Shemar Moore Delivers a Heart-Wrenching Speech Honoring Kristoff St John

Shemar Moore while at the Daytime Emmys, delivered a moving speech in honor of Kristoff St. John and the audience was touched.

Shemar Moore is a longtime friend of the late actor, Kristoff St. John, so it was right that he should be the one to deliver his tribute at the just concluded Daytime Emmy Awards.

The actor stepped up to give the award for "Outstanding Drama Series" to the "CBS" soap opera "The Young and The Restless" — which Kristoff starred in for 28 years until his death — and announced he was going off script for a few seconds.

Moore said what he was about to do meant a lot to him and a lot of people, as they had to say goodbye early this year to: "A good man, a great man, and a special individual."

The 49-year-old thanked "CBS" and the cast of the hit show for honoring the deceased and his character "Neil Winters" in a way that he would be proud of, and asked the cast to take pride in it.

Shemar Moore told the audience that Kristoff changed the game, and opened the door for a lot of actors, and he urged the younger generation to "Carry his torch with pride."

The "S.W.A.T" star added that he would not have the life he had without the presence of the deceased 52-year-old in his life. He credits him as his "Friend, brother, mentor, acting coach, and therapist," and also referred to him as the most professional, iconic, talented, and generous African-American actor in soap opera history.

The actor stated that in the words of "The Young and The Restless" star, Bryton James,

"Kristoff was the Denzel of Daytime."

He ended by telling the audience to keep laughing and dancing, as that's what the late actor would want them to do.

He added:

"Rest in peace…we'll never forget you, my brother,"

The Daytime Emmys posted a video of the tribute on their Twitter page, and it got a lot of positive comments. It is equally not the only time Moore spoke out about his colleague and friend.

The former "Criminal Minds" actor said during an appearance on "The Talk," that he keeps going back to one of the last text messages Kristoff sent him before he passed on and it makes him cry.

In the message, the deceased wrote that Moore had gone from being a "Squeaky clean little boy with stars in his eyes," to become an actor who is the "Center of the entire solar system." He asked the younger man to keep grinding because he is "Shemar," and someone he looks up to.

Kristoff died in February from a heart condition made worse by alcohol use. There were speculations that he committed suicide until reports proved otherwise.

His burial was in early March close to the burial site of his son, Julian, who committed suicide in 2014, and Moore believes they are "Dancing together in heaven."