Christopher Plumber

He was born on December 13, 1929 in Toronto, Canada. Years later, she left her hometown and moved with her mother in Senneville, a town near Montreal. Although he began studying piano, he ended up opting for interpretation. Soon after, he joined the Canadian Repertory Company, with which he would perform some works in Paris.

It was on the stage that Plummer gained most of his recognition. The interpreter has won the Tony Awards twice: the first, in 1974, for his role as Cyrano in the musical of the same name. The second in 1997, for his incarnation of actor John Barrymore in “Barrymore.” Among them he was nominated for four other performances.

During his first years as an interpreter, he combined television with the cinema, but his first important role would not come until 1958, when Sidney Lumet offered him a part in Stage Struck . The difficult situation of the divorce from his first wife temporarily separated Plummer from the cinema, who would return to the theater for a while.

After his second marriage, he returned to the big screen to put himself in the shoes of the corrupt Emperor Commodus in The Fall of the Roman Empire (1964), an antagonistic role, for which the actor felt a special predilection, since he considers that for the interpretation “the Devil is more interesting than God.

A year later, he premiered the Oscar-winning musical Sonrisas y Lágrimas , his best-known role, and with which the actor achieved definitive popularity. He again he faced a difficult character. Impossible to forget Captain Von Trapp, a rigid and authoritarian ex-marine, father of seven children, who sees his peace and his customs altered after the arrival of a peculiar governess ( Julie Andrews ). In the background, a defenseless Austria about to be invaded by the Nazis. Plummer did a brilliant job here by showing a catharsis that presents him as a strict, cold and absent officer – just remember the unbearable whistle blast – and finishes him off as a sensitive man who still has a lot of love to share.

Some thought that his failure to earn an Oscar nomination had to do with his status as a (proud) Canadian. That, and that his demeanor and his talent are very similar to the “British style” that Americans look at with such suspicion. But well into the 21st century he made up for it with three nominations, for The Last Season , All the Money in the World , and Beginners , the last of which eventually became a statuette.

In the seventies he combined the theater with the cinema. Her roles in Shakespearean adaptations – in both formats – were also very popular. Plummer has put himself in the shoes of Hamlet (in Philip Saville ‘s television version ), Iago in “Othello”, Macbeth and King Lear.

His film works during these years include The Man Who Could Be King , where he played Kipling, author of “The Jungle Book”; The return of the Pink Panther and Murder by decree , among others.

After another hiatus on stage, he returned to the cinema in the 1990s with El dilema , whose performance won him several critics’ awards. Plummer played, on this occasion, Mike Wallace, a popular North American correspondent.

His most recent filmography is characterized by supporting roles, of which he can get to do a few a year: he has appeared in A Beautiful Mind , Alexander the Great , The Search , The New World and Syriana .

The actor recorded his memories in a 2008 book, “In Spite of Myself”, very expressive of his modesty. He was married three times, and is survived by his last wife, actress Elaine Taylor . With his first, actress Tammy Grimes , he had his only daughter, also actress Amanda Plummer .