David Attenborough Breaks Dick Van Dyke’s Record to Become Oldest-Ever Emmy Winner

Dick Van Dyke‘s reign as the oldest-ever Daytime Emmy winner was short-lived as, just a year after the then-98-year-old actor won, the record was bested by 99-year-old Sir David Attenborough.

The British broadcaster, known for his narration on award-winning nature documentaries, was awarded Outstanding Daytime Personality – Non-Daily for his work on the Netflix series Secret Lives of Orangutans. Attenborough, who turns 100 in May 2026, was not present to accept the award at Friday’s 52nd annual Daytime Emmy Awards in Pasadena, California, the Associated Press reports.

Attenborough’s victory comes just over a year after Van Dyke previously set the record in June 2024, when the actor — who was only 98 years old at the time — was awarded for his guest role on the soap opera Days of Our Lives. The win marked Van Dyke’s his second Daytime Emmy and first since 1984.
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With that victory, Van Dyke tied for oldest person to ever win an Emmy with legendary TV writer and producer Norman Lear, who was also 98 when the latter won for outstanding live variety special in 2020. The pair were also tied for oldest people to ever win one of the Big Four (Emmy, Grammy, Oscar, Tony) awards until Attenborough’s win Friday.

Attenborough, when he was just in his early 90s, previously won three Emmy Awards in a row in the Outstanding Narrator category, taking the trophy in 2018 (for Blue Planet II), 2019 (Our Planet), and 2020 (Seven Worlds, One Planet). Attenborough was also nominated in the category in four of the past five years, including in 2025 for his work on Planet Earth: Asia.