Beau Bridges was on an Emmy-winning spree in the 1990s, taking home three trophies in the space of just five years (1992 – 1997). Those wins came for his first, second and seventh nominations. Since then he has contended eight more times without success. Will he break that losing streak by winning his second consecutive Best Drama Guest Actor bid for playing Barton Scully on the Showtime period piece “Masters of Sex” at Saturday’s Creative Arts Emmys?
Bridges submitted “Parallax,” the second of his two episodes this season. Scully undergoes drastic electroshock therapy to try to cure his homosexuality. He wakes up with mild amnesia, having no memory of the therapy at first. At home, he looks at male pornography in order to get in the mood, and then tries to have sex with his wife Margaret (Allison Janney). After watching his wife and daughter leave for the day, he goes down into the basement to hang himself. They return just in time to cut him down and save his life.
Related: Watch our editor Emmy slugfests predicting all four guest acting races
This would mark Bridges’ first Emmy for a regular series. All three of his wins were for telefilms: “Without Warning: The James Brady Story” (actor, 1992); “The Positively True Adventures of the Alleged Texas Cheerleader-Murdering Mom” (supporting actor, 1993); and “The Second Civil War” (supporting actor, 1997).
According to exclusive Gold Derby odds, Bridges is the frontrunner at 5/6. While this marks his fifth nomination in this category, right behind him in our odds at 7/2 is Michael J. Fox (“The Good Wife“), who has contended for this award a record six times. He entered, “Red Zone,” the third of six appearances this season as lawyer Louis Canning. While he lost his previous three bids for “The Good Wife” (2011, 12, 13), he did win in 2009 for “Rescue Me”; his other nomination was for “Boston Legal” in 2006. Fox also has four Best Comedy Actor trophies.
Alan Alda (“The Blacklist“) sits in third place with odds of 13/2 for his one-time appearance in “The Decembrist (No. 12)” as intelligence director Alan Fitch. Of his astounding 34 Emmy nominations over the years, only one was in this category: a 2000 bid for an arc on “ER”; he lost to James Whitmore (“The Practice”). He has six Emmy wins across five other categories.
Reg E. Cathey, who also contended in this category last year for playing groundskeeper Freddy Hayes on “House of Cards,” is at 25/1 for his entry, “Chapter 34,” which marked the second of three appearances this season.
Oscar winner F. Murray Abraham (“Amadeus”) reaped his first Emmy bid for his recurring role on “Homeland” as black operations director Dar Adal and has odds of 33/1 to win for his submission, “Long Time Coming,” which marked his fourth and final appearance this season.
And rookie nominee Pablo Schreiber (“Orange is the New Black“) is at 50/1 for his recurring role of corrections officer George “Pornstache” Mendez; he entered “40 Oz. of Furlough,” the second of three appearances.
Related: Beau Bridges chats on the red carpet about his latest Emmy nomination
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Photo: Beau Bridges in “Masters of Sex.” Credit: Michael Desmond/SHOWTIME
