The Sound of Music Stars Celebrate Long Careers in the Movie Business
Today marks not only the 50th anniversary of The Sound of Music but also a full and varied career for both Julie Andrews and Christopher Plummer. Fifty years ago, Andrews starred as a young and somewhat free spirited young postulant preparing to take her vows. However the other nuns question whether she is right for the abbey. So when the recently widowed Captain Von Trapp writes the convent looking for a governess, the sisters are only too glad to send Maria.
And the rest as they say is history.
The film went on to win five Academy Awards in 1966 including Best Picture and has earned a faithful following over the years even if life wasn’t as rosy behind the scenes as it appears to be on screen. However the success of the film also gave attention to two actors who have gone on to a long career in the movie industry.
Julie Andrews, born in England, had just come off her role as the practically perfect Mary in Disney’s 1964 film Mary Poppins when she took the role of Maria. She continued to appear on television (including The Muppet Show in 1977) and feature films throughout the 1960s, 70s, 80s and 90s taking on musical roles in productions like Victor/Victoria and Thoroughly Modern Millie. In 1997 she underwent a throat surgery that left her unable to sing professionally. Then in 2001 she took on the royal role of Queen Clarisse Renaldi in The Princess Diaries opposite a young Anne Hathaway. She reprised that character in The Princess Diaries 2: Royal Engagement. Over the past decade Andrews has taken on more voice work playing the Queen in Shrek 2 and Shrek the Third and Gru’s Mom in Despicable Me. She also narrated the 2007 live-action fairytale Enchanted with Amy Adams. In 2010 she played the woman behind the desk at tooth fairy headquarters in the comedy Tooth Fairy.
Christopher Plummer, a native of Toronto, Ontario, Canada, had been working in television for a decade before taking on the role of Captain Von Trapp in The Sound of Music and today has over 200 acting credits to his name on imdb.com. Following his role as the stern and regimented father of the singing Von Trapps, Plummer consistently found work in a variety of projects from classical (Oedipus the King) to comedy (The Return of the Pink Panther) to drama (The Man Who Would Be King). After doing mainly television work in the 1980s, Plummer took more roles in the movies in the 1990s and onward with parts in Where the Heart Is (1990), Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country and Malcolm X. Moving in 2000 he began doing more movies including A Beautiful Mind, Nicholas Nickleby, National Treasure, Syriana, The Lake House, The Last Station, and Hector and the Search for Happiness. Among his voice work projects are An American Tail, Madeline: Lost in Paris and Up. The actor currently has several projects in post- or pre-production.
