Christopher Plummer^†

He spent years doing Hamlet and Macbeth before The Sound of Music made him a household name he wasn't sure he wanted. He privately called it 'The Sound of Mucus,' found his character flat, and was furious when he discovered at the premiere that the studio had dubbed his singing without telling him. He didn't just resent the role; he resented what it did to how people saw him. But the film's commercial dominance was undeniable, and it launched him from a stage star into a film career that he'd spend decades trying to wrestle into something more interesting.

Most actors with a filmography this long would be coasting on nostalgia by 80. Plummer was still earning firsts. His Oscar for Beginners in 2012, at 82, made him the oldest acting winner in Academy history at the time. Then Ridley Scott called him in 2017, days before All the Money in the World's release, to reshoot every scene that had originally starred Kevin Spacey. He did it, finishing the reshoots in nine days. The film shipped on schedule. His career wasn't a legacy; it was still in progress.

He started as a would-be concert pianist, switched to acting after seeing Laurence Olivier's Henry V, and spent seven decades proving that was the right call. A great-grandson of Canadian Prime Minister Sir John Abbott, he came from pedigree but preferred stage. He turned down Gandalf in Lord of the Rings. His first wife was actress Tammy Grimes; their daughter Amanda Plummer also became a film actress. He has said he battled serious alcohol dependency through much of the 1970s and 1980s, which makes his late-career second wind feel less inevitable than it looked.

Julie Andrews said she had lost 'a cherished friend' in a public statement; Ridley Scott and Daniel Craig also issued tributes. He had completed filming on Season 2 of the TV thriller Departure shortly before his death; a planned production of King Lear in Newfoundland was cancelled. His manager described him as 'a National Treasure who deeply relished his Canadian roots.'