50+ Performers Nab 15 Key 2023 Emmy Nominations

Lead Actress, Drama

Natalie Seery/Apple TV+

Sharon Horgan, 52, Bad Sisters

Horgan, who turns 53 on July 13 and was previously Emmy nominated as a writer for Catastrophe, wrote herself a dazzling part as a sister leading her clan in deadly vengeance against another sister's abusive husband in this must-see drama with a satiric edge.

Lead Actress, Comedy

Saeed Adyani/Netflix

Christina Applegate, 51, Dead to Me

Her seventh Emmy nomination (including three for Dead to Me and an Emmy win for guesting on Friends) is her most emotional yet. Her brilliant acting achievement in the dark comedy about death, illness and awful secrets may be her last, thanks to the multiple sclerosis that, she says, could end her career. We hope not, but join the Emmys in saluting her heroic performance against all odds.

Supporting Actress, Comedy

Gilles Mingasson/ABC

Sheryl Lee Ralph, 66, Abbott Elementary

Last year, she won her first Emmy award on her first nomination, and now she’s back. Earlier this year, when she won AARP’s award for best TV actress (sometimes a precursor to Emmy honors), she looked back on her career and said, “There were so many hurdles to be jumped over, there were so many glass ceilings to crash.” But now at the Emmys, she’s a usual suspect.

David Giesbrecht/Prime Video

Alex Borstein, 52, The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel

She’s already had four Emmy nominations and two wins for playing the rebellious manager of the show’s rich housewife-turned-standup comic heroine (plus four nominations and one win on Family Guy). If she wins, it’ll be tough for her to beat her 2019 acceptance speech, about her grandma who escaped the Holocaust by stepping out of a line despite armed guards all around. “And for that, I am here,” said Borstein. “And for that, my children are here. So step out of line, ladies. Step out of line.”

Supporting Actress, Drama

Fabio Lovino/HBO

Jennifer Coolidge, 61, The White Lotus: Sicily

When she won an Emmy for playing a vulnerable yet horrible rich woman in the first season of the wicked satirical show, she said, “This is a once-in-a-lifetime thing!” Except it wasn’t. She’s nominated again, and if anything, her performance was more outrageously funny (and ghastly) in her character’s final season.

J. Smith-Cameron, 65, Succession

Nominated for her second Emmy as sometime Waystar interim CEO Gerri Kellman, Smith-Cameron described her character as a woman caught between "a bossy man and his childish son." She gave Gerri her trademark look and trademark drink (martini) — and we propose a toast to an actress for a well-earned honor.

Greg Lewis/AMC/Sony Pictures Television

Rhea Seehorn, 51, Better Call Saul

If anyone on TV topped Bob Odenkirk's performance as a good person who goes to the dark side, it's his costar Seehorn, playing Saul's once idealistic lover and partner in crime. She's one of the most outrageously snubbed losers in the history of the Emmys, so we bet — no, demand! — that she wins this time.

Supporting Actor, Comedy

Merrick Morton/HBO

Henry Winkler, 77, Barry

In his best role since the Fonz on Happy Days, he’s as funny as ever, but with a dark new depth you might not have thought he could pull off. As a washed-up acting teacher whose hit-man student loves him (but might have to kill him), he proves that scary and funny are two great tastes that taste great together, and age can be a boon to a great actor. As he told AARP, “If you make a life that gives you joy, you have no time to get old.”

Supporting Actor, Drama

Macall Polay/HBO

Alan Ruck, 67, Succession

Playing the disrespected eldest son of the Roy family, Ruck felt so underutilized in the early seasons that he actually asked to be written off the show — but fortunately, the showrunners said they needed him. His performance paid off, for the show and the actor, who made Connor Roy touching as well as hilarious. Ruck told Gold Derby, "Even though it’s a dysfunctional family, every now and then there’s a moment of happiness. Not much."

Fabio Lovino/HBO

F. Murray Abraham, 83, The White Lotus: Sicily

After his Oscar-winning 1985 turn as Salieri in Amadeus, Abraham was too choosy about follow-up roles and fell off Hollywood’s A-list for years. But his stinging wit as the old composer helped land him a role just as rich: the sexist, whoremongering grandpa on TV’s cleverest, harshest sex comedy. Perhaps this, his fourth Emmy nomination and first for an A-list show, will be his winner. In any case, he feels exultant. “I’m 83 and I don’t feel like there’s any end for me,” he told NPR. “I’m going to drop dead on the stage — that’s my fondest hope.”

Fabio Lovino/HBO

Michael Imperioli, 57, The White Lotus: Sicily

On the YouTube channel Noisey last year, Imperioli described the time his wife razzed him the night he won an Emmy for The Sopranos. “She goes, ‘I am not impressed.’ And she said, ‘And if you had any balls, you’d take that Emmy and throw it right in the garbage.’ The booze had been flowing. I took that Emmy, threw it in the garbage. We both went to bed. Wake up the next morning, 11 o’clock. First thing she says: ‘Can you order coffee? And don’t forget to take your Emmy out of the garbage.’ ”