With their first child on the way, Peter Dinklage and Erica Schmidt were all smiles at the Emmy Awards Sunday evening after the actor’s win for Best Supporting Actor in a Drama Series. “I love you, Erica,” the Game of Thrones star, 42, said to his wife from the stage. “You’re amazing.”
 Frank Micelotta/TVA/PictureGroup |
RELATED: Peter Dinklage Thanks Dog Sitter in Emmy Acceptance Speech
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Showing 33 comments
Hea on
I’ve been a fan of Peter for years. Congrats to them!
Robyn on
Oh I’m so glad he won Best Supporting Actor! He really deserved it…my husband and I absolutely LOVE him on Game of Thrones. And I love it when actors/actresses express their love for their spouse when they accept awards…so sweet 
I heard his wife was expecting but does anyone know when she’s due?
Sarah S. on
Both great news–congrats on the Emmy win and baby on the way!!
ForeverMoore on
GOT is my husband’s favorite show and book series but I came to really enjoy the show myself and Tyrion is my favorite character…Peter plays him perfectly. He seems like such a cool guy in real life too, he so deserved this award! I’m wondering when his wife is due too…she is very pretty…congrats to them!
martina on
He is so amazing on Game of Thrones. I mean, utterly breathtaking. Congratulations on all his success and baby on the way!
Jillian on
I have never watched Game of Thrones, but loved him on Nip Tuck. Congrats on the win and to your upcoming baby!!
lifeasahouse on
I am right there with Jillian, loved him on Nip Tuck and glad that he is finding success in both his personal and professional lives!
Mermaid on
Is there a chance the baby will be a “little person” like him?
Ms. Button on
I think Peter Dinklage is an amazing actor and obviously meant to play the role of Tyrion Lannister, one of my all time favorite fictional characters. I’ve read all the books, love the series and was thrilled to find out Peter Dinklage was taking on the role. He totally deserved that Emmy. I hope it isn’t his last. Next season of GOT should rock!
My understanding of achondroplasia, the type of dwarfism Peter has, is that their child has a 50% chance of being a little person, like his dad. I’m sure that regardless of their child’s size, they will raise him/her to recognize that potential has nothing do with stature! His dad is the perfect example of that. (I never hit five feet, either, and think that short people are capable of amazing things, but we might need help getting the bread off the top of the fridge.)
Marky on
Mermaid, there is at least a 25% chance the baby will a “little Person”, I believe from the statistics I’ve heard. Congratulations to the happy couple on the baby AND the Emmy!
Shawna on
Mermaid – From what I’ve heard it is a genetic condition so I would say the answer is yes. But we don’t know their personal story so it is possible they did genetic testing to minimize the possibility. It is also possible that they are totally fine with having a child who is a little person. Time will tell.
Jillian on
Shawna, what makes you think they would try to minimize the possibility that their child would be a little person? And we will never know unless they tell the public. Based on what I know about him I would be surprised if he did. The statistics are very low to produce a “little person” and I have never heard of any of them doing anything to prevent it…..has anyone else?
Gretchen on
I’ve heard of couples in general choosing to prevent it, but that’s mainly when the parent with that had a hard time and has numerous health problems because of it.
Daisy on
Jillian – Shawna simply said there is a chance they used genetic testing, which there is. There’s also a chance they didn’t, again, as Shawna said. Read closer before jumping on people.
dsfg on
Jillian, the statistics are NOT very low for them to produce a little person.
Hea on
Jillian – She did say that it’s possible. Not that they must or probably have… Relax.
No matter what cards he or she is dealt in life, I have a feeling that this is going to be one happy and loved child. After all, the cards we are dealt are not all it takes to play the game of life. You need to be able to bluff a little, to cheat at times, keep a strategy and most of all stay cool about stuff. And sometimes you even win the pot with a pair of twos!
I work with young kids and I’ve so far come across and met three kids with achondroplasia. All of them live full, active lives and are happy and content people. One of them, a girl (6yrs), dreams of becoming an astronaut or a firefighter and who the hell am I or anyone to tell her she can’t? I will not be surprised if she one day rescues me from a burning building she’s so determined and headstrong! You have to be in this world, especially if you are considered different.
Hea on
Jillian – I forgot… The risks/chances (I don’t know which word to use) of them having a child with achondroplasia is as far as I know higher than average for them because one parent has the genetic disorder themselves.
Jamie on
Congrats to the happy couple on the pregnancy! Peter is an amazing actor – I am so glad he won the Emmy!
AmandaC on
FYI – Jillian is a trouble maker and comes onto these pages to start arguments. Just ignore her!
sara on
All the people citing statistics are wrong except for the first post by Ms. Button. The chance their child will be a little person are 50%. Achondroplasia is an autosomal dominant condition. That means that you only need one mutant copy of the gene to be affected (two mutant copies are lethal).
Peter has one mutant copy and one normal copy, and has a 50% chance of passing either copy to his child. Peter’s wife has two normal copies of the gene. So whether the child is affected depends only on which copy of the gene the baby gets from Peter. (This is all assuming that no new mutations occur in the baby, the chance of which happening are the same as for any baby of two normal height parents, i.e., very low.)
Darla on
Sara, that is not necessarily true. There is a family I’ve heard of (I believe they have a reality TV show on TLC) with two parents affected by achondroplasia, and they have 4 children; only 1 of the 4 children has achondroplasia.
Ms. Button on
While we’re all on the subject of genetics (somehow rather heatedly,) I read up some more on achondroplasia and discovered that the risks are far greater when BOTH parents carry a copy of the mutated gene.
That might be where genetic testing would come in, because rather than just being born with a short stature and some physical and social challenges that come along with achondroplasia, babies born with 2 copies of the mutated gene “typically have very severe problems with bone growth, and are usually stillborn or die shortly after birth from respiratory failure.” (I pulled that off a genetics website.)
I could imagine that if both my husband and I were little people, I would likely want to know if my child had inherited both copies so I would be able to make informed decisions.
Andrea on
Sara is right, it is a 50% chance that their child could have achondroplasia (I’m a geneticist). It is a separate 1 in 2 chance for each child, so just because a couple has 4 children doesn’t mean that 2 will be affected and 2 will be affected.
Also, some individuals choose genetic testing because a child could have more severe effects of the disorder, especially for parents who both have achondroplasia and because there can be complications during pregnancy and delivery that should be anticipated.
Joann on
Loved him in Game of Thrones!!! Great actor. Can’t wait for the show to come back on.
sara on
Darla, what happens in any one family is irrelevant to the probability of any one child being affected. The chance of having a girl vs. a boy is also 50%, and yet you see families all the time with ratios that are not 50/50 (my mother, for example, comes from a family of four girls and no boys). Does that mean the probability has changed? No, it just means when you have a small sample size, the numbers won’t match exactly. Doesn’t mean anything.
(And just for the record, in a family with two parents with achondroplasia, the probabilities are 25% chance of having a completely normal child, 50% chance of having a child with achondroplasia, and 25% of having a child who inherits both mutant genes, and will therefore not live. The fact that the family you described has three normal children out of four doesn’t change those probabilities.)
Hea on
Darla – If you are referring to the Roloff family (they have a show like the one you describe) then only the mother, Amy, and one of their four children has achondroplasia. The father, Matt, has diastrophic dysplasia dwarfism.
Jillian on
I am not jumping down her…..or excited. I was nearly asking why she thought they would do genetic testing. Maybe he has discussed it. I know other families have discussed it publically and sai no to it. I have never heard of him or anyone doing it, so I was very curious if it was actually done.
I stand by what I said, and others also said, that the chance of him being little is not as high,
And Amanda I have no clue what you are talking about. There are 3 Jillians on here that I have seen.
sara on
Jillian, you can stand by whatever you want, but you will still be wrong. This is simple Medelian genetics of achondroplasia, a well-known autosomal dominant condition. The chance is 50/50 – this is not in dispute by anyone who actually knows anything about genetics in general and this condition in particular.
You’re either making things up or confusing it with it with another disease. Take five minutes to google it and you will see that you are wrong.
Maddie on
I *love* Game of Thrones! (Particularly the hottie Kit Harington) Very pleased for Peter on both his Emmy win and baby on the way!
Jillian on
I am not wrong. Have I gave specific information? Can you read my mind? You are assuming way too much and you know what they say about assuming!
sara on
Jillian, I am not assuming anything. I am just responding to the things you actually wrote. You are entitled to your own opinion but not your own facts, and the things you have stated as facts are wrong.
Kat on
Peter Congratulations! on the much deserved Emmy and the new baby
Nurse Liz on
Jillian, Sara is 100% correct and has been throughout her comments. I’m honestly shocked that so many people here are apparently not familiar with punnett squares nor bothered to look up achondroplasia itself. Since schondroplasia has a dominant autosomal inheritance pattern, then it is not sex-linked (like color blindness is, for example), but it is a dominant gene that *cannot* be carried. If a person has achondroplasia, then they always have 1 copy of the achondroplasia gene and one that is normal. People cannot have 2 achondroplasia genes because that is incompatible with life and a baby created this way would not survive.
Therefore, we also know that Peter Dinklage’s wife does not carry any copies of the gene (obviously).
There is a 50% chance their child would have achondroplasia and 50% chance that it would not.
Please do not make any statements without doing medical (or any..) research on the condition you are speaking of. I am referring especially to when you said ‘The statistics are very low to produce a “little person” .’ Did you just.. assume this? This is not a matter of opinion, it is a matter of biological fact.
Anyway, I absolutely adore Peter Dinklage and can’t help but get butterflies looking at him.. haha! I’m serious though. He’s amazing.
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