Kathy Bates Sets Emmys Record With Her Matlock Nomination — Watch The Emotional On-Set Celebration
Kathy Bates on Tuesday earned her 13th career Emmy Award nomination for acting — but it was nonetheless a noteworthy one.
That is because the Matlock headliner, at age 77, now stands as the oldest person to vie for Lead Actress in a Drama. Angela Lansbury previously held the record as a 70-year-old contender in 1996, for playing Murder, She Wrote's Jessica Fletcher.
As seen in the Instagram video below, Bates was greeted by a cast- and crew-wide celebration of her Emmy nod when she arrived to the Matlock set on Tuesday, with castmates David Del Rio (Billy), Leah Lewis (Sarah) and Skye P. Marshall (Olympia) each gifting Bates a bouquet of flowers.
"We're inspired every single day by your hard work and your grace and your humility and your talent and the way that you lead this set," a tearful Jennie Snyder Urman, Matlock's showrunner, told Bates. "You elevate every single one of us."
"Y'all were more than enough all this time," Bates then told her colleagues. "I didn't need anything else. Thank you so much. This has been an extraordinary experience for an old broad like me. I just love you from the bottom of my heart, and thank you for just being so great with me every day so I can do what I love to do best."
Bates' very first Emmy nod, in the Supporting Actress in a Limited Series or Movie category, came in 1996, for her role as talent agent Helen Kushnick in HBO's adaptation of The Late Shift. From there, she went on to amass nominations for guest and supporting roles in 3rd Rock From the Sun, Six Feet Under and other shows. In 2011, she entered the Lead Actress in a Drama race for the first time, for the title role in NBC's under-appreciated Harry's Law.
Her most recent prior Emmy nods all came in the supporting actress category, for American Horror Story's Coven, Freak Show and Hotel seasons. She also scored an Emmy nod in 1999 for directing A&E's Dash and Lilly miniseries.
Bates has taken home the Emmy twice over that 30-year span — in 2012 for Guest Actress in a Comedy (Two and a Half Men) and in 2014 for Supporting Actress in a Limited Series or Movie (as AHS: Coven's Delphine LaLaurie).
To date, Bates is an Academy Award winner (in 1990, for hobbling that cockadoodie Paul Sheldon in Misery)... a two-time Golden Globe winner (for Misery and The Late Shift)... and a two-time SAG Award winner (for The Late Shift and the Mike Nichols film Primary Colors).
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