By: Terry Haig
Christopher Plummer, the Canadian classical actor who starred in everything from Shakespeare to musicals and from comedy to drama but won his greatest fame for portraying Captain Georg von Trapp in “The Sound of Music,”has died at 91.
Plummer, died “quite peacefully” at his Connecticut home, not far from New York city, on Friday morning.
His wife, English actress Elaine Regina Taylor Plummer, was at his side.
In his autobiography, In Spite of Myself, Plummer gently rued–with chagrin–a decision he made to take his salary from the film that made him famous up front, rejecting a back-end, profit-sharing deal that would have made him millions.
He carried on and admirers would say Plummer’s financial loss was the world’s artistic gain.
Many of his younger years were spent cutting a rollicking figure–more than a few times in the company of another great–but less famous–Canadian classical actor, Michael Kane.
The two became legendary figures–from Stratford to Manhattan–not just for their acting but for their refusal to even consider hitting the brake pedal–or so it seemed.
Years later, Plummer played a role in helping the only Canadian actor in his class, Donald Sutherland, get his movie career going by fronting Sutherland the money to get from London to Los Angeles, where he made a name for himself in Robert Altman’s M*A*S*H.
Canadian at his core, Plummer was born in Toronto and raised in Montreal
His great-grandfather on his mother’s side was Prime Minister John Abbott.
One of his classmates was jazz pianist Oscar Peterson.
Plummer kept working for over 70 years and had no shortage of success.
He won an Academy Award three times in the best supporting actor category: in 2010 for The Last Station, in 2012 for Beginners and in 2018 for All the Money in the World.
Nominated seven times for a Tony, he won twice: in 1974 for Cyrano and in 1997 for Barrymore.
And there were plenty of other awards–a full list is here. Plummer was a companion of the Order of Canada and a recipient of the Governor General’s Lifetime Achievement Award.
“It’s so sad but he had a great life,” his wife told The Canadian Press by phone on Friday.
“He had a fall, unfortunately. He hit his head against my car and he was taken to the hospital. They repaired the leaks and he came home, but it was a really horrible accident.”
“He fought the good fight,” she added. “But eventually I think he thought … ‘Exit stage right.”‘
Christopher Plummer, who won fame on the world stage, is dead at 91
