12 Monkeys is a 1995 science fiction film directed by Terry Gilliam, inspired by Chris Marker's 1962 short film La jetée, and starring Bruce Willis, Madeleine Stowe, and Brad Pitt, with Christopher Plummer and David Morse in supporting roles.

After Universal Studios acquired the rights to remake La Jetée as a full-length film, David and Janet Peoples were hired to write the script. Under Terry Gilliam's direction, Universal granted the filmmakers a $29.5 million budget, and filming lasted from February to May 1995. The film was shot mostly in Philadelphia and Baltimore, where the story was set.

The film was released to critical praise and grossed approximately $168.4 million worldwide. Brad Pitt was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor, and won a Golden Globe for his performance. The film also won and was nominated for various categories at the Saturn Awards.

Plot[link]

James Cole (Willis) is a convicted criminal living in a grim post-apocalyptic future. In 1996–97, the Earth's surface was contaminated by a virus so deadly that it forced the surviving population to live underground. To earn a pardon, Cole allows scientists to send him on dangerous missions to the past to collect information on the virus, thought to be released by a terrorist organization known as the Army of the Twelve Monkeys. If possible, he is to obtain a pure sample of the original virus so a cure can be made. Throughout the film, Cole is troubled with recurring dreams involving a chase and a shooting in an airport.

On Cole's first trip, he arrives in Baltimore in 1990, not 1996 as planned. He is arrested and hospitalized in a mental institution on the diagnosis of Dr. Kathryn Railly (Stowe). There, he encounters Jeffrey Goines (Pitt), a fellow mental patient with fanatical animal rights and anti-consumerist leanings. Cole tries unsuccessfully to leave a voicemail on a number monitored by the scientists in the future. After a failed escape attempt, Cole is restrained and locked in a cell, but then disappears, returning to the future. Back in his own time, Cole is interviewed by the scientists, who play a distorted voice mail message which gives the location of the Army of the Twelve Monkeys and states that they are responsible for the virus. He is also shown photos of numerous people suspected of being involved with the virus, including Goines. The scientists then send him back to 1996.

Cole kidnaps Railly and sets out in search of Goines, learning that he is the founder of the Army of the Twelve Monkeys. When confronted, however, Goines denies any involvement with the virus and suggests that wiping out humanity was Cole's idea, originally broached at the asylum in 1990. Cole vanishes again as the police approach. After Cole disappears, Railly begins to doubt her diagnosis of Cole when she finds evidence that he is telling the truth, including a photograph from World War I in which Cole appears. Cole, on the other hand, convinces himself that his future experiences are hallucinations, and persuades the scientists to send him back again. Railly attempts to settle the question of Cole's sanity by leaving a voice mail on the number he provided, creating the message the scientists played prior to his second mission. They both now realize that the coming plague is real, and make plans to enjoy the time they have left.

On their way to the airport, they learn that the Army of the Twelve Monkeys is a red herring; all the Army has done is delay traffic by releasing all the animals in the zoo. At the airport, Cole leaves a last message telling the scientists they are on the wrong track following the Army of the Twelve Monkeys, and that he will not return. He is soon confronted by Jose (Jon Seda), an acquaintance from his own time, who gives Cole a handgun and instructions to complete his mission. At the same time, Railly spots the true culprit behind the virus: Dr. Peters (David Morse), an assistant at the Goines virology lab. Peters is about to embark on a tour of several cities around the world, which matches the sequence (memorized by Cole) of viral outbreaks. Cole, while fighting through security, is fatally shot as he tries to stop Peters. As Cole dies in Railly's arms, she makes eye contact with a small boy – the young James Cole witnessing his own death; the scene that will replay in his dreams for years to come. Dr. Peters, aboard the plane with the plague, sits down next to Jones (Carol Florence), one of the lead scientists in the future.

Cast[link]

• Bruce Willis as James Cole
• Madeleine Stowe as Kathryn Railly
• Brad Pitt as Jeffrey Goines
• Christopher Plummer as Dr. Goines
• Jon Seda as Jose
• Christopher Meloni as Lt. Halperin
• David Morse as Dr. Peters
• Frank Gorshin as Dr. Fletcher
• Vernon Campbell as Tiny
• Lisa Gay Hamilton as Teddy
• Bob Adrian as Geologist
• Simon Jones as Zoologist
• Carol Florence as Astrophysicist/Jones
• Bill Raymond as Microbiologist
• Thomas Roy as a street preacher

Production[link]

Development[link]

The genesis of 12 Monkeys came from executive producer Robert Kosberg, who had been a fan of the French short film La jetée (1962). Kosberg persuaded the film's director, Chris Marker, to let him pitch the project to Universal Pictures, seeing it as a perfect basis for a full-length science fiction film. Universal reluctantly agreed to purchase the remake rights and hired David and Janet Peoples to write the screenplay.^[1] Producer Charles Roven chose Terry Gilliam to direct because he believed the filmmaker's style was perfect for 12 Monkeys' nonlinear storyline and time travel subplot.^[2] Gilliam had just abandoned a film adaptation of A Tale of Two Cities when he signed to direct 12 Monkeys.^[3] The film also represents the second film for which Gilliam did not write or co-write the screenplay. Although he prefers to direct his own scripts, he was captivated by the Peoples' "intriguing and intelligent script. The story is disconcerting. It deals with time, madness and a perception of what the world is or isn't. It is a study of madness and dreams, of death and re-birth, set in a world coming apart."^[2]

Universal took longer than expected to approve 12 Monkeys, although Gilliam had two stars (Bruce Willis and Brad Pitt) and a firm budget of $29.5 million (low for a Hollywood science fiction film). Universal's production of Waterworld (1995) had resulted in various cost overruns. To get 12 Monkeys approved for production, Gilliam convinced Willis to lower his normal asking price.^[4] Because of Universal's strict production incentives and his previous history with the studio on Brazil (1985), Gilliam received the right of final cut privilege. The Writers Guild of America was also skeptical of the "inspired by" credit for La Jetée and Chris Marker.^[5]

Casting[link]

Gilliam's initial casting choices were Nick Nolte as James Cole and Jeff Bridges as Jeffrey Goines, but Universal objected.^[3] Gilliam, who first met Bruce Willis while casting Jeff Bridges' role in The Fisher King (1991), believed Willis evoked Cole's characterization as being "somebody who is strong and dangerous but also vulnerable."^[2] The actor had a trio of tattoos drawn onto his scalp and neck each day when filming: one that indicated his prisoner number, and a pair of barcodes on each side of his neck.

Gilliam cast Madeleine Stowe as Dr. Kathryn Railly because he was impressed by her performance in Blink (1994).^[2] The director first met Stowe when he was casting his abandoned film adaptation of A Tale of Two Cities.^[3] "She has this incredible ethereal beauty and she's incredibly intelligent", Gilliam said of Stowe. "Those two things rest very easily with her, and the film needed those elements because it has to be romantic."^[2]

Gilliam originally believed that Pitt was not right for the role of Jeffrey Goines, but the casting director convinced him otherwise.^[3] Pitt was cast for a relatively small salary, when he was still relatively unknown. By the time of 12 Monkeys' release, however, Interview with the Vampire: The Vampire Chronicles (1994), Legends of the Fall (1994), and Se7en (1995) had been released, making Pitt an A-list actor, which drew greater attention to the film and boosted its box-office standing. In Philadelphia, months before filming, Pitt spent weeks at Temple University's hospital, visiting and studying the psychiatric ward to prepare for his role.^[2]

Filming[link]

Filming for 12 Monkeys lasted from February 8 to May 6, 1995. Shooting on location in Philadelphia and Baltimore (including the Senator Theatre)^[6][7] in winter was fraught with weather problems. There were also technical glitches with the futuristic mechanical props. Because the film has a nonlinear storyline, continuity errors occurred, and some scenes had to be reshot. Gilliam also injured himself when he went horseback riding. Despite setbacks, however, the director managed to stay within the budget and was only a week behind his shooting schedule. "It was a tough shoot", acknowledged Jeffrey Beecroft (Mr. Brooks, Dances with Wolves), the production designer. "There wasn't a lot of money or enough time. Terry is a perfectionist, but he was really adamant about not going over budget. He got crucified for Munchausen, and that still haunts him."^[6]

The filmmakers were not allowed the luxury of sound stages; thus, they had to find abandoned buildings or landmarks to use.^[5] The exteriors of the climactic airport scene were shot at the Baltimore-Washington International Airport, while the interior scenes were shot at the Pennsylvania Convention Center (formerly, Reading Terminal). Filming at the psychiatric hospital was done at the Eastern State Penitentiary.^[8]

Design[link]

Gilliam undertook the same filmmaking style from his own Brazil (1985), including the art direction and cinematography (specifically using fresnel lenses).^[4] The interrogation room where Cole is being interviewed by the scientists was based on the work of Lebbeus Woods; these scenes were shot at three different power stations (two in Philadelphia and one in Baltimore). Gilliam intended to show Cole being interviewed through a multi-screen interrogation TV set because he felt the machinery evoked a "nightmarish intervention of technology. You try to see the faces on the screens in front of you, but the real faces and voices are down there and you have these tiny voices in your ear. To me that's the world we live in, the way we communicate these days, through technical devices that pretend to be about communication but may not be."^[9]

The art department made sure that the 2035 underground world would only use pre-1996 technology as a means to depict the bleak future. Also, Gilliam, Beecroft, and Crispian Sallis (set decorator) went to several flea markets and salvage warehouses looking for materials to decorate the sets.^[2] To create the majority of visual effects sequences, Gilliam awarded the shots to Peerless Camera, the London-based effects studio he founded in the late-1970s with visual effects supervisor Kent Houston (The Golden Compass, Casino Royale). Additional digital compositing was done by The Mill, while Cinesite worked on film scanning services.^[2]

Music[link]

The film's score was composed, arranged, and conducted by English musician Paul Buckmaster. The main theme is based on Argentinian tango musician and composer Ástor Piazzolla's Suite Punta del Este.^[10]

Themes[link]

Memory, time, and technology[link]

12 Monkeys studies the subjective nature of memories and their effect upon perceptions of reality. Examples of false memories include:^[5]

• Cole's recollection of the airport shooting, which is altered each time he has a dream.
• A "mentally divergent" man at the asylum who has false memories.
• Cole telling Railly "I remember you like this" when they are seen in disguise for the first time.

References to time, time travel, and monkeys are scattered throughout the film, including the Woody Woodpecker cartoon "Time Tunnel" playing on the TV in a hotel room, the Marx Brothers film Monkey Business (1931) on TV in the asylum and the subplots of monkeys (drug testing, news stories and animal rights). The film is also a study of modern civilization's declining efforts to communicate with each other due to the interference of technology.^[5]

Cinematic allusions[link]

12 Monkeys is inspired by the French short film La jetée (1962), specifically, both protagonists being haunted by the image of their own death. The climaxes for both films also take place in an airport.^[8]

Like La Jetée, 12 Monkeys contains references to Alfred Hitchcock's Vertigo (1958). Toward the end of the film, Cole and Railly hide in a theater showing a 24-hour Hitchcock marathon and watch a scene from Vertigo. Railly then transforms herself with a blonde wig, as Judy (Kim Novak) transformed herself into blonde Madeleine in Vertigo; James sees her emerge within a red light, as Scottie (James Stewart) saw Judy emerge within a green light.^[8] Brief notes of Bernard Herrmann's film score can also be heard. Railly also wears the same coat Novak wore in the first part of Vertigo. The scene at Muir Woods National Monument, where Judy (as Madeleine) looks at the growth rings of a felled redwood and traces back events in her past life, resonates with larger themes in 12 Monkeys'. Cole and Railly later have a similar conversation while the same music from Vertigo is repeated.^[8] The Muir Woods scene in Vertigo is also re-enacted in La Jetée.

In a previous scene in the film, Cole wakes up in a hospital bed with scientists of the future talking to him in chorus. This is a direct homage to the "Dry Bones" scene in Dennis Potter's The Singing Detective.^[11]

Reception[link]

Release[link]

12 Monkeys was given a limited release in the United States on December 29, 1995. When the 1,629 theater wide release came on January 5, 1996, the film earned $13.84 million in its opening weekend. 12 Monkeys eventually grossed $57.14 million in US totals and $111.7 million in other countries, coming to a worldwide total of $168.84 million.^[12] The film was able to hold the #1 spot on box office charts for two weeks in January, before dropping to competition from From Dusk till Dawn, Mr. Holland's Opus and Black Sheep.^[13]

Universal Studios Home Entertainment's special edition of 12 Monkeys, released on May 10, 2005, contains an audio commentary by director Terry Gilliam and producer Charles Roven, The Hamster Factor and Other Tales of Twelve Monkeys (a making-of documentary) and production notes.^[14]

A HD DVD of 12 Monkeys was released on March 4, 2008, and includes the same special features as the special edition DVD.^[15]

A Blu-ray Disc of 12 Monkeys was released on July 28, 2009, and includes the same special features as the previous special edition DVD and HD DVD.^[16]

Critical reception[link]

The film received a positive response from critics. Based on 56 reviews collected by Rotten Tomatoes, 88% of the critics enjoyed 12 Monkeys with an average rating of 7.4/10. The consensus reads: "The plot's a bit of a jumble, but excellent performances and mind-blowing plot twists make 12 Monkeys a kooky, effective experience."^[17] The film was more balanced with Rotten Tomatoes' 20 reviewers in the "Top Critics" poll, receiving an 85% approval rating and a 6.9/10 score.^[18] By comparison, Metacritic calculated a 74/100 rating, based on 20 reviews.^[19]

Roger Ebert observed 12 Monkeys' depiction of the future, finding similarities with Blade Runner (1982; also scripted by David Peoples) and Brazil (1985; also directed by Terry Gilliam). "The film is a celebration of madness and doom, with a hero who tries to prevail against the chaos of his condition, and is inadequate", Ebert wrote. "This vision is a cold, dark, damp one, and even the romance between Willis and Stowe feels desperate rather than joyous. All of this is done very well, and the more you know about movies (especially the technical side), the more you're likely to admire it. And as entertainment, it appeals more to the mind than to the senses."^[20]

Desson Thomson of The Washington Post praised the art direction and set design. "Willis and Pitts's performances, Gilliam's atmospherics and an exhilarating momentum easily outweigh such trifling flaws in the script", Thomson reasoned.^[21] Peter Travers from Rolling Stone magazine cited the film's success on Gilliam's direction and Willis' performance.^[22] Internet reviewer James Berardinelli believed the filmmakers took an intelligent and creative motive for the time travel subplot. Rather than being sent to change the past, James Cole is instead observing it to make a better future.^[23] Richard Corliss of Time magazine felt the film's time travel aspect and apocalyptic depiction of a bleaker future was overtly cliché. "In its frantic mix of chaos, carnage and zoo animals, 12 Monkeys is Jumanji for adults", Corliss wrote.^[24]

Awards and nominations[link]

Brad Pitt was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor, but lost to Kevin Spacey in The Usual Suspects. Costume designer Julie Weiss (Hollywoodland, Frida) was also nominated for her work, but lost to James Acheson of Restoration.^[25] However, Pitt was able to win a Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actor in a Motion Picture.^[26] Terry Gilliam was honored for his directing duties at the 46th Berlin International Film Festival.^[8] 12 Monkeys received positive notices from the science fiction community. The film was nominated for the Hugo Award for Best Dramatic Presentation^[27] and the Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy & Horror Films awarded 12 Monkeys the Saturn Award for Best Science Fiction Film. Pitt and Weiss also won awards at the 22nd Saturn Awards. Bruce Willis, Madeleine Stowe, Gilliam and writers David and Janet Peoples received nominations.^[28]

Lebbeus Woods lawsuit[link]

In the beginning of the film, James is brought into the interrogation room and told to sit in a chair which is attached to a vertical rail on the wall. A sphere supported by a metal armature is suspended directly in front of him, probing for weaknesses as the inquisitors interrogate him.^[29] Architect Lebbeus Woods filed a lawsuit against Universal in February 1996, claiming that his work "Neomechanical Tower (Upper) Chamber" was used without permission. Woods won his lawsuit, requiring Universal to remove the scenes, but he ultimately allowed their inclusion in exchange for a "a high six-figure cash settlement" from Universal.^[29]

References[link]

External links[link]

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: 12 Monkeys

• 12 Monkeys at the Internet Movie Database
• 12 Monkeys at AllRovi
• 12 Monkeys at Rotten Tomatoes
• 12 Monkeys at Box Office Mojo

Christopher Plummer
Plummer at the Doctor Parnassus premiere – September 18, 2009 – Roy Thomson Hall
Born	Arthur Christopher Orme Plummer (1929-12-13) December 13, 1929 (age 82) Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Residence	Weston, Connecticut, U.S.
Nationality	Canadian
Alma mater	Canadian Repertory Theatre
Occupation	Actor
Years active	1953–present
Home town	Senneville, Quebec, Canada
Spouse	Tammy Grimes (1956–60; divorced) Patricia Lewis (1962–67; divorced) Elaine Taylor (1970–present)
Children	Amanda Plummer (with Tammy Grimes)
Relatives	John Abbott (great-grandfather)
Awards	Academy Award, Tony Awards, Emmy Awards, SAG Award, BAFTA Award, Golden Globe Award

Arthur Christopher Orme Plummer, CC (born December 13, 1929) is a Canadian theatre, film and television actor. He made his film debut in 1958's Stage Struck, and notable early film performances include The Night of the Generals, The Return of the Pink Panther, and The Man Who Would Be King.

In a career that spans seven decades and includes substantial roles in each of the dramatic arts, Plummer is probably best known to audiences as the autocratic widower Captain Georg Ludwig von Trapp in the hit 1965 musical film The Sound of Music alongside Julie Andrews.^[1] Plummer has also ventured into various television projects, including the legendary miniseries The Thorn Birds.

His most recent film roles include the The Insider as Mike Wallace, the Disney-Pixar 2009 film Up as Charles Muntz, the Shane Acker production 9 as 1, The Last Station as Leo Tolstoy, The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus as Doctor Parnassus, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo as Henrik Vanger, and Beginners as Hal.

Plummer has won numerous awards and accolades for his work, including an Academy Award, two Emmy Awards, two Tony Awards, a Golden Globe Award, a SAG Award, and a BAFTA Award. With his win at the age of 82 in 2012 for Beginners, Plummer is the oldest actor ever to win an Academy Award.

Early life[link]

Plummer was born in Toronto, Ontario, the son of Isabella Mary (née Abbott) and John Orme Plummer, who was secretary to the Dean of Sciences at McGill University. Through his mother, Plummer is a great-grandson of Canadian Prime Minister Sir John Abbott,^[2] and a great-great-grandson of Anglican clergyman and McGill acting president John Bethune.^[3] Plummer was an only child. His parents were divorced shortly after he was born, and he was brought up at the Abbott family home in Senneville, Quebec, outside Montreal. He is bilingual.^[4][5] He studied to be a concert pianist, but developed a love for the theatre at an early age, and began acting in high school. Plummer took up acting after seeing Laurence Olivier's film Henry V (1944).^[6] He travelled by train to gain experience with the Canadian Repertory Theatre (the CRT) in Ottawa.

Theatre[link]

Christopher Plummer has played many of the great roles in classic repertoire. He did his apprenticeship with the Canadian Repertory Company (Ottawa, Ontario) from 1948–50, appearing in 75 roles, including Cymbeline in 1948 and The Rivals in 1950. He acted with the Bermuda Repertory Theatre in 1952, appearing in many plays, including The Playboy of the Western World, The Royal Family, The Little Foxes, The Petrified Forest, and The Constant Wife.

Broadway[link]

Plummer made his Broadway debut in January 1953 in The Starcross Story, a flop that closed on opening night. His next Broadway appearance, Home is the Hero, lasted 30 performances in September–October 1954. He appeared in support of Broadway legend Katharine Cornell and movie legend Tyrone Power in The Dark is Light Enough, which lasted 69 performances in February–April 1955. The play also toured several cities, with Plummer serving as Power's understudy. (In his autobiography, Plummer states that Cornell was his 'sponsor.'^[7]). Later that year, he appeared in his first hit on Broadway, co-starring with Julie Harris (who won a Tony Award) in Jean Anouilh's The Lark.

After appearing in another flop, Night of the Auk, Plummer was in another hit, Elia Kazan's production of Archibald MacLeish's Pulitzer Prize-winning play J.B., for which he was nominated for his first Tony Award as Best Actor in Play. (J.B. also won Tonies as Best Play and for Kazan's direction.)

Plummer appeared less frequently on Broadway in the 1960s as he moved from New York to London. He appeared in the title role in a 1963 production of Bertolt Brecht's The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui, which flopped, but he had a great success in Peter Shaffer's The Royal Hunt of the Sun, playing conquistador Francisco Pizarro to David Carradine's Tony Award-nominated Atahuallpa. (In the 1969 film adaptation, Plummer would take the Atahuallpa role.)

From May to June 1973, he appeared on Broadway as the swordsman and poet Cyrano de Bergerac in Cyrano, a musical adaptation of Edmond Rostand's 1897 play Cyrano de Bergerac by Anthony Burgess (libretto and lyrics) and Michael J. Lewis (music). For that performance, Plummer won the Tony Award for Best Actor in a Musical and a Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Performance. Later that year, he played Anton Chekhov in Neil Simon's adaptation of several Chekhov short stories, The Good Doctor, which was a hit.

In the 1980s, he appeared on Broadway in two Shakespearean tragedies, Othello, playing Iago to James Earl Jones' Moor, and the title role in Macbeth with Glenda Jackson playing his lady. His Iago brought him another Tony nomination.

He appeared with Jason Robards in the 1994 revival of Harold Pinter's No Man's Land and scored one of his greatest successes in 1997 in Barrymore, which he also toured with after a successful Broadway run. His turn as John Barrymore brought him his second Tony Award (this time as Best Actor in Play) and a Drama Desk Award as Outstanding Actor in a Play. He also was nominated for a Tony Award and a Drama Desk Award for his 2004 King Lear and for a Tony playing Henry Drummond in the 2007 revival of Inherit the Wind.

Stratford Festival[link]

Plummer made his debut at the Stratford Shakespeare Festival (Stratford, Ontario) in 1956, playing the title role in Henry V, which subsequently was performed that year at the Edinburgh Festival ( Edinburgh, Scotland). He played the title role in Hamlet and Sir Andrew Aguecheek in Twelfth Night at Stratford in 1957. The following year, he played Leontes in The Winter's Tale, Bardolph, in Henry IV, Part 1, and Benedick in Much Ado About Nothing. In 1960, he played Philip the Bastard in King John and Mercutio in Romeo and Juliet. In 1962, he played the title roles in both Cyrano de Bergerac and Macbeth then returned in 1967 to play Mark Antony in Antony and Cleopatra.^[8]

In 2002, he appeared in a lauded production of King Lear, directed by Jonathan Miller.^[9] The production successfully transferred to New York City's Lincoln Center in 2004.^[10]

Plummer returned to the stage at the Stratford Shakespeare Festival in August 2008 in a critically acclaimed performance as Julius Caesar in George Bernard Shaw's Caesar and Cleopatra directed by Tony winner Des McAnuff; this production was videotaped and shown in high-definition in Canadian cinemas on January 31, 2009 (with an encore presentation on February 23, 2009) and broadcast on April 4, 2009 on Bravo! in Canada. Plummer once again returned to the Stratford Festival in the summer of 2010 in The Tempest as the lead character, Prospero.

England[link]

In April 1961, he appeared as Benedick in Much Ado About Nothing with the Royal Shakespeare Company at the Shakespeare Memorial Theatre (Stratford-Upon-Avon, England). He also appeared with the RSC in May 1961 in the lead role of Richard III. He made his London debut on June 11, 1961 playing King Henry II in Jean Anouilh's Becket with the RSC at the Aldwych Theatre, directed by Peter Hall. The production later transferred to the Globe for a December 1961 to April 1962 run.^[8] For his performance, Plummer won the Evening Standard Award for Best Actor.^[11]

From June 1971 to January 1972, he appeared at the National Theatre, acting in repertory for the season. The plays he appeared in where Jean Giraudoux's Amphitryon 38 directed by Laurence Olivier;^[12] Georg Büchner's Danton's Death (director Jonathan Miller); Adrian Mitchell's Tyger; Luigi Pirandello's The Rules of the Game; and Eugene O'Neill' Long Day's Journey Into Night at the New Theatre in London.^[13]

Other venues[link]

Edward Everett Horton hired Plummer to appear as Gerard in the 1953 road show production of Andre Roussin's Nina,^[14] a role originated on Broadway by David Niven in 1951.^[15] He appeared as Jason opposite Dame Judith Anderson in Robinson Jeffers' adaptation of Medea at the Theatre Sara Bernhardt in Paris in 1955. The American National Theatre and Academy production, directed by Guthrie McClintic, was part of Le Festival International.

Also in 1955, he played Mark Antony in Julius Caesar and Ferdinand in The Tempest at the American Shakespeare Festival (Stratford, Connecticut). He returned to the American Shakespeare Festival in 1981 to play the title role in Henry V.^[8]

Plummer appeared in Lovers and Madmen at the Opera House, Kennedy Center, Washington, D.C. in 1973 and in Love and Master Will at the same venue in 1975.^[16] Love and Master Will consisted of selections from the works of William Shakespeare on the subject of love, arranged by Plummer. His co-stars were Zoe Caldwell, Bibi Andersson, and Leonard Nimoy.

He played the part of Edgar in E.L. Doctorow's Drinks before Dinner with the New York Shakespeare Festival at the Public/Newman Theatre in New York City in 1978.

Film[link]

Photograph by Carl Van Vechten, 1959.

Plummer's eclectic career on screen began in 1958 when Sidney Lumet cast him as a young writer in Stage Struck. That same year, he also appeared in Nicholas Ray's film of Budd Schulberg's Wind Across the Everglades. He did not appear on-screen again for six years, until he appeared as the Emperor Commodus in Anthony Mann's blockbuster The Fall of the Roman Empire (1964). His next film, the Oscar-winning The Sound of Music made cinematic history, becoming the all-time top-grossing film, eclipsing Gone With the Wind. (Gone With the Wind and The Sound of Music rank No. 1 and No. 3 all-time among the top grossing movies, when adjusted for inflation, as of 2010.^[17])

Since appearing in the phenomenal Sound of Music, Plummer has appeared in a vast number of notable films, including Inside Daisy Clover (1965), The Night of the Generals (cameo as Field Marshal Erwin Rommel) (1967), Oedipus the King (1968), The Royal Hunt of the Sun (1969), Battle of Britain (1970), Waterloo (1970), The Man Who Would Be King (1975), The Return of the Pink Panther (1975), The Silent Partner (1978), International Velvet (1978), Murder by Decree (1979), Somewhere in Time (1980), Eyewitness (1981), Dragnet (1987), Shadow Dancing (1988), Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country (1991), Malcolm X (1992), Wolf (1994), Dolores Claiborne (1995), 12 Monkeys (1995), Syriana (2005), The New World (2005), and The Lake House (2006). In addition, when Rex Harrison was proving impossible to work with for the film adaptation of Doctor Dolittle, Plummer was cast to replace him. Although Harrison persuaded the producers to reverse the decision, Plummer was satisfied by receiving $87,500 just for signing the contract and didn't even miss a performance of his role in the stage play The Royal Hunt of the Sun during this incident.^[18]

One of Plummer's most critically acclaimed roles was that of television journalist Mike Wallace in Michael Mann's Oscar-nominated The Insider (1999), for which he won Boston, Los Angeles, and National Society of Film Critics Awards for 'Best Supporting Actor'; he was also nominated for Chicago and Las Vegas Film Critics Awards, as well as a Satellite Award. Predictions of an Oscar nomination circulated, but such recognition only came in January 2010 when Plummer received his first Academy Award nomination for his portrayal of author Leo Tolstoy in The Last Station (2009).^[19] Speaking to the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation in an interview that aired on March 7, 2010,^[20] Plummer appeared slightly irritated that it had taken so long to receive a personal Academy Award nomination, saying, "Well, I said it's about time! I mean, I'm 80 years old, for God's sake. Have mercy." Still, on Oscar night, March 7, 2010, Plummer lost the Best Supporting Actor nomination to Christoph Waltz in the Quentin Tarantino 2009 war film Inglourious Basterds.^[21] In 2012, he was nominated for his second Academy Award, again for Best Supporting Actor, for his performance in Beginners. He won the award on Oscar night, the 84th edition of the ceremony. This made him, at age 82, the oldest actor to win an Oscar. When he accepted the award, he first responded: "You're only two years older than me, darling. Where have you been all my life?"^[22]

Other recent successes include his roles as Dr. Rosen in Ron Howard's Academy Award-winning A Beautiful Mind (2001), Arthur Case in Spike Lee's 2006 film Inside Man, and the philosopher Aristotle in Alexander, alongside Colin Farrell. In 2004, Plummer played John Adams Gates in National Treasure.

Plummer has also done some voice work, such as his role of Henri the pigeon in An American Tail, the villainous Grand Duke of Owls in Rock-a-Doodle, the antagonistic Charles Muntz in Up and the elder leader 1 in the Tim Burton-produced action/science fiction film 9.

Documentaries[link]

In 1963, he was the subject of a short National Film Board of Canada documentary, 30 Minutes, Mister Plummer, directed by Anne Claire Poirier.^[23]

In 2011, Plummer appeared in the feature length documentary The Captains. The film, which was written and directed by William Shatner, sees Shatner interview Plummer at the Stratford Shakespeare Festival Theatre where they talk about their young careers, long lasting friendship, and Plummer's role as General Chang in Star Trek VI. The film also mentions how Shatner was Plummer's understudy for a production of Henry V at the Stratford Shakespeare Festival; and that after Plummer had fallen ill, Shatner was forced to take the stage, and thus earned his first big break.^[24]

[edit] The Sound of Music

Owing to the box office success and continued popularity of The Sound of Music (1965), Plummer remains best known for his portrayal of Captain Von Trapp, a role he reportedly disliked.^[25] He declined to attend the 40th Anniversary cast reunion, but did provide commentary on the 2005 DVD release. Plummer relented in 2010 for the 45th anniversary, and appeared with the full cast on The Oprah Winfrey Show on October 28, 2010.

Said Plummer of the movie and his role in a December 2009 interview, “I was a bit bored with the character (of Captain Von Trapp)," said Plummer. “Although we worked hard enough to make him interesting, it was a bit like flogging a dead horse. And the subject matter is not mine. I mean, it can’t appeal to every person in the world."^[1] However, Plummer admits the movie itself was well made and, despite his reservations, is proud to be associated with a film with such mass appeal. "The world has seen (The Sound of Music) so many times. And there’s a whole new generation every year—poor kids—that have to sit through it (laughs). But it was a very well-made movie, and it’s a family movie and we haven't seen a family movie, I don't think, on that scale for ages. I don’t mind that. It just happened to be not my particular cup of tea."^[26]

Television[link]

Christopher Plummer made his television debut in the February 1953 Canadian Broadcasting Corporation production of Othello, starring Lorne Green as the Moor.^[27] He appeared regularly on American television throughout the 1950s, appearing on both dramatic showcase programs like The Alcoa Hour, G.E. True Theater, Kraft Theatre and Omnibus and episodic series. In 1956, he appeared with Jason Robards and Constance Ford in an episode entitled "A Thief There Was" of CBS's anthology series Appointment with Adventure.

In 1958, he appeared in the TV movie Little Moon of Alban with Julie Harris, for which he received his first Emmy Award nomination. He also appeared with Harris in the 1958 TV adaptation of Johnny Belinda and played Torvald Helmer to Harris' Nora in the 1959 adaptation of Henrik Ibsen's A Doll's House. He also starred in the TV adaptations of Philip Barry's The Philadelphia Story (1959), Bernard Shaw's Captain Brassbound's Conversion (1960), Jean Anouilh's Time Remembered (playing the role of Prince Albert originated by Richard Burton on Broadway^[28]), and Edmond Rostand's Cyrano de Bergerac (1962). In 1964, his performance of the Gloomy Dane in the BBC production Hamlet at Elsinore garnered his second Emmy nomination.^[29] Another notable play he appeared in was the 1974 adaptation of Arthur Miller's After the Fall, in which he played Quentin (a part originated on Broadway by Jason Robards^[30]) to Faye Dunaway's Maggie.

He has acted in nearly 100 TV roles in all, including appearances in Jesus of Nazareth, the five-time Emmy Award-winning The Thorn Birds, the Emmy-winning Nuremberg, the Emmy-winning Little Moon of Alban and the Emmy-winning Moneychangers (for which he won his first Emmy as Outstanding Lead Actor in a Limited Series).^[31]

He co-starred in American Tragedy as F. Lee Bailey (for which he received a Golden Globe Nomination), and appeared in Four Minute Mile, Miracle Planet, and a documentary by Ric Burns about Eugene O'Neill. He received an Emmy nomination for his performance in Our Fathers and reunited with Julie Andrews for a television production of On Golden Pond. He also played Herod Antipas in the miniseries, Jesus of Nazareth and was the narrator for The Gospel of John. He also co-starred with Gregory Peck in The Scarlet and The Black.

He narrated the animated television series Madeline, for which he received an Emmy,^[32] as well as the animated television series David the Gnome.

Other works[link]

Christopher Plummer has also written for the stage, television and the concert-hall. Plummer and Sir Neville Marriner rearranged Shakespeare’s Henry V with Sir William Walton’s music as a concert piece. They recorded the work with Marriner's chamber orchestra the Academy of St Martin in the Fields.

He performed it and other works with the New York Philharmonic and symphony orchestras of London, Washington, D.C., Cleveland, Ohio, Philadelphia, Minneapolis, Toronto, Vancouver and Halifax. With Marriner he made his Carnegie Hall debut in his own arrangements of Mendelssohn's incidental music to A Midsummer Night's Dream.

Honours and awards[link]

This biographical section of an article needs additional citations for verification. Please help by adding reliable sources. Contentious material about living persons that is unsourced or poorly sourced must be removed immediately, especially if potentially libelous or harmful. (December 2011)

Plummer at the 2009 Toronto International Film Festival

Plummer has won many honours in Canada, the United Kingdom, the United States, and Austria. He was the first winner of Canada's Genie Award, for Best Actor in Murder by Decree (1980) and has received three other Genie nominations. Plummer has won two Tony Awards (from seven nominations), and two Emmy Awards (six nominations) in the United States, and Great Britain's Evening Standard Awards.

In 1968, he was invested as Companion of the Order of Canada, at the time Canada's highest civilian honour. In 2001, he received the Canadian Governor General's Performing Arts Awards for Lifetime Artistic Achievement. He was made an honorary Doctor of Fine Arts at New York's Julliard School and has received honorary doctorates from the University of Toronto, Ryerson University, McGill University, the University of Western Ontario, the University of Ottawa, and most recently the University of Guelph. Plummer was inducted into the American Theatre's Hall of Fame in 1986 and into Canada's Walk of Fame in Toronto in 1997.

His awards include the following:

• London Evening Standard Award as Best Actor (1961), for his portrayal of King Henry II in the stage play, Becket
• Genie Award (1980), for Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role in Murder by Decree
• Tony Award for Best Leading Actor in a Musical (1974), for his lead role in Cyrano
• Tony Award for Best Performance by a Leading Actor in a Play (1997), for his lead role in Barrymore
• Emmy Award (1976), as Outstanding Lead Actor in a Limited Series for Arthur Hailey's The Moneychangers
• Emmy Award (1994), for Outstanding Voice-Over Performance for his work on the Family Channel's Madeline children's series
• Edwin Booth Lifetime Achievement Award (1997)
• Jason Robards Award for Excellence in Theatre (2002)
• Los Angeles Film Critics Association Award (1999) for The Insider
• Boston Society of Film Critics Award (1999) for The Insider
• Golden Globe (2012) Best Supporting Actor for Beginners
• Academy Award (2012) Best Supporting Actor for Beginners

Personal life[link]

Plummer has been married three times. His first marriage, to Tony Award-winning actress Tammy Grimes, was in 1956 and lasted four years. The couple's daughter, Amanda Plummer (born 1957), is an acclaimed actress in her own right, but (as he mentions in his autobiography) he had no contact with her during her early and teenage years. They now maintain a friendly relationship. Plummer was married to journalist Patricia Lewis from May 4, 1962 until their divorce in 1967. He and his third wife, British dancer and actress Elaine Regina Taylor, have been married since 1970 and live in a 100-year-old converted farm house in Connecticut.^[33]

In a 2005 interview with Entertainment Weekly, Plummer maintained that in their early days he and his fellow actors did not drink to excess "because we had problems...Nonsense! Actually, I was taught as a child to drink. I came from a family that loved wine. I was twelve, I think, when I was drinking wine with dinner."

Plummer's memoir, In Spite of Myself,^[34] was published by Knopf Publishing Group, a division of Random House, Inc., in November 2008.

Filmography[link]

This section needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (February 2012)

References[link]

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Christopher Plummer

• Christopher Plummer at the Internet Movie Database
• Christopher Plummer at the Internet Broadway Database
• Christopher Plummer at the Internet Off-Broadway Database
• Christopher Plummer at the Swedish Film Database
• Christopher Plummer at AllRovi
• Christopher Plummer at Memory Alpha (a Star Trek wiki)
• Christopher Plummer at the Canadian Film Encyclopedia
• Confessions of Captain Von Trapp: An Interview With Christopher Plummer

The Hamsters were a band from Southend-on-Sea, Essex, England.

They performed their first live show at the Cliffs Pavilion, Southend-on-Sea, on 1 April 1987, and their last at The Half Moon, Putney on 1 April 2012, exactly 25 years later. They initially played in local pubs with no ambitions to take themselves seriously or to turn professional.^[1] As the band ethos is to combine humour with music^[2] two members of the original band (now all three) use light-hearted and parodying pseudonyms as stage names.^[3] The original line-up was Snail's-Pace Slim on vocals and guitar, Rev Otis Elevator on drums and Andy Farrell on bass. Andy Billups, aka Ms Zsa Zsa Poltergeist, replaced Farrell on bass in 1988.

The band's name was based on a pseudonym used by the Sex Pistols.^[4]

History[link]

Their first performances were in local pubs in and around Southend as a part of the area's well-known R&B scene which had begun in the 1960s; they initially formed for their own amusement^[5] and didn't take themselves too seriously.^[6] Their bookings quickly started to increase as an increasing number of local music fans requested venues to book them.^[7] Eventually it was decided to turn pro and slowly they started getting bookings from venues further afield. During 1988–1990 they released a limited run of four cassette releases of their music until they released their first CD in 1990, titled "Electric Hamsterland" as a parody of the Hendrix "Electric Ladyland" album. There was also a limited run of vinyl LPs of the album.

Influences[link]

The Hamsters were called Britain's leading interpreters of the music of Jimi Hendrix and ZZ Top.^[8][9] and so were called a blues rock band, although they were not a tribute band "they take the music and push it a little further in the direction originally intended".^[10] These covers only made up a small part of their playlist, the majority being Americana.^[11]

Work schedule[link]

As of March 2009, the Hamsters are in their 21st year and claim to have performed more than 4,000 shows.^[1] They have constantly toured throughout UK and occasionally mainland Europe.^[12] In 1991 they performed a small tour in the US. The group has been described as "the hardest working band in the UK".^[13] In 2000, the Hamsters were runners-up in the best blues rock band category, voted on by the readers of Blueprint.^[14] They contributed a track for the BBC Radio 2 series "Bright Lights, Big City" documenting the story of British Rhythm and Blues from the fifties to the modern day and presented by former Rolling Stone Bill Wyman, and was broadcast in late 2001. They performed at the 2003, 2004, 2005 and 2006 London Guitar Shows at the Wembley entertainment complex.

In 2003 the Hamsters performed two live sessions on Paul Jones' BBC Radio 2 blues show. The track "Taxi Driver" from their Open All Hours album was included in Classic Rock magazine's (August 2006 issue) '100 Blues Anthems'.

They have supported such artists as Albert Collins and Status Quo.^[15][16] During 2006 and 2007 they joined Wilko Johnson and John Otway to perform The Mad, The Bad & The Dangerous tour.

The band have been Whispering Bob Harris' featured band on his BBC Radio 2 radio show on several occasions.^[17]

In October 2008 the band announced that their track "Route 666" (from the Route 666 album) was selected by producer/director Neil Jones to be played over the end credits of a low budget British horror film titled Stag Night of the Dead.^[18]

Retirement[link]

On 13 March 2011, via their website and Facebook, the band announced that on their 25th anniversary they would be splitting the band so the individual members could retire from the music business. They also announced that their last show would be performed on 31 March 2012.^[19] Their final two shows, were actually on 1 April 2012, at The Half Moon, Putney.

Personnel[link]

Snail's-Pace Slim[link]

The Hamsters' lead singer and guitar player, Snail's-Pace Slim (Barry Martin) has been part of the Southend music scene for many years. He formerly played in various Essex-based bands including Dr Feelgood, the Kursaal Flyers and the Old Pals Act (with bassist Dave Bronze and Robin Trower's brother Brad). He was voted one of the top 100 guitarists of all time in a radio poll on LBC.^[20]

Slim also contributes technical articles to guitar magazines, and was featured in the September 1994 edition of Guitar Techniques. Slim was asked by the magazine to contribute a monthly recorded lesson on how to play the blues for inclusion on the CD which accompanied every issue. He was also included in the Guitarist Magazine Book of Guitar Players, published in 1994.^[21] In 2007 Slim was interviewed as part of a 3-hour video documentary about the Fender Stratocaster titled Stratmasters,^[22] and in August 2008 he was interviewed by Guitarist for their October 2008 issue.^[23]

Rev Otis Elevator[link]

Rev Otis Elevator (Alan Parish) is the drummer of the Hamsters. He was born in Edmonton in 1951 and is largely self-taught as a musician.^[24] Before joining the Hamsters, worked with various Top 40 bands, as well as playing radio and TV jingles.^[25] He also provides back-up vocals and plays bass during the traditional Hamsters' finale.^[26]

Ms Zsa Zsa Poltergeist[link]

Ms Zsa Zsa Poltergeist (Andy Billups) is the current bass player. He replaced original member Andy Farrell in 1988. In 1992 he left the band, after he was diagnosed with focal dystonia, affecting his right hand. He was replaced by Dave Bronze. In 1994, after having re-learned the bass using a custom-designed thumb-pick,^[27] he rejoined the band when Bronze left to join Eric Clapton's band.
In 2011 Billups released a solo album Afton Down, in a more "folky" style than The Hamsters material, which does not credit any contributions by Martin or Parish.^[28]

Pseudonyms[link]

As the band always intended to combine humour and music and wanted to remain relatively anonymous, they decided to adopt light-hearted stage names:^[29]

• Snail's-Pace Slim's stage name was selected as a parody of old time blues players such as Lightnin' Slim.^[30]
• Otis Elevator's came about after seeing a manufacturer's name plate at the base of an escalator in a local shopping mall.
• Ms Zsa Zsa Poltergeist's is based on the name of an incidental character from the BBC Radio comedy show Round The Horne.

Discography[link]

Taxi Driver noicon 30 sec sample – 209kb Problems listening to this file? See media help.

Cassette[link]

• Live At Kent Custom Bike Show (1988)
• Revenge of the Killer Hamsters (1989)
• The Night of the Rocking Rodents (1989)
• Flasher Hamsters From Hell (1990)
• Rodent Rock (1990)
• Condensed Hamsters (1990)

Albums[link]

• Electric Hamsterland (1990)
• Hamster Jam (1991)
• The Hamsters (1993)
• Route 666 (1995)
• The Jimi Hendrix Memorial Concerts: 1995 (1996)
• Pet Sounds: 10 Years Of Rodent Rock (1998)
• Condensed Hamsters (2000)
• They Live By Night (2002)
• Open All Hours (2004)

Videos[link]

• Burnin Vermin' (1991)
• Band of Gerbils (1996)
• Verminator! (1997)
• Rodents Rock The Reich! (1998)
• To Infirmity, And Beyond! (2004)
• The Mad, The Bad & The Dangerous (2007) with Wilko Johnson and John Otway)
• Curse of the Killer Hamsters! (2008)

References[link]

External links[link]

• Official website
• The Hamsters on Myspace
• The Hamsters Interview 2010 – iTalkGuitar
• The Mad, The Bad & The Dangerous website
• The Hamsters at Allmusic
• The Hamsters discography at MusicBrainz
• Andy Billups' official website
• Andy Billups on Myspace