JPI

Congrats to Kristoff St. John -- a.k.a. Neil Winters on "The Young and the Restless" -- for winning Outstanding Supporting Actor at the Daytime Emmys. He's the Denzel of daytime, wowing us with handsome looks and an intelligent, dignified acting style. But Kristoff says his Emmy victory this year took him by surprise.

"It's been 16 years since my last Emmy win [for Outstanding Younger Actor in 1992]," he tells SOAPnet.com. "I started thinking that first trophy was a fluke, because I've been nominated so many times! There's been some years that I thought I turned in some pretty decent material, and just came up short ... This particular win was very special and quite a victory because it's been a lot of years of hard work."

Kristoff submitted two meaty "Restless" episodes for Emmy voters' consideration: One featured Neil (who's a recovering alcoholic) hitting the bottle before attending a prayer service for his presumed-dead wife, Drucilla. In the other episode, Neil's sitting at home, sadly reminiscing about his life with Dru.

"At the time we taped those scenes," Kristoff recalls, "I was going through a very difficult separation, and finally, a divorce. My grief and loss were very high at that time, so I poured my personal life into that work.

"It was really low-key material," he adds, "so that's why I wasn't extremely confident that my name would be called and I'd be walking away with a gold statue this year."

Fortunately, Kristoff did get the gold! Who were you excited to see win an Emmy this year, and why? Leave us a comment below.