Christopher Plummer Talks About Growing Up in Montreal

When the Toronto Symphony opens its season next week Christopher Plummer will be the featured "soloist" in excerpts from Shakespeare's Henry V with music by William Walton.

Plummer grew up in Montreal and discusses these early years in an interview recorded in Palm Beach in 2009. He also talks about making the film "The Sound of Music."

The interview was done while Plummer was on a book tour promoting his wonderful autobiography "In Spite of Myself." He is in his 80s now but shows no signs of slowing down. And his performances just get better and better. In recent years he has had enormous triumphs at Stratford in "King Lear", "Caesar and Cleopatra" and "The Tempest." In film he was highly praised for his performance as Tolstoy in "The Last Station." And his acclaimed one-man show 'Barrymore" was filmed last year and just opened at the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF).

But in addition to being a great actor Plummer is a born raconteur. The book has some unforgettable stories and in the Palm Beach interview he tells a few more.

- Paul E. Robinson