The star of The Sound of Music was Christopher Plummer, who won an Oscar for Beginners and was nominated for The All Money in the World and the Last Station. Christopher died peacefully today, his family reported, at their home in Connecticut. By his side was Elaine Taylor, his partner and real best friend for 53 years.
Thanks to his performance in ‘Beginners,’ the Canadian stage and film legend became the oldest actor to win an Oscar in 2012.
The sophisticated star who Christopher Plummer, in 2012 became the oldest actor ever to win a competitive Oscar, died Friday, a just reward for his seven outstanding decades as a leading man on stage and screen. He’d been 91.
Plummer died peacefully at his home in Connecticut, a legendary actor on Broadway, for the National Theater and The Royal Shakespeare Company in England. The Stratford Shakespeare Festival in Canada, ICM Partners, reported. By his side was Elaine Taylor, his partner, and best friend for 53 years.
Lou Pitt, his 46-year-old manager, said in a statement, “Christopher Plummer 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 enjoyed his Canadian roots.” He touched all of our hearts through his art and humanity, and his legendary life will continue for all centuries to come. He’ll be with us forever.’
His daughter, Emmy-winning actress Amanda Plummer, is also included in Survivors.
Plummer won two Tony Awards: in the musical Cyrano in 1974 for his performance of swordsman/poet Cyrano de Bergerac and in the one-person tour, de force Barrymore in 1977 for playing Hollywood legend John Barrymore. He’s one of only four actors to win the top two acting Tonys (Robert Morse, Rex Harrison, and Zero Mostel are the others).
“In 2012, a delighted Plummer accepted his supporting actor Oscar for playing an elderly widow who, shortly after the death of his wife in Beginners, begins exploring life as an openly gay man. Plummer, then 82, looked at his gold statuette on the stage and said, “You’re just two years older than me, darling. Where have you been all my life?
The handsome Toronto native had won his first Oscar nomination two years ago for his portrayal of Leo Tolstoy in The Last Station (2009). And in 2018, after he stepped in for the disgraced Kevin Spacey at the last minute to play J. Paul Getty in All the Money in the World, Plummer became the oldest actor ever to be nominated.
Despite all the acclaim he got as an octogenarian, Plummer is probably most commonly remembered in The Sound of Music (1965), the syrupy family classic he once referred to as “The Sound of Mucous” for his role as Captain Von Trapp opposite Julie Andrews.
He told THR in 2011 that “it was so terrible and sentimental and gooey.” To try to infuse some little bit of humor into it, you had to work hard.”You had to work hard to try to invest some little bit of humor into it.”
When he appeared with Andrews before a screening of the musical at the 2015 TCM Classic Film Festival in Hollywood, Plummer, however, had changed his tune and added his hand and footprints to the set outside the TCL Chinese Theatre.
Plummer was frequently cast in sinister or heavy roles with his towering demeanor, lush baritone voice, and aura of gravitas, often portraying men of grave distinction and strength. He released an autobiography, Despite Myself, in 2008.
From 1956-60, Plummer was married to two-time Tony-winning actress Tammy Grimes, Amanda’s mother, and from 1962 until their divorce in 1967, he was married to journalist Patricia Lewis. He had been married since 1970, along with his third partner, the British dancer-actress Taylor.
Plummer said he embraced the independence that age gave him in an interview with Turner Classic Movies in 2008.
My kind of roles [early on were] uptight, urban, sophisticated young men… bland and boring. In this business, people have no creativity at all, do they? “Said he. “Comedy, I can do. I’m able to do all kinds of things. Why is it that they give me this uptight crap? So when I arrived at a certain age, I was so happy, and I could become a character actor and be free from all that nonsense.
