Actor Christopher Plummer has died

[VALuvsMKwan]

Actor Christopher Plummer dies at 91

Actor Christopher Plummer has died at age 91.

abcnews.go.com

A Canadian and USA (indeed, a world) treasure.

 

[skategal]

Aw....that makes me sad.

I loved him in the Sound of Music.

RIP Christopher Plummer.

 

[pollyanna]

RIP Mr. Plummer. Here is another article

Christopher Plummer, Oscar Winner and ‘Sound of Music’ Star, Dies at 91

Christopher Plummer, the Shakespearean actor who starred in films including "The Sound of Music" and "Beginners," died on Friday. He was 91.

variety.com

 

[Sylvia]

... one of my all-time favorite actors

Christopher Plummer, Star Of Stage, Screen, 'Sound Of Music,' Dies At 91

The Oscar-, Emmy- and Tony Award-winning actor began acting in films in the 1950s. He said he felt like he was "starting over" in acting every decade — "you never stop learning how to act," he said.

www.npr.org

For most of his more than 60-year career, Plummer split his time appearing both on stage and in films – among his movies were Stage Struck and The Man Who Would Be King. He even played a Klingon general in Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country.

Onstage, he played Iago to James Earl Jones' Othello.

I feel so fortunate I got to see him and Jones in this on Broadway in 1982: https://www.playbill.com/production/othello-winter-garden-theatre-vault-0000011528

Plummer's film career flowered as he got older. He says playing Mike Wallace in The Insider was a turning point — the scripts got more "intelligent" he said, an "A level rather than a B plus." He was cast in plummy character roles, including J. Paul Getty in All the Money in the World, and a father who comes out as gay at the age of 75 in Beginners — a performance that won him an Oscar.
"I adored the part and I thought it was so well written and so unsentimental and brave and witty and free ..." Plummer said of playing Hal in Beginners. "It was tackled with such humanity and sweetness and fun."
Plummer said the characters he played later on in his career were the ones that that interested him: "They're witty," he said. "They've got a wonderful edge to them."

 

[MacMadame]

From the NY Post

Christopher Plummer, ‘Sound of Music’ actor, dead at 91

Oscar-, Tony- and Emmy-winning actor Christopher Plummer has passed away. He was 91. The legendary actor with a booming voice and dignified presence died peacefully at his home in Connecticut, with…

nypost.com

 

[Wyliefan]

Oh, this one hurts.

 

[Cachoo]

I loved that he was this rascal...even as an elderly man. Loved him! RIP

 

[Judy]

I loved that he was this rascal...even as an elderly man. Loved him! RIP

My ex back in his younger years worked at Four Seasons Hotel in Ottawa. He said that Plummer took a fit and checked out saying it wasn’t worthy of being a Four Seasons.

he was a gifted actor though .. wow 91. A life very well lived. He will be missed.

 

[Sylvia]

I just bought Plummer's autobiography (have been meaning to since it was published in 2008):

In Spite of Myself by Christopher Plummer: 9780345803221 | PenguinRandomHouse.com: Books

A collection of delicious anecdotes of a life spent on stages and film sets across the world—from Peter Hall’s Royal Shakespeare Theatre to The Sound of Music—from one of our greatest...

www.penguinrandomhouse.com

 

[kittyjake5]

One of my favorites. RIP

 

[vgerdes]

Sad news. I just recently re-watched "Knives Out," and he was very good, in a small but pivotal role. I always loved that twinkle in his eye.

 

[Wyliefan]

He was awesome in that. Also as a deeply snarky Scrooge in The Man Who Invented Christmas.

 

[DFJ]

My daughter's hero since she first saw the Sound of Music.

 

[Sylvia]

"Edelweiss" - Christopher Plummer's own voice - The Sound of Music (1965):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=obEm1Mqm7C0

From the caption:

... Chris was entirely dubbed by Bill Lee in the released film, but here for the first time ever is his own voice.

From his autobiography, "In Spite of Myself":

"To further shake me up, our first recording session was upon us. Daunting is not a strong enough word to describe it. Julie and I stood side by side in a small glassed-in cubicle facing two microphones. Surrounding our prison cage sat 75 musicians like hungry jackals waiting to pounce, led by their keeper, Irwin Kostal.

Warbling softly into a mike is far more difficult than singing full out in a theatre as I was later to discover. One is much more likely to catch and collect "frogs" in the throat, whereas projecting usually gets rid of them. I tried so hard not to look like a complete basket case. Julie, sensing my nerves, took hold of my hand and held it throughout the session. It must have taken her days to recover the use of it afterwards, I had squeezed it so hard.

No matter how diligently I'd slugged away at my lessons, I was still untrained as a singer. To stay on a long-sustained note was, for me, akin to a drunk trying to walk the straight white line, whereas you can bet the very first cry that Julie let forth as she emerged from her mother's womb was in perfect pitch! Listening to the playback, there was no disputing we were on separate planets. In the end, Robert Wise managed to hire someone to take care of my elongated passages, and the balance was somewhat restored."

ETA:

Julie Andrews and Christopher Plummer: A Reminiscence (2005): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3YrzcCC2B_U

 

[Buzz]

He was one of my all time favourite actors. He will be missed. Rest In Peace

 

[Sylvia]

Christopher Plummer: A Man For All Stages (57-min. documentary): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_GuSSmuL6zU

More about this 2002 TV documentary: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0632002/

ETA that I enjoyed watching this - he shared an Othello anecdote about nearly impaling a woman's eye in the front row with Iago's sword that slipped out of his sweaty hand: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_GuSSmuL6zU&t=39m9s

 

[alexikeguchi]

"Edelweiss" - Christopher Plummer's own voice - The Sound of Music (1965):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=obEm1Mqm7C0

Thank you for that clip. My father was a refugee from what was Yugoslavia in the late 1940s, and he spent about two years in a displaced persons camp in Austria not too far from Salzburg. He loved that town, and The Sound of Music was his favorite movie because of the setting and the parallels with his own experience. We used to sing Edelweiss together too, and we danced to the Laendler track at my wedding. I lost my father about a year ago, and this beautiful clip brings back such fond memories of him for me. Thanks to Christopher Plummer for a well-lived life and many great performances.

 

[Vash01]

https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/obituaries/christopher-plummer-dead/2021/02/05/2e6d8408-67dd-11eb-886d-5264d4ceb46d_story.html?utm_campaign=wp_main&utm_medium=social&utm_source=facebook&fbclid=IwAR12DHOBLckausbJWHWb8V4v1DMMq_zCVOcaj9q2iD0oNrxU7-b6R5TUl_4

Washington Post article.

The Sound of Music (Captain) was his most famous role, even more than his Oscar winning role. He was just 33 and he needed to look older to play that character. Makeup did the trick. He wanted to sing his own songs but he agreed to use playback after the director Suggested that, with some initial resistance. He was the perfect Captain Von Trapp.

He played a variety of characters. He was versatile. He was Leo Tolstoy, in The Last Station (good movie), the villain manager in Somewhere in Time, and his one of the latest got him another Oscar nomination. He lived a good life. R.I.P. Mr. Plummer.

 

[Sylvia]

In this lengthy NYT obituary, his 3rd wife of 50+ years, Elaine Taylor, said the cause of death was "a blow to the head as a result of a fall" at his home in Weston, CT and that he "had been preparing to appear as [Shakespeare's King] Lear on film for the first time under the direction of Des McAnuff":

Christopher Plummer, Actor From Shakespeare to ‘The Sound of Music,’ Dies at 91 (Published 2021)

His performance as Captain von Trapp in one of the most popular movies of all time propelled a steady half-century parade of television and film roles.

www.nytimes.com

His speech after winning the Supporting Actor award for Beginners at the 2012 Oscars: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=883H6gNZyGM

ETA that Plummer's final sentence was cut off in the video (it's at the end of his NYT obituary):
“My long-suffering wife Elaine,” he called her, in closing his Oscar acceptance speech, “who deserves the Nobel Peace Prize for coming to my rescue every day of my life.”

 

[Wyliefan]

We wuzrobbed of his Lear film

 

[Sylvia]

In this interview with correspondent Anthony Mason that aired on “[CBS] Sunday Morning” on December 18, 2011, Plummer talked about his reunion with the “Sound of Music” cast [when Oprah asked Charmian Carr/"Liesl" if she learned anything from him she replied, laughing: "Yes, I learned how to drink!"], and his performances in “The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo,” and in “Beginners,” playing a senior citizen who comes out as gay (a role for which he would win an Oscar). https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uauA71Zc6qE

ETA:

A longer conversation from 2011 (when he was 82): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=reTF8CMS4lg

 

[Sylvia]

Julie Andrews Mourns Her Sound of Music Costar Christopher Plummer: 'I've Lost a Cherished Friend'

Christopher Plummer, who died Friday at 91, appeared with Julie Andrews in the beloved 1965 musical

people.com

William Shatner's tribute: https://twitter.com/WilliamShatner/status/1357827280639172610
A gentleman whose name is Christopher Plummer died today. He was what I call a friend. What is the definition of a friend? Somebody you know intimately whose every breath and every thought that is so much like yours or can a friend be someone whose life is...
...intertwined near and afar with great gaps of time between meetings? That was the kind of friend Chris Plummer was to me. I think the final picture of our friendship was in a documentary I was making in which I interviewed him at a theatre that we both played at –
...the Statford Ontario Festival. We spent the afternoon laughing and rejoicing in our mutual experiences. That afternoon defined my friendship with Chris. I am so sad to lose him. My best, Bill

More tribute tweets: https://twitter.com/i/events/1357750763783548928

 

[Jot the Dot Dot]

He was great in Star Trek: The Undiscovered Country.

 

[Kruss]

He was great in Star Trek: The Undiscovered Country

I loved him in the role of General Chang. If you haven't seen this movie for whatever reason, see it for Christopher Plummer's performance alone.

RIP to one of my favorites.

 

[Japanfan]

I always thought of him as a seriously handsome man! Saw him recently in a mini-series called 'Departure', still very handsome in old age. And of course, loved him as Captain Von Trapp.

 

[VALuvsMKwan]

That villain manager in "Somewhere in Time" became a human being instead of a cardboard caricature, thanks to the skill of Mr. Plummer.

 

[paskatefan]

RIP, Captain von Trapp

 

[Judy]

Sad news. I just recently re-watched "Knives Out," and he was very good, in a small but pivotal role. I always loved that twinkle in his eye.

Yes he was awesome!

 

[Skate Talker]

I always thought of him as a seriously handsome man! Saw him recently in a mini-series called 'Departure', still very handsome in old age. And of course, loved him as Captain Von Trapp.

So I hear that there is one more season of 'Departure' already filmed and to be aired which includes Christopher Plummer.

By the way, I also enjoyed his daughter Amanda's acting, particularly in LA Law. I just heard a clip yda of Christopher saying he was not around for much of Amanda's early years but that they did develop a relationship as "friends" later on.

 

[Vash01]

Edelweiss (Christopher Plummer's real voice) The Sound Of Music

Christopher Plummer singing Edelweiss with his own voice, since the official version was dubbed.

www.youtube.com

Edelweiss by Plummer in his own voice (the movie version was dubbed).