Sam Heughan accepts Best Actor award from Gold Derby: ‘I shall treasure this forever’ [WATCH] 

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“I shall treasure this forever!” Sam Heughan (“Outlander”) declared while accepting his Gold Derby Award for Best TV Drama Actor in person from Gold Derby’s Tom O’Neil. Even though Heughan won our award back in 2015, O’Neil just had to get Heughan’s acceptance speech on video after he moderated “Outlander’s” Q&A panel for Emmy voters at the Linwood Dunn Theater in Hollywood. Watch the impromptu video above.

SEE Emmys 2018 exclusive: Starz categories for ‘Outlander,’ ‘Counterpart,’ ‘Howards End’ and more

“Hi there, I’m Sam Heughan from ‘Outlander’ and here we are in Los Angeles,” smiled the Scottish actor. “I just want to say a big ‘Thank you” to Gold Derby. I’m accepting my award that you have all voted for. I believe it was the Gold Derby Award for the Best Actor. So I really appreciate that and I shall treasure this forever. Thank you, Gold Derby!”

‘Outlander’ Emmy FYC event delves into ‘initial attraction’ of lovebirds Claire (Caitriona Balfe) & Jamie (Sam Heughan) [EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEWS]

As O’Neil recalls, “Sam proved himself to be a master of stand-up improv when I put him on the spot to suddenly come up with an acceptance speech for the Gold Derby Award he won a while ago. I didn’t happen to have on hand an actual award certificate, which we usually send to winners, so Sam grabbed a pineapple that decorated a nearby table in the theater’s reception area and pretended that was the award. Genius! With no rehearsal and no advance notice, he then spun off a marvelous thank-you speech as I ran video on my iPhone.”

Heughan’s been nominated for major showbiz prizes like BAFTA and the Golden Globe. His victories so far include the People’s Choice Award (Favorite Sci-Fi/Fantasy TV Actor) and his Gold Derby prize. In 2015, he beat these rival nominees for Best Drama Actor when our users’ votes were tallied: Jon Hamm (“Mad Men”), Bob Odenkirk (“Better Call Saul”), Timothy Olyphant (“Justified”), Matthew Rhys (“The Americans”) and Kevin Spacey (“House of Cards”). See the full list of winners and nominees that year.

‘Outlander’ creator Ronald D. Moore talks adapting novels for TV: ‘We always start with the book’ [EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW]

In “Outlander’s” recent Emmy FYC panel, Heughan and costar Caitriona Balfe were joined by showrunner Ronald D. Moore, executive producer Maril Davis, executive producer/writer/director Matthew B. Roberts, executive producer Toni Graphia and production designer Jon Gary Steele. Watch the entire “Outlander” panel discussion right here.

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