Josh O’Connor continued The Crown‘s big night at the Emmys, winning the award for best lead actor in a drama series.
O’Connor, who plays Prince Charles on the Netflix series, beat out Sterling K. Brown (This Is Us), Jonathan Majors (Lovecraft Country), Regé-Jean Page (Bridgerton), Billy Porter (Pose) and Matthew Rhys (Perry Mason) for the award. This year also marked his first Emmy nomination.
“Making The Crown has been the most rewarding two years of my life,” O’Connor said in accepting the award. He also called co-star Emma Corrin, who plays Princess Diana, “a force of nature. I love you very much.”
The victory for O’Connor continued a sweep of the drama categories for The Crown. The show has also won Netflix’s first series honor at the Emmys and captured all four drama acting awards — Olivia Colman, Tobias Menzies and Gillian Anderson also took home Emmys — and honors for writing (Peter Morgan) and directing (Jessica Hobbs). At the Creative Arts awards last week, Claire Foy also won an Emmy for best guest actress.
O’Connor was considered a favorite going into the Emmys, having already won a Golden Globe and a Critics’ Choice award for playing Prince Charles.
O’Connor has played the prince for the third and fourth seasons of The Crown. He’ll cede the role to Dominic West for the remainder of the series, which has tracked Queen Elizabeth II’s reign from the 1950s to the 1980s thus far. The remaining two seasons will cover the 1990s and 2000s.
