Jon Hamm Graciously Gets Roasted While Accepting Harvard's Hasty Pudding Man of the Year Award

Mar. 15, 2025

Jon Hamm, pictured, as he’s named Hasty Pudding’s Man of the Year on Jan. 31, 2025.Photo:Lisa Aileen Dragani/Getty

Lisa Aileen Dragani/Getty

Jon Hammwas happily the butt of the joke as he received his latest career accolade!

During the roast itself, and before Hamm took home his Pudding Pot award, Hasty Pudding president Catherine Stanton and cast vice president Bernardo de Moura Sequeira joked that they “thought that guy was dead” when referring to the actor, 53, according toThe Boston Globe.

“I can’t believe there are so many people here,” Hamm said while later accepting his new trophy, per theAssociated Press. “Did you all seriously think I was dead? This is such a wonderful honor.”

Jon Hamm holds his Pudding Pot trophy while getting kisses on the cheek at Harvard’s Farkas Hall on Jan. 31, 2025.Lisa Aileen Dragani/Getty

When the roast masters referenced Hamm’s wife being “20 years younger” than him, Hamm shot back: “17.” His wife, Anna Osceola, an actress who is from Cambridgeport, is 36.

Having been asked if the couple was visiting her family while in town, Hamm said that they didn’t live there anymore, as they had all moved to Southern California. He revealed that her family members lived with them for a couple of weeks recently because they had to evacuate during the wildfires. And he added that Osceola’s oldest sister graduated from Harvard. “So yes, there’s a lot of hometown pride here in the Hamm household for sure,” he said.

Hamm — who most recently appeared onParamount+‘sLandman— carved a literal ham on stage during the ceremony and even went head-to-head with a shirtless man in aPaul Ruddmask.

Students also tested his sales skills — as an homage to hisMad Mencharacter, Don Draper — when they presented an image of Hamm in a bathtub withDaniel Radcliffefrom their 2012 seriesA Young Doctor’s Notebook,asking him to“sell” some “bath time with Harry Potter” to another person on stage. “Hi, do you love Daniel Radcliffe? How about Harry Potter?” he asked a woman on stage, per the AP. “I would say let’s sit in a tub together but that sounds like, A, terrifying, and B, marginally illegal.”

Hamm, who wore a blue suit, with a dark blue crew-neck shirt underneath and brown shoes, talked about the significance of his role as ad executive Don Draper on the AMC period drama seriesMad Men, which ran from 2007 to 2015, saying it is the one that has “led to even more opportunities in my career, for obvious reasons.”

“Mad Menis, was, and will always be a high-water mark in my life and my career,” he said, noting that it has been nearly 20 years since the show debuted. “It’s fading in the rearview, but it’s still very prevalent in my life.”

Jon Hamm appears on ‘The Tonight Show’ on Nov. 17, 2024.Todd Owyoung/NBC via Getty

Todd Owyoung/NBC via Getty

Hamm, the 58th recipient of the award, called it a “lovely honor” and said to the audience at the end of the roast, “From one theater kid to many others, I thank you for honoring me with this.”

Other recent stars to earn Hasty Pudding’s Man of the Year honor includeBarry Keoghan(2024),Bob Odenkirk(2023) andJason Bateman(2022). The awarddates back to 1967, when it was first presented to Bob Hope.

But as Hamm told students on Friday, he didn’t touch base with any previous honorees on what to anticipate, including his pal Rudd — who earned the honor in 2018. “I thought it’d be more fun if I just sort of entered it like most things, with eyes wide open and knowing that it’s all in good fun, and I’m glad I did,” Hamm said.

At a press conference after receiving the 2025 Man of the Year award, Hamm quashed any hopes that Landman fans may have had about his character being resurrected for a second season of the popular Paramount+ series, which concluded its first season on Jan. 12.

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When asked where he was going to keep his pudding pot trophy, Hamm said “I’ve not won an Academy Award as maybe some of you heard mentioned this evening, but I have won some other things, so it will have lovely friends on my shelf in my office.”

Hamm has won an Emmy, two Golden Globes, and two Screen Actors Guild awards, among others.After the press conference, Hamm and his wife attended Hasty Pudding Theatrical’s 176th production, “101 Damnations.”

source: people.com