About
| Birth Name: | Arthur Christopher Orme Plummer |
| Birth Notes: | 13 December 1929, Toronto, Ontario, Canada |
| Height: | 5' 10 1/2" |
| Family: | * 'Patricia Lewis' (4 May 1962 - 1967) (divorced) * Elaine Taylor (2 October 1970 - present) * Tammy Grimes (19 August 1956 - 1960) (divorced); 1 child |
| Biography: | Until the 2009 Academy Awards were announced, it could be said about Christopher Plummer that he was arguably the finest actor of the post-World War II period to fail to get an Oscar nod. In that, he was following in the footsteps of the late great John Barrymore , whom Plummer so memorably portrayed on Broadway in a one-man show that brought him a Tony Award. Aside from the youngest member of the Barrymore siblings (which counted Ethel Barrymore and Lionel Barrymore' in their number), Christopher Plummer is the premier Shakespearean actor to come out of North America in the 20th century. He was particularly memorable as Hamlet, Iago and Lear, though his Macbeth opposite 'Glenda Jackson was -- and this was no surprise to him due to the famous curse attached to the "Scottish Play" -- a failure. Plummer also has given many fine portrayals on film, particularly as he got older and settled down into a comfortable marriage with his third wife. Like another great stage actor, Richard Burton , the younger Plummer failed to connect with the screen. Dynamic on stage, the charisma failed to transfer through the lens onto celluloid. Burton's early film career, when he was a contract player at 20th Century-Fox, failed to ignite, despite his garnering two Oscar nominations early on. He did not become a star until the mid-1960s, after hooking up with Elizabeth Taylor on the set of Cleopatra (1963). It was Liz who he credited with teaching him how to act on film, Burton said. Christopher Plummer never made it as a leading man in films. He did not become a star, lacking that je ne said quoi that someone like a Gary Cooper or a Paul Newman had naturally. Perhaps if he had been born earlier (he made his debut in Toronto in 1929) into the studio system of Hollywood's golden age, he could have been carefully groomed for stardom. As it was, he shared the English stage actors' disdain -- and he was equally at home in London as he was on the boards of Broadway or on-stage in his native Canada -- for the movies, which did not help him in that medium, as he has confessed. As he aged, Plummer excelled at character parts. He was always a good villain, this man who garnered kudos playing Lucifer on Broadway in Archibald Macleish's Pulitzer Prize-winning "J.B." Though he likely always be remembered as "Baron Von Trapp" in the atomic bomb-strength blockbuster The Sound of Music (1965) (a film he publicly despised until softening his stance in his 2008 autobiography "In Spite of Me"), his later film work includes such outstanding performances as the best cinema Sherlock Holmes--other than Basil Rathbone -- in Murder by Decree (1979), the chilling villain in The Silent Partner (1978), his iconoclastic Mike Wallace in The Insider (1999), the empathetic psychiatrist in A Beautiful Mind (2001), and as Leo Tolstoy in The Last Station (2009). It was this last role that finally brought him recognition from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences, when he was nominated as Best Actor in a supporting role. Plummer remains one of the most respected and honored actors performing in the English language. He's won two Emmy Awards out of six nominations stretching 46 years from 1959 and 2005, and one Genie Award in five nominations from 1980 to 2004. For his stage work, Plummer has racked up two Tony Awards on six 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". Surprisingly, he did not win (though he was nominated) for his masterful 2004 performance of "King Lear", which he originated at the Stratford Festival in Ontario and brought down to Broadway for a sold-out run. His other Tony nominations show the wide range of his talent, from a 1959 nod for the Elia Kazan-directed production of Macleish's "J.B." to recognition in 1994 for Harold Pinter's "No Man's Land", with a 1982 Best Actor (Play) nomination for his "Iago" in William Shakespeare 's "Othello". He continues to be a very in-demand character actor in prestigious motion pictures. If he were English rather than Canadian (he is the great-grandson of Sir John Abbott, the third Prime Minister of Canada) he'd have been knighted long ago. (In 1968, he was a made a Companion of the Order of Canada, the country's highest civilian honor and one which requires the approval of the sovereign). If he were an American, he might have been honored by the Kennedy Center. If he lived in the company town of Los Angeles, he likely would have several more Oscar nominations to go with the one for "The Last Station." As it is, as attested to in his witty and well-written autobiography, Christopher Plummer has been amply rewarded in life. In 1970, Plummer - a self-confessed 43-year-old "bottle baby" - married his third wife, dancer Elaine Taylor (I), who helped wean him off his dependency on alcohol. They live happily with their dogs on a 30-acre estate in Weston, Connecticut and, although he spends the majority of his time in the United States, he remains a Canadian citizen. |
Filmography
| 9 (2009) as 1 |
| A Beautiful Mind (2001) as Dr. Rosen |
| Aces High (1976) as Capt. 'Uncle' Sinclair |
| Alexander (2004) as Aristotle |
| Already Dead (2007) as Dr. Heller |
| An American Tail (1986) as Henri |
| Closing the Ring (2007) as Jack |
| Cold Creek Manor (2003) as Mr. Massie |
| Emotional Arithmetic (2007) as David Winters |
| Eyewitness (1981) as Joseph |
| Gandahar (1988) as Metamorphis |
| Hanover Street (1979) as Paul Sellinger |
| Inside Daisy Clover (1965) as Raymond Swan |
| Inside Man (2006) as Arthur Case |
| Lost Over Burma: Search for Closure (1997) as Narrator |
| National Treasure (2004) as John Adams Gates |
| Nicholas Nickleby (2002) as Ralph Nickleby |
| Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country (1991) as General Chang |
| Syriana (2005) as Dean Whiting |
| The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus (2009) as Doctor Parnassus |
| The Insider (1999) as Mike Wallace |
| The Lake House (2006) as Simon Wyler |
| The Last Station (2009) as Leo Tolstoy |
| The New World (2005) as Captain Newport |
| The Visual Bible: The Gospel of John (2003) as Narrator |
| Twelve Monkeys (1995) as Dr. Goines |
| Up (2009) as Charles Muntz |
| 30 Minutes, Mister Plummer (1963) as Himself |
| Ararat (2002) as David |
| Battle of Britain (1969) as Squadron Leader Colin Harvey |
| Beginners (2010) |
| Being Different (1981) as Narrator |
| Blackheart (1998) as Holmes |
| Blizzard (2003) as Santa Claus |
| Caesar and Cleopatra (2009) as Caesar |
| Conduct Unbecoming (1975) as Maj. Alastair Wimbourne |
| Crackerjack (1994) as Ivan Getz |
| Dolores Claiborne (1995) as Det. John Mackey |
| Dracula 2000 (2000) as Abraham Van Helsing |
| Dragnet (1987) as Reverend Jonathan Whirley |
| Dreamscape (1984) as Bob Blair |
| Firehead (1991) as Col. Garland Vaughn |
| Hamlet (Solo) (2007) as Himself - Interviewee |
| Hidden Agenda (1998) as Ulrich Steiner |
| Highpoint (1982) as James Hatcher |
| Hollywood Renegade (2010) as Himself |
| I Love N.Y. (1987) as John Robertson Yeats |
| Impolite (1992) as Naples O'Rorke |
| Impromptu Balear (1971) as Himself |
| International Velvet (1978) as John Seaton |
| J.W. Morrice (1985) as Narrator |
| Kingsgate (1989) |
| L'homme qui plantait des arbres (1988) as Narrator |
| Liar's Edge (1992) as Harry Weldon |
| Lily in Love (1984) as Fitzroy Wynn/Roberto Terranova |
| Lock Up Your Daughters! (1969) as Lord Foppington |
| Lucky Break (2001) as Graham Mortimer |
| Madeline: Lost in Paris (1999) as Narrator |
| Malcolm X (1992) as Chaplain Gill |
| Man in the Chair (2007) as Flash Madden |
| Mindfield (1989) as Doctor Satorius |
| Money (1991) as Martin Yahl |
| Murder by Decree (1979) as Sherlock Holmes |
| Must Love Dogs (2005) as Bill |
| My Dog Tulip (2009) as J.R. Ackerley |
| Nobody Runs Forever (1968) as Sir James Quentin |
| Nosferatu a Venezia (1988) as Professor Paris Catalano |
| Nuremberg - Les nazis face à leurs crimes (2006) as Narrator |
| Oedipus the King (1968) as Oedipus |
| Ordeal by Innocence (1985) as Leo Argyle |
| Priest (2011) as Monsignor Orelas |
| Red Blooded American Girl (1990) as Dr. John Alcore |
| Rock-A-Doodle (1991) as Grand Duke |
| Sarajevski atentat (1975) as Archduke Ferdinand |
| Shadow Dancing (1988) as Edmund Beaumont |
| Somewhere in Time (1980) as William Fawcett Robinson |
| Souvenir (1989) as Ernst Kestner |
| Stage Struck (1958) as Joe Sheridan |
| Starcrash (1978) as The Emperor |
| Ted Allan: Minstrel Boy of the Twentieth Century (2002) as Narrator |
| Terror in the Aisles (1984) as (segment "The Silent Partner") |
| The Amateur (1981) as Professor Lakos |
| The Boss' Wife (1986) as Mr. Roalvang |
| The Boy in Blue (1986) as Knox |
| The Clown at Midnight (1998) as Mr. Caruthers |
| The Disappearance (1977) as Deverell |
| The Fall of the Roman Empire (1964) as Commodus |
| The First Christmas (1998) as Narrator |
| The First Emperor of China (1989) as Narrator/Himself |
| The Gnomes' Great Adventure (1987) as Narrator |
| The Happy Prince (1974) as The Happy Prince |
| The Man Who Would Be King (1975) as Rudyard Kipling |
| The Night of the Generals (1967) as Field Marshal Rommel |
| The Pyx (1973) as Dt. Sgt. Jim Henderson |
| The Return of the Pink Panther (1975) as Sir Charles Litton |
| The Royal Hunt of the Sun (1969) as Atahualpa |
| The Silent Partner (1978) as Harry Reikle |
| The Sound of Music (1965) as Captain Von Trapp |
| The Spiral Staircase (1975) as Dr. Joe Sherman |
| Trans-Canada Journey (1962) as Narrator |
| Triple Cross (1966) as Eddie Chapman |
| Uppdraget (1977) as Captain Behounek |
| Waterloo (1970) as Arthur Wellesley, Duke of Wellington |
| Where the Heart Is (1990) as Shitty |
| Wind Across the Everglades (1958) as Walt Murdock |
| Wolf (1994) as Raymond Alden |
Trivia
|
* Father, with Tammy Grimes, of actress Amanda Plummer. * Awarded The Edwin Booth Lifetime Achievement Award by The Players, 1997. * He was awarded the C.C. (Companion of the Order of Canada) in the 1968 Queen's Honours List for his services to drama. * Grew up in the village of Senneville, Québec, Canada. * Is the great grandson of former Canadian Prime Minister Sir John Abbott. * (April 2002) On April 22 he was awarded the first Jason Robards Award for Excellence in Theatre by the Roundabout Theatre. His The Sound of Music (1965) co-star Julie Andrews was among those in attendance. * His first paying part was in "Machina Infernale" (The Infernal Machine) by Jean Cocteau, in which he worked with another young Montreal actor, William Shatner. The two were reunited years later when they both appeared in Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country (1991). * He received an Honorary Doctor of Laws degree from the University of Western Ontario on June 8, 2004. * Schoolmate of jazz piano master Oscar Peterson. * Has won two Tony Awards: in 1974, as Best Actor (Musical), playing the title role in "Cyrano," and in 1997, as Best Actor (Play), playing the title role of John Barrymore in "Barrymore." He has also been nominated for the Tony four other times: as Best Actor (Dramatic), in 1959 for "J.B.," and as Best Actor (Play), in 1982 for Shakespeare's "Othello," in 1994 for "No Man's Land," and in 2004 for Shakespeare's "King Lear." * He and his daughter Amanda Plummer both received Emmy nominations in 2005. She won, he didn't. * Trained to become a concert pianist before turning his attention to acting. * Was actually born on December 13, 1929, although most publications usually state his birthday as December 13, 1927. * Is only 13 years older than Charmian Carr who played his daughter in The Sound of Music (1965). * Invited to join to the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts & Sciences [2007]. * One of 115 people invited to join AMPAS in 2007. * Turned down the role of Gandalf in Peter Jackson 's The Lord of the Rings trilogy, and admits to regretting that decision. |
Quotes
|
* (why he prefers playing evil characters) "The devil is more interesting than God." * Unless you can surround yourself with as many beautiful things as you can afford, I don't think life has very much meaning. * I'm bored with questions about acting. * [on Julie Andrews ] Working with her is like being hit over the head with a Valentine's card. |
Comments
No comments yet.