Jean Smart paid memorial to her late husband Richard Gilliland as she collected the Emmy for Best Actress in a Comedy for Hacks on Sunday, six months after her husband of 30 years died suddenly at age 71 in March.
‘I have to acknowledge my late husband who passed away six months yesterday,’ the 70-year-old actress said in her acceptance speech. ‘I would not be here without him, and without his kind of putting his career on the back burner so I could take advantage of all the wonderful opportunities that I have had.’
Smart also hailed her ‘two incredible children’ Connor and Forrest, ‘who are both very courageous individuals in their own right and put up with mommy commuting from Philadelphia and back.’
The latest: Jean Smart, 70, paid memorial to her late husband Richard Gilliland as she collected the Emmy for Best Actress in a Comedy for Hacks on Sunday, six months after her husband of 30 years died suddenly at age 71 in March
‘Hacks has been such a thrill,’ said the Seattle-born actress, who was also nominated for Best Supporting Actress in a Limited or Anthology Series or Movie for Mare of Easttown at the event.
Smart looked elegant in a black gown by Ralph Lauren with sheer paneling around the arms and chest with her blonde locks neatly styled. She rounded out the glam ensemble with dangling diamond earrings and a black clutch.
She posed on the red carpet with younger son Forrest, who was clad in a black suit with blue button-up top with his hair parted to the side at the luxe ceremony.
‘Getting honored and nominated never gets old,’ she told E! News on the red carpet. ‘It’s part of the fun, and to be honored by your peers is the best.’
She said in her acceptance speech, ‘I have to acknowledge my late husband who passed away six months yesterday’
Smart, 70, was snapped with her son Forrest Gilliland on the red carpet of the Emmy Awards Sunday, months after her husband of 30 years died suddenly at age 71 in March
Feted: The Seattle-born actress was up for multiple awards at Sunday’s show
‘Getting honored and nominated never gets old,’ she told E! News on the red carpet. ‘It’s part of the fun, and to be honored by your peers is the best.’
Forrest said he was ‘very proud of’ his mother, as ‘she really deserves it [and] worked really hard for everything.’
The family was seen on the red carpet six months after Gilliland’s March 18, 2021 death from a heart condition at the age of 71.
![Forrest said he was 'very proud of' his mother, as 'she really deserves it [and] worked really hard for everything'](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2021/09/20/01/48122569-10007515-image-a-51_1632097650439.jpg)
Forrest said he was ‘very proud of’ his mother, as ‘she really deserves it [and] worked really hard for everything’
The family was seen on the red carpet six months after Gilliland’s March 18, 2021 death from a heart condition at the age of 71
She opened up about working in the wake of Richard’s death while speaking to The New Yorker this past June.
‘I still had a week of Hacks left to do,’ she said. ‘That was hard. I had to do a funeral scene. I was a wreck, but it actually turned out to be very funny.’
She continued: ‘I was a wreck, but it actually turned out to be very funny. But he was one of those actors who never got the chance to really show what he could do. A couple of times onstage, he did.
‘But he really sacrificed his career for me to be able to take advantage of my opportunities. I wouldn’t have all this, if it wasn’t for him.’
Smart rounded out the glam ensemble with dangling diamond earrings and a black clutch
She said of her late spouse: ‘He really sacrificed his career for me to be able to take advantage of my opportunities. I wouldn’t have all this, if it wasn’t for him’
Smart said that ‘it’s been really weird’ in the wake of her spouse’s passing, adding, ‘It’s not anything I ever dreamed would happen.
‘Not so soon. He made me laugh all the time. That’s going to be hard to live without.’
Richard is survived by his wife as well as the couple’s two children – sons Connor, 31, and Forrest.
On Hacks, Smart plays stand-up comedienne Deborah Vance, whose Las Vegas act has gotten stale causing her manager to force her to work with Ava, a rebellious up-and-coming young writer (played by Hannah Einbinder).
Carl Clemons-Hopkins, Christopher McDonald, Kaitlin Olson, and Rose Abdoo are also featured on the show, which has been picked up for a second season.
No business like show business: The comedy series stars Jean Smart and Hannah Einbinder, with Smart portraying an iconic Las Vegas comic Deborah Vance alongside Einbinder’s Ava, a comedy writer described by the streamer as ‘an entitled, outcast 25-year-old’
Details: The show, which was created by Paul W. Downs, Lucia Aniello and Jen Statsky, began streaming last month and its season finale is set to drop Thursday
Togetherness: Their work together included TV movies like Audrey’s Rain and Just My Imagination as well as the stage piece It Had To Be You