Chritopher Plummer arguably is the finest actor of the post-World War II period never to be nominated for an Academy Award, following in the foot-steps of John Barrymore , whom he won a Tony Award for portraying on Broadway. Aside from Barrymore, Plummer is the premier Shakespearean actor to be produced by North America in the 20th Century. He has also given many extremely fine portrayals on film, ...
show all Chritopher Plummer arguably is the finest actor of the post-World War II period never to be nominated for an Academy Award, following in the foot-steps of John Barrymore , whom he won a Tony Award for portraying on Broadway. Aside from Barrymore, Plummer is the premier Shakespearean actor to be produced by North America in the 20th Century. He has also given many extremely fine portrayals on film, particularly as he got older and settled down into a comfortable marriage with his third wife. Though he likely always be remembered as Baron Von Trapp in the atomic bomb-strength block-buster "The Sound of Music" (a film he continues to despise), his later film work includes such outstanding performances as the best cinema Sherlock Holmes other than Basil Rathbone in "Murder by Decree," the chilling and calculating villain in "The Slient Partner," his iconoclastic Mike Wallace in "The Insider", and the empathetic psychiatrist in "A Beautiful Mind." Though many times tipped for a Best Supporting Actor nomination in the last 10 years, he has never made it to the post. Aside from the traditional anti-New York bias of the Academy, whether this is because of his Canadian heritage is unknown. Many Canadians have won Ocars, including Mary Pickford, Louise Dresser, Norma Shearer and Walter Huston, but there is something DIFFERENT about Plummer, the fact that his demeanor and talent mark him off as more English than American, that may stymie the sentiments of Academy voters. (Perhaps it is fitting that there is something "foreign" about Plummer: He is the great grandson of the Canadian Prime Minister Sir John Abbott.)
Aside from his failure to ring the gong at the Academy Awards, Plummer remains one of the most respected and honored actors performing in the English language. He's won two Emmy Awards in six nominations stretching 46 years from 1959 and 2005, and one Genie Award in five nominations from 1980 to 2004. For his stage work, Plummer has racked up two Tony Awards on six nominations, the first in 1974 as Best Actor (Musical) playing the title role in "Cyrano," and the second in 1997, as Best Actor (Play), playing "Barrymore." Surprisingly, he did not win (though he was nominated) for his masterful 2004 "King Lear," which he originated at the Stratford Festival in Ontario and brought down to Broadway for a sold-out run. His other Tony nominations show the wide range of his talent, from a 1959 nod for the Elia Kazan-directed production of Archibald MacLeish's Pulitzer Prize-winning "J.B." to recognition in 1994 for Harold Pinter's "No Man's Land," with a 1982 Best Actor (Play) nomination for his Iago for Shakespeare's "Othello." This man can act, and seeing him perform on-stage is an acting aficionado's great pleasures.
He continues to be a very in-demand character actor in prestigious motion pictures. If he were truly English rather than Cando-American, he'd have been knighted long ago. (In 1968, he was a made a Companion of the Order of Canada, the country's highest civilian honor and which requires the approval of the sovereign.) In 1970, Plummer - a self-confessed 43-year-old bottle baby - married his third wife, the dancer Elaine Regina Taylor, who helped wean Plummer off his dependency on alcohol. They currently live on a 30-acre estate in Weston, Connecticut, and although he spends the majority of his time in the United States, he remains a Canadian citizen.
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