Christopher Plummer as Captain Von Trapp in The Sound of Music, released in March, 1965.
 
Christopher Plummer on Wikipedia
 
Christopher Plummer on The Internet Movie Database
 
 
 
 
 
 
Christopher Plummer
Forecourt Ceremony held on Friday, March 27, 2015
 
Born: Arthur Christopher Orme Plummer, December 13, 1929, in Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Age at the time of the ceremony: 85
Died: February 3, 2021, in Weston, Connecticut, age 91
 
Christopher Plummer is one of the best-known actors in the world, thanks to his appearance in "that movie" The Sound of Music. Intense, literary and purposeful, Plummer has been in a whole range of projects, rarely appearing in an outright bomb. Hooray for our side!

Plummer's parents divorced when only-child Christopher was a baby; he grew up with his mother in Senneville Quebec, outside of Montreal. This makes him fluent in English and French. Initailly drawn to study the piano, Christopher switched to acting in high school. His starring as Mr. Darcy in his high school's production of Pride and Prejudice caught the attention of local critic and impresario Herbert Whittaker, who began casting Plummer in his productions.

Right away, Plummer began appearing on all sorts of television shows originating out of New York and Toronto. He was in the cast of "Othello" on the omnibus program Encounter, with Lorne Greene in the title role, aired over the CBC in February 1953. He made his film debut for director Nicholas Ray in Wind Across the Everglades (released in September 1958) with Burl Ives.

Plummer has done many shows on Broadway. An early success was for director Elia Kazan, who cast Plummer as Nickles (The Devil) in J.B. with Raymond Massey, for 364 perfs from December 1958 to October 1959.

Plummer played Mike Conner in a TV movie of The Philadelphia Story with Gig Young, aired over the CBC in December 1959. Working in the theatre on both sides of the Atlantic kept Plummer away from the movies, but he returned to play the Roman Emperor Commodus in The Fall of the Roman Empire (released in March 1964) with Alec Guiness as his father Marcus Aurelius.

Then came the call. Director Robert Wise dogged Plummer, who reluctantly agreed to play Captain Von Trapp in The Sound of Music (released in April 1965) with Julie Andrews. Despite his vocal tracks being dubbed, and him thinking the picture "not my thing", the film became the biggest hit of the 1960s.

Meanwhile on Broadway, he starred as Francisco Pizarro in The Royal Hunt of the Sun with John Vernon as Hernando de Soto, for 261 perfs, from October 1965 to June 1966. While that was playing, director Robert Mulligan's Inside Daisy Clover (released in December 1965) with Natalie Wood, opened, and tanked.

In a bizarre twist, Plummer played Atahuallpa in the film version of The Royal Hunt of the Sun (released in September 1969) with Robert Shaw as Pizarro. Continuing with history, he played Arthur Wellesley in Waterloo (released in October 1970) with Rod Steiger as Napoleon.

In May 1973, director / choreographer Michael Kidd, writer / lyricist Anthony Burgess and composer Michael J. Lewis got together and mounted a musical version of Cyrano with Plummer in the lead. It flopped, but Plummer got a Tony Award for his work.

Director Blake Edwards lured Plummer into The Return of the Pink Panther (released in May 1975) with Peter Sellers; the film was a whopping hit. He followed that with appearing as Rudyard Kipling in director John Huston's masterpiece, The Man Who Would Be King (released in November 1975) with Sean Connery and Michael Caine.

When someone thought it would be good to make a sequel to National Velvet, Plummer was hired on as boyfriend to Nanette Newman in International Velvet (released in July 1978) with Tatum O'Neal.

Plummer finally played Sherlock Holmes in Murder by Decree (released in February 1979) with James Mason as Doctor Watson. Back on Broadway, Plummer starred as Iago in Othello with James Earl Jones in the title role for 123 perfs, from February to May 1982.

Plummer played the Archbishop Vittorio Contini-Verchese in The Thorn Birds with Richard Chamberlain, aired over ABC in March 1983. He starred on Broadway in title role of Macbeth with Glenda Jackson as Lady Macbeth, for 77 perfs, from April to June 1988.

Plummer played Alfred Stieglitz in A Marriage: Georgia O'Keefe and Alfred Stieglitz with Jane Alexander, aired over PBS in July 1991, then appeared as Chang in Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country (which played the Chinese in December 1991) starring the Star Trek Gang. He has a supporting role in 12 Monkeys (which played the Chinese in January 1996) with Bruce Willis.

For director Michael Mann, Plummer played Mike Wallace in The Insider (released in November 1999) with Russell Crowe, and played Crowe's doctor in A Beautiful Mind (released in December 2001).

Heading back to Broadway, Plummer starred in the title role of King Lear for 33 perfs from March to April 2004. He played father and grandfather to Jon Voight and Nicolas Cage, resectively, in National Treasure (released in November 2004).

Plummer did the voice of Charles Muntz in Up (released in May 2009) with Edward Asner, and played Leo Tolstoy in The Last Station (released in December 2009) with Helen Mirren as Sofya Tolstoy.

After playing the title role on Broadway, Plummer produced and starred as John Barrymore in Barrymore (released in September 2011); the play and film is basically a one-man show. He played the eminence grise in The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (released in December 2011) with Daniel Craig. He also chillingly (and at the very last minute) played J. Paul Getty for director Ridley Scott in All the Money in the World (released in December 2017) with Michelle Williams.

Plummer took a role in the television mini series Departure aired over Universal Channel in July 2019, with Archie Panjabi, and played the Grand Old Man Who Gets Bumped Off in Knives Out (released in November 2019) with Stuart Craig. Plummer plays the father of William H. Pitsenbarger, Jr. in The Last Full Measure with Sebastian Stan (released in January 2020).

Finally, as the opening night attraction of the TCM Festival on Thursday, March 26, 2015, Plummer reunited with Julie Andrews and sat through a screening of The Sound of Music, and reafirmed the fact that he had become a fan of the picture. The following day, his Forecourt ceremony took place.

Working regularly, Plummer slipped and fell at his home in Weston Conecticut. A blow to the head was fatal. He was 91.
 
 
TCL Chinese Theatre IMAX®, Hollywood, California. Christopher Plummer Forecourt block. Executed by unknown, Friday, March 27, 2015. 30 x 20 inches.
TCL Chinese Theatre IMAX®, Hollywood, California. Christopher Plummer Forecourt ceremony, Friday, March 27, 2015. Christopher Plummer seems to get a kick out of placing his hands in wet cement.
 
©  Copryright Graumanschinese.org