The Late Great Christopher Plummer

Christopher Plummer, who starred in such movies as The Sound of Music (1965), Triple Cross (1966), and The Man Who Would Be King (1975), died on February 5 2021 at the age of 91.

Christopher Plummer was born on December 13 1929 in Toronto, Ontario. His family divorced not long after he was born and he was raised by his mother in Senneville, Quebec. When he was young he wanted to be a concert pianist, but developed an interest in acting. He apprenticed at the Montreal Repertory Theatre.

Christopher Plummer made his television debut in 1953 in a Canadian production of Othello that aired on the TV series General Motors Presents. In the Fifties he guest starred on Studio One, Suspense, Broadway Television Theatre, The Web, Kraft Television Theatre, Producer's Showcase, General Electric Theatre, Appointment with Adventure, The Alcoa Hour, Eye on New York, Omnibus, Sunday Showcase, and Our American Heritage. He appeared in television productions of Little Moon of Alban, Johnny Belinda, A Doll's House, and The Philadelphia Story.

In the Sixties, Mr. Plummer appeared in the television movies Time Remembered, Cyrano De Bergerac, Hamlet at Elsinore, and The Secret of Michaelangelo. He appeared on the shows The Dupont Show of the Month. In the Seventies he appeared in the mini-series Arthur Hailey's The Moneychangers and Jesus of Nazareth. He appeared on the TV shows BBC Play of the Month, Witness to Yesterday, and The Sunday Drama. He appeared in the TV movies After the Fall, Riel, The Shadow Box, and Desperate Voyage

In the Eighties he appeared in the mini-series Little Gloria... Happy at Last, The Thorn Birds, Crossings, and Spearfield's Daughter. He guest starred on the show The Cosby Show. He appeared in the TV movies When the Circus Came to Town, Dial M for Murder, The Scarlet and the Black, Prototype, The Tin Soldier, A Hazard of Hearts, and Nabokov on Kafka.

In the Nineties Christopher Plummer was a regular on the TV series Counterstrike. He appeared in the TV movies Young Catherine, A Marriage: Georgia O'Keeffe and Alfred Stieglitz, The First Circle, and Secrets, A Stranger in the Mirror, Skeletons, Winchell, The Dinosaur Hunter, Possessed, and American Tragedy . He appeared in the mini-series Nuremberg.

In the Naughts he appeared in the TV movies On Golden Pond, Night Flight, Agent of Influence, Odd Job Jack, Our Fathers, and Four Minutes. He appeared in the mini-series The Summit. In the Teens, he appeared on the TV show Great Performances. He was a regular on the TV show Departure.

Christopher Plummer made his film debut in Stage Struck in 1958. In the late Fifties he also appeared in the film Wild Across the Everglades (1958). In the Sixties he appeared in the movies The Fall of the Roman Empire (1964), The Sound of Music (1965), Inside Daisy Clover (1965), Triple Cross (1966), The Night of the Generals (1967), Oedipus the King (1968), Nobody Runs Forever (1968), Lock Up Your Daughters! (1969), Battle of Britain (1969), The Royal Hunt of the Sun (1969), and Waterloo (1970).

In the Seventies he appeared in the movies The Pyx (1973), The Spiral Staircase (1975), The Return of the Pink Panther (1975), Conduct Unbecoming (1975), Atentat u Sarajevu (1975), The Man Who Would Be King (1975), Aces High (1976), Uppdraget (1977), The Disappearance (1978), International Velvet (1978), The Silent Partner (1978), Starcrash (1978), Murder By Decree (1979), Hanover Street (1979), and Somewhere in Time (1980).

In the Eighties Christopher Plummer appeared in the films Eyewitness (1981), The Amateur (1981), Highpoint (1982), Ordeal by Innocence (1984), Dreamscape (1984), Lily in Love (1984), The Boy in Blue (1986), I Love N.Y. (1987), Dragnet (1987), Nosferatu a Venezia (1988), Shadow Dancing (1988), Souvenir (1989), Mindfield (1989), Where the Heart Is (1990), and Red Blooded American Girl (1990).

In the Nineties, Mr. Plummer appeared in the movies Firehead (1991), Money  (1991), Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country (1991), Liar's Edge (1992), Impolite (1992), Malcolm X (1992), Wolf (1994), Crackerjack (1994), Dolores Claiborne (1995), Twelve Monkeys (1995), The Clown at Midnight (1998), Blackheart (1998), Hidden Agenda (1999), The Insider (1999), and Dracula 2000 (2000).

In the Naughts he appeared in the movies Lucky Break (1991), A Beautiful Mind (2001), Ararat (2002), Nicholas Nickleby (2002), Blizzard (2003), Cold Creak Manor (2003), National Treature (2004), Alexander (2004), Must Love Dogs (2005), Syriana (2005), The New World (2005), Inside Man (2006), The Lake House (2006), Man in the Chair (2007), Closing the Ring (2007), Emotional Arithmetic (2007), Already Dead (2008), Caesar and Cleopatra (2009), The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus (2009), The Last Station (2009), Beginners (2010), and The Tempest (2010). He was the voice of Charles Muntz in Up (2009).

In the Teens Christopher Plummer appeared in the films Priest (2011), Barrymore (2011), The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (2011), Muhammad Ali's Greatest Fight (2013), Elsa & Fred (2014), Hector and the Search for Happiness (2014), The Forger (2014), Danny Collins (2015), Remember (2015), The Exception (2016), The Man Who Invented Christmas (2017), All the Money in the World (2017), Boundaries (2018), Cliffs of Freedom (2019), Knives Out (2019), and The Last Full Measure (2019).

Christopher Plummer appeared frequently on stage. He made his debut on Broadway in The Starcross Story in 1954. In the Fifties he also appeared on Broadway in Home is the Hero, The Dark is Light Enough, The Lark, Night of the Auk, and  J.B.. In the Sixties he appeared in Arturo Ui and The Royal Hunt of the Sun. In the Seventies he appeared in Cyrano De Bergerac and The Good Doctor. In the Eighties he appeared in Othello and Macbeth. In the Nineties Mr. Plummer appeared on Broadway in No Man's Land and Barrymore. In the Naughts he appeared in King Lear and Inherit the Wind.

Christopher Plummer was an incredible actor. He won two Tony Awards, two Emmys, and one Academy Award, and he was nominated multiple times for each of those awards. He won the Oscar for Best Supporting Actor for his role in Beginners, making him the oldest actor to ever win an Academy Award. It should be little wonder that Mr. Plummer should have been nominated many times for various awards, as he was extremely versatile. Throughout his career he played a wide range of historical figures, including Rommel in The Night of the Generals, Duke Wellington in Waterloo, Kipling in The Man Who Would Be King, and John Barrymore in Barrymore. Among the fictional characters played by Mr. Plummer was Sherlock Holmes in Murder By Decree. He was convincing in all of these roles.

Christopher Plummer's versatility extended to the sorts of movies he made. Over the years he appeared in dramas, period pieces, comedies, science fiction movies, and yet other sorts of films. He was as at home in the espionage thriller Triple Cross as he was the sci-fi movie Twelve Monkeys. What is more, he played many remarkable roles in various types of movies. In Inside Daisy Clover he played producer Charles Swann, a man who was equal parts manipulative and intimidating. He was an outright psychopath in The Silent Partner. In Beginners he played a role far removed from either of those he played in Inside Daisy Clover or The Silent Partner, playing an older man with cancer who is also coming to terms with the fact that he is gay. Even in movies that were not particularly good (Red Blooded American Girl, for example) Christopher Plummer could still deliver solid performances. Few actors ever had the sheer amount of talent that Christopher Plummer did.