Julie Andrews will always remember her beloved “Music in the Heart” co-star, Christopher Plummer.
The legendary actor, who starred in the 1965 musical, passed away peacefully at his Connecticut home, his family confirmed on Friday. His wife, Elaine Taylor, was at his side.
“The world lost an accomplished actor today and I lost a dear friend,” said Andrews in a statement sent to Fox News. “I keep the memories of our work together and all the humor and fun we’ve shared over the years.”
“My heart and condolences go out to your lovely wife Elaine and daughter Amanda,” she added.
CHRISTOPHER PLUMMER, STAR OF ‘SOUND OF MUSIC’ AND LEGEND OF HOLLYWOOD, DEAD AT 91
Actress Julie Andrews and Christopher Plummer in a scene from the film ‘The Sound of Music’.
(Photo by Donaldson Collection / Getty Images)
Plummer’s manager Lou Pitt also confirmed Plummer’s death in a statement shared with Fox News.
“Chris was an extraordinary man who deeply loved and respected his profession with great old-fashioned manners, self-deprecating humor and music of words. He was a National Treasury who deeply appreciated his Canadian roots,” said Pitt. “Through his art and humanity, he touched all of our hearts and his legendary life will last for all generations to come. He will be with us forever.”
Plummer spent more than 50 years in the entertainment industry, both on stage and on screen. His best-known role may have been that of the dashing Captain Von Trapp in Robert Wise’s “The Sound of Music” opposite Andrews.
The role saw him as an Austrian captain who must flee the country with his folk singer family to escape service in the Nazi navy, a role he regretted being “humorless and one-dimensional”. Plummer spent the rest of his life referring to the film as “The Sound of Mucus” or “S&M”.
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Julie Andrews and Christopher Plummer in a promotional portrait of ‘The Sound Of Music’, directed by Robert Wise, 1965.
(Photo from the Silver Screen collection / Getty Images)
“We tried so hard to put humor in it,” he told the Associated Press in 2007. “It was almost impossible. It was agonizing to try to make that guy not be a cardboard figure.”
The role catapulted Plummer to stardom, but he never took on male roles, despite his gray hair, good looks and English accent. He preferred parts of characters, considering them more substantial.
Plummer had a remarkable cinematic revival towards the end of his life, which began with his acclaimed performance as Mike Wallace in Michael Mann’s 1999 film “The Insider” and continued in films such as “A Beautiful Mind” in 2001 and “The Last Station”, 2009, when he played a deteriorating Tolstoy and was nominated for an Oscar.
His other roles ranged from “The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo” to the villain’s voice in 2009’s “Up” and as a shrewd lawyer in Broadway’s “Inherit the Wind”.
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Julie Andrews and Christopher Plummer starred in a live television performance of ‘On Golden Pond’.
(Photo by Tony Esparza / CBS via Getty Images)
In 2012, Plummer won an Oscar for supporting actor for his role in “Beginners” as Hal Fields, a museum director who becomes openly gay after his wife, 44 years ago, dies. Their final love relationship becomes an inspiration for their son, who struggles with his father’s death and how to find intimacy in a new relationship.
“Many people in the world are unhappy with their luck. And then they retire and become vegetables. I think retirement in any profession is death, so I am determined to keep cracking,” he told the AP in 2011.
Plummer in 2017 replaced Kevin Spacey as J. Paul Getty in “All the Money in the World” just six weeks before the film hit theaters. That choice that was officially validated in the best possible way for the film – an Oscar nomination for Plummer, his third film.
He was raised in Montreal. In 1954, he achieved his first time as an actor in New York and starred on Broadway and the West End of London. According to Deadline, Plummer won two Tony awards for “Cyrano” and received seven nominations for Tony.
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Actor Christopher Plummer won the award for best supporting actor for ‘Beginners’ in 2012.
(Getty Images)
Plummer also had a long career on television. Its number of appearances reaches almost 100, the starting notes, including “Nuremberg”, “Little Moon of Alban”, “The Thornbirds” and “Muhammad Ali’s Greatest Fight”. He starred for the last time in “Departures”.
In addition to numerous acting awards, the Hollywood legend also received several honors. In 2000, he was nominated for the Canadian Walk of Fame, and 14 years before that, he was nominated for the Theater Hall of Fame.
In 1968, he received the title of honorary knight as a Companion to the Order of Canada by Queen Elizabeth II. He was an honorary doctor of fine art at Juilliard and received the Governor General’s Lifetime Achievement Award in 2000.
Melissa Roberto and The Associated Press of Fox News contributed to this report.