Christopher Plummer (1929–2021)

I'm surprised by how much I enjoyed Christopher Plummer's memoirs. Plummer comes across as an irresponsible, self-centred, heavy-drinking womanizer, though, to his credit, he readily admits this. If you can get past this and are not offended by the bawdier passages, he has many wonderful stories to tell about his decades in theatre, film and television. Though most people know of him through The Sound of Music, that work seems to be among the least of his accomplishments.

Canadians especially show more will like Plummer's stories about his childhood in Quebec, his involvement with the Stratford Festival during its early years, and his observations on the relationships between French and English Canadians. It helps if you understand French, as there are French phrases sprinkled throughout the text.

Plummer's true love is the theatre, and in between the hilarious behind-the-scenes stories, he shows his appreciation and understanding of the works themselves. He quotes extensively from the texts and gives his views on how they should be interpreted. Plummer also name-drops at an incredible per-page rate, and he has great stories about many actors that you may know from old movies and TV shows but who also got their start on the stage. For example, William Shatner (Captain Kirk) was once his understudy at Stratford.

I wouldn't recommend this book to everyone. With 648 densely-packed pages, it's a long read, and Plummer spends a lot of time on details that might not be of wide interest. However, if you love theatre or old movies, you will find this book highly entertaining. show less

Christopher Plummer has got away with a lot in his long life. Part of this must be due to sheer luck. Given his appetite for alcohol, food, and women, all of which appears to be meticulously detailed in this autobiography, it's a miracle he's in the good shape he's in, or indeed, alive at all, given more than one close call (also carefully related). Another thing that gets him off is his extreme good looks. People are always more willing to forgive handsome and charming people. The third show more thing that excuses this over-the-top catalogue of questionable doings is Plummer's own self-deprecation. Sure, he tells tales, but mostly on himself.

Plummer is a smart man. He knows, more than most people, that it takes a dollop of healthy self-regard to survive in the theatre, movies and television, and there's absolutely no doubt that he has that in spades. However, he also knows that no one succeeds in acting purely through one's own doing. In fact, sometimes one succeeds in spite of oneself. (Apt title, Christopher!) Thus, Plummer is careful to give credit to those who gave him breaks, who performed brilliantly alongside him, who loved him and put up with him. The story of his Tony nomination for Iago in Othello is buried by his account of daughter Amanda's Plummer's Tony-win for Agnes of God in the very same year. (And he cheerfully admits that he was "a lousy father" to his only child.)

There's a lot to forgive in this book: the rather precious sprinkling of French throughout (yes, he grew up in Montreal, but really), the number of times he describes friendships in terms of being "inseparable", the often purple prose, the vague and often downright inaccurate references to actual historical events. Did he even have an editor? However, the anecdotes are amusing, his life story is fascinating, and if you check the list of his accomplishments, he's left out a great deal. All delivered with devilish charm.

Finally, given his long life and the huge range of his acting, we can certainly forgive the name-dropping. That's no doubt why we picked up the book in the first place. show less

This is a richly entertaining and splendidly written autobiography by a master at both acting and writing. Portions of it read like great poetry, yet there’s earthiness and plenty of dish, too. By all means, listen to Plummer’s reading of the audiobook if you can. His voice and narration are magical complements to the beautiful text.

What a wonderful, wonderful book! I always liked Christopher Plummer as an actor, and here he shows himself a raconteur of the finest quality.

It took me a while to get into the book, but what hooked me first were his descriptions of Montreal as he knew it in the forties as he was growing up and starting out as a young actor. He was an early devotee of night life, and he makes it sound exciting to share it with the people he knew.. That continues throughout the book. It is easy to see that he show more was not a good husband and father, he was always out partying or working hard at his craft. But given the people he knew and drank the night away with, how could he not have been a part of it?

He knew, or knows, the actors of at least three generations, stage and screen, British, American, Canadian, French, and other. Famous names pepper the story extravagantly. he is extraordinarily generous in the stories he tells of almost everyone - they all seem to have been creative geniuses and kind people to boot, even people that don't come off well in other memoirs, such as Rex Harrison. Even if he did not get along well with someone he may take the blame, or he finds a way to not blame them. He tells marvelous stories. Some actors I have always loved he tells lovely stories about, including Edward Everett Horton, who helped give him his start; Boris Karloff, a kind and gentle giant; Edith Evens, powerful and with great humor in her old age; and so many more up until the current day, including Russell Crowe.

There are wonderful pictures spread throughout the book. The dreadful terrible lack in the book is that it doesn't have an index. There are stories I wanted to share with a friend, but they are difficult to go back and find.

Plummer doesn't spare himself. He admits there were times he was too full of himself, times he didn't deal well in relationships. But he always seemed to have such excitement at being involved in this creative profession and dealing with so many creative individuals. He gives the reader that excitement as a present, shares it with us in full measure. It is a gem of a book and will be remembered in the future as a fine look at twentieth century theatrical history. show less