Star of stage and screen from the success of The Sound of Music to the powerful performances and Oscar recognition of his later years
Destined, or doomed, to be remembered as Captain von Trapp in the 1965 film of Rodgers and Hammerstein’s The Sound of Music, Christopher Plummer, who has died aged 91, was a tremendous actor, and leading star, on stage, screen and Alpine meadow for more than six decades.
With an imposing physique, a broad brow, sculpted features and a magnificent voice, he played almost all the leading Shakespearean roles – mostly in his native Canada, at the Stratford, Ontario, Shakespeare festival. But he also had brief spells with the Royal Shakespeare Company and the National Theatre in Britain, while maintaining a film career that never looked back after an auspicious debut in Sidney Lumet’s theatrical comedy Stage Struck (1958), alongside Henry Fonda and Susan Strasberg.
