Remembering Christopher Plummer
Bruce Steele: You want the great ones to live forever, but sadly time catches up with even movie stars who seem eternal. We just heard about the loss of Christopher Plummer, best known as Captain Von Trapp in The Sound of Music. But he had such a great third act, giving notable performances into his late 80s. Do you have a favorite late Plummer part?
Edwin Arnaudin: It’s tough not to pick his Oscar-winning turn in Mike Mills’ autobiographic Beginners, playing a senior citizen who comes out and finally starts celebrating his true self. But I also adore his take on Mike Wallace in The Insider and his banker with a dark secret in Spike Lee’s Inside Man. I guess anything with “In” in its title was like catnip for me. How about you?
Bruce: Yes, Beginners hit quite a nerve in 2011. Older gay people who weren't oddballs were rarely seen in mainstream movies, and to have a screen icon like Plummer really embrace that role made such an impact. It really opened up cinema to many more such roles; in just the past couple of weeks, we've had two fine new examples, in Supernova and Two of Us. And Plummer gave such a moving performance in Beginners — he really earned the Oscar. Then he got nominated again three years ago for a couple weeks of work refilming all the J. Paul Getty scenes in All the Money in the World so the filmmakers could delete Kevin Spacey from their movie. It was such a stunt, and yet he's the best thing in the film. He always made a great villain — even when it was just his voice, as in Pixar's Up, one of my favorite movies ever.
Edwin: He also excelled at playing famous characters and historical figures. He’s terrific as a comic, work-in-progress version of Ebenezer Scrooge in The Man Who Invented Christmas, exudes tragic optimism as the exiled Kaiser Wilhelm II in The Exception, and holds his own all by himself as actor John Barrymore in the filmed version of the stage play Barrymore. Even though he has supporting roles in Malcolm X, 12 Monkeys, and Dolores Claiborne, it seems like The Insider and A Beautiful Mind helped launch that third act and introduce his greatness to new generations. Looking over his credits post-Sound of Music and pre-Malcolm X, there are only a few films — namely The Man Who Would Be King and The Return of the Pink Panther — that I’ve seen. Can you speak to this stretch of his career?
Bruce: Well, the man has more than 200 credits on IMDB, so I'm sure I've missed some great performances in there, but I have to recommend the 1980 Christopher Reeve romance Somewhere in Time, since my husband Christopher's late friend Ed Meekin played a supporting role in that one and said Plummer was "a delight to work with." He did tons of TV in the 1970s and '80s — including The Thorn Birds and, um, The Cosby Show — but I think you're right in pointing to A Beautiful Mind and The Insider as his re-entry into feature films as a leading character actor. It’s fine that his last significant bow was as the irascible mystery writer in the hit Knives Out — a thoroughly enjoyable exit. I hope fans of that movie will check out some of his other films. He will be missed.
Edwin: He absolutely will. I feel lucky to have seen him be a consistent onscreen force for so long. Like the marvelous Hal Holbrook, who also passed away this week — he was 95, four years Plummer’s senior — there was a sense that he'd always be around, as if he was woven into the fabric of cinema itself. Now that he’s no longer with us, I hope that another talented aging performer will take on the type of roles that had been Plummer’s forte. Considering the widespread respect Plummer earned throughout his illustrious film, TV, and theater career, I have no doubt that person will do those parts justice.
Streaming Plummer: You can watch The Exception now on Netflix. Amazon Prime subscribers have free access to Knives Out and can rent many of the other movies mentioned here for $2.99-$3.99. On HBOMax, you’ll find Beginners and 12 Monkeys. The Pixar film Up is on Disney+. AcornTV has Barrymore.
(Photo: 20th Century Fox)
