Joining the cast of “General Hospital” in 2018 as Mike Corbin, actor Max Gail helped tell the important tale of an elderly father and grandfather as he and his family dealt with the ramifications of Alzheimer’s Disease. Winning the coveted Daytime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama Series during “The 46th Annual Daytime Emmy Awards,” Gail reminded viewers during his acceptance speech what it means to support research that will hopefully figure out a cure, while also getting laughs for his comments on age before beauty and his need to use the bathroom to close out a lengthy acceptance speech.
The award was presented by actress Robin Givens (“Ambitions,” “Riverdale”) and “Access” correspondent Scott Evans.
In his acceptance speech, Gail said, “Enough people told me this might happen that I did think about what I had to say.” He added, “Best Supporting Actor, I guess that shows I didn’t drop the ball and may be carried it down the field a little bit. As far as my fellow nominees…I see all this great work. You know, at this time in my life there are times where a young man, or even worse, a young lady will hold a door for me and I say no, ‘I don’t go in for that age before beauty $#@!’ But tonight, I’m going for it because this is clearly an age before beauty moment,” Gail noted.
“I’ve really come to think about it as the award for the best-supported actor because from the get-go, showing up in the room with Frank [Valentini, executive producer] and Maurice [Benard, Sonny Corinthos] who came to read. These days actors often are were reading with a young girl..nothing against young girls, mind you…on the camera and another one reading the lines who thinks her job description is to read the next line as fast as she can. So it’s been a wonderful experience all the way. The writing, the people…Laura, Vernee, Mo…it’s just been such a rich and wonderful experience. And I’m just so thankful for it.
“The subject matter of Alzheimer’s, they say in the not too distant future half of the people will either have Alzheimer’s or some form of dementia or be dealing with someone who has it. I think we can change that. There are a lot of wonderful possibilities but it touches a lot of people. It touches people who are on the left, who are the right and who are all different colors and religions. It’s something that we share together. I have a long advocacy speech, cause people know I love to advocate around the potential for CBD, but actually I have a 76-year-old bladder and I have to go, so you’re spared,” Gail concluded with his last line getting plenty of laughs.
Gail beat out the likes of Bryton James (Devon Hamilton, “The Young and the Restless, CBS”), Eric Martsolf (Brady Black, “Days of our Lives, NBC”), Greg Rikaart (Leo Stark, “Days of our Lives, NBC”) and Dominic Zamprogna (Dante Falconeri, “General Hospital”)
You can watch Gail’s win and speech in its entirety by playing the clip below (starts around the 43:00 mark).