When HFPA journalists interviewed Christopher Plummer in 2002, we asked him what he looked forward to, and his answer was, “I’d like another twenty, twenty-five years.” Well, he almost made it. Asked at the time what death meant to him, he replied, “I used to be terribly afraid of it. I’m not sure that I’m afraid of it; I just don’t want it to happen because I’m having too good a time. And almost more of a good time now that I’m at an exalted age than I had when I was 40 and 50 and pretending I was having a good time.”

And what a remarkable career he had. Even though he disowned his most famous role, Captain Von Trapp in the beloved The Sound of Music, his consolation was the theater and film work which far outstripped that one role.

Of course, The Sound of Music wasn’t his first film role. In fact, he had already appeared in dozens of TV series before then. Sidney Lumet shepherded him to a film career when he cast him as Susan Strasberg’s love interest in Stage Struck, the remake of Katharine Hepburn’s Morning Glory.

As a result, he was given the lead in Nicholas Ray’s Wind Over the Everglades and a chance to play Julie Harris’ kindly doctor in the TV remake of Johnny Belinda and her husband in Ibsen’s A Doll’s House. More important roles in TV versions of famous plays followed including The Philadelphia Story, Captain Brassbound’s Conversion, Time Remembered. Even Cyrano de Bergerac, but remained relatively unknown to movie audiences. 

Why then did Robert Wise choose him for The Sound of Music? Initially, they had offered the role to Sean Connery but Wise had seen Plummer on stage and even followed him to London to convince him to play the part.

After that there was no shortage of roles, appearing first in Natalie Wood’s Inside Daisy Clover, in Triple Cross (his first starring role) and in support of Peter O’Toole in The Night of the Generals. He led an all-star cast in a well-received Oedipus the King, he lent support to Rod Taylor in The High Commissioner, these were endless opportunities but none that gained him much attention.

Finally, it was his role as the Aztec God King in The Royal Hunt of the Sun, one of his favorite films, that offered him something he could sink his teeth in. It didn’t win him any awards, but it inspired famed Russian director Serge Bondarchuk to cast him as the Duke of Wellington opposite Rod Steiger in Napoleon.

After that, it was back to playing secondary roles in support of rising stars like Peter Sellers, Malcolm McDowell, Donald Sutherland, Harrison Ford, Elliott Gould, Christopher Reeve, even Tatum O’Neal. He also accepted work in television miniseries (Little Gloria, Happy at Last, Crossings, and The Thorn Birds).

What followed was ten years of roles that some see as beneath his dignity, but at the same time he was earning new respect on Broadway where he originated such roles as God in Archibald MacLeish’s Pulitzer Prize-winning play J.B. for which he was nominated for his first Tony as Best Actor; he also appeared opposite Judith Anderson in Robinson Jeffers’ adaptation of Medea. He did Shakespeare at the Stratford Shakespeare Festival to great acclaim winning a Best Actor award for playing King Henry in Jean Anouilh’s Becket.

Among his distinguished stage performances was the title role in a musical adaptation of Rostand’s Cyrano de Bergerac by Anthony Burgess and Michael J. Lewis, earned him the Tony as Best Actor in a musical. He achieved further acclaim for playing Barrymore on Broadway which brought him his second Tony Award (this time as Best Actor in Play).

It was Michael Mann who finally rescued his film career by giving him the role of Mike Wallace with Russell Crowe in The Insider, in which he stole the film from yet another superstar Al Pacino. After that, there were a number of choice roles in TV movies and a key role with Russell Crowe’s in Golden Globe winner A Beautiful Mind.

He had to wait another decade for the role that earned him his best reviews and for which he won every award that year: Beginners. His memorable performance as a gay man won him both the Oscar and the Golden Globe as Best Supporting Actor that year. At the time he told us, “I had more fun playing this man than I’ve ever had on the screen. And because he was a contemporary, a modern – I’m usually cast in some sort of weird sinister role – it was such a relief to really relax, and the person who made me relax more than anyone was Michael (Mills) the author and director who was absolutely amazing. He was so relaxed to work with. And I told him right away. ‘I know that he’s your father that I’m playing so for God’s sake, don’t be too rough on me. And because I never met your father. I can’t do an imitation of him.’ He said, ‘Are you kidding? I don’t want you to do anything except be you.’ And I thought that was a very mature and nice and relaxing thing to say. So that’s just how I played it. I played one other gay person in my life before, that was in Paul Newman’s The Shadow Box. many, many years ago. But this character was so wonderfully written. He had no self-pity about him. He had such fun in life. And I decided to stay with that and just have fun.”

He was nominated the next year once again but this time only for the Oscar, as Best Supporting Actor for The Last Station in which he memorably played Tolstoy.

More recently, replacing Kevin Spacey at the last moment, he was imperious in Ridley Scott’s All the Money in the World in which he played J. Paul Getty. Once again, he was nominated for both the Oscar and the Golden Globe as Best Supporting Actor.

His final film Knives Out two years ago was nominated for a Golden Globe as Best Musical or Comedy. As always Plummer was priceless.

He leaves behind his only child, actress Amanda Plummer.

Good night sweet prince.