CHRISTOPHER PLUMMER
A final salute to Captain von Trapp.
Though he’ll likely forever be remembered as suave, strict and ultimately seductive Captain Von Trapp in 1965’s The Sound Of Music, Plummer loathed the film, variously referring to it as “The Sound Of Mucus” and “gooey”. He hated filming so much that he binged on booze until he was unable to fit into his costumes, and legendarily likened working with Julie Andrews to “being hit over the head with a Valentine’s card”.
He grudgingly joined the 45-year anniversary celebrations for the movie, but Plummer was perhaps right to fear that the monster hit might overshadow his other, impressive work across film and stage. After all, before landing the Nazi-hating Cap role he’d enjoyed a celebrated stint on the boards, both on Broadway (he debuted in NY in
The Starcross Story in 1954) and playing numerous Shakespeare roles in his native Canada and then at the Royal Shakespeare Company in London. The year before he arrived on location in Austria to sing ‘Edelweiss’, he starred in The Fall Of The Roman Empire.
But it was The Sound Of Music that made him a star. It took him back to Broadway to win the first of many Tonys for Cyrano De Bergerac, and opened up cinematic roles more complex than Von Trapp. During the ’70s and ’80s, he starred in The Man Who Would Be King and Aces High on the big screen, and the hugely successful The Thorn Birds on telly. But Plummer’s most fertile period would come later in life; Twelve Monkeys (1995), The Insider (1999), A Beautiful Mind (2001), Inside Man (2006), The Last Station (2009), for which he was nominated for an Oscar, The Imaginarium Of Doctor Parnassus (2009) and Beginners (2010). The latter
earned him a Best Supporting Actor Academy Award, and he received a second nod in the same category for All The Money In The World (2017) when he replaced a disgraced Kevin Spacey – racing through his re-shoot scenes to re-complete the film with the vim of a man half his age. In 2019, he almost pocketed the picture in Rian Johnson’s murder mystery revival, Knives Out, despite an all-star cast and his character popping his clogs early doors.
A reformed party animal (he would recall drunken adventures with Albert Finney, Tyrone Power and Tennessee Williams among others), Plummer was married three times – in 1956 to actor Tammy Grimes (they had actor Amanda Plummer together), in 1962 to journalist Patricia Lewis, and in 1970 to actor Elaine Taylor, who was with him at his side when he died at home in Connecticut after a fall. He leaves behind a varied, nuanced body of work – and we can forgive his grumpiness regarding The Sound Of Music and his work with Terrence Malick (“The problem with Terry is he needs a writer desperately,” he grouched) when it drove such passion. “I think anger does fuel a successful acting career,” he said. “To play the great roles, you have to learn how to blaze.” Blaze he did. JC