Oscar-Winning Actor Christopher Plummer Dies at Age 91

By Max Evry

It is with great sadness that ComingSoon.net must report (via CNN) that legendary Canadian stage and screen actor Christopher Plummer has passed away at age 91.

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Plummer’s career in theater and on television kicked off in 1953 with a road show production of André Roussin’s “Nina” and an episode of the anthology series Broadway Television Theatre, respectively. Thus began a career that spanned over five decades, capped by perhaps his most enduring film performance as Captain Georg von Trapp in Robert Wise’s Best Picture-winning 1965 musical The Sound of Music as well as his Best Supporting Actor Oscar-winning turn as a father coming out to his son in 2010’s Beginners.

Other major roles included appearing opposite Rod Steiger in the 1970 Napoleon biopic Waterloo, opposite Peter Sellers in 1975’s The Return of the Pink Panther, as author Rudyard Kipling in The Man Who Would Be King (also 1975), as a sadistic bank robber in 1978’s highly underrated The Silent Partner, as Sherlock Holmes in Murder by Decree (1979), as the voice of Henri le Pigeon in the animated An American Tail (1986), opposite Dan Aykroyd and Tom Hanks as the baddie in Dragnet (1987), twice with director Spike Lee for 1992’s Malcom X and 2006’s Inside Man, opposite Kathy Bates in the Stephen King adaptation Dolores Claiborne (1995), opposite Russell Crowe in the Oscar-winning A Beautiful Mind (2001), opposite Nicolas Cage in National Treasure (2004), as Captain Christopher Newport in Terence Malick’s The New World (2005), opposite George Clooney in Syriana (also 2005), as the voice of Charles Muntz in Pixar’s Up (2009), in David Fincher’s 2011 The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo remake, and most recently as the murdered patriarch in Rian Johnson’s smash hit Knives Out (2019). He also famously replaced Kevin Spacey as J. Paul Getty in director Ridley Scott’s All the Money in the World (2017), with all of Spacey’s scenes reshot a mere month away from the film’s release.

In addition, Plummer had a good run in both horror and sci-fi genre films, including The Pyx (1973), the 1975 remake of The Spiral Staircase, the cheesy Italian Star Wars ripoff Starcrash (1978), the Dennis Quaid-led/Inception-esque sci-fi horror flick Dreamscape (1984), 1986’s Vampire in Venice, as the Klingon villan General Chang in Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country (1991), opposite Jack Nicholson in Mike Nichols’ Wolf (1994), twice with Terry Gilliam for 1995’s time travel classic 12 Monkeys and as the lead in 2009’s The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus (Heath Ledger’s final role), 1998’s Canadian slasher The Clown at Midnight, As Van Helsing opposite Gerard Butler’s title vampire in Dracula 2000, reuniting with Dennis Quaid for 2003’s Cold Creek Manor, and opposite Paul Bettany in the comic book adaptation Priest (2011).

(Photo Credit: Getty Images)

Max Evry
Max Evry

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