Christopher Plummer

CHRISTOPHER PLUMMER has enjoyed a career spanning almost 60 years, becoming one of the theater's most respected actors and a veteran of more than 100 motion pictures.

Raised in Montreal, Plummer began his professional career on stage and radio in both French and English. After his New York debut in 1954, he went on to star in many celebrated productions on Broadway and London's West End, winning accolades on both sides of the Atlantic. Plummer has won Tony Awards® for the musical “Cyrano” and for “Barrymore” while receiving seven Tony nominations, also for his “King Lear” (2004) and for his Clarence Darrow in “Inherit the Wind” (2007). He also won three Drama Desk Awards and the National Arts Club Medal.

A former leading member of the Royal National Theatre under Sir Laurence Olivier and the Royal Shakespeare Company under Sir Peter Hall, Plummer won London's Evening Standard Award for Best Actor in “Becket.” He led Canada's Stratford Festival in its formative years under Sir Tyrone Guthrie and Michael Langham. Today, Plummer is widely recognised as one of the finest classical actors of his time.

Since Sidney Lumet introduced Plummer to the screen in Stage Struck (1958), his range of notable films include The Man Who Would Be King, Battle of Britain, Waterloo, Fall of the Roman Empire, Star Trek VI, Twelve Monkeys and the 1965 Oscar® winner The Sound of Music. Plummer appeared in the Oscar®-nominated drama The Insider as Mike Wallace, a role for which he won the National Film Critics Award. Other film credits include the Oscar®-winning drama A Beautiful Mind, Man in the Chair, Must Love Dogs, National Treasure, Syriana and Inside Man.

Television appearances numbering close to 100 include the Emmy®-winning BBC production “Hamlet at Elsinore,” in the title role, and other Emmy®-winning productions such as “The Thornbirds,” “Nuremberg” and “Little Moon of Alban.” Plummer himself has won two Emmys® with six nominations. He has also written for the stage, television and concert hall.

Apart from honors in the U.K., U.S., Austria and Canada, Plummer was the first performer to receive the Jason Robards Award, in memory of his great friend the actor. He also won the Edwin Booth Award and the Sir John Gielgud Quill Award.

In 1968, sanctioned by Queen Elizabeth II, Plummer was invested as a Companion of the Order of Canada (an honorary knighthood). He was inducted into the Theater Hall of Fame in 1986 and added to Canada's Walk of Fame in 2000. An Honorary Doctor of Fine Arts at Julliard, Plummer received the Governor General's Lifetime Achievement Award in 2000.

The actor's recent memoir, In Spite of Myself (Knopf), was much lauded by critics and the public alike.

Plummer's latest projects include the highly praised animated films Up, 9, and My Dog Tulip, as well as the title role in The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus, directed by Terry Gilliam. In 2010, he received his first Academy Award® nomination playing the great novelist Tolstoy opposite Helen Mirren in The Last Station. He followed this with Mike Mills' Beginners, which has been critically acclaimed throughout the world.

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