It’s one of the great ironies in Hollywood that Christopher Plummer didn’t like the movie that made him a legend. He was an actor and cut his teeth while doing Shakespeare. “The sound of music,” he thought, was a sentimental shock. And he wasn’t alone – the reviews back then were terribly famous. Then, as a personal curse, he would become a beloved universal classic. He played Henry V and Hamlet and yet Captain von Trapp, he said in 1982, watched him “like an albatross.”
But even Plummer, who died Friday at the age of 91, he lived long enough to soften a little. And why not? He also had to enjoy something that so few actors do: a third authentic act with great roles as “60 Minutes” correspondent Mike Wallace in Michael Mann’s “Insider,” a widower who appears later in life. in Mike Mills’s “Beginners.” and, most recently, a mystery writer killed in “Knives Out” by Rian Johnson. He received three Oscar nominations in a decade and, at the age of 82, will become the oldest actor to ever win an Oscar (for “Beginners”). He still holds this title.
“You’re only two years older than me, darling. Where have you been all my life? “He told his Oscar in 2012.” When I first came out of my mother’s womb, I was already repeating my Academy’s speech of thanks. But it was a long time ago, merciful to you, the I forgot “.
Plump and full of aristocratic air, Plummer could have been a leading man without talent. With him was a star with the spirit of a character actor, to whom he would later attribute longevity.
“I am delighted to have turned into a character actor quite early. I loved being a leading man, “he told Vanity Fair in 2015.” You’re really starting to worry about your jaw line. Please.”
Born in Toronto in 1929, Plummer was the great-grandson of Canadian Prime Minister John Abbott and fell into the theater at an early age. Trained classically, he was a self-proclaimed snob about the stage and resisted the attraction of the big screen for a while. As if to prove his own point, his first films are not well remembered. Then came the “Sound of Music.” It didn’t help that he received the added blow that his singing voice would be doubled in the final film.
“The only reason I did this was bloody was to be able to do a musical on stage on film!” he said. But he gained a lifelong friendship with Julie Andrews.
He retired to the theater for a while, which would be a chorus in his life. He won the Tony Awards for Cyrano and Barrymore and will even return to Shakespeare, like King Lear, later in life.
Throughout his six-decade career, his screen credits would prove to be extremely diverse. He was in “Malcolm X” and “Must Love Dogs”. He was a Klingon in a “Star Trek” and Tolstoy in “The Last Station”, Rudyard Kipling in “The Man Who Would Be King” and Captain Newport in “The New World”.
“For a long time I accepted songs that took me to attractive places in the world. Instead of shooting in the Bronx, I’d rather go to the south of France, a crazy creature than I am, “he told The Associated Press in 2007.” I have sacrificed a lot of my career for more beautiful hotels and more attractive beaches. “
Plummer was also a legendary “heavy” drinker, along with friends with a similar inclination, such as Jason Robards, Richard Harris and Peter O’Toole.
“Our intention was that we should be if they were called men. We need to drink as much as we can. And if we can get through Hamlet the next day without any problems, that’s what made you a man, my son, “he told Terry Gross in 2008.” You weren’t worth anything unless you could. “
A little Fernet-Branca with mint cream was his favorite “pick me up” before going on stage after a very hard night. But, he warned, stick to one. Two or three and “you’re drunk again.”
He slowed down in the following years and would write about his own parties in his acclaimed memoir “Despite Me.” Plummer had decided that he would “continue to crack”, as “retirement in any profession is death”. And it did, marking its turn in The Insider, from 1999, as a turning point.
“Then the scriptures got better. I’ve been updated! Since then, they have been first-class scriptures, “he told AP at the time. “Not all of them are successful, but they are worth doing.”
In 2017, in the first #MeToo revelations, he made headlines when he replaced the disgraced Kevin Spacey as J. Paul Getty in “All the Money in the World” by Ridley Scott, just six weeks before the film reached movie theaters. Not only did the rush remind him of the energy of the theater for him, but it also proved to be professionally fruitful: his role earned him his third Oscar nomination.
And while he retained some of that charming arrogance to the end, Plummer was also a man capable of evolving, even about the “Sound of Music.”
As cynical as I’ve always been about “The Sound of Music,” Plummer told Vanity Fair, “I respect she’s a little relieved by all the gunfire and car chases you see these days.” It’s kind of wonderful, old-fashioned, universal. ”
Plummer entered the 1980s worried about what he would be able to accomplish, but a few years ago he put those worries aside.
“I am very glad. And at 80, I had another career. I’m very happy about that. It went better than most of the other decades, “he said in 2018. “I played everything in the theater. I would still like to do something else in the theater, of course. But I played all the great roles. And not too clever. Now I want the same great parts, if I can, on the screen. And so far yes. I played wonderful characters. ”
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Follow AP Film writer Lindsey Bahr on Twitter: www.twitter.com/ldbahr