Tony Shalhoub Dedicates His 2019 SAG Award to Alan Arkin: 'He's Why I Became an Actor'

Tony Shalhoub takes home the actor!

Shalhoub, 65, won the 2019 Screen Actors Guild Award for outstanding performance by a male actor in a comedy series on Sunday night.

During his acceptance speech, the star thanked his acting mentor, Alan Arkin, who was nominated in the same category for his work in Netflix’s The Kominsky Method.

“The greatest honor of my life is to be nominated in the same category as Alan Arkin, who has long been an idol of my mine,” Shalhoub said.

“I’m happy to say he’s a friend. He’s the reason I wanted to be an actor in the first place,” he added before thanking his “incredible” cast and crew.

Shalhoub stars as Abe Weissman in Amazon Prime’s Marvelous Mrs. Maisel. This is his third SAG Award win and ninth nomination. He previously won in 2004 and 2005 for his role in Monk.

Maisel won the three big SAG awards in the comedy series categories, including outstanding performance by a female actor for Rachel Brosnahan and the nine-member cast won for best ensemble. 30 Rock was the only show since 2008 to sweep all three comedy categories.

The 25th annual Screen Actors Guild Awards are broadcast live from the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles on Sunday.