Ending his eight years of quest, Jon Hamm finally won the outstanding actor in a drama series honour at the 2015 Emmy Awards for his portrayal of troubled ad man Don Draper in "Mad Men".
The 44-year-old actor, who was nominated for the eighth time consecutively for his performance on the show, had the winning moment with the concluding stretch of the period drama series that started in 2005.
"There's been a mistake, clearly. It's impossible to be named with all of those extraordinary gentlemen. It's impossible to have done this show with this incredible cast, these incredible people, our incredible writers, our incredible crew. And it's incredible and impossible for me, personally, to be standing up here," Hamm said in his acceptance speech.
The actor was greeted with a rousing applause and a standing ovation as he took to stage to claim his trophy. Hamm took the big moment to thank his ex-girlfriend Jennifer Westfeldt, from whom he recently split after 18 years.
"To Bud and Susie and Mary Ann and Ted and Ernie and Carolyn and Vick and Linda and Gary and Sue and my sisters and Cora and Jen, thank you all very much. I would not be standing here without you," Hamm concluded.
The 16 time Emmy nominated actor-producer (eight for 'Mad Men') beat out Kyle Chandler as a calm sheriff's detective in "Bloodline", Bob Odenkirk as a lawyer in "Better Call Saul", Liev Schrieber as Hollywood fixer in "Ray Donovan", Jeff Daniels as a cable-news anchor in "The Newsroom", and Kevin Spacey as a Machiavellian politician in "House of Cards".
Speaking about the end of the period drama series which started in 2005, Hamm said working on the show had its difficult moments.
"Playing a character for that long is a blessing and curse. It's a dream job in many ways, but it doesn't come without a cost. There's a lot of mental and emotional baggage that gets torn through and weighs on you after a while...
"I put a lot of hard work into this, and a lot of my own time and effort. It's really nice to have it be recognized as much as it has been.
