Last night’s 70th Annual Emmy Awards was chock-full of a ton of surprises–both in terms of winners and one-of-a-kind moments. Personally, we couldn’t get enough of Best Director of a Variety Show winner, Glenn Weiss’, onstage marriage proposal to his longtime girlfriend, Jan Svensden. We don’t know about you, but we were so caught off-guard by that incredible display of love that we almost forgot that we were watching an award show in the first place!

But, after recovering from that uber-romantic display (we’re RomCom fans, can you tell?), we were pleased to see that some of our favorite actors and shows were recognized. One of the ones that we were particularly taken with was none other than 72-year-old Henry Winkler’s win for his work on the critically-acclaimed HBO show, Barry.

It was a well-deserved win for the show business veteran for a multitude of reasons. For one, Winkler was facing some pretty steep competition–the other actors in his “Outstanding supporting actor in a comedy series” category were none other than Louie Anderson (“Baskets”), Alec Baldwin (“Saturday Night Live”), Titus Burgess (“Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt”), Brian Tyree Henry (“Atlanta”), Tony Shalhoub (“The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel), and Kenan Thompson (“Saturday Night Live”).

Yep, Winkler was in a category with some of the best actors on television today, but, luckily for the 40-year TV veteran, he made out better than the rest.

The win itself might not seem like such a big deal, but when you compare it to Winkler’s ultra-long career, it’s incredible to think that it took him this long to win an Emmy award. Believe it or not, the actor had been nominated a staggering 5 TIMES before finally taking home the gold statue last night. He had won a handful of Golden Globes and Daytime Emmy Awards but it’s been a full 42 years since he was nominated for his first Primetime Emmy for Happy Days back in 1976.

How crazy is that?!

Since that first nomination, Winkler has maintained his presence in the entertainment world, an incredible feat considering so many sitcom actors can’t compete after their first big break!

After completing Happy Days in 1984, he actor appeared in tons of TV shows and movies, including about half a dozen alongside comedy behemoth, Adam Sandler. But, it wasn’t until last night that the veteran actor was finally given television’s best award.

We’re so happy to hear that Henry Winkler is getting the recognition that he deserves. He certainly has come a long way since his days playing “The Fonz!”

To get an even more in-depth scoop on Henry Winkler’s first Primetime Emmy win, be sure to watch the video below. We hope that his story serves as an inspiration for all of you out there–it’s never too late to get recognized for your hard work!

We can’t wait to hear your take on Henry Winkler’s first Primetime Emmy win. Do you think that his win was well-deserved? Are you a fan of his work on Barry? Was another actor in his category more deserving of the win?