Widely known for his role in The Sound of Music, veteran stage and screen actor Christopher Plummer has passed away at the age of 91.
What’s Happening:
- Veteran stage and screen actor Christopher Plummer has passed away today at the age of 91, peacefully in his home with his wife at his side.
- Most known for his role opposite Disney Legend Julie Andrews in The Sound of Music as Captain von Trapp, he starred in productions on film and on stage, including Iago to James Earl Jones’ Othello.
- For Disney, Plummer played the role of John Adams Gates in National Treasure, the father of Patrick Henry Gates and the grandfather of Benjamin Franklin Gates. In 1974, to Patrick's dismay, he tells Ben about the Templar Treasure.
- In 2003, Plummer portrayed Mr. Massie in the Touchstone thriller, Cold Creek Manor, and in Miramax’s 2000 feature, Dracula 2000 as Abraham Van Helsing.
- Fans of Pixar animated films are sure to recognize Plummer’s voice however, as he plays the role of famed explorer Charles F. Muntz who travels in a zeppelin with his many pet dogs (whom he equipped with special collars he invented that enable them to speak) in the 2009 film, Up.
- He also starred alongside Captain America himself in Rian Johnson’s Knive’s Out, with Chris Evans tweeting his condolences on the news of his passing.
- In 2012, at the age of 82, Plummer became the oldest person to ever win an Oscar when he won for Best Supporting Actor for his role as Hal Fields in Beginners, a father who’s new attitude on life after a cancer diagnosis inspired his son (Ewan McGregor) to pursue a romance of his own. That record was broken in 2018.
- Aside from the Oscar, he was won numerous other awards, including two Tonys and two Emmys over his career that spanned nearly 70 years.
- He is survived by his daughter from his first marriage, actress Amanda Plummer, and his wife, actress-dancer Elaine Taylor.