It’s one of the great Hollywood ironies that Christopher Plummer didn’t like the movie that made him a legend. He was an actor and had his teeth cut on Shakespeare. “The Sound of Music,” he thought, was a sentimental shlock. And he wasn’t alone – reviews at the time were famously awful. Then, as a personal curse, it would become a universally loved classic. He had played Henry V and Hamlet and yet, he said in 1982, Captain von Trapp followed him around “like an albatross.”
But even Plummer, who died Friday at the age of 91, lived long enough to soften a little. And why shouldn’t he? He also got to enjoy something so few actors do: a true third act with great roles as “60 Minutes” correspondent Mike Wallace in Michael Mann’s “The Insider,” a widower who comes out later in life in Mike Mills’ “Beginners. and, most recently, a murdered mystery writer in Rian Johnson’s whodunnit “Knives Out.” He received three Academy Award nominations in ten years and at the age of 82 would become the oldest actor to ever win an Oscar (for “Beginners”). He still has that title.
“You’re only two years older than me, honey. Where have you been all my life? “he said to his Oscar in 2012.” When I first came out of my mother’s womb, I already rehearsed my acceptance speech for the Academy. But it’s been so long, luckily for you I forgot. “
Brave and boisterous with an aristocratic streak, Plummer could have been a leading man without the talent. This made him a star with the spirit of a character actor, to which he would later attribute his longevity.
“I am very happy that I turned into a character actor quite early on. I hated being a poncey protagonist, “he told Vanity Fair in 2015.” You really start to worry about your jawline. Please.”
Born in Toronto in 1929, Plummer was the great-grandson of Canadian Prime Minister John Abbott and fell for theater at an early age. Classically trained, he was a self-proclaimed snob about the stage and for a time withstood the allure of the big screen. As if to prove his own point, his first few movies are not well remembered. Then came ‘The Sound of Music’. It didn’t help that he took the extra punch that his singing voice would be dubbed in the final movie.
“The only reason I did this damn thing was to do a stage musical on film!” he said. But he did develop a lifelong friendship with Julie Andrews from the deal.
He retired to the theater for a while, which would be a chorus in his life. He won Tony Awards for Cyrano and Barrymore and would even go back to Shakespeare later in life, as King Lear.
Throughout his six-decade career, his film credits would turn out to be wildly diverse. He was in “Malcolm X” and “Must Love Dogs.” He was a Klingon in a ‘Star Trek’ and Tolstoy in ‘The Last Station’, Rudyard Kipling in ‘The Man Who Would Be King’ and Captain Newport in ‘The New World’.
“For a long time I accepted parts that took me to attractive places in the world. Instead of shooting in the Bronx, I’d rather go to the south of France, an insane creature than I am, “he told The Associated Press in 2007.” I have sacrificed much of my career for nicer hotels and more attractive beaches. “
Plummer was also a legendary hard-fisted drinker alongside similar friends like Jason Robards, Richard Harris and Peter O’Toole.
“Our intention was that we would be if we were called men. We have to drink as much as possible. And if we can get through Hamlet the next day without a hitch, then you’ve become a man, my son, “he told Terry Gross in 2008.” You weren’t worth anything unless you could. ‘
A bit of Fernet-Branca laced with creme de menthe was his favorite “pick me up” before taking to the stage after a particularly hard night. But, he warned, stick to one. Two or three and “you’re drunk again.”
He slowed down in later years and would write about his own antics in his acclaimed memoir “In Spite of Myself.” Plummer had decided he would keep “squatting”, since “retirement in any profession is death”. And he did, marking his turn in 1999’s “The Insider” as a turning point.
Then the scripts improved. I have been upgraded! Since then they have been first-class scripts, ”he told the AP at the time. “Not all successful, but worth it.”
In 2017, he made headlines during the first #MeToo revelations when he replaced disgraced Kevin Spacey as J. Paul Getty in Ridley Scott’s “All the Money in the World,” just six weeks before the film was due to hit theaters. . Not only did the rush bring to mind the energy of the theater for him, it also proved professionally fertile: the role earned him his third Oscar nomination.
And while he kept a bit of that charming arrogance to the end, Plummer was also a man capable of evolving even on ‘The Sound of Music’.
“As cynical as I always was about ‘The Sound of Music’,” Plummer told Vanity Fair, “I respect that it’s a bit of a relief from all the gunfire and car chases you see these days. It’s kind of a wonderful old-fashioned universal. “
Starting in his 80’s, Plummer was worried about what he might accomplish, but a few years later, he’d put those concerns aside.
“I really enjoy it. And when I was in my eighties, I had a career again. I am very pleased with that. It’s been better than in most other decades, ”he said in 2018. “I played everything in the theater. I would of course like to do something else in the theater. But I’ve played all the great parts. And not too shabby. Now I want to share the same great, if I can, on the screen. And so far. I’ve played great characters. “
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Follow AP Film Writer Lindsey Bahr on Twitter: www.twitter.com/ldbahr