Canadian academy tips its hat to Plummer

Icon honoured for lifetime achievement

Christopher Plummer has been a class act for more than 50 years. Fittingly, the Toronto-born, Montreal-raised 87-year-old was honoured by the Academy of Canadian Cinema & Television with a lifetime achievement trophy at the Canadian Screen Awards on Sunday. And he's still going strong.

Despite the accolades and his many international awards, including an Oscar at 82 for his Beginners portrayal, Plummer is pleased with his Canadian Screen Awards salute. That's especially true now that Canada seems to have asserted itself as a nation proud of accomplishments.

“It's always nice to receive something from your own home country, particularly now that it's much better than it was” says Plummer. “When I was young, Canada was very indifferent to the arts, and we fought hard to become professionals, and we did. And then Canada began to perk up and listen to its own people.”

Certainly, Plummer was one of the few leading the way. Over the years he established his reputation as a multi-faceted performer earning an Oscar, two Emmys and two Tonys. On stage, he made his high-profile debut at the Stratford Festival in 1956, playing the title role in Henry V. He also enjoyed celebrated performances in Cyrano, Barrymore, King Lear and Inherit the Wind, among many other productions at Stratford, on Broadway and London's West End.

He also dabbled in TV with roles in The Thorn Birds and Cyrano de Bergerac. And he co-starred in over 100 films, with memorable portrayals in The Sound of Music, The Insider, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo and The Last Station. “Versatility is so attractive to me,” he says. “If I could do something, and it would never be the same, I'd be happy. That's what I went after and that's the way I always wanted to do it.”

Only The Sound of Music proved difficult to shake. The classic 1965 musical became a huge hit and labelled Plummer as the debonair leading man type. “It was such a successful film,” he says. “There was nothing wrong with it. I just didn't want to always be known as Captain von Trapp.”

And he's not done. His “autobiographical journey through literature,” A Word or Two may be heading to Broadway. Last December, he wrapped The Man Who Invented Christmas, a fantasy about Charles Dickens in which Plummer plays Ebenezer Scrooge. “I hope it's going to be an enchanting film because it's a great idea having Dickens being inspired by the people he meets,” says the actor.

Soon, he'll head to Atlanta for The Last Full Measure. In the movie, he plays the father of a Vietnam War hero.

“Yes, straight ahead into the future, absolutely,” Plummer says. “The joy of being in this fantastic craft keeps me young.”