Christopher Plummer Of ‘Sound Of Music’ Fame Defiantly Reveals Why He’ll ‘Never Retire’

Christopher Plummer, who is best known for starring as Captain Georg von Trapp in the iconic 1965 movie The Sound Of Music, has had a hugely successful acting career both on the stage and screen that has spanned over seventy years. However, the Christmas-loving Academy Award winner has no intention of retiring anytime soon.

Christopher Plummer Defiantly Says He’ll Never Retire

“I would rather die right on stage doing my craft,” Plummer explained to Closer Weekly after turning 91 this past weekend. 

“Nobody retires in our profession. We just go on until we drop,” he added with a laugh. “And acting — learning all those lines — helps keep [the brain] alive.”

This week, Plummer is keeping busy narrating an audio version of A Nantucket Christmas Carol for a local Cape Cod radio station, and he also is appearing in the animated movie, Heroes of the Golden Mask. 

Plummer said he’s been careful during the coronavirus pandemic, staying close to the Connecticut home he shares with his wife Elaine Taylor, who he has been married to for over fifty years.

“[Elaine] knows how to cook organic food fantastically,” he explained. “It’s delicious and hardly any calories.”

Plummer has credited much of his longevity to this healthy diet, as well as to his exercise regimen of playing tennis and walking. 

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The Sound of Music Star Christopher Plummer’s Acting Career

Born in Montreal, Canada in 1929, Plummer got bitten by the acting bug when he was cast as Mr. Darcy in his high school production of Pride and Prejudice.

“I was very lucky,” he recalled. “I went to work professionally when I was 18, and I did not look back.” 

Though he’s more famous now for his movie roles, the stage was always Plummer’s first love.

“I was snobbish about movies,” he confessed. “I thought theater was the bee’s knees.”

Soon enough, however, Hollywood came calling, and Plummer was stunned when he quickly became an international sex symbol, a role he was never comfortable with.

“There’s nothing more boring than a leading man,” he scoffed. “I couldn’t wait until I was a character actor in my 40s. The roles immediately got more interesting and more diverse.”

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Looking To The Future

Some of Plummer’s best work has come later in his career.

At 82, he became the oldest actor to ever win an Oscar when he took him the Best Supporting Actor trophy for his work in Beginners.

These days, Christopher Plummer is looking forward to the Christmas season.

“Christmas has always been big for me because I grew up in Montreal and it’s cold and bitter, so you need cheer,” he said.

While Plummer has fun with the holidays, however, he still can’t wait to get back to work. 

“I’ve done more interesting stuff in the last five or six years than I’ve done all my life in the theater,” he said. “I don’t feel old. Never retire. Don’t want to. There [are] too many wonderful things to do.”

Now that’s the kind of attitude we like to see!

Here’s hoping that he had a great birthday, and that he celebrates many more in the years to come.

Enjoy this throwback Sound of Music clip which showcases Captain Von Trapp (Christopher Plummer) singing “Edelweiss” in his own voice.