Christopher Plummer

EARLY YEARS:

With a career that spans over six decades, Christopher Plummer is one of the most important actors of our time. Plummer was born on December 13, 1929 in Toronto, Ontario to Isabella Mary and John Orme Plummer. Through his mother, Plummer is a great-grandson of the third Prime Minister of Canada, Sir John Abbott. Before developing a love for acting, Plummer had been studying to be a concert pianist. But after watching Laurence Olivier's film Henry V (1944), Plummer began to develop a love for the theater and began to act in high school.

THEATER:

Before going into film, Plummer made his name known on the stage, gaining experience travelling with the Canadian Repertory Theatre from 1948-1950, appearing in 75 roles. Beginning in 1952, he began acting in the Bermuda Repertory Theater. Plummer made his Broadway debut in 1953 with the play The Starcross Story. Unfortunately for him, it was a flop and closed after one night. Plummer would go on to appear in 15 other Broadway plays, the highlight being Elia Kazan's production of Archibald Macleish's Pulitzer Prize-winning play, J.B. Plummer would go on to be nominated for his first Tony Award as Best Actor in Play.

THE SILVER SCREEN:

1958 marked the year where Plummer first appeared on the big screen, playing a young writer, in Sidney Lumet's film Stage Struck. During that year, he also appeared in Nicholas Ray's Wind Across the Everglades as Walt Murdock, which would be Plummer's first leading role. After this, he did not appear in film again for six years until Anthony Mann's The Fall of the Roman Empire, in which Plummer played the Emperor Commodus.

THE SOUND OF MUSIC:

With his next film, Plummer became a household name -- as he would star as Captain Von Trapp in The Sound of Music.

It's important to note that Plummer's first preference would always be the theater. In an interview with NPR, Plummer says, “You see, I loved the theater and I stayed in the theater most of my life and I was a bit snobbish about it. I made a lot of movies through the '60s and '70s which were pretty awful, but then most of the movies in the '60s and early '70s were pretty awful. The quality wasn't always there, unfortunately, but the money was. And I was grateful for that because I could afford to then do what I wanted to do in the theater.”

While he may have not enjoyed The Sound of Music (often referring to it as The Sound of Mucus), Plummer does say that he is grateful for the film “because it certainly was famous and put me in the public eye and I could help fill a theater when I was doing the great works.”

RECENT YEARS:

Plummer not only appeals to those who knew him as Captain Von Trapp, but he has also become popular with younger audiences as well. His rise to fame to ‘us younglings' began with his appearance in Michael Mann's Oscar-nominated film The Insider in 1999. Many predicted that Plummer would be nominated for an Oscar, but unfortunately he wasn't. Plummer would go on to appear in Ron Howard's Academy Award-winning film A Beautiful Mind in 2001 as Dr. Rosen. In the Best Animated Film of 2009, Up, Plummer voiced the role of villain Charles Muntz, which he describes as “an absolutely marvelous movie.” In the same year, he appeared in Shane Acker's animated film 9, Terry Gilliam's marvelous fantasy film The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus (playing the lead role of Doctor Parnassus), and Michael Hoffman's The Last Station. The Last Station provided Plummer with his very first Oscar Nomination for his portrayal of Leo Tolstoy. He would go on to lose the Best Supporting Actor award to Christoph Waltz for his role as Colonel Hans Landa in Inglorious Basterds.

At the ripe, young age of 82, Christopher Plummer has become the oldest actor to ever win an Academy Award for his supporting performance in the film Beginners (as of 2012). It was the 84th edition of the Oscars ceremony, which prompted Plummer to say to the award, “You're only two years older than me, darling. Where have you been all my life?” Plummer would go on to win numerous other awards for Best Supporting Actor as well, such as the Golden Globe award, BAFTA award, and numerous Critics awards.

(Source: article by Josh Kaye for Classic Movie Hub).