by Michael Jensen, Editor,
AfterElton.com
At Sunday night's 59th Primetime Emmy Awards a gay milestone was marked before the first winner was even announced. For the first time in Emmy history, three out gay actors were up for acting awards and two of those actors were nominated for their work playing recurring heterosexual roles.
The actors nominated were T.R Knight for Supporting Actor Drama Series (Grey's Anatomy), Neil Patrick Harris for Supporting Actor Comedy Series (How I Met Your Mother), and Sir Ian McKellen for Outstanding Guest Actor in a Comedy Series (Extras). McKellen's category was actually part of the Creative Awards presented a week ago Saturday night where McKellen lost to Stanley Tucci for his work on Monk.
Knight's competition included William Shatner of Boston Legal, Masi Oka of Heroes, Michael Imperioli of The Sopranos, and Terry O'Quinn and Michael Emerson both of Lost. With HBO's much-lauded hit The Sopranos ending its run, it was widely expected to do well during the evening, but in a bit of an upset O'Quinn wound up taking home the Best Supporting Actor award.
Meanwhile, Harris, who plays cad Barney Stinson on How I Met Your Mother, went up against Jeremy Piven and Kevin Dillion of HBO's Entourage, Rainn Wilson of The Office and Jon Cryer of Two and a Half Men. Going into the evening, Piven and Wilson were considered frontrunners, and Piven wound up collecting the gold statuette.
Knight, McKellen, and Harris weren't the only gay men up for Emmys last night. Other out gay men nominated for their work behind the camera included Silvio Horta and Marco Pennette as executive producers on Ugly Betty, Bryan Singer for executive producer on House, and Bryan Fuller as co-executive producer on Heroes. Rob Marshall, the Oscar-nominated director of Chicago, snagged the Emmy for Best Director in a Variety series for his Tony Bennett special.
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*AfterElton.com
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