Christopher Plummer, the actor best known for his work in The Sound Of Music and Ridley Scott’s All The Money In The World, has died. Per Deadline, Plummer’s death was confirmed by his manager of 46 years, Lou Pitt: “Chris was an extraordinary man who deeply loved and respected his profession with great old fashion manners, self deprecating humor and the music of words. He was a National Treasure who deeply relished his Canadian roots. Through his art and humanity, he touched all of our hearts and his legendary life will endure for all generations to come. He will forever be with us.” Plummer died peacefully in his Connecticut home. He was 91.
Between the beginning of his career in 1951 and his most recently listed project, the animated Heroes Of The Golden Masks, Canadian-born performer Arthur Christopher Orme Plummer amassed a total of 217 acting credits, per the IMDB database. Unlike many of his fellow legendary craftspeople, Plummer was not exactly classically trained. In fact, he had never even attended college: Plummer was first discovered in a high school production of Pride And Prejudice, where he played Mr. Darcy. 1953 proved to be quite the year for the then-burgeoning thespian: He made both his television and Broadway debuts that year in a Canadian broadcast of Othello and The Starcross Story, respectively.
As a stage performer, Plummer maintained somewhat of a residency on Broadway between a number of shows with brief runs (none quite as brief as The Starcross Story, which closed the same day that it opened). In his early 20s, he got to act alongside industry greats like Katharine Cornell and Julie Harris. His appearance in Archibald MacLeish’s Pulitzer Prize-winning play J.B. earned him his first Tony award nomination for Best Actor In A Play. He grew to be a must-cast actor, helming the kind of leading roles that many in his field could only dream of: Macbeth, Cyrano de Bergerac, Mark Anthony in Antony and Cleopatra. When he wasn’t lighting up Broadway, he was participating in touring productions.
His career expanded to screen with one of his most well-known roles, Captain Von Trapp in The Sound Of Music. The musical’s popularity reached astronomic heights, eventually beating out Gone With The Wind in the box office and winning Oscars. Plummer has often mentioned his lack of enthusiasm for the experience, though he was always very complimentary of his time with Julie Andrews. He eventually reunited with the cast in 2010 for The Oprah Winfrey Show.
Plummer maintained an illustrious career for seven decades and continued to work late into his life. His starring part in Rian Johnson’s Knives Out became a more recent fan favorite, where he played Thrombey family patriarch and mystery novel author Harlen. His time on stage and screen netted many awards, including two Tonys, an Academy Award for his supporting turn in Beginners, and two Primetime Emmys for 1977's Arthur Hailey’s The Moneychangers and his voice work in 1994's Madeline. Many of his colleagues refer to Plummer as a living legend and a gentleman, a distinguished ambassador for his craft. Off camera, he lived a quiet life in Connecticut with his wife of 50 years, former actress Elaine Taylor, who was by his side in his final moments.
104 Comments
RIP
Ich sehe, was du dort getan hast.
I am grateful he was able to give us Knives Out before he left us.
RIPA lot of other performances will be mentioned, but special shout out for the shaved head Klingon General Chang.
My favourite Shakespeare-quoting Klingon.
Well Shakespeare is best in its original Klingon
taH pagh taHbe’!
I’ve always loved that reference, because of the idea of Shakespeare being a Klingon who somehow ended up on Earth, and started translating his poems and plays to English. The prominent forehead is a giveaway.
Hamming it up and quoting Shakespeare with great glee.
and bolted-on eyepatch!
You can’t spell “Warrior” without one “i”.
This is the role I always think of first when I think of Plummer. He was so great in that. (And in everything.)
“I’d give real money if he shut up.”Glad he never did until now.
Dammit, ripped you off.Usually I only rip off things from other sites.
I put on Star Trek VI as soon as I heard the news.
He did the Voice over for the first trailer for that movie, and it’s not only one of the best Star Trek trailers, it’s one of the best trailers. Period. And I’m not even that much of a ST fan.
That movie LOOKED good, too. Such color. And there was something about the film stock, if I have that right?I once took a hallucinogen in college and retreated to my room to listen to techno. Something made me put on the score for III, and I was in tears several times. That’s a record I’ll never get enough of.
“I’d give real money if he’d shut up.” Greatest Bones line ever. Now DeForest gets to listen to him for eternity.
I still drop that into conversation 30 years later.
Quoting Shakespeare
RIP to one of the greatest ever in anything.
I always felt the battle where he’s just running through Shakespeare quotes was Director Nicholas Meyer making fun of himself a little bit for Khan’s great Melville death scene in Wrath of Khan:It’s such a short scene earlier in Undiscovered Country, but I’ve always loved him meeting Kirk and with a few simple words, making it clear that he really wants to murder him:“I have so wanted to meet you, Captain . . . “ “ . . . from one . . . warrior to another . . . “
I love Kirk’s response, “…Right.”
Best Trek villain, imo. Plummer knew when to just nibble at the scenery, whereas Montalban (who was also great as Khan, don’t get me wrong) chewed through it like Pac-Man on a three day bender.
Now who’s going to replace Kevin Spacey in everything?
Nobody, he isn’t getting work anymore.
Academy Award Winner for Best Actor, Roberto Benigni?
Here is a thought, I wonder if we can make a deal with the powers above or below to replace Spacey with Plumber in the grave?
Now there will be a reckoning: everything Christopher Plummer was going to be in will now go to Kevin Spacey.Good thing he already did Knives Out. I don’t think any film could’ve sustained both Benoit Blanc and Frank Underwood.
He’s being digitally inserted into films in Heaven now.
Turns out he is gonna play Jesus in some reboots of something called “The Bible”. Apparently the original guy had some skeletons in his closet
Who knew that Jesus guy was plantist? He really hated fig trees.
What you did there, I see it.
Since I’m sure his obit will be full of Sound of Music, etc., here are a couple of my favorites of his work:Also, I didn’t know he was Canadian. I assumed he was one of those Brits like Peter Cushing and Christopher Lee.
I’ve loved him in a ton of things but for some reason Dragnet was the first place my brain went.
Funny think is, I never realized that was Plummer until someone told me, like, YEARS later.
I watched that film as a young ‘un taking in Tom Hanks movies, and its crazy how charismatic he was in such a silly film.
He is absolutely terrifying as a seedy criminal in The Silent Partner.
For the sake of the movie he may be too terrifying, because logically after their first encounter Elliot Gould’s character probably should have high tailed it out for the Yukon, but that would have cut the movie short, and they never did manage to explain why an ordinary bank teller wouldn’t be reduced to a sobbing baby.
Captain von Trapp, my first celebrity crush. A great Sherlock Holmes in the fun, deeply silly Murder by Decree.
Captain von Trapp is truly dreamy, excellent first celeb crush choice.
Captain von Trapp is gorgeous…sigh. All good things come to an end. RIP…
He was always one of those actors whom whenever they showed up on screen, you knew at least their part was going to be good.
Damn. There was talk of him doing a Lear film in 2020, but it was pushed due to Covid. Would have liked to have seen that. Still, plenty of terrific performances.
I saw his Lear at the Stratford Festival, and I assure you it would have been. I also saw his Prospero there. I am extremely lucky to have those memories to cling to now.
A great actor and a great Canadian who stayed true to his roots while achieving worldwide success.
He
was one of the finest portrayers of Sherlock Holmes, in 1979’s Murder
by Decree, teaming perfectly with James Mason’s stellar Watson.
However, my favourite of his many great film roles was a small one: as
Rudyard Kipling in 1975’s The Man Who Would Be King. Stars Sean
Connery and Michael Caine rightly get most of the acting plaudits for
that film, but Plummer’s brief turn as Kipling anchors the movie. In the
story the Plummer character is unnamed, but it’s clearly
autobiographical, and the filmmakers seized on that, adding another
layer to an already rich film, and Plummer ran with it.
RIP, Mr.
Plummer, and thank you for so many rich memories (including one of the
best Oscar acceptance speeches ever given; so glad you had a chance to
give it).
Up there with Peter Cushings I say.
I had forgotten about his part in The Man Who Would Be King. It’s a really good movie all around.I wish more people would see Beginners. It’s a solid comedy/drama, and he is really good in it.
RIP Dr. Parnassus. Your Imaginarium will live on in all of us.
For certain people of a certain vintage, Christopher Plummer in “The Sound of Music” will always be the embodiment of the saying “I love a man in uniform”. Everything else is gravy.
Also ever since they started airing “The Sound of Music” clips this morning all I’ve heard in my head is “the hills are alive/with the sound of mucous…”
I just saw Atom Egoyan describe Plummer as having brought “a certain erotic charge” to Captain von Trapp (much to the discomfort of the interviewer) and I swear I could hear entire generations of former theatre kids all roll their eyes and sigh.
Now who will replace Me tooed actors? Michael York? In all seriousness, while he hated Sound of Music, he hated it in an endearing old man kinda way. He’ll always be Mr Von Trapp to me, whether he liked it or not!
I think Michael York’s amyloidosis has pretty well sidelined him for good.
Ah fuck your right. Do we have a beloved old British actor who will fit the bill? I wish Christopher Lee was still here.
M
Michael Caine??
Plummer was so good in everything. Even with tiny parts, like in 12 Monkeys, he was memorable.“Remember”, his last leading role (I think), is a good watch, IMO.
Man, we are losing Golden Age actors at an alarming rate!Still, what a final act. Star Wars, Knives Out, All the Money in the World, Beginners, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. Dude had a better decade in his 80s than most do in their 30s.
You’re absolutely right, but re. Star Wars, you might be mixing him up with Max von Sydow, which is completely fine. The two could have been in a geriatric Parent Trap. Sad to see both gone.
DAMNIT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I have made this exact mistake several times. Today I asked myself why none of his obits mentioned Needful Things. They don’t really look much alike. I think it’s their voices.
Given the long career he had, it’s probably a waste to talk about one part that has already been talked about endlessly (and one he didn’t even have much use for), but I remember Pauline Kael’s review for The Sound of Music taking Plummer to task for being too cold in the part, and saying that Julie Andrews (she wasn’t too fond of her work in it either) just making love to herself in romantic scenes instead. For me that detachment is one of the reasons that Plummer’s work in the role was so strong, and was still so accessible to people 50 years later – he never gives into a Hollywood fantasy of a transformation of love, instead showing us a man who was shut down by his losses and his sense of duty slowly trusting himself to love again, and to be a father to his children. His performance in the scene where he sings “Edelweiss” to his kids and allows himself to really bond with them for the first time, as we also see he and Maria falling further in love, is just masterful – so many nuances. I love the little moment of pride he allows himself at the end.
Years ago I read an interview with “the real Maria”, who said she didn’t like the portrayal of “her captain” in Broadway, she thought he was too detached. But she loved the movie, thought they got him much, much better
…and surely he was better known for Knives Out than for All The Money In The World? Kevin Spacey really doesn’t belong in this conversation.
Agreed, of all his films why on earth would pick that as a second choice
Plummer got an Oscar nomination for All the Money in the World, but not Knives Out (in which he dies at the beginning).
Fair points, but I don’t think that nomination counts for much; he *won* an Oscar recently and ATMITW was a bomb. Also, I suspect he has as much screen time in KO as anyone not named Ana de Armas or Daniel Craig, thanks to its ensemble cast and flashback heavy structure. Plus, Knives Out is more recent and a far better film…
The Plummer reshoots got an enormous amount of press (not just because of Spacey but also how much Williams vs Wahlberg got paid). Hence the meme being referenced now.
Or the movie Beginners which he is quite good in and won a Oscar for. Him and the cute dog are the best things about that movie.
You short change Ewan McGregor, who I thought was very good. Beginners is the movie I thought of when I first heard the news of Plummer’s death.Also, it needs to be mentioned that Plummer is the father of the great actor Amanda Plummer.
She has great screen presence, but it is interesting how the energy she gives off is nothing like her father.
…I don’t know about the “peacefully” bit. This is in the NYT obit:“His wife, Elaine Taylor, said the cause was a blow to the head as a result of a fall.”
If you haven’t already, see his performance in “The Beginners.” He plays Ewan Macgregor’s father who comes out late in life and their relationship as Macgregor adjusts to his dad being happy living his true life.
Let’s not forget is turn as Mike Wallace in my favorite ‘The Insider.’
“No, that’s fame. Infamy lasts a little longer.”
He was one of my favorites. RIP
One sorely underrated performance from him is in Delores Claiborne. The book is one of those that’s basically unadaptable, being basically a long stream-of-consciousness diatribe from a bitter old woman that regularly flits between time periods, so his character was invented for the film, a detective who failed to nail her for murder decades earlier and is now determined to do the job right when it seems she’s killed again. The scene where he’s forced to realize his desire for justice has been corrupted into an illogical vendetta is incredible, all done with his face and no lines.
YES! Dolores Claiborne is such an underrated film. Had no idea his role was invented for the adaptation— He’s terrific in it. It’s nice to see posts appreciating his roles apart from SOM, which he never liked (mostly because they dubbed over his singing).Another great, more obscure Plummer role: The psychopathic bank robber in ‘The Silent Partner’ with Elliot Gould. It’s a bit problematic (his character is one of the long list of ‘queer=deviant’ villains) but his performance, as always, is spellbinding.
Delores Claiborne is better than Shawshank! They are both great but Kathy Bates and Christopher Plummer are amazing and really elevate their film.
Holy crap, I now realized just how long it was since I watched that movie – and fucking loved it.Thank you.And, RIP.Plummer was absolutely fantastic in The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim too, by the way. Using only his voice this time, and no face at all.
Plummer was great in that. David Straitharn was absolutely terrifying as Delore’s husband.
“Christopher Plummer, the actor best known for his work in The Sound Of Music and Ridley Scott’s All The Money In The World, has died.”Um, what?
So long, farewell…. 😉
I will do myself a favor and watch The New World for the first time this weekend.
He hated the way Malick cut down his part in that movie. It’s a really good movie, though. Watch the director’s cut if you can.
He was not just dependable. He was dependably good. Ridley Scott turned to him in a pinch because he could knock that role out of the park and he certainly did. I don’t think I’ve disliked any Christopher Plummer performance I’ve seen.
I absolutely adored him in Knives Out, and also in the adorable cheesefest that is Beginners. RIP. An absolute legend.
Came here for mention of Starcrash, didn’t think I was going to have to be the one to mention it. R.I.P., Emperor of the Universe!
It really shows Plummer’s range as a actor, from Oscar calibre movies, to MST3K bait.
His actual quote about it was “I’d do porn if it meant a trip to Rome.”
We have that in common. Especially if I was co-starring with Caroline Munro.
He was also the villain in the Don Bluth movie Rock-A-Doodle. (And speeking of MST3K, Eddie Deezen also starred in that same movie.)
Oh my God, he did! For some inexplicable reason, that movie really made an impression on me as a kid. It was probably the goofy live-action segments, with that kid yelling for Chanticleer before he gets turned into a kitten.
I think it’s too bad the Starcrash MST3K episode was released just before the Kevin Spacey scandal gave them an opportunity to make a joke about it.
“Remember” is definitely fun trash, give it a pandemic watch 🙂
After last year, I’m just glad to see he lived a full life, dying of natural causes and not Covid. RIP Mr. Plummer.
UP is one of my all-time favorite movies and he’s so great as Muntz. Not to mention all the other things he was so great in. RIP.
Up!
I had the pleasure of seeing Othello in 1981 at the Connecticut Shakespeare Festival. He was Iago to James Earl Jones’s Othello. It was so good when it moved to Broadway in ‘82 I paid money to go see it again. We all know James is amazing as Othello and Plummer’s Iago was every bit as amazing. And to wade into the shallow end of the pool for a moment, I still remember he was wearing thigh high suede boots and looked yummy.RIP Mr. Plummer
Gotta give props to his small but very pivotal role in “Inside Man.” RIP.
My heart sank when I saw this. It was bound to happen soon, that our eldest tier of legends would begin to cross the rainbow bridge, but it still hurts.Rest In Peace.
Plummer wasn’t just a fine actor, he had a natural aplomb and screen presence that drew your eyes to him and held them regardless of who he shared the screen with. “The Sound of Music” was the first movie I ever saw in a theater as a kid, on one of its numerous theatrical rereleases, and Plummer made enough of an impression on me that I recognized him every time he showed up in a film on television, from “The Battle of Britain” to the insane Roman emperor Commodus in the flawed but highly watchable “The Fall of the Roman Empire.” He was that rarest of actors who could play warm and likeable or truly menacing (see the underrated crime thriller “The Silent Partner”) with equal conviction and he was a surprisingly fine Sherlock Holmes. Like Michael Caine, he loved acting but had enough of a work ethic that he wasn’t above doing more than a few shit movies if it meant staying in the game until a good film came along. He should have been a much bigger star but he seemed quite happy to just pop up from time to time on his own terms. He had such a long career I swear I thought he’d live forever. He’ll be missed.
Loved his work in Seven and The Usual Suspects.