Christopher Plummer facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Christopher Plummer
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Plummer in 1964
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Arthur Christopher Orme Plummer
December 13, 1929 Toronto, Ontario, Canada
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| Died | February 5, 2021 (aged 91) Weston, Connecticut, U.S.
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| Education | High School of Montreal |
| Occupation | Actor |
| Years active | 1946–2021 |
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Works
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Filmography |
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| Children | Amanda Plummer |
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| Awards | Full list |
Arthur Christopher Orme Plummer CC (December 13, 1929 – February 5, 2021) was a Canadian actor. His career spanned seven decades, gaining him recognition for his performances in film, stage, and television. He received multiple accolades, including an Academy Award, two Tony Awards, and two Primetime Emmy Awards, making him the only Canadian recipient of the "Triple Crown of Acting". He also received a BAFTA Award, a Golden Globe Award, and Screen Actors Guild Award as well as a nomination for a Grammy Award.
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Early life and education
Arthur Christopher Orme Plummer was born on December 13, 1929, in Toronto, Ontario. He was the only child of John Orme Plummer (1894—1977), who sold stocks and other securities, and Isabella Mary Abbott, who worked as secretary to the Dean of Sciences at McGill University, and was the granddaughter of Canadian Prime Minister Sir John Abbott. On his father's side, Plummer's great-uncle was patent lawyer and agent F. B. Fetherstonhaugh. Plummer was also a second cousin of British actor Nigel Bruce, known for portraying Doctor Watson to Basil Rathbone's Sherlock Holmes.
Plummer's parents separated shortly after his birth, and he was brought up mainly by his mother in the Abbott family home in Senneville, Quebec, on the western tip of Montreal island. He spoke English and French fluently. As a schoolboy, he began studying to be a concert pianist, but developed a love for theatre at an early age, and began acting while he was attending the High School of Montreal. He took up acting after watching Laurence Olivier's film Henry V (1944). He learned the basics of acting as an apprentice with the Montreal Repertory Theatre, where fellow Montrealer William Shatner also played.
Plummer never attended university, something he regretted all his life. Although his mother and his father's family had ties with McGill University, he was never a McGill student.
In 1946, he caught the attention of Montreal Gazette's theatre critic Herbert Whittaker with his performance as Mr Darcy in a Montreal High School production of Pride and Prejudice. Whittaker was also amateur stage director of the Montreal Repertory theatre, and he cast Plummer at age 18 as Oedipus in Jean Cocteau's La Machine infernale.
Career
Plummer made his Broadway debut in the 1954 play The Starcross Story. He received two Tony Awards, one for Best Actor in a Musical playing Cyrano de Bergerac in Cyrano (1974) and the other for Best Actor in a Play portraying John Barrymore in Barrymore (1997). His other Tony-nominated roles include in J.B. (1959), Othello (1982), No Man's Land (1994), King Lear (2004), and Inherit the Wind (2007).
After appearing on stage, Plummer made his film debut in Stage Struck (1958), landed his first starring role that same year in Wind Across the Everglades. Plummer remains widely known for his portrayal of Captain Von Trapp due to the box office success and continued popularity of the Robert Wise directed musical epic The Sound of Music (1965). Plummer acted alongside Julie Andrews and the film earned five Academy Awards including Best Picture. The film made cinematic history, becoming the all-time top-grossing film, eclipsing Gone with the Wind. Plummer also starred in The Fall of the Roman Empire (1964), Waterloo (1970), and The Man Who Would Be King (1975).
One of Plummer's most critically acclaimed roles was that of television journalist Mike Wallace in Michael Mann's biographical film The Insider (1999), for which he was honoured with several critics' awards for Best Supporting Actor, though a corresponding Academy Award nomination did not materialize. Plummer's other turns from this period include his roles as Dr. Rosen in Ron Howard's Academy Award-winning biographical film A Beautiful Mind (2001), Uncle Ralph to the title character in the 2002 film adaptation of Charles Dickens novel Nicholas Nickleby, Arthur Case in Spike Lee's film Inside Man (2006), and the philosopher Aristotle in Alexander, alongside Colin Farrell. In 2004, Plummer briefly played John Adams Gates in the Disney adventure film National Treasure. He also appeared in Stephen Gaghan's drama Syriana (2005), the romantic comedy Must Love Dogs (2005), Terrence Malick's historical drama The New World (2005), and the romantic drama The Lake House (2006). In 2009, Plummer gave a voice performance for Pixar's animated film Up where he played the antagonistic character Charles Muntz. That same year he also lent his voice in Tim Burton-produced action/science fiction film 9 playing elder leader 1.
In 2011, Plummer appeared in David Fincher's English-language film adaptation of Stieg Larsson's book The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo starring Daniel Craig, Rooney Mara and Stellan Skarsgård. The film was a critical and commercial success.
Plummer received an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for Beginners (2011) starring Ewan McGregor, and Mélanie Laurent. Plummer's win made him, at age 82, the oldest actor to win an Academy Award. When he accepted the award, he quipped "You're only two years older than me, darling. Where have you been all my life?". His other Oscar-nominated roles include films The Last Station (2009) and All the Money in the World (2017).
Plummer's other notable films include Somewhere in Time (1980), Malcolm X (1992), The New World (2005), Syriana (2005), and Knives Out (2019).
Other works
Plummer wrote for the stage, television and concert-hall. He and Sir Neville Marriner rearranged William Shakespeare's Henry V with Sir William Walton's music as a concert piece. They recorded the work with Marriner's chamber orchestra the Academy of St Martin in the Fields. He performed it and other works with the New York Philharmonic and symphony orchestras of London, Washington, D.C., Cleveland, Philadelphia, Chicago, Minneapolis, Toronto, Vancouver and Halifax. With Marriner, he made his Carnegie Hall debut in his own arrangements of Mendelssohn's incidental music to A Midsummer Night's Dream.
Personal life
Plummer was married three times. His first wife was actress Tammy Grimes, whom he married in 1956. Their marriage lasted four years, and they had a daughter together, the actress Amanda Plummer. He was next married to Patricia Lewis, a journalist, from May 4, 1962, until their divorce in 1967. Three years after his second divorce, Plummer married actress Elaine Taylor on October 2, 1970. They lived in Weston, Connecticut. Plummer had no children with either his second or third wives.
Plummer's memoir, In Spite of Myself, was published by Alfred A. Knopf in November 2008. He was a patron of Theatre Museum Canada. He was a member of The Players social club in New York City.
Death and legacy
Plummer died at his home in Weston, on February 5, 2021, at the age of 91. According to Taylor, he died two and a half weeks after a fall that resulted in a blow to the head. A
A postage stamp paying tribute to Christopher Plummer was released on October 13, 2021.
Awards and honours
Plummer is one of the few performers to have received the Triple Crown of Acting, and he is the only Canadian to accomplish this feat. He has received an Academy Award, two Primetime Emmy Awards, and two Tony Awards. He has also received a BAFTA Award, a Golden Globe Award, a Independent Spirit Award, and Screen Actors Guild Award.
In 2012, he won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor at the age of 82 for Beginners (2011), becoming the oldest person to win an acting award from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (a distinction he held until being supplanted by 83-year-old Anthony Hopkins in 2021), and he also received an Oscar nomination at the age of 88 for All the Money in the World, making him the oldest person to be nominated in any acting category at the Academy Awards.
Plummer has been recognized by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) for the following performances:
- 82nd Academy Awards: Best Actor in a Supporting Role, nominee, The Last Station (2009)
- 84th Academy Awards: Best Actor in a Supporting Role, winner, Beginners (2011)
- 90th Academy Awards: Best Actor in a Supporting Role, nominee, All the Money in the World (2017)
In 2016, Plummer received the Canadian Screen Award for Lifetime Achievement. Over his distinguished career he received numerous honours from Canada. In 1968, he was invested as Companion of the Order of Canada, at the time among Canada's highest civilian honours. In 2001, he received the Governor General's Performing Arts Award for Lifetime Artistic Achievement, Canada's highest honour in the performing arts. He was made an honorary Doctor of Fine Arts at New York's Juilliard School and has received honorary doctorates from the University of Toronto, Ryerson University (now Toronto Metropolitan University), McGill University, the University of Western Ontario, the University of Ottawa, and most recently the University of Guelph. Plummer was inducted into the American Theatre Hall of Fame in 1986 and into Canada's Walk of Fame in Toronto in 1998. He was a member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences in the Actor's Branch from 2007.
Images for kids
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Plummer with President Ronald Reagan at the White House, 1985
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Plummer in 2007
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Plummer at the premiere for The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus, 2009
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Plummer in 1987
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Plummer at the Toronto International Film Festival, 2009
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See also
In Spanish: Christopher Plummer para niños
- List of oldest and youngest Academy Award winners and nominees
- List of people from Toronto
- Triple Crown of Acting
- List of EGOT nominees
