Celebrated actor Christopher Plummer (91) is no more. Most will know him from his legendary performance as Captain von Trapp in ‘The Sound Of Music’ (1965), but he was so much more than that. Watch clips of his most controversial acting performances here.
Canadian actor Christopher Plummer made his Broadway debut in 1954, but soon dove into the movie world. His film career started with his role as Joe Sheridan, a playwright, in the American movie ‘Stage Struck’ (1958), directed by Sidney Lumet.
To Be Or Not To Be from Hamlet, it is probably the most famous prologue William Shakespeare ever wrote. He was proclaimed by several actors, but no one did it as honest and credible as Christopher Plummer in ‘Hamlet at Elsinore’ by director Philip Saville from 1964. At the 18th Emmy Awards (1966) Christopher Plummer was even nominated in the ‘Outstanding Single’ category. Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role in a Drama ‘for his performance as Hamlet in this adaptation of a play.
If there is one film that everyone knows Plummer about, it is ‘The Sound Of Music’ (1965) in which he plays Captain von Trapp, alongside Julie Andrews. One of the most famous songs from the film is undoubtedly ‘Edelweiss’ where many hearts melted for Plummer’s warm voice. However, it wasn’t Plummer himself who sang the song, much to his own indignation: “I was probably terrible to work with because I was so mad they wouldn’t let me sing. I had worked so hard on that, but they dubbed me. The only reason I did that damn thing was because then I could do a musical movie. ”
After ‘The Sound Of Music’ many more successful films followed including ‘Battle of Britain’ (1969), ‘Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country’ (1991), ‘Malcolm X’ (1992) and ‘Twelve Monkeys’ (1995) ). In 1999 he won the National Society of Film Critics Award for Best Supporting Actor for his portrayal of a television journalist, Mike Wallace, in the American drama ‘The Insider’.
In 2010, Plummer was nominated for an Oscar for Best Supporting Actor for the first time in his career for his role as Leo Tolstoy in ‘The Last Station’ (2009). The biographical drama chronicles the last months of Leo Tolstoy’s life and Plummer plays alongside James McAvoy and Helen Mirren, among others. For the same role, he had already been nominated for a Golden Globe and a Screen Actors Guild Award.
His last film was the American war drama ‘The Last Full Measure’, directed by Todd Robinsons, in which he plays Frank Pitsenbarger. Actor Peter Fonda played his last film role in it, since he died in August 2019, but it is also the last print in which Plummer can be seen.
Although you will soon hear Plummer for the last time. He voiced Rizzo in ‘Heroes of the Golden Masks’, a film about a smart, homeless American orphan who is magically transported to the ancient Chinese kingdom of Sanxingdui.