After a career in television spanning many decades, William Shatner won an Emmy Award last night for his guest role as Denny Crane on ABC's The Practice.

"What took you so long?" Shatner joked with the crowd during his acceptance speech, reported Variety (via Yahoo!). A previous Emmy nominee for Third Rock from the Sun, Shatner has earned numerous lifetime achievement prizes and a Saturn Award for playing James T. Kirk, but this was the first time he received the highest honour of the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences as Outstanding Guest Actor in a Drama Series.

Shatner's character will be a regular on The Practice spinoff series Boston Legal on ABC this fall. Sharon Stone also took home an Emmy for a guest appearance on The Practice.

StarTrek.com joked that Captain Kirk had beaten Darth Vader, for Shatner defeated Star Wars star James Earl Jones for his award. He also beat Space: 1999's Commander Koenig, Martin Landau, who filmed Mission: Impossible one soundstage over from the original Star Trek, as well as Bob Newhart and Matthew Perry.

The Creative Arts Awards, which include trophies for guest stars, technical innovations and makeup and costuming, were given out last night at the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles. A two-hour highlights show will air Sept. 18 on E!

The Primetime Emmy Awards, which will be presented next week live on ABC, include the acting awards for series regulars and the trophies for the best series and specials of the year.

Yahoo! has Variety's report on the Creative Arts Awards. CNN reprinted Reuters' coverage of the event.

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