Christopher Plummer, Oscar Winner And Star Of “Sound Of Music,” Dies At 91
Christopher Plummer, who died aged 91. Photograph: Vera Anderson/WireImage
By Bless Bull / January 5, 2021 / 2:00 PM ET
Christopher Plummer, who was the lead in “The Sound Music,” winner of an Academy Award for his outstanding performance in “Beginners,” died Friday Feb. 5 at his home back in Connecticut. This information was released by his manager in a statement.
He was 91.
In a statement made to CNN, Lou Pitt said, “Chris was an extraordinary man who deeply loved and respected his profession with great old fashion manners, self deprecating humor and the music of word.” He goes on to say, “He was a National Treasure who deeply relished his Canadian roots. Through his art and humanity, he touched all of our hearts and his legendary life will endure for all generations to come.”
“Plummer made a dazzling impression as Iago to James Earl Jone’s moor in ‘Othello’ in a 1982 Broadway staging of the Shakespeare tragedy,” said by a source from Washington Post.
He won a Tony for a title role in a 1973 musical version of Edmond Rostand’s play “Cyrano de Bergerac.” His second Tony was given in 1997 when he played his lifelong stage hero, John Barrymore, great Shakespearean who drank himself to death. He earned seven Tony nominations — the casting in “The Sound of Music” launched him to stardom. Plummer had taken that role, he said because he wanted to have a go at a musical.
“I thought that was gonna be it – it’s a little film that might enjoy a certain success,” he told London’s Daily Telegraph. “And then it would go away and I would know how to sing.”
Here are some of his memorable performances.
“The Man Who Would Be King (1975) — He was a young Rudyard Kipling and adroitly captured the mannerisms and nuances of “60 Minutes”
“The Thorn Birds” (1983) — ABC smash; he was a cunning and ambitious archbishop
“The Insider” (1999) — About a tobacco company whistleblower (played by Russell Crowe).
“A Beautiful Mind” (2001) — A psychiatrist who treats the schizophrenia of future Nobel laureate John F. Nash Jr. (also played by Crowe).