Actually, he'd rather hate having reference made to that most famous role, though clearly he's learned to live with it by now. And, come to that, I'm not feeling particularly guilty about reading and recommending In Spite of Myself: A Memoir, by the fascinating Christopher Plummer. The great actor has written a pretty damned good book.
Besides finding him inexplicably riveting when I first watched "The Sound of Music" on TV -- what was I? six? seven? -- I've also had the privilege of seeing him onstage, many years ago, playing Iago to the Othello of James Earl Jones. It remains for me the single most thrilling experience I've ever had in a theater, before or since.
And now he's written a memoir, in which the names drop like snowflakes during a January in his native Toronto; everyone from Edward Everett Horton and Judith Anderson to Colin Farrell, and each tracing some wonderful anecdote, unique and new.
Theater fans, movie fans, do tell your Santa, all you need for Christmas this year is a visit from this Plummer. (okay, that was... not good, but still, get this book! It's delightful!)
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