Longtime Weston resident Christopher Plummer has won just about every stage acting award, but an Oscar nomination has eluded the star despite a film career that goes back five decades.
Today, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences made up for its oversights by (finally) citing Plummer for his work as Leo Tolstoy in the biographical drama “The Last Station” (top-billed Helen Mirren was nominated in the best actress division).
Perhaps Plummer’s long-standing preference for stage work over film roles annoyed the folks in Hollywood, but he is long overdue for a nomination.
Back in 1999, I assumed the actor would be nominated for his amazing performance as CBS newsman Mike Wallace in “The Insider,” but he was overlooked. This was probably one of the most daunting acting assignments of the 1990s — in a phone interview after he finished shooting the part Plummer told me he was nervous about playing a very famous real person (who was still quite alive) but that director Michael Mann made the job one of the best movie experiences of his career.
The bad news about today’s good news is that Plummer is a long shot in his category.
Christoph Waltz has won virtually every preliminary best supporting actor award for his scary and hilarious performance as the primary Nazi villain in Quentin Tarantino’s “Inglourious Basterds” and is a heavy favorite to win.
