Richard and my mom alerted me to the death of Christopher Plummer. Have you seen *Beginners,* the 2010 movie for which he received the Oscar for Best Supporting Actor? It's a sweet little movie and he gives such a lovely performance.
But of course he'll always be remembered as Captain von Trapp in *The Sound of Music.* Julie Andrews said that HE'S the reason the movie works - - it would be too sweet if it weren't for him, he balances things out and keeps things grounded. His performance of "Edelweiss" is touching, but my favorite moment is when he and Andrews do the Laendler. A moment of movie magic!
This is a fascinating quote from his NY Times obit. He did an interview with the Canadian Broadcasting Company (did you know that he was Canadian?) in 1967 and was asked if he had a theory why so many actors are hard drinkers. "The more you give to an audience, which is a tremendous amount that you give during a night if you care about your work, the more you spill out of yourself with either loathing or loving them and getting loathing and loving back. It’s a tremendous letdown when the evening is over. You’ve given an awful lot of your own personality with just the reward of applause at the end, which is a marvelous reward but it isn’t quite enough to fill the rest of the night.”
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