How to Succeed's Michael Park on His 2011 Emmy Win: 'It's Kind of Bittersweet'

Michael Park, who is currently featured as businessman Bert Bratt in the Broadway revival of How to Succeed in Business Without Trying, won his second Best Actor Daytime Emmy Award in a row for playing Jack Snyder on the now-cancelled CBS soap opera As the World Turns.

Although news reports blamed Park’s Broadway role for his absence at the June 19 Emmy ceremony, held in Las Vegas, the actor gave Broadway.com the scoop: “I could have gotten off to go, but CBS wasn’t sponsoring a trip,” Park said. “But the most important thing is that my daughter is graduating from fifth grade today [Monday, June 20]. I would have missed Father’s Day entirely [to attend the Emmys], and even with a red-eye flight, I would have missed graduation.”

Rather than donning black tie in Sin City, Park enjoyed a family celebration at his suburban home. “When I got home from How to Succeed, my seven-year-old daughter had a red carpet put out for me with little stars hanging from the ceiling. She was very, very excited about this [Emmy]. It was basically her night, and I’m so glad that I was home to celebrate it with her and my wife and my friends."

Park managed to maintain a busy theater career while clocking in 13 years as a front-burner actor on As the World Turns, which went off the air in September 2010. His Broadway credits include Carousel, Smokey Joe’s Café and Little Me; off-Broadway credits include The Burnt Part Boys, Middletown, Violet and Hello Again. For Encores!, Park appeared in Applause and Bloomer Girl.

“I’ve been very blessed to have agents who knew exactly where to put me,” the actor said of his professional juggling act. “I also started my career in wonderful shows like Hello Again.” Lamenting an Emmy telecast that lampooned soap operas and played like “a bad infomercial,” Park said of his second Best Actor win, “It’s kind of bittersweet. But it celebrates the work we did on that show, and what we were capable of doing for CBS.”