Saturday Night Live and Luke Kirby (The Marvelous Mrs Maisel).
Although Murphy was not at the event to accept the award, in his acceptance speech, shared by the Television Academy, the 59-year-old paid tribute to the cast and crew of SNL.
“Thank you to everybody at the Emmys. Thank you so much for giving me an Emmy, I don’t have an Emmy,” he said.
“This is 40 years since I started Saturday Night Live. This is my first Emmy, so thank you so much.
“I want to thank Lorne Michaels for putting this whole thing together and making this happen. And I want to thank the cast and the writers and the crew at SNL.
“This was a very very special thing for me to come back and have the show turn out the way it did. I’m still floating from it. And thank you to everybody for giving me an Emmy.”
Murphy earned his first Emmy nomination in 1983 for best supporting actor in a comedy; for his work on SNL in 1983.