Sorry to hear he died. I never saw him in any of his better roles, but I don’t doubt that he had them. He was badly miscast in The Sound of Music. I was always puzzled by why he was chosen. It was obvious he felt the role was beneath him and didn’t know how to wrap himself around it. Watching it as a child, he creeped me out, even after he fell for Maria and became nicer.
His great-grandfather was a Prime Minster of Canada (1891-92) - John Abbott (1821-93).
Agree wholeheartedly with this
On Broadway, he played the part of Pizarro onstage, with David Carradine as Atahualpa – who looks perfect for the part – he looks like an Incan. I gather that Plummer wanted that part for himself, despite the fact that he looks more like a Canadian, with Robert Shaw playing Pizarro.
It’s a great movie (It’s written by Peter Shaffer, author of Equus and who would go on to do Amadeus. It’s another in his series of “God vs. Man” plays)
Weird fact I just learned – Plummer was second cousin of Nigel Bruce, who famously played Watson to Basil Rathbone’s Sherlock Holmes. Plummer himself played Holmes twice -in the movie Murder by Decree and on TV in Silver Blaze
He could do polite arrogance so well:
Side trivia: Hume Cronyn, another Canadian actor of the same period, was the great-nephew of Edward Blake, Liberal Leader of the Opposition, and an opponent of Abbott.
Shatner got his start playing Shakespeare at Stratford.
What was it that he hated about The Sound of Music? It’s widely considered a great film, no?
By people who like that sort of film, sure. As someone who generally dislikes musicals but makes a lot of exceptions for ones that offer other elements that I like … The Sound of Music is really, really not one that tempts me to make an exception. It’s got all the stuff I don’t like about musicals, only more so.
Dunno if those were Christopher Plummer’s reasons for disliking it, but I think you really have to be a fan of the genre.
He shot to fame filling in for Plummer one night when he was ill. The next day, reviewers were lauding him for his “fresh, new” interpretation of Hamlet.
“To BE … or … NOT to be … that … IS … the QUESTION!”
To me, Christoper will always be Rudyard Kipling. RIP!
Lightning and thunder, and danger that hovers;
Scared little children who hide under covers.
When I start singing, then happiness springs—
These are just some of the corniest things!
One little kiddie who lisps out a sentence;
Makes his stern daddy so full of repentance!
Movie fans love all the tears that it brings—
These are just some of the corniest things!
.
See how the children all love one another;
You know that’s nonsense if you have a brother!
Who can believe that such harmony rings?
These are just some of the the corniest things!
When a storm comes,
and we’re frightened
by the things we dread,
we put on our nightclothes and jump up and down,
and break hearts—but not
the bed!
He made a good pirate in a TV movie called Desperate Voyage.
“Cry havoc, and let slip the dogs of war!”
In his memory, we picked a movie of his to watch the other night. It was “Murder By Decree”, wherein he plays Sherlock Holmes fairly well. James Mason bails the film out with his Watson portrayal, and a late appearance by John Gielgud helps, but the film’s ending is a mess, relying on last minute exposition to explain everything, which I hate.
He famously disliked “The Sound of Music” but it brought him fame he hadn’t seen before, which he was able to parlay into roles more to his liking. Prior to TSOM his biggest movie role was in the 1963 costume drama “The Fall of the Roman Empire,” in which he played a character named “Commodus.”
I would think TSOM was a step up after that!
“A character”? He was an emperor - not a minor part, I presume! Joaquin Phoenix played him in Gladiator.
And he was thoroughly creepy in it, too!
Just like Joaquin Phoenix!
Probably not the best tribute to him, but I remember watching “The Boss’ Wife” and his portrayal of a mentally unstable stockbroker with a quick temper. Haven’t seen it in decades, but I remember laughing hard at a scene in which he throws a temper tantrum over some petty detail.
I was lucky enough to see one of his most celebrated stage performances, as Iago opposite James Earl Jones’s Othello (with Kelsey Grammer as Cassio!) The New York Times theater critic said it was “quite possibly the best single Shakespearean performance to have originated on this continent in our time.” In my memory, the performance of James Earl Jones pretty much overshadows everything else, but I am happy to have had the chance to see him on stage. Like so many other fans, I loved his Captain Von Trapp even if he did not.
You should have seen him roll his eyes at another TSOM question on Sunday’s CBS Sunday Morning program (from an earlier interview). He brightened up when the question turned out to be what he thought of Julie Andrews - he had only nice things to say about her. The discussion starts at 1:00 at Christopher Plummer Interview (once you get past the commercials).