Sound of Music legend Christopher dies age 91
Co-star Julie leads tributes
ELEMENTARY As Sherlock
WAR In Battle of Britain
AT HIS SIDE With third wife Elaine
HOLLYWOOD legend Christopher Plummer cemented his place in film folklore when he played Captain von Trapp in The Sound of Music.
But the actor, who died peacefully aged 91 at home yesterday with English actress wife Elaine Taylor by his side, initially hated the 1965 classic – calling it “The Sound of Mucous”.
He said in 1982: “That sentimental stuff is the most difficult to play, especially because
I’m trained vocally and physically for Shakespeare.
“To do a lousy part like von Trapp, you have to use every trick you know to fill the empty carcass of the role. That damn movie follows me around like an albatross.”
However he later said he had “made peace” with the film and counted co-star Julie Andrews as a “terrific friend”.
Dame Julie, 85, last night remembered him as a “consummate actor” and a “cherished friend”, adding: “I treasure
the memories of our work together and all the humour and fun we shared.” Confirming the star’s death at home in Connecticut, Lou Pitt, his friend and manager, said: “Chris was an extraordinary man who deeply loved and respected his profession with great old fashion manners, self-deprecating humour and the music of words. His legendary life will endure for all generations to come.” Born in Toronto in 1929, Plummer was the only child of an aristocratic family and his maternal great-grandfather was John Abbott, Canada’s first nativeborn prime minister. His parents divorced when he was a toddler, and he grew up on the Abbott family compound outside Montreal.
As a boy, he saw many world class actors and musicians perform in the city, and a concert by Sergei Rachmaninoff inspired him to study piano. “Classical music was my first love,” he said in 2014. His stage and screen career spanned 75 years and he made his Broadway debut at 23 in The Starcross Story, a play that closed on its opening night – but it did not hold him back there or in London’s West End.
A former leading member of the Royal National Theatre under Sir Laurence Olivier and the Royal Shakespeare Company under Sir Peter Hall, he won awards on both sides of the Atlantic.
He made almost 100 TV appearances including the title role the BBC’s Hamlet at Elsinore, US TV’s The Thorn Birds and HBO’s Muhammad Ali’s Greatest Fight.
His film roles included 1969’s Battle of Britain, The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo and playing Sherlock Holmes in Murder by Decree.
As well as two Emmys for his TV work he won a best supporting actor Oscar in 2012 for the movie Beginners.
More recently he was nominated by the Academy for Ridley Scott-directed All The Money In The World, playing J
Paul Getty. Plummer worked up until his death and said in 2017: “I love my work. I’m so sorry for a majority of people who do not like their jobs and can’t wait to retire which, of course, is death. I’ll never retire. I hope to drop dead on stage.”
Fluent in English and French, he could switch effortlessly into roles depending on audience. But like many peers – such as Richard Burton, Peter O’Toole and Richard Harris – he went through a spell of hard boozing. In 2010 he admitted: “I used to drink heavily before the show. I’ve given that up. That was a bad idea.”
He was married three times, first to actress Tammy Grimes, with whom he had a daughter – Pulp Fiction actress Amanda Plummer. Later he wed journalist Patricia Lewis and then Elaine.
In a tribute, filmmaker Scott said: “What a guy. What a talent. What a life.”
Star Trek star George Takei called Plummer a “giant of stage and screen”.
It was a lousy part.. that damn movie follows me around like an albatross
CHRISTOPHER PLUMMER ON THE SOUND OF MUSIC