LOS ANGELES, Oct 20 — Nearly a century into life, Sir David Attenborough is still collecting awards — and breaking records while he’s at it.
The beloved British naturalist and broadcaster became the oldest person ever to win a Daytime Emmy, taking home the prize for Outstanding Daytime Personality — Non-Daily for Netflix’s Secret Lives Of Orangutans, The New York Times reported.
At 99, Attenborough edged past last year’s record holder, 98-year-old Dick Van Dyke, who won for Days Of Our Lives.
The ceremony, held on Friday in Pasadena, California, saw Attenborough triumph over contenders including Martha Stewart and Anthony Mackie. He didn’t attend the event in person, according to The Associated Press.
The Emmy-winning documentary, which follows a multi-generational orangutan family navigating life in the Sumatran canopy, also snagged awards for Outstanding Directing Team and Outstanding Music Direction and Composition.
Attenborough’s win adds to an already glittering career spanning more than seven decades.
Since first appearing on screen in the 1950s, he’s shaped how the world sees nature through series like Life On Earth (1979), The Living Planet (1984), and the Emmy-winning Our Planet (2019–2023).
Knighted by Queen Elizabeth II in 1985, Attenborough has now earned three Primetime Emmys and more than a dozen nominations — though this latest win marks his first Daytime Emmy.
And don’t expect him to slow down anytime soon.
As he told Signature Luxury Travel & Style before his 95th birthday: “I have the greatest job in the world… People provide me with wonderful pictures of things we’ve never seen before and ask me to write a sentence or two on it. Better than sitting in the corner knitting.”
Not bad for someone who’s been making the planet his stage since black-and-white TV.
