Sunday, February 7, 2021

Farewell Old Nosey, Rest In Peace

 

Christopher Plummer as the Duke of Wellington in the movie "Waterloo"

The actor Christopher Plummer passed away on February 5, 2021. While most obituaries cite his role in The Sound of Music, and rightly so, his role as the Duke of Wellington in the film "Waterloo" is how I best remember him. The actor who played Wellington/Wellesley in the Sharpe series may have been more spot on, but Christopher Plummer will always be how I remember him.

Here is a synopsis of Plummer's acting career, from the Rotten Tomatoes site:

Christopher Plummer, who rose to international fame as Captain Von Trapp in The Sound of Music, began his screen career with an “and introducing” credit on Sidney Lumet’s 1958 Stage Struck. By 1965 he would be known everywhere as papa Trapp, but Sound of Music was lighter fare for Plummer, a movie that punctuated a career building around military epics and classic-style adventures like The Fall of the Roman EmpireBattle of BritainWaterloo, and The Man Who Would Be King.

The Silent PartnerMurder by DecreeStar Trek IV: The Undiscovered Country, and 12 Monkeys were among his movie highlights until a career resurgence with 1999’s The Insider, the Michael Mann big-tobacco expose with Al Pacino and Russell Crowe. This opened to a string of critical and commerical hits, including Best Picture-winner A Beautiful MindInside Man, and Up.

At 80, he recieved his first Oscar nomination for The Last Station. He won the Best Supporting Actor Oscar for Beginners, as a man finding a new lease on life in his later years, at age 82, becoming the oldest to ever win an acting Oscar. He also became the oldest to be nominated for an acting Oscar at age 88 for his last-minute casting to Ridley Scott’s All the Money in the World.

Among Plummer’s final roles were as Ebenezer Scrooge in The Man Who Invented Christmas, and as Harlan Thrombey in Rian Johnson’s whodunit Knives Out


Here are some of Plummer's lines from the film Waterloo. I am sure that everyone remembers them well.

(My favorite Plummer/Wellington line: "I like a man who can defend a hopeless position. Promote him to corporal!")







mmm

5 comments:

  1. A great man and a brilliant actor - he is Wellington !

    ReplyDelete
  2. Thanks for the quotes; ripping stuff what?

    ReplyDelete
  3. Vale to a great actor! His depiction of Wellington is the one I remember best, and the quotes are excellent! Many thanks, Jim.

    ReplyDelete
  4. I too, thought Christopher Plummer made an excellent Wellington, I hated ' the Sound of Music', without even seeing it!!!

    ReplyDelete
  5. According to his obituary in the Telegraph he didn't think much of the script for Waterloo as it made Wellington too severe, so he asked the historical consultant to fit as many of the Duke's sayings in as possible, then got the director to OK them. He tried to bring out some of the Duke's wit and humour. Personally, I think he did a better job than Rod Steiger as Napoleon.

    ReplyDelete