History/Biography
Toronto-born Arthur Christopher Orme Plummer is the son of Isabella Mary (nee Abbott) and John Orme Plummer, and the great-greandson of Canadian Prime Minister John Abbott. He studied with the Montréal Repertory Theatre in his youth and first appeared with the Stage Society (Ottawa) in 1948. He went on to play more than 100 roles with the Company, which eventually became the Canadian Repertory Theatre. Subsequent work included a US tour of Nina (1953) a Broadway appearance in Starcross Story (1954), and a performance as Marc Antony in The Lark 1955) in the inaugural season of the American Shakespeare Festival.
Other credits from New York City include The Dark Is Light Enough (1955); the devil in J.B. (1958); Arturo Ui (1963); Pizarro in The Royal Hunt of the Sun (1965); The Good Doctor (1971); title roles in the musical Cyrano (1973, Tony Award Winner) and the drama Barrymore (1996-98, Tony Award Winner); Iago in Othello (1981-82); Macbeth with Glenda Jackson (1988); Pinter's No Man's Land (1995) with Jason Robards, Jr; and King Lear (2004). In 2007 he appeared in Inherit the Wind and was nominated a seventh time for a Tony Award.
Plummer played two roles in 1961: Richard III at Stratford-Upon-Avon and Henry II in Becket (London, Evening Standard Award). Subsequent British credits include Amphitryon 38 and Danton’s Death (National Theatre, 1971), and the Scarlet Pimpernel (Chichester, 1985).
Film credits include Stage Struck (1958), The Sound of Music (1965), Inside Daisy Clover (1966), Oedipus the King (1967), Lock Up Your Daughters! (1969), Waterloo (1970), The Man Who Would Be King (1975), The Return of the Pink Panther (1975), The Silent Partner (1978), Murder by Decree (Genie Award, 1979), Dreamscape (1984), The Boy in Blue (1986), Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country (1991), Wolf (1994), Dolores Claiborne (1995), 12 Monkeys (1996), The Clown at Midnight, Hidden Agenda, Blackheart (1998), A Beautiful Mind (2001), Egoyan’s Ararat (2002), Alexander (2004), Must Love Dogs, New World (2005), Inside Man, The Lake House (2006), Man in the Chair, Closing the Ring, Already Dead (2007), The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus, the Last Station (2009, Oscar Nomination for Best Supporting Actor), Beginners (2012, Winner of Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor), and All the Money in the World (2018, Oscar Nomination for Best Supporting Actor).
Television credits include Little Moon of Alban (BBC 1958, Emmy Nomination), Hamlet at Elsinore (BBC 1965, Emmy Nomination); The Money Changers (1977, Emmy Award Winner); Sir John A. Macdonald in Riel (CBC 1979); Spearfield's Daughter (1986); The Young Catherine (Primedia 1991); Counterstrike (1991-93); and Nuremberg (2000).
Plummer also works extensively in voice-over, covering material from cartoon series to documentaries, and audio-books to concert narrations. Most notably, Plummer provided the voice of Charles Muntz in the Academy Award Winner for Best Animated Film, Up (Pixar, 2009).
Plummer was inducted into the American Theatre Hall of Fame in 1986, and Canada’s Walk of Fame in 1997. He won a gold medal for Lifetime Achievement in the Arts from the National Arts Club of America in 1999, and received an honorary doctorate of Fine Arts from Julliard in 2001. Canadian honours include induction as a Companion of the Order of Canada in 1968, and a Canadian Governor-General’s Lifetime Achievement Award in 2001. Plummer was the first performer to win the Jason Robards Award for Excellent in Theatre, which he was granted in 2002.