Christopher Plummer, 1929-2021

Opus 3 Artists mourns the passing of Christopher Plummer. His loss will be deeply felt in the worlds of theater, film, and classical music. He was a consummate artist, a perfect gentleman, and a warm and loving person. We extend our deepest condolences to Elaine, Amanda, and the entire Plummer family.

A prolific actor on stage and screen, Christopher Plummer was known as one of the pre-eminent Shakespeareans of our time. He set out to become a concert pianist before beginning his acting career which led to many acclaimed appearances as an orchestral narrator. In the concert world he appeared early as the narrator of Mendelssohn’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream with Sir Neville Marriner and the Academy of St Martin in the Fields. Mr. Plummer later developed an evening of Henry V excerpts, with music by Sir William Walton which became a signature piece. Inspired by those projects, he created a one-man show with orchestra entitled Shakespeare in Word and Music with Julian Armour, which premiered at the Music & Beyond Festival in Ottawa in 2011. Over the past year, Mr. Plummer had been working with conductor Peter Oundjian to revive Shakespeare in Word and Music for performance in future seasons, as well as a new project with composer Joel Thompson featuring texts by James Baldwin.