Culture

Sir Tom Jones pays lovely tribute to Matthew Rhys on double Emmy win

15 Sep 2026 3 minute read

Sir Tom Jones and Matthew Rhys (Credit: Hello magazine)

Nation.Cymru staff

Sir Tom Jones has paid tribute to Matthew Rhys after the Welsh actor picked up two Emmy Awards – becoming the first actor to win two Emmys in the same year for lead actor performances.

The singing legend to to his social media pages to congratulate the acting star, praising his versatility in leading roles.

“Congratulations to Matthew Rhys for Hollywood’s recognition of his great work,” said Sir Tom. “It seems that he can tackle anything that comes his way – making history as the first person to win 2 lead acting prizes in 1 night!”

The Welsh icon also said what a great night it was for Wales.

He added: “Lovely for Wales too, enjoy the moment Matthew!”

Sir Tom Jones’ post on Facebook Stories.

The actor will no doubt be thrilled with the message from Sir Tom, especially as he recently told Hello magazine that he is keen to work with the music legend.

“I’d like to play Tom Jones in a biopic of his life,” Matthew said.”I’m just putting it out to the ether in the hope that he’ll go, ‘Yeah, of course I’ll work with you.'”

“The title is: It’s Not Unusual,” he added.

The actor first took the stage at the 78th Primetime Emmy Awards for his role in The Beast in Me, a critically acclaimed Netflix miniseries in which he plays the main character’s mysterious real estate mogul neighbour.

As well as the win for Best Lead Actor in a Limited Series, the 51-year-old was also up for the Best Lead Actor in a Comedy for the supernatural comedy Apple TV series Widow’s Bay, which he duly won later in the night.

The Emmy’s crowd got to their feet to give Rhys a deserved standing ovation, which he waved off, with his wife Keri Russell cheering from the crowd.

In his second speech, Rhys thanked the show’s “genius” creator Katie Dippold and director Hiro Murai, the show’s crew, his family and “the great and good people of Wales, who were as much a nurturer as anyone else”.

“We are a small but mighty nation,” Rhys said. “This is incredible. Diolch yn fawr iawn, thank you very much!”

As well as his history-making double lead actor win, the awards completed another record for Rhys as, with his 2018 Emmy for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama, he is now the first actor to win in the three lead actor categories.

Backstage Rhys added: “The celebrations will be long, varied and, I hope, at times wild. It’s incredible, it certainly hasn’t sunk in. I’m stumbling for words because I don’t have them at the moment. I really can’t quite believe it.

“I’m just glad… I’m from a small country, and I’m glad we get moments to put our flag in the map and say, ‘we punch higher than our weight sometimes in Wales’.”

Llongyfarchiadau Matthew!

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