Christopher Plummer
Acting • Born 1929-12-13 – Died 2021-02-05
Biography
Arthur Christopher Orme Plummer CC (December 13, 1929 – February 5, 2021) was a Canadian theatre, film and television actor. He made his film debut in 1958's Stage Struck, and notable film performances include The Night of the Generals, The Return of the Pink Panther, Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country, The Man Who Would Be King, and The Insider. In a career that spans seven decades and includes substantial roles in each of the dramatic arts, Plummer is probably best known to film audiences as the autocratic widower Captain Georg Johannes von Trapp in the hit 1965 musical film The Sound of Music alongside Julie Andrews. Plummer has also ventured into various television projects, including the legendary miniseries The Thorn Birds. In the 21st century, his film roles include The Insider as Mike Wallace, Inside Man with Denzel Washington, the Disney–Pixar 2009 film Up as Charles Muntz, the Shane Acker production 9 as '1', The Last Station as Leo Tolstoy, The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus as Doctor Parnassus, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo as Henrik Vanger, and Beginners as Hal. Plummer has won numerous awards and accolades for his work, including an Academy Award, two Emmy Awards, two Tony Awards, a Golden Globe Award, a SAG Award, and a BAFTA Award. With his win at the age of 82 in 2012 for Beginners, Plummer is the oldest actor and person ever to win an Academy Award. On February 5, 2021, Plummer died at his home in Weston, Connecticut, aged 91, after suffering complications from a fall. His family released a statement announcing that Plummer had "died peacefully at his home in Connecticut with his wife Elaine Taylor at his side".
Filmography
237 credits
Twelve Monkeys
Movie • 1995
Dr. Goines
Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country
Movie • 1991
Chang
Syriana
Movie • 2005
Dean Whiting
Inside Man
Movie • 2006
Arthur Case
A Beautiful Mind
Movie • 2001
Dr. Rosen
The Man Who Would Be King
Movie • 1975
Rudyard Kipling
The Lake House
Movie • 2006
Simon Wyler
National Treasure
Movie • 2004
John Adams Gates
Dragnet
Movie • 1987
Reverend Jonathan Whirley
Dracula 2000
Movie • 2000
Matthew Van Helsing
Malcolm X
Movie • 1992
Chaplain Gill
Alexander
Movie • 2004
Aristotle
Wolf
Movie • 1994
Raymond Alden
Triple Cross
Movie • 1966
Freddie Chapman
An American Tail
Movie • 1986
Henri (voice)
The Amateur
Movie • 1981
Professor Lakos
The Gospel of John
Movie • 2003
Narrator (voice)
Starcrash
Movie • 1978
The Emperor
The New World
Movie • 2005
Captain Newport
The Hamster Factor and Other Tales of 'Twelve Monkeys'
Movie • 1996
Self
Dreamscape
Movie • 1984
Bob Blair
Battle of Britain
Movie • 1969
Squadron Leader Colin Harvey
The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus
Movie • 2009
Doctor Parnassus
Dolores Claiborne
Movie • 1995
John Mackey
Must Love Dogs
Movie • 2005
Bill
The Return of the Pink Panther
Movie • 1975
Sir Charles Litton
Harrison Bergeron
Movie • 1995
John Klaxon
Eyewitness
Movie • 1981
Joseph
The Silent Partner
Movie • 1978
Reikle
The Insider
Movie • 1999
Mike Wallace
9
Movie • 2009
#1 (voice)
Cold Creek Manor
Movie • 2003
Mr. Massie
Waterloo
Movie • 1970
Arthur Wellesley, Duke of Wellington
Hanover Street
Movie • 1979
Paul Sellinger
Emotional Arithmetic
Movie • 2008
David Winters
Murder by Decree
Movie • 1979
Sherlock Holmes
Kalahari: The Flooded Desert
Movie • 2021
Narrator (voice)
Nosferatu in Venice
Movie • 1988
Professor Paris Catalano
Already Dead
Movie • 2007
Dr. Heller
Closing the Ring
Movie • 2007
Jack
Up
Movie • 2009
Muntz (voice)
Lucky Break
Movie • 2001
Graham Mortimer
International Velvet
Movie • 1978
John Seaton
Nicholas Nickleby
Movie • 2002
Ralph Nickleby
Madeline
Movie • 1988
Narrator (voice)
Madeline at the Ballet
Movie
Narrator (voice)
The Last Station
Movie • 2009
Leo Tolstoy
The Night of the Generals
Movie • 1967
Field Marshal Rommel
Firehead
Movie • 1991
Col. Garland Vaughn
The Sound of Music
Movie • 1965
Captain Georg von Trapp
Man in the Chair
Movie • 2007
Flash Madden
Our Fathers
Movie • 2005
Cardinal Bernard Law
Aces High
Movie • 1976
Capt. 'Uncle' Sinclair
The Scarlet and the Black
Movie • 1983
Col. Herbert Kappler
Priest
Movie • 2011
Monsignor Orelas
Ararat
Movie • 2002
David
Somewhere in Time
Movie • 1980
William Fawcett Robinson
Where the Heart Is
Movie • 1990
Shitty
The Fall of the Roman Empire
Movie • 1964
Commodus
The Dinosaur Hunter
Movie • 2000
Hump Hinton
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
Movie • 2011
Henrik Vanger
A Hazard of Hearts
Movie • 1987
Sir Giles Staverley
The Boss' Wife
Movie • 1986
Mr. Roalvang
Possessed
Movie • 2000
Archbishop Hume
Inside Daisy Clover
Movie • 1966
Raymond Swan
The Arrow
Movie • 1997
George Hees
Wind Across the Everglades
Movie • 1958
Walt Murdock
Four Minutes
Movie • 2005
Archie Mason
Heroes of the Golden Mask
Movie • 2023
Rizzo (voice)
My Dog Tulip
Movie • 2010
J.R. Ackerley (voice)
Eugene O’Neill: A Documentary Film
Movie • 2006
Self
Prototype
Movie • 1983
Dr. Carl Forrester
Nobody Runs Forever
Movie • 1968
Sir James Quentin
The Boy in Blue
Movie • 1986
Knox
Beginners
Movie • 2011
Hal Fields
American Tragedy
Movie • 2000
F. Lee Bailey
The Pyx
Movie • 1973
Dt. Sgt. Jim Henderson
Mindfield
Movie • 1989
Doctor Satorius
Final Cut: Ladies and Gentlemen
Movie • 2012
(archive footage)
Conduct Unbecoming
Movie • 1975
Maggiore Alastair Wimbourne
A Ghost in Monte Carlo
Movie • 1990
The Grand Duke Ivan
The Nightingale
Movie • 1987
Narrator (voice)
Crackerjack
Movie • 1994
Ivan Getz
Ben-Hur: The Making of an Epic
Movie • 1993
Narrator
Ordeal by Innocence
Movie • 1984
Leo Argyle
Lily in Love
Movie • 1984
Fitzroy Wynn / Roberto Terranova
Behind the Wall: The Making of Skyrim
Movie • 2012
Self
Stage Struck
Movie • 1958
Joe Sheridan
Madeline and the Bad Hat
Movie • 1991
Narrator (voice)
Madeline and the Gypsies
Movie • 1991
Narrator (voice)
Madeline in London
Movie • 1991
Narrator (voice)
Johnny Belinda
Movie • 1958
Dr. Jack Pelletier
The Spiral Staircase
Movie • 1975
Dr. Joe Sherman
Barrymore
Movie • 2012
John Barrymore
The Tempest
Movie • 2010
Prospero
Liar's Edge
Movie • 1992
Harry Weldon
Money
Movie • 1991
Martin Yahl
The Royal Hunt of the Sun
Movie • 1969
Atahualpa
Muhammad Ali's Greatest Fight
Movie • 2013
John Marshall Harlan
Lock Up Your Daughters
Movie • 1969
Lord Foppington
Discovering Hamlet
Movie • 2011
Self
I Love N.Y.
Movie • 1987
John Robertson Yeats
Secrets
Movie • 1992
Mel Wexler
Madeline: Lost in Paris
Movie • 1999
Narrator (voice)
The Making of a Legend: Gone with the Wind
Movie • 1988
Narrator (voice)
Hidden Agenda
Movie • 1999
Ulrich Steiner
Winchell
Movie • 1998
Franklin D. Roosevelt
The Forger
Movie • 2014
Joseph Cutter
Hector and the Search for Happiness
Movie • 2014
Professor Coreman
The Happy Prince
Movie • 1974
The Happy Prince (voice)
Hamlet at Elsinore
Movie • 1964
Hamlet
The Legend of Sarila
Movie • 2013
Croolik (voice)
Agent of Influence
Movie • 2002
John Watkins
Skeletons
Movie • 1997
Reverend Carlyle
Titans of the Ice Age
Movie • 2013
Narrator
After the Fall
Movie • 1974
Quentin
Elsa & Fred
Movie • 2014
Fred
Babes in Toyland
Movie • 1997
Barnaby Crookedman (voice)
Nabokov on Kafka
Movie • 1989
Vladimir Nabokov
The Day That Shook the World
Movie • 1975
Archduke Ferdinand
Desperate Voyage
Movie • 1980
Jacques Burrifous
Full Disclosure
Movie • 2001
Robert Lecker
Highpoint
Movie • 1982
James Hatcher
Remember
Movie • 2015
Zev Guttman
The Clown at Midnight
Movie • 1998
Mr. Caruthers
Spearfield's Daughter
Movie • 1986
Lord Jack Cruze
Blackheart
Movie • 1998
Holmes
Boris Karloff: The Rest of the Story
Movie • 2022
Self
TED ALLAN: MINSTREL BOY OF THE 20TH CENTURY
Movie
Narrator
Danny Collins
Movie • 2015
Frank Grubman
The Exception
Movie • 2017
Kaiser Wilhelm II
Michael Caine: Breaking the Mold
Movie • 1994
Self (archive footage)
Pixies
Movie • 2015
Pixie King (voice)
On Golden Pond
Movie • 2001
Norman Thayer
The Life Of Jesus
Movie • 2003
Narrator
Dial M for Murder
Movie • 1981
Tony Wendice
Kali, the Little Vampire
Movie • 2012
Narrator (english version)
Souvenir
Movie • 1989
Ernst Kestner
The Untold Story of The Sound of Music: A Diane Sawyer Special
Movie • 2015
Self
Mooseltoe
Movie • 2021
Mooseking
The Conspiracy of Fear
Movie • 1996
Wakeman
The Velveteen Rabbit
Movie • 1985
Narrator (voice)
30 Minutes, Mister Plummer
Movie • 1963
Himself
The River of My Dreams
Movie • 2017
Himself
Howard Lovecraft & the Frozen Kingdom
Movie • 2016
Dr. West (voice)
Rock-A-Doodle
Movie • 1991
Grand Duke (voice)
Red Blooded American Girl
Movie • 1990
Dr. John Alcore
Shadow Dancing
Movie • 1988
Edmund Beaumont
The First Christmas
Movie • 1998
Narrator (voice)
The First Emperor of China
Movie • 1989
Self - Narrator (voice)
The Disappearance
Movie • 1977
Deverell
Caesar and Cleopatra
Movie • 2009
Caesar
The Last Full Measure
Movie • 2020
Frank Pitsenbarger
The Star
Movie • 2017
King Herod (voice)
Boundaries
Movie • 2018
Jack Jaconi
The Man Who Invented Christmas
Movie • 2017
Scrooge
Oedipus the King
Movie • 1968
Oedipus
Nuremberg: The Nazis Facing their Crimes
Movie • 2006
Narrator (voice over)
All the Money in the World
Movie • 2017
Jean Paul Getty
The Shadow Box
Movie • 1980
Brian
A Stranger in the Mirror
Movie • 1993
Clifton Lawrence
Being Different
Movie • 1981
Self (Narrator) (voice)
Howard Lovecraft & the Undersea Kingdom
Movie • 2017
Dr. West (voice)
Captain Brassbound's Conversion
Movie • 1960
Captain Brassbound
The Tin Soldier
Movie • 1986
Narrator (voice)
The Captains: Still Kicking
Movie • 2013
Himself
Night Flight
Movie • 2002
'Flash' Harry Peters
Knives Out
Movie • 2019
Harlan Thrombey
A Doll's House
Movie • 1959
Torvald
Howard Lovecraft & The Kingdom Of Madness
Movie • 2018
Dr. Jeffrey West (voice)
Silver Blaze
Movie • 1977
Sherlock Holmes
The Little Crooked Christmas Tree
Movie • 1990
Narrator
Cliffs of Freedom
Movie • 2019
Thanasi
The Assignment
Movie • 1977
Kaptain Behounek
Blizzard
Movie • 2003
Santa Claus
Rumpelstiltskin
Movie • 1985
Narrator
Impolite
Movie • 1992
Naples O'Rorke
Madeline's Christmas
Movie • 1990
Narrator (voice)
Alan Pakula: Going for Truth
Movie • 2019
Self
Christopher Plummer: A Man For All Stages
Movie • 2002
Self
Little Moon of Alban
Movie • 1958
Kenneth Boyd
Salzburg Sight and Sound
Movie • 1965
Self
When the Circus Came to Town
Movie • 1981
Duke Royal
Trans-Canada Journey
Movie • 1963
Narrator (voice)
Bondarchuk. Battle
Movie • 2021
self
Night of 100 Stars
Movie • 1982
Self
Boris Karloff: The Man Behind the Monster
Movie • 2021
Self
Back To "Somewhere In Time"
Movie • 2000
Self
Hamlet {Solo}
Movie • 2007
Self
Riel
Movie • 1979
Prime Minister John A. Macdonald
The First Circle
Movie • 1992
Viktor Abakumov
We the Jury
Movie • 1996
Wilfred Fransiscus
An Essay on Death: A Memorial to John F. Kennedy
Movie • 1964
Narrator (voice)
Portraits of Canada
Movie • 1987
Narrator (voice)
A Short Film About Making Beginners
Movie • 2011
Cyrano De Bergerac
Movie • 1962
Cyrano de Bergerac
Arthur Miller on Home Ground
Movie • 1979
SuperTed
TV • 1983
The Cosby Show
TV • 1984
Jonathan Lawrence
Omnibus
TV • 1952
Studio One
TV • 1948
Dick
General Electric Theater
TV • 1953
Walter Shelley
The Ed Sullivan Show
TV • 1948
Self
Hallmark Hall of Fame
TV • 1951
Dr. Jack Pelletier
Nuremberg
TV • 2000
Sir David Maxwell Fyfe
Counterstrike
TV • 1990
Alexander Addington
Miracle Planet
TV • 2005
Himself - Host
Suspense
TV • 1949
Nature
TV • 1982
Narrator (voice)
Jesus of Nazareth
TV • 1977
Herod Antipas
Madeline
TV • 1988
Narrator (voice)
Arthur Hailey's The Moneychangers
TV • 1976
Roscoe Heyward
The Summit
TV • 2008
P.J. Aimes
The Thorn Birds
TV • 1983
Archbishop Vittorio Contini-Verchese
Little Gloria... Happy at Last
TV • 1982
Reggie Vanderbilt
Crossings
TV • 1986
Armand DeVilliers
Moguls & Movie Stars: A History of Hollywood
TV • 2010
Narrator
American Experience
TV • 1988
Narrator
Berlin Lady
TV • 1991
Wilhelm Speer
Young Catherine
TV • 1991
Sir Charles
Hallmark Hall of Fame
TV • 1951
Prince Albert
Hallmark Hall of Fame
TV • 1951
Captain Brassbound
Hallmark Hall of Fame
TV • 1951
Torvald Helmer
Hallmark Hall of Fame
TV • 1951
Cyrano de Bergerac
DuPont Show of the Month
TV • 1957
Sir Miles Hendon
Departure
TV • 2019
Howard Lawson
The Dick Cavett Show
TV • 1968
Self - Guest
The Oscars
TV • 1953
Self
NBC Sunday Showcase
TV • 1959
The Arrow
TV • 1997
George Hees
The Mike Douglas Show
TV • 1961
Self
Omnibus
TV • 1952
Oedipus
Omnibus
TV • 1952
Thomas Mendip
Golden Globe Awards
TV • 1944
Self - Nominee
Omnibus
TV • 1967
Narrator
BBC Play of the Month
TV • 1965
Don Juan
Kraft Television Theatre
TV • 1953