Oops! Julia Louis-Dreyfus was in tears at the 2016 Emmys on Sunday, September 18, as she revealed that her father, William Louis-Dreyfus, died two days earlier. Shortly after her emotional speech, Twitter users took to social media to mourn the loss of Julia’s dad — but they paid tribute to the wrong guy.
Several fans misidentified Richard Dreyfuss as Julia’s father, 84, causing the veteran actor to clear up the confusion and reassure fans that he’s still A-OK.
“I’m actually not Julia Louis-Dreyfus’ father,” Dreyfuss, 68, wrote Sunday night. “But I really appreciate all the concerned tweets.”
The Oscar winner then launched into a brief rant, in which he slammed the Emmys for not recognizing his long career in television, including The Education of Max Bickford and The Day Reagan Was Shot.
“You know who else hasn’t won an Emmy? Me,” he tweeted, adding, “One of my favorite things to do is just pet my Academy Award. People think it’s weird. People have never petted their own Academy Award.”
As Us Weekly previously reported, Julia made history when she won her fifth consecutive Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series for her role in Veep. At the end of her moving acceptance speech, she started to tear up and was visibly shaking as she revealed, “I’d like to dedicate this to my father, William Louis-Dreyfus, who passed away on Friday. I’m so glad that he liked Veep because his opinion was the one that really mattered.”
William was a charitable billionaire and former chairman of Louis Dreyfus Energy Services.
