Afterglow: The Winners Speak

  Hector Elizondo, Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama.

For someone who describes himself as "not a razzle dazzle kind of guy" and one who finds it "difficult to be the center of attention," "Chicago Hope's" Elizondo elegantly handles the press. When asked how playing his character, Dr. Phillip Watters, who is the Chief of Staff for Chicago Hope, affected his life, Elizondo waxes philosophical on the fragility of life: "We're a very thin tissue-like membrane that's housing something much more important," and concluded "it's all so temporary."

Translated, Elizondo is putting his award into earthly perspective. This self admitted voracious reader, who actually took the time to pitch a book he's currently reading by Lydia Davis, talks in colorful metaphors. Here's a good one -- "I still feel like I'm playing congo with the band."

Translated, Elizondo is hearkening back to his roots in West Harlem, parallelling his "Chicago Hope" experience with his musical boyhood. His father taught him that "to take yourself too seriously is really the ultimate joke."