Christopher Plummer: screen giant from Baron von Trapp to the Iron Duke and beyond
Another star has vanished, darkening the sky he leaves behind. Christopher Plummer enjoyed a career that spanned seven decades, dazzling successive generations with his universally admired urbane charm. Known to many as the guitar-strumming Captain von Trapp from The Sound of Music, Plummer brought a long list of historical figures to the big screen, including the Duke of Wellington, the Emperor Commodus, Rudyard Kipling, Paul Getty, Kaiser Wilhelm II and Leo Tolstoy, among others.
Born in Toronto, Plummer grew up in Quebec. The great-grandson of Canadian Prime Minister, Sir John Abbott, he was primarily raised by his mother, Isabella, who worked for McGill University. At first, the young Plummer aspired to play the piano at a concert level, but after watching Laurence Olivier’s inspiring performance as Henry V he decided to abandon his musical path, diverting his extraordinary creative energies towards acting. At the Montreal Repertory Theatre, Plummer learned his craft alongside fellow Canadian actor William Shatner, later of Star Trek fame.
Plummer made his debut in 1948 with the Ottawa Stage Society. By the mid-50s, he was an acclaimed talent on Broadway, wowing audiences with his roles in The Starcross Story (1954), The Lark (1955) and as Marc Anthony in Julius Caesar at the American Shakespeare Festival’s inaugural season. In 1961, he played Richard III at Stratford Upon-Avon while simultaneously portraying Henry II in Becket at a run in London for which he received The Evening Standard Award. By the end of his remarkable stage career, Plummer had been nominated for an extraordinary seven Tonys, winning two. His transition from stage to screen reaped a comparable number of accolades.
Boasting over 150 broadcasted credits, Plummer’s first internationally noted screen role was as the lascivious and decadent emperor Commodus opposite Alec Guinness and James Mason in The Fall of the Roman Empire (1962). Three years later, he made his deepest impression on audiences across the world in the feature-film version of The Sound of Music (1965). His debonair rendering of a dignified Austrian aristocrat dealing with the Nazi incursion on his beloved country, proved his abilities as an unassuming romantic lead.
Handsomely built, with a patrician profile, Plummer’s sure and assertive gestures on screen invoked the kind of comfort all children feel in the company of their fathers. He became the positive face of a patriarchal presence; withdrawn for the sake of modesty, dependable in a time of crisis. Despite his great success as that character in The Sound of Music, Plummer famously detested working on the film. He was consistently upstaged by Julia Andrews’ soaring voice and considered Baron von Trapp stuffy. It shows how well you can do a job that you hate. For many Plummer fans, the best was yet to come.
In The Battle of Britain (1969) Plummer hopped into a spitfire cockpit as the suave Canadian airman, Squadron Leader Colin Harvey. Its all-star cast was an impressive array of former as well as flourishing leading men, including Michael Caine, Robert Shaw, Ralph Richardson and Plummer’s premier hero, Laurence Olivier.
In the 1970s, a succession of character parts gave many film-going history-lovers exactly what they wanted in the epic dramatisation of real events. In The Night of the Generals, he coolly transformed into Rommel while Omar Shariff’s detective chased down Peter O’Toole’s murderer. As Wellington, Plummer contributed to one of the greatest war epics ever produced in Waterloo (1970). Rod Steiger’s controversial performance as Napoleon perhaps overshadowed Plummer’s consistently compelling rendition of the Iron Duke.
Wellington cannot have been an easy part to play. Never quite as charismatic as his nemesis, Napoleon, the role affords an actor fewer options. However, Plummer’s duke advertised all the virtues of an English commander in the field – caution, reserve, discipline and humour. One scene that epitomises this approach comes when Wellesley is snoozing in the shade of a little tree under a London newspaper, as if he was slumped in a chair in his favourite club. His second-in-command, The Earl of Uxbridge, nervously interrupts the sleeping duke to ask him, “if you should unfortunately fall, what are your plans?” Unphased by the morbid suggestion of his subordinate’s serious question, Plummer’s Wellesley quips back “to beat the French” before closing his eyes and resuming his restorative kip.
In John Huston’s The Man Who Would be King (1975), Plummer’s Rudyard Kipling watches the saga of Brother Peachy and Brother Dravot unfold with the same fascination and awe as their viewers at home. As in all his previous work with other distinguished leading men, he more than holds his own while sharing scenes with Connnery and Caine. For the remainder of the 70s and 80s, he professionally assumed various roles that suited his aristocratic deportment. By the 90s, he was a venerated elder actor, a senior and ubiquitous figure who always improved the projects he joined. In 2009, he received his first Oscar nomination for his moving performance as the aging Tolstoy. This love story between the novelist and his wife was expertly executed by Plummer and Helen Mirren, a casting choice that saved an uninspiring script.
Two years later, Plummer appeared with Ewan McGregor in The Beginners (2011) as a gay man who comes out late in life. For this he received his first Oscar, reportedly making him the oldest person to win an acting award. When allegations of sexual misconduct were levelled at Kevin Spacey during the production of a film about the Getty family entitled All the Money in the World (2018), Plummer was chosen to replace the disgraced actor as J Paul Getty. Aged 88, he received a third Oscar nomination, breaking another record – the oldest person to be nominated in an acting category. The coveted “Triple Crown of acting” – the accumulation of an Emmy, Tony and Academy Award – is a rare accomplishment that only eight male performers have so far achieved. Plummer was one.
Isolated attributes of an icon also have their value and Plummer’s voice alone was enough to gain him an Emmy. His foray into voice work memorably introduced his dramatic abilities to a new generation as the villain Charlie Muntz in Pixar’s UP (2009).
The late literary critic Harold Bloom once tried to list every great author who thrived in later life. Apparently, Sophocles wrote Oedipus Rex at 80 and of course WB Yeats churned out stellar verse long after winning the Nobel Prize. Should a list of actors who succeeded in the winters of their lives ever be compiled, surely, the inimitable Christopher Plummer would top it. His natural grace and enviable refinement were matched to a determined work ethic, as he soldiered on, his mastery over his art became more and more apparent.
The New York Times once described the Canadian Plummer as the “finest classical actor in America”. Such was the standing of the star who has just left the stage for the very last time.
Christopher Plummer (13 December 1929 – 5 February 2021). He married three times and leaves a widow Elaine Taylor and one daughter Amanda Plummer.