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For decades, Christopher Plummer has shone in roles on stage, television and film, although he will most likely forever be remembered first and foremost as Baron Von Trapp in the enduring cinema classic, The Sound of Music (1965). The singing patriarch (a role that he confesses to despise, having signed on primarily to learn how to carry a tune) is merely one small facet of his diverse career.
Born Arthur Christopher Orme Plummer in Toronto, Canada, in December 1929, he was raised in a Montreal suburb by his mother and her family after his parents divorced when he was only a year old. He is the great-grandson of former Canadian Prime Minister Sir John Abbott. To this day, even though his primary residence for years has been in Connecticut, Mr. Plummer remains a Canadian citizen.
His mother was head of the Canadian Handicrafts Guild and she exposed her son to the arts through their attendance at plays, ballets, operas and other cultural events. As a young boy he began instruction on the piano and studied to be a concert pianist, until he became interested in acting during his high school production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream. He learned the craft as a member of the Canadian Repertory Company in Ottawa. From small-town rep novice to celebrated Shakespearean actor (one of the best of his generation), Mr. Plummer first appeared on Broadway in The Star Cross Story in 1954. Since then, he has won two Tony Awards, out of seven nominations: the first in 1974 as Best Actor (Musical) for the title role in Cyrano, and the second in 1997, as Best Actor (Play), in Barrymore. He remains a leading light at the Shakespearean Festival company in Stratford, Ontario – this year he is appearing as Prospero in The Tempest.
His work in television rivals his output on stage and screen. He has won two Emmy Awards out of six nominations stretching 46 years from 1959 and 2005 – for his voiceover work on the Madeline series and for his performance in the miniseries The Moneychangers. His best-known television role is probably as the cardinal in The Thorn Birds miniseries, although he made a splash (and earned an Emmy nomination) in 1964 for his lead role in the NBC production Hamlet at Elsinore, which was broadcast in honor of 400 years since Shakespeare’s birth. He and his daughter, actress Amanda Plummer (from his first marriage to Tammy Grimes), were both nominated for Emmys in 2005, although père Plummer walked away empty-handed.
He has acted in more than 100 films since his debut in Sidney Lumet’s Stage Struck (1958), but these later years have been exceedingly fruitful, none more so than 2009 with six feature films to his credit. His performance as Russian author Leo Tolstoy in The Last Station, in which he perfectly played off co-star Helen Mirren who was cast as Tolstoy’s wife, captured the attention of the Academy and at long last, he was nominated for the Oscar (in the Best Supporting Actor category). It is a jewel in the crown of a man already so richly and deservedly decorated.
He was the first performer to receive, in 2002, the Jason Robards Award for Excellence in Theatre, an even greater honor as it is named in the memory of his dear friend. Mr. Plummer was inducted into the American Theatre Hall of Fame in 1986 and into Canada’s Walk of Fame in Toronto in 1997. He has also been honored with the Edwin Booth Lifetime Achievement Award, the Sir John Gielgud Quill Award, the Canadian Governor General’s Lifetime Achievement Award, several honorary doctorates, and other accolades over the course of his long career. Early on, in 1968, he was invested as a Companion of the Order of Canada, the country’s highest civilian honor and sanctioned by the sovereign, Queen Elizabeth II. The Canadian film and television industry also recognized their native son’s talent by bestowing him with the first Genie Award (1980) for Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role, for his Sherlock Holmes in Murder by Decree. He would go on to rack up four additional Genie Award nominations.
Having previously written for the stage, television and concert hall, Mr. Plummer has also penned a memoir, In Spite of Myself, which Alfred A. Knopf published in 2008. In an interview a few years back, he exclaimed, “I’m glad I had fun and lived in a fun time.” This acclaimed autobiography is a rousing and candid tale of those times, especially his heady days immersed in the New York theatre scene of the 50s and 60s.
SELECT FILMOGRAPHY
2009 My Dog Tulip (voice)
2009 9 (voice)
2009 Up (voice)
2009 The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus
2007 Closing the Ring
2006 The Lake House
2006 Inside Man
2005 The New World
2005 Syriana
2004 Alexander
2004 National Treasure
2001 A Beautiful Mind
1999 The Insider
1995 Twelve Monkeys
1995 Dolores Claiborne
1994 Wolf
1992 Malcolm X
1991 Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country
1990 Where the Heart Is
1986 An American Tail (voice)
1980 Somewhere in Time
1979 Murder by Decree
1978 International Velvet
1978 The Silent Partner
1975 The Return of the Pink Panther
1975 The Man Who Would Be King
1969 The Royal Hunt of the Sun
1969 Lock Up Your Daughters!
1968 Oedipus the King
1967 Night of the Generals
1965 Inside Daisy Clover
1965 The Sound of Music
1964 The Fall of the Roman Empire
1958 Wind Across the Everglades
1958 Stage Struck
