X

Christopher Plummer dies at 91: Actor starred in Sound of Music, Star Trek

Praise pours in for the legendary star of stage and screen, remembered as one of the greats.

Leslie Katz Former Culture Editor
Leslie Katz led a team that explored the intersection of tech and culture, plus all manner of awe-inspiring science, from space to AI and archaeology. When she's not smithing words, she's probably playing online word games, tending to her garden or referring to herself in the third person.
Credentials
  • Third place film critic, 2021 LA Press Club National Arts & Entertainment Journalism Awards
See full bio
Leslie Katz
2 min read
plummer

Christopher Plummer, seen here at the 90th Annual Academy Awards in 2018. That year, he was nominated as best supporting actor for All the Money in the World. 

 Steve Granitz/WireImage

Oscar-winning actor Christopher Plummer, whose versatile decades-long career included roles from Sound of Music to Star Trek, has died at 91. 

The actor died peacefully at his home in Connecticut with Elaine Taylor, his wife of 53 years, by his side, his family confirmed to Deadline Hollywood.  

Born in Canada, Plummer enjoyed a long and esteemed career on the stage and screen. Highlights included playing the suave and dashing Captain Von Trapp opposite Julie Andrews in the classic 1965 film The Sound of Music and portraying Rudyard Kipling in The Man Who Would Be King from 1975. 

He won an Oscar for the 2010 film Beginners, and became the oldest Oscar-nominated actor, at 88, for his role in All The Money In The World directed by Ridley Scott. He received other accolades as well, including two Tony Awards, two Emmy Awards, a Golden Globe Award and a Screen Actors Guild Award.  

Plummer most recently co-starred as a stern elder statesman with a twinkle in his eye in Knives Out, a star-studded murder mystery from Star Wars director Rian Johnson. "What an unbelievable loss," Chris Evans, his co-star in that film, tweeted Friday. "Few careers have such longevity and impact."  

Plummer played many classic Shakespearean characters with the UK's Royal Shakespeare Company and left an indelible mark on the Star Trek universe with his Shakespeare-quoting role as Klingon General Chang in the 1991 movie Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country. His memorable delivery of lines like "Cry havoc and let slip the dogs of war!" will forever resonate in the fandom. 

"Christopher Plummer delivering Shakespeare as a megalomaniacal Klingon general in The Undiscovered Country is a real highlight in my film-loving life," one fan tweeted.  

Fans and fellow performers paid widespread tribute to Plummer on Friday as news of his death spread. "Inspirational on so many levels, but even more so because of his commitment to artistry and the craft even into his twilight years," tweeted Lou Diamond Phillips. Joseph Gordon-Levitt kept it simple: "One of the greats."