Christopher Plummer, the dashing award-winning actor who performed Captain von Trapp within the movie “The Sound of Music” and at 82 turned the oldest Academy Award appearing winner in historical past, has died. He was 91.
Plummer died Friday morning at his house in Connecticut together with his spouse, Elaine Taylor, by his facet, stated Lou Pitt, his longtime good friend and supervisor.
Over greater than 50 years within the trade, Plummer loved assorted roles starting from the movie “The Woman With the Dragon Tattoo,” to the voice of the villain in 2009’s “Up” and as a canny lawyer in Broadway’s “Inherit the Wind.” In 2019 he starred as murdered thriller novelist in Rian Johnson’s whodunnit “Knives Out” and within the TV suspense drama collection “Departure.”
But it surely was reverse Julie Andrews as von Trapp in 1965 that made him a star. He performed an Austrian captain who should flee the nation together with his folk-singing household to flee service within the Nazi navy, a job he lamented was “humorless and one-dimensional.” Plummer spent the remainder of his life referring to the movie as “The Sound of Mucus” or “S&M.”
“We tried so exhausting to place humor into it,” he informed The Related Press in 2007. “It was nearly unattainable. It was simply agony to attempt to make that man not a cardboard determine.”
A GIF of the captain ripping a Nazi flag turned a preferred meme in recent times, and gave Plummer a brand new does of fame.
“The world has misplaced a consummate actor immediately and I’ve misplaced a cherished good friend. I treasure the reminiscences of our work collectively and all of the humor and enjoyable we shared via the years,” Andrews stated in a press release.
The function catapulted Plummer to stardom, however he by no means took to main males elements, regardless of his silver hair, attractiveness and ever-so-slight English accent. He most well-liked character elements, contemplating them extra meaty. His memoir in 2012 was titled “In Spite of Myself.”
Plummer had a exceptional movie renaissance late in life, which started together with his acclaimed efficiency as Mike Wallace in Michael Mann’s 1999 movie “The Insider,” continued in movies reminiscent of 2001’s “A Lovely Thoughts” and 2009’s “The Final Station,” wherein he performed a deteriorating Tolstoy and was nominated for an Oscar.
In 2012, Plummer gained a supporting actor Oscar for his function in “Inexperienced persons” as Hal Fields, a museum director who turns into overtly homosexual after his spouse of 44 years dies. His loving, ultimate relationship turns into an inspiration for his son, who struggles together with his father’s demise and easy methods to discover intimacy in a brand new relationship.
“Too many individuals on this planet are sad with their lot. After which they retire they usually turn into greens. I feel retirement in any occupation is demise, so I’m decided to maintain crackin’,” he informed AP in 2011.
