Christopher Plummer

**Arthur Christopher Orme Plummer**  (December 13, 1929 – February 5, 2021) was a Canadian actor. His career began in 1946. He first acted on Broadway in 1954. His stage roles as Cyrano de Bergerac in *Cyrano* (1974) and John Barrymore in *Barrymore* (1997) won him Tony Awards.

After being on stage, he acted in his first movie *Stage Struck* (1958). He had his very first main role that same year in *Wind Across the Everglades*. He became well known for playing Captain Georg von Trapp in the musical movie *The Sound of Music* (1965). Plummer played many historical people in movies, including Commodus in *The Fall of the Roman Empire* (1964), Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington in *Waterloo* (1970), Rudyard Kipling in *The Man Who Would Be King* (1975), Mike Wallace in *The Insider* (1999), Leo Tolstoy in *The Last Station* (2009), Kaiser Wilhelm II in *The Exception* (2016), and J. Paul Getty in *All the Money in the World* (2017).

Plummer narrated the animated series *Madeline*. He voiced Charles Muntz in the Disney Pixar movie *Up* (2009). His final roles before his death were as Harlan Thrombey in *Knives Out* (2019), Frank Pitsenbarger in *The Last Full Measure* (2020) and Howard Lawson in the television drama *Departure* (2019–2021).

Plummer won many awards for his work. He won an Academy Award, two Primetime Emmy Awards, two Tony Awards, a Golden Globe Award, a Screen Actors Guild Award, and a British Academy Film Award. He was one of the few actors and only Canadian to have won the Triple Crown of Acting. He won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for *Beginners* (2010). At the time, at age 82 he was the oldest person to win an acting Oscar. He was nominated again for an Academy Award for *All the Money in the World*. This made him the oldest person to be nominated for an acting Oscar at age 88.

## Early life
, where he learned how to act]]
Plummer was born on December 13, 1929, in Toronto, Ontario. He was the only child of John Orme Plummer and Isabella Mary Abbott. His great-grandfather was Canadian Prime Minister Sir John Abbott. Plummer's parents divorced not long after he was born.

At an early age, he loved acting. He wanted to become an actor after watching Laurence Olivier's movie *Henry V* (1944). 

In 1946, the *Montreal Gazette*s theatre critic Herbert Whittaker liked Plummer's role as Mr Darcy in a Montreal High School play of *Pride and Prejudice*.

Plummer learned acting as an apprentice with the Montreal Repertory Theatre. Later in life, McGill University gave an honorary degree to Plummer.

## Career
### Stage
#### Early roles
Plummer started professionally acting in 1948 with Ottawa's Stage Society. Edward Everett Horton hired Plummer to play Gerard in the 1953 play of André Roussin's *Nina*.

Plummer had his first Broadway role in January 1953 in *The Starcross Story*, however the play shutdown on opening night. His next Broadway role, *Home is the Hero*, lasted from September to October 1954. Plummer was Tyrone Power's understudy. After acting in *Night of the Auk*, Plummer was in Elia Kazan's Broadway play *J.B.*. He played Jason in Robinson Jeffers' version of *Medea* in Paris in 1955. Also in 1955, he played Mark Antony in *Julius Caesar*. He played the main role in *Hamlet* and Sir Andrew Aguecheek in *Twelfth Night* in 1957. He later played the main character of *Richard III* a month later. He played King Henry II in Jean Anouilh's *Becket*.

At the Stratford Festival, he played Philip the Bastard in *King John* and Mercutio in *Romeo and Juliet*.

Plummer played the main role in a 1963 play of Bertolt Brecht's *The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui*.

#### Royal National Theatre and Broadway roles
From June 1971 to January 1972, he worked for the Royal National Theatre. He acted in Jean Giraudoux's *Amphitryon 38* directed by Laurence Olivier; Georg Büchner's ''Danton's Death''; Adrian Mitchell's *Tyger*; Luigi Pirandello's *The Rules of the Game*; It was a musical version of Edmond Rostand's 1897 play *Cyrano de Bergerac*. Later that year, he played Anton Chekhov in Neil Simon's *The Good Doctor*. He played Quentin in Arthur Miller's 1974 version of *After the Fall*.

Plummer was in *Lovers and Madmen* at the Opera House at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C. in 1973.

 at the White House, 1985]]
In 1982, he was in the Broadway play of the Shakespearean tragedy *Othello*, playing Iago. His role as the main villain had good reviews from critics, such as *The New York Times*. For his role, he got a Tony Award for Best Actor in a Play nomination losing to Roger Rees. In 1988, he played the main role in Broadway's *Macbeth*. He also had good reviews for his role as the main character. He also worked with Jason Robards in the 1994 version of Harold Pinter's ''No Man's Land*. For his role in *No Man's Land*, Plummer was nominated for a Tony Award. His role as Barrymore, Plummer won his second Tony Award and a Drama Desk Award. The play had very good reviews. He was nominated for a Tony Award and a Drama Desk Award for his role in *King Lear''. He played Julius Caesar in George Bernard Shaw's *Caesar and Cleopatra*. The play was recorded and shown in Canadian movie theaters on January 31, 2009. In 2009 and 2010, Plummer was in two Stratford Festival plays of Shaw's *Caesar and Cleopatra* and William Shakespeare's *The Tempest*. Plummer returned to the Stratford Festival in the summer of 2010 in *The Tempest* where he played Prospero.

### Movies
'', 1964]]
Plummer's movie career began in 1958 when Sidney Lumet hired him to play a young writer in *Stage Struck*. Plummer did not appear in any other movie for six years after 1958. The movie made more money than any other movie since *Gone with the Wind*. Plummer hated being on the movie, but liked working with Julie Andrews. He did not show up at the 40th Anniversary cast reunion. He did talk about the movie for the 2005 DVD release. He appeared for the 45th anniversary with the full cast on *The Oprah Winfrey Show* on October 28, 2010. In one interview he said that he had great memories of making the movie.

He was in *Inside Daisy Clover* (1965). Plummer then played World War II agent Eddie Chapman in *Triple Cross* (1966). He had a role as Field Marshal Erwin Rommel in *The Night of the Generals* (1967). Plummer was hired to replace Rex Harrison for the movie version of *Doctor Dolittle* (1967).
*, 1970]]
Plummer had the main role in *Oedipus the King* (1968) and *The High Commissioner* (1968). He was later in *Battle of Britain* (1969) and *Lock Up Your Daughters* (1969). Plummer played the Duke of Wellington in *Waterloo* (1970) with Rod Steiger as Napoleon Bonaparte. He played Rudyard Kipling in *The Man Who Would Be King* (1975). He was also in the comedy *The Return of the Pink Panther* (1975), with Peter Sellers and *The Silent Partner* (1978). He was in *Aces High* (1976), *Starcrash* (1978), and *International Velvet* (1978). He played Sherlock Holmes in *Murder by Decree* (1979).
 
Plummer was in the romantic drama *Somewhere in Time* (1980), the drama *Eyewitness* (1981), and the comedy *Dragnet* (1987). Plummer also did some voice work. He voiced Henri the pigeon in *An American Tail* (1986) and the Grand Duke of Owls in *Rock-a-Doodle* (1991). In 1987, Plummer did the english narration for Frédéric Back’s animated movie *The Man Who Planted Trees*, which won the Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film in 1988. 

Plummer was in *Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country'' (1991). He was also in Spike Lee's drama biographical movie *Malcolm X* (1992), Mike Nichols' horror drama *Wolf* (1994), Taylor Hackford's psychological drama *Dolores Claiborne* (1995), and Terry Gilliam's science fiction drama *12 Monkeys* (1995). One of Plummer's most well known roles was as journalist Mike Wallace in Michael Mann's *The Insider* (1999). Plummer later played Dr. Rosen in Ron Howard's Academy Award-winning movie *A Beautiful Mind* (2001). He played Uncle Ralph in the 2002 movie version of Charles Dickens novel *Nicholas Nickleby*. Plummer was wanted for the role of Gandalf for *The Lord of the Rings* movie series.

In 2004, Plummer played John Adams Gates in the Disney adventure movie *National Treasure*. In 2005, he appeared in Stephen Gaghan's drama *Syriana*, the romantic comedy *Must Love Dogs*, and Terrence Malick's drama *The New World*. Plummer did not like working with Malick on *The New World*. That same year, he was in the romantic drama *The Lake House* (2006). Muntz character design was inspired by Plummer.

#### *Beginners* and final years
, 2009]]

In January 2010, Plummer got his first Academy Award nomination for his role as author Leo Tolstoy in *The Last Station* (2009). In an interview about his Academy Award nomination, Plummer said: "Well, I said it's about time! I mean, I'm 80 years old, for God's sake. Have mercy".

Plummer had a role in David Fincher's *The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo*, playing businessman Henrik Vanger. Plummer got his second nomination for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his role as Hal in Mike Mills' independent comedy drama movie *Beginners* (2011). In the role, Plummer played a dying 80-year old who recently came out as gay to his son. In 2021, Anthony Hopkins won an Academy Award at age 83, beating Plummer's record. His Academy Award also made Plummer one of the few actors and only Canadian to win the Triple Crown of Acting. In 2015, he was in *Remember* as a Holocaust survivor with dementia. Plummer played Ebenezer Scrooge in *The Man Who Invented Christmas* (2017).

In November 2017, Plummer was hired to replace Kevin Spacey as J. Paul Getty in *All the Money in the World*. He was director Ridley Scott's first choice for the role, but TriStar Pictures wanted a more well known actor for the role. This happened a few weeks before the movie's release. For his role, Plummer earned Golden Globe,

Plummer had a role in Rian Johnson's mystery thriller movie *Knives Out* (2019) as rich mystery writer Harlan Thrombey. Plummer also played Frank Pitsenbarger in the war drama *The Last Full Measure* (2020), in his final movie role. In 2021 before his death, Plummer was hired to play the main character for a movie version of Shakespeare's *King Lear*.

### Television
Plummer had his first television role in 1953 for the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation version of *Othello*. He was also in a 1953 *Studio One* episode "The Gathering Night". In the 1950s, he appeared in *The Alcoa Hour*, *General Electric Theater*, *Kraft Television Theatre*, and *Omnibus*. In 1956, he was in an episode of CBS's *Appointment with Adventure*.

He was in the live television drama *Little Moon of Alban*. In 1964, his role as Hamlet in the BBC's *Hamlet at Elsinore* got him his second Emmy nomination.

He played Herod Antipas in the television miniseries *Jesus of Nazareth* (1977). Plummer played Herbert Kappler in the television movie *The Scarlet and the Black*. He had a role in the television series *The Thorn Birds*. From 1993 to 1995, he narrated the animated television series *Madeline* and won an Emmy Award for his voice work. He also narrated the animated television series *The World of David the Gnome*.

In 2000, Plummer played Sir David Maxwell Fyfe in the Emmy Award-winning show *Nuremberg* (2000). He was in *Miracle Planet*, and a documentary by Ric Burns about Eugene O'Neill. He got an Emmy Award nomination for his role in the television movie version of the play *On Golden Pond*. Plummer voiced Arngeir, speaker for the Greybeards, in the video game *The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim*.

At the age of 89, he appeared in a main role in *Departure*. Plummer returned for season 2, but worked from home because of the COVID-19 pandemic. He finished filming for the second season before his death.

## Personal life and death
Plummer married Tammy Grimes in 1956. Their marriage lasted four years. Plummer was married to journalist Patricia Lewis from 1962, until their divorce in 1967. He used to live in Darien, Connecticut before moving to Weston. Plummer had no children by his second or third marriages. Plummer supported the Theatre Museum Canada and donated money to keep the museum open.

Plummer died at his home in Weston, Connecticut on February 5, 2021 at the age of 91. He died two and a half weeks after a fall where he hit his head. Plummer's wife Elaine said that he had died "peacefully" when she was at his side. Prime Minister of Canada Justin Trudeau said that there is "no doubt [that] his work will continue to inspire and entertain us all for years to come".

*The Sound of Music* actress Julie Andrews said that "The world has lost a [great] actor today and I have lost a [good] friend".

Ana de Armas, Jamie Lee Curtis, Katherine Langford, Rian Johnson, Chris Evans, Don Johnson, William Shatner, Anne Hathaway, Elijah Wood, Vera Farmiga, Ed Asner, Ridley Scott, Spike Lee, Simon Pegg, Kate Beckinsale, Antonio Banderas, Leonard Maltin, Daniel Dae Kim, George Takei, Russell Crowe, Bruce Greenwood and Joseph Gordon-Levitt also reacted to his death.

A postage stamp honoring Plummer was released by Canada Post on October 13, 2021.

## Awards
## Honors
## Bibliography
* 

## References
## Other websites
* 
* 
* 
* 
* Christopher Plummer at the Canadian Film Encyclopedia 
* Christopher Plummer website