Inside Christopher Plummer And Julie Andrews' Friendship

Adding to an already-too-long list of names of beloved entertainers who left us in 2021 comes the heartbreaking news that Christopher Plummer has died at the age of 91. Per Us Weekly, the actor died at his home in Connecticut with his wife of 53 years by his side. His manager and friend Lou Pitt called him "an extraordinary man ... [and] a National Treasure who deeply relished his Canadian roots" (via Deadline). 

The classically trained Plummer, known for his dignified manner and the charm he brought to his roles, had a long career that lasted right up to the time of his death. In addition to his acclaimed stage appearances and more than 100 TV appearances, he starred in a host of movies including The Man Who Would Be King, A Beautiful Mind, All the Money in the World, and most recently, Knives Out. But perhaps his most famous — and most beloved — role was playing Captain Georg Von Trapp in The Sound of Music. Ironically, Plummer didn't think much of the movie — he once called it "mawkish," per NPR — but it did launch a close friendship with costar Julie Andrews that lasted more than half a century. 

In a 2015 interview with ABC News, the actor joked that while playing Maria and the Captain, the two actors "should have ended up together. We should have had a huge smashing affair. But there was no time because she had her children with her, which was most inconvenient." For her part, Andrews confessed that she was rather taken with her costar, but "we were never an item."

Working so closely together on a film can bring actors together or tear them apart. Happily, for Plummer and Andrews, the former was true. Plummer told Variety that he was smitten with the actress when he first saw her on stage in My Fair Lady, and working with her only solidified his feelings. Andrews once told The Hollywood Reporter, "He's such a sweet patsy — we're great friends." 

A Vanity Fair article commemorating the 50th anniversary of the movie confirms that. The interview paints a portrait of two old friends so close that they practically finish each other's sentences. The teasing barbs (Plummer refers to his pal as "a nun with a switchblade") are interspersed with sweet moments (Andrews offers Plummer half a granola bar from her purse). The article concludes with a description of a post-interview dinner with their families and crew, in which the two best friends leaned so close to each other that other diners turned to watch.

How did the two costars get so lucky as to find such a precious friendship? As Maria sings to the Captain, "Nothing comes from nothing / Nothing ever could / So somewhere in my youth or childhood, I must have done something good."