Vale: Christopher Plummer

Veteran Canadian actor Christopher Plummer, best known for The Sound of Music, has died aged 91.

He died on Friday morning (local time) at his home in Connecticut with his wife, Elaine Taylor, by his side.

Over more than 50 years in the industry, Plummer enjoyed varied roles including Captain von Trapp in the film The Sound of Music. He played the Austrian captain who must flee the country with his folk-singing family to escape service in the Nazi navy, a role he lamented was “humourless and one-dimensional.”

“We tried so hard to put humour into it,” he said in 2007. “It was almost impossible. It was just agony to try to make that guy not a cardboard figure.”

The role catapulted Plummer to stardom, but he never took to leading men parts. However he had a remarkable film renaissance late in life, which began with The Insider in 1999. At 82 he became the oldest Academy Award acting winner in history for Beginners.

Amongst his many movies were A Beautiful Mind, The Last Station, The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, Knives Out, Pink Panther, Dracula 2000, Barrymore, Priest, The Tempest, The Lake House, Heidi.

In 2017 he replaced Kevin Spacey as J. Paul Getty in All the Money in the World just six weeks before the film was set to open, landing him his third Oscar nomination.

TV roles led to two Emmys, with credits including Departure, The Thorn Birds, Crossings, Jesus of Nazareth , The Summit, Our Fathers, Agent of Influence, Nuremberg, On Golden Pond, Madeline, The New Adventures of Madeline, We the Jury, Counterstrike, Berlin Lady, The Cosby Show.

There were also numerous stage performances, and two Tony Awards.

He was given Canada’s highest civilian honour when he was invested as Companion of the Order of Canada by Queen Elizabeth II in 1968, and was inducted into the American Theatre’s Hall of Fame in 1986.

Source: Nine News