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You could never do better than Christopher Plummer.
Even though he was 91,his death came as a shock.
He wasnt just a pro.
He won forBeginners, setting a record as the oldest performer to receive the award in that category.
Curse of the Pink Panther.
Oh, come on now, Plummer said, laughing.
Thats ridiculous, dont you think?
The focus was on Wallaces professional pride and integrity.
And what would have been the point of that?
People can turn on the TV every Sunday night and see the real Mike Wallace.
Plummer could be self-castigating.
And Plummer could be publicly critical of filmmakers hed worked with.
Plummer wasnt telling tales out of school, either.
He said the same things to Malick in a letter: I gave him shit.
Ill never work with him again.
Plummer was born in Toronto and raised in Senneville, Quebec.
But he could also be dashing and dangerously sexy, magnetic in a slightly unsettling way.
This is a film that wouldnt have worked as well with a different actor in the part.
Plummer could turn on the charm one moment, then scare the bejesus out of you the next.
Yet he never seemed to be trying to steal a scene or overshadow anyone else.
He was a calibrator, a team player.
Thats why everyone wanted to work with him.
Thats why screenwriters, filmmakers, and other actors adored him.
He brought the magic without making it seem like a magic trick.
Try and stay sober, he advised in his autobiography.
Until the curtain call.
And for Gods sake, have fun.
Dont suffer for your art.
He was married to the same woman, the actress Elaine Taylor, for 47 years.
Plummer had been married twice before that, to the actress Tammy Grimes and the journalist Patricia Lewis.
His daughter, Amanda Plummer, by Grimes, became an accomplished performer herself.
I am really very bad at responsibility of any kind, he once said.
Unless its my work, Im hopeless.
The work has lasted, and will last.
The future?In the future, Im going to do this?Become that?What future?
What you think is,How will I be regarded in the end?
