Jim Parsons has already won the Emmy for Outstanding Actor in a Comedy.
During his acceptance speech, the five-time winner thanked his father for the first time.
He won that for his role on The Big Bang Theory. The actor is also nominated for The Normal Heart.
Here is what you should know about the versatile 41-year-old.
1. He Will Make $1 Million an Episode on ‘The Big Bang Theory’
Last season, he was making $ 350,000 an episode for playing physicist Sheldon Cooper on The Big Bang Theory.
As the show enters its eighth season, he and some other major cast members received a significant increase.
The show halted production this summer as the negotiations were being worked out.
He told EW:
I always thought everything would be worked out by the start date [July 30]. When it wasn’t, it certainly wasn’t a good feeling, but there was absolutely no getting around the fact that everything had to be dealt with and finished before we could get back.
As a fast talking, brainy scientist on the hit comedy, CBS News asked how he memorizes Sheldon’s difficult lines, and he said:
One of these days they’re going to break me, I’m positive. But in the meantime, I’m a big note card fiend. I have little cue on the first side. And on the next one will be my entire line I’ll have written out. And I will pace around my house. … That’s what I do for hours on end. And I’m telling you, it’s like memorizing the symbols on the periodic table.
2. He’s Nominated for 2 Emmys
(Cliff Lipson/CBS)
One is for playing Sheldon, the other for his role as Tommy Boatwright in the 2014 TV movie The Normal Heart.
He told EW about the high honor:
I would be lying if I said it didn’t feel really good to know that people had seen and thought it was also good work, because again, it is such a different ball of wax from the life of Sheldon.
3. He Has a Long-Term Boyfriend
(Getty)
Todd Spiewak has been dating the actor for over 10 years, and the couple was honored with an Inspiration award at the GLSEN Respect Awards in 2013.
That was their first public appearance as a couple.
At the event, Parsons told Us Weekly that they are quite normal, saying, “It was surprising to hear that we were getting an inspiration award. We feel very average, we feel very normal. We really do. The strange stuff is the Hollywood stuff we have to walk through, not the gay stuff we have to walk through.
4. He Came Out in a Newspaper Article
It was in May of 2012 that the star confirmed his sexuality by allowing a New York Times reporter to include it in his interview.
Toward the end of the article, the writer, Patrick Healy, connected Parsons’ sexuality to the young, gay activist he played in The Normal Heart on Broadway.
The journalist wrote, “The Normal Heart resonated with him on a few levels: Mr. Parsons is gay and in a 10-year relationship …”
5. He Lost His Father
In 2001, Parsons’ father passed away at the age of 51. That year, Jim was graduating from the University of Houston with a theater degree.
He opened up to the Daily Telegraph, explaining that he still had a course to complete when his father died:
When I went home after that I still hadn’t graduated. I had a final project and they (university) told me, ‘You don’t have to come back right away’. It was very interesting that I knew I had to go back and do that because whether or not you could be of use at home I realized in the end I could only be of use to the family fully if I did what I needed to do and then went on.
The actor credits his dad for being a supporter of his work.
In the same interview, he said that his father would have been happy to see his son’s success:
He was always very supportive. She was certainly the worrier of the two. Embarking upon this life, I know he was certainly a bigger pusher of wanting me to try it and give it a go. I do wonder what it would be like for him now … I do know he’d be pleased.
