CHRISTOPHER PLUMMER

                                                    Part 1

        His career spanned seven decades and he became the oldest person to win an acting Oscar when he was 82. Need a distinguished older man for your movie? Get Christopher Plummer. He died at 91 and one of his films is still in production at this writing. 

The notable part of his movie career began in 1965 when he played Captain Von Trapp in The Sound Of Music. This was a wildly popular film that still has a wide audience today. Mr. Plummer loathed the film and his role in it, considering it populist pap. But it launched his spectacular career. Looking back on it later in his life he mellowed a bit in his attitude. 

Christopher Plummer’s lone Oscar win came in 2010 for the lead role in Beginners. He appears as Hal, a husband and father who came out at the age of 75 and spent quite a few years openly gay. His son Oliver (Ewan McGregor) is somewhat flummoxed by all this as he tries to make it as an artist. Mr. Plummer’s performance is just spot on - neither too quiet or too over the top. He is completely believable in a very difficult role. 

Mr. Plummer’s first Oscar nomination was for The Last Station (2009). He lost to Christopher Waitz for Inglorious Basterds. His portrayal of a dying Leo Tolstoy is very good. Helen Mirren appears as his wife, Sophya.  The plot involves a battle between Sophya and Tolstoy admirers. The latter want him to sign a will leaving all his work in the public domain, which will leave his family in penury. Watch and find out what happened!

Christopher Plummer’s last Academy Award nomination came just five years ago when he portrayed billionaire J. Paul Getty in All The Money In The World. This time he lost to Sam Rockwell who won for Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri (2018). Getty almost never gave interviews or appeared in public, but Mr. Plummer makes him appear as most of us would imagine him. When his grandson is kidnaped by organized crime members, Getty refuses to pay the demanded ransom. He says it would only encourage more kidnapings. As time drags on, Getty finally agrees to pay one million of the seventeen million demanded. It is the most he can deduct for taxes! Further complications involve the cutting of the victim’s ears, and the involvement of a former CIA agent and the boy’s mother in a frantic rescue attempt. 

Mr. Plummer has the title role in Oedipus The King (1968), as one of the unluckiest characters in mythology. Although Orson Welles, Lilli Palmer, Cyril Cusak and Donald Sutherland also appear, the movie got mostly unfavorable reviews. Mr. Plummer’s performance was the only bright spot in the opinion of most critics. 

This is the first article about Christopher Plummer’s cinematic career. There will be at least one more. Watch this space!

All of the films in this article are available on DVD. All except The Sound Of Music are for adults.