Christopher Plummer, the elegant actor who played Captain von Trapp in the classic “Sound of Music” and at the age of 82 became the oldest actor to receive an Oscar, has died. He was 91 years old.
Plummer died Friday morning at his home in Connecticut, accompanied by his wife, Elaine Taylor, said Lou Pitt, who has been his friend and manager for years.
Over more than 50 years of experience, Plummer has worked on projects as diverse as “The Dragon Tattoo Girl”, the animated film “Up,” in which he voiced the villain and the Broadway play. “Inherited the Wind,” like a cunning lawyer.
But the role of Patriarch von Trapp, which he played alongside Julie Andrews, gave him stars. Plummer played the Austrian captain who had to flee his country with his singing family to avoid serving in the Nazi army, a role he lamented as “humorless and one-dimensional.” He spent the rest of his life referring to the movie as “The Sound of Mucus” or “S&M”.
“We tried so hard to inject humor into him,” he told The Associated Press in 2007. “It was almost impossible. It was an agony trying to make that guy not a cardboard cut.
The role catapulted him to fame, but Plummer never looked for lead roles despite his gray hair, handsome appearance and light English accent. He preferred the roles of the characters, which he considered more substantial.
Plummer had a remarkable renaissance in adult film, beginning with his acclaimed performance as Mike Wallace in Michael Mann’s 1999 film “The Insider,” continuing with films such as “A Beautiful Mind.” “A Brilliant Mind” from 2001 and “The Brilliant Mind” from 2009 The Last Station, whose role as a degraded Tolstoy earned him an Oscar nomination.
In 2012, he won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his work in “Beginners” (“Beginners, that’s how love feels”).