Christopher Plummer's awards season run continued Sunday night with the Canadian actor bringing home a Screen Actors Guild award for Beginners.

"I just can't tell you what fun I've had being a member of the world's second-oldest profession," Plummer said Sunday as he accepted the best supporting actor trophy. "I mean actors are gregarious and wacky, are they not? And I love them dearly, but when they honour you it's like being lit by the holy grail. Thank you, thank you, thank you."

The award is just the latest accolade the screen legend has claimed for his role as an ailing widower who embraces his homosexuality.

The Toronto-born Plummer, 82, has already won a Golden Globe and is nominated for an Academy Award.

On Sunday, he thanked Beginners co-star Ewan McGregor, saying he "makes acting look so impossibly easy," and also lauded director Mike Mills, who based the story on his own father.

Plummer concluded his speech by thanking his "long-suffering wife Elaine who 43 years ago came to my rescue and saved my life."

Despite a storied six-decade career, Plummer has never won an Academy Award.

If he were to win this year, at 82 he would become the oldest actor ever to win an Oscar — two years older than Jessica Tandy was when she won best actress for Driving Miss Daisy.

Backstage, Plummer joked when asked if he would like to win an Oscar, an honour so elusive during his esteemed 60-year career that he did not even receive his first Academy Award nomination until two years ago, for The Last Station.

"No, I think it's frightfully boring," Plummer said. "That's an awful question. Listen, we don't go into this business preoccupied by awards. If we did, we wouldn't last five minutes."

Many of his competitors at the SAG Awards will also compete against him at the Oscars, including Kenneth Branagh in My Week With Marilyn, Jonah Hill in Moneyball and Nick Nolte in Warrior.

The other supporting actor hopeful at the Oscars is Max von Sydow for Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close.

Rounding out the supporting actor category at the SAGs was Armie Hammer for J. Edgar.

Other winners at the 18th annual Screen Actors Guild Awards included:

Theatrical motion pictures

  • Actor: Jean Dujardin, The Artist.
  • Actress: Viola Davis, The Help.
  • Supporting actress: Octavia Spencer, The Help.
  • Cast: The Help.
  • Stunt ensemble: Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows - Part 2.

Television

  • Actor in a movie or miniseries: Paul Giamatti, Too Big to Fail.
  • Actress in a movie or miniseries: Kate Winslet, Mildred Pierce.
  • Actor in a drama series: Steve Buscemi, Boardwalk Empire.
  • Actress in a drama series: Jessica Lange, American Horror Story.
  • Actor in a comedy series: Alec Baldwin, 30 Rock.
  • Actress in a comedy series: Betty White, Hot in Cleveland.
  • Drama series cast: Boardwalk Empire.
  • Comedy series cast: Modern Family.
  • Stunt ensemble: Game of Thrones.