Neil Patrick Harris: Emmy Host with the Most

Neil Patrick Harris stars as himself

Ben Watts / Corbis Outline

Neil Patrick Harris

America is the land of second acts, but still, a gay former child actor who loves magic isn't supposed to return as an icon of cool masculinity. Yet at 36, Neil Patrick Harris, who played a genius teenage doctor on Doogie Howser, M.D., has used rat-pack swagger to climb the hosting rope in record time, from emceeing the TV Land awards in April to the Tonys in June to the Emmys on Sept. 20. He's up for his own Emmy this year for his role as an over-the-top straight guy in the CBS sitcom How I Met Your Mother. And he...

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