Film
Plummer's eclectic career on screen began in 1958 when Sidney Lumet cast him as a young writer in Stage Struck. That same year, he also appeared in Nicholas Ray's film of Budd Schulberg's Wind Across the Everglades. He did not appear on-screen again for six years, until he appeared as the Emperor Commodus in Anthony Mann's epic The Fall of the Roman Empire (1964). His next film, the Oscar-winning The Sound of Music made cinematic history, becoming the all-time top-grossing film, eclipsing Gone With the Wind. (Gone With the Wind and The Sound of Music rank No. 1 and No. 3 all-time among the top grossing movies, when adjusted for inflation, as of 2010.)
Since appearing in the widely-popular Sound of Music, Plummer has appeared in a vast number of notable films, including Inside Daisy Clover (1965), The Night of the Generals (cameo as Field Marshal Erwin Rommel) (1967), Oedipus the King (1968), The Royal Hunt of the Sun (1969), Battle of Britain (1970), Waterloo (1970), The Man Who Would Be King (1975), The Return of the Pink Panther (1975), The Silent Partner (1978), International Velvet (1978), Murder by Decree (1979), Somewhere in Time (1980), Eyewitness (1981), Dragnet (1987), Shadow Dancing (1988), Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country (1991), Malcolm X (1992), Wolf (1994), Dolores Claiborne (1995), 12 Monkeys (1995), Syriana (2005), The New World (2005), and The Lake House (2006). In addition, when Rex Harrison was proving impossible to work with for the film adaptation of Doctor Dolittle, Plummer was cast to replace him. Although Harrison persuaded the producers to reverse the decision, Plummer was satisfied by receiving $87,500 just for signing the contract and didn't even miss a performance of his role in the stage play The Royal Hunt of the Sun during this incident.
One of Plummer's most critically acclaimed roles was that of television journalist Mike Wallace in Michael Mann's Oscar-nominated The Insider (1999), for which he won Boston, Los Angeles, and National Society of Film Critics Awards for 'Best Supporting Actor'; he was also nominated for Chicago and Las Vegas Film Critics Awards, as well as a Satellite Award. Predictions of an Oscar nomination circulated, but such recognition only came in January 2010 when Plummer received his first Academy Award nomination for his portrayal of author Leo Tolstoy in The Last Station (2009). Speaking to the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation in an interview that aired on March 7, 2010, Plummer appeared slightly irritated that it had taken so long to receive a personal Academy Award nomination, saying, "Well, I said it's about time! I mean, I'm 80 years old, for God's sake. Have mercy." Still, on Oscar night, March 7, 2010, Plummer lost the Best Supporting Actor nomination to Christoph Waltz in the Quentin Tarantino 2009 war film Inglourious Basterds. In 2012, he was nominated for his second Academy Award, again for Best Supporting Actor, for his performance in Beginners. He won the award on Oscar night, the 84th edition of the ceremony. This made him, at age 82, the oldest actor to win an Oscar. When he accepted the award, he first responded: "You're only two years older than me, darling. Where have you been all my life?"
Other recent successes include his roles as Dr. Rosen in Ron Howard's Academy Award-winning A Beautiful Mind (2001), Arthur Case in Spike Lee's 2006 film Inside Man, and the philosopher Aristotle in Alexander, alongside Colin Farrell. In 2004, Plummer played John Adams Gates in National Treasure.
Plummer has also done some voice work, such as his role of Henri the pigeon in An American Tail, the villainous Grand Duke of Owls in Rock-a-Doodle, the antagonistic Charles Muntz in Up and the elder leader 1 in the Tim Burton-produced action/science fiction film 9.
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Famous quotes containing the word film:
“The motion picture is like a picture of a lady in a half- piece bathing suit. If she wore a few more clothes, you might be intrigued. If she wore no clothes at all, you might be shocked. But the way it is, you are occupied with noticing that her knees are too bony and that her toenails are too large. The modern film tries too hard to be real. Its techniques of illusion are so perfect that it requires no contribution from the audience but a mouthful of popcorn.”
—Raymond Chandler (1888–1959)
“[Film noir] experiences periodic rebirth and rediscovery. Whenever we have any moment of deep societal rift or disruption in America, one of the ways we can express it is through the ideas and behavior in film noir.”
—John Briley (b. 1925)
“Film is more than the twentieth-century art. It’s another part of the twentieth-century mind. It’s the world seen from inside. We’ve come to a certain point in the history of film. If a thing can be filmed, the film is implied in the thing itself. This is where we are. The twentieth century is on film.... You have to ask yourself if there’s anything about us more important than the fact that we’re constantly on film, constantly watching ourselves.”
—Don Delillo (b. 1926)