Christopher Plummer, the star of The Sound of Music has recently passed away at the age of 91.

Deadline report that Christopher passed away peacefully at his home in Connecticut, with his his wife, Elaine Taylor by his side.

The legendary actor’s career spanned numerous decades, with his work commanding him to become a favourite actor by many.

Not only loved by fans of his talent, he was also held dear by many of his fellow colleagues. Among the tributes, one of the most touching comes from Russell Crowe on Twitter.

Russell depicts the two occasions in which he was fortunate enough to work with Christopher, those two occasions being the movies: The Insider and A Beautiful Mind.

Russell reflects on a very personal anecdote of his and Christopher’s, reminiscing on a time when the two were sitting on the set of A Beautiful Mind and how they began talking about the movie, Network.

And in the thread of tweets that follow, Russell recalls how Christopher was talking about how Peter Finch had a fearsome reputation back in the sixties.

“He told me that in the London theatre world of the 60’s that Finch had a fearsome reputation. He’d come to the west end from Australia and had brought with him a certain inability to suffer fools combined with a deep unquenchable thirst the moment the curtain came down.”

“Chris was out an actors party with a young lady he had just started seeing. Somewhere far down The Kings Road in Chelsea. She had recently broken up with Finch . Peter arrived looking for her and he was in a very confrontational mood.”

“Finch followed the couple around the party making disparaging remarks and eventually the young woman had enough and said to Chris that they should leave. Not a lot of black cabs at that end of Chelsea late on a Sunday night, luckily though the young lady had her own car.”

“They left the party. Chris somewhat relieved. As they sat into her car and readied to drive off, the back door opened and Finch jumped in. Take me back to Soho he bellowed, “ there’s no cabs”. Thinking acquiescence better than confrontation at this point, off they drove.”

“The journey underway Peter kept up a torrent of abuse from the back seat. About him, about her, about trust, truth, love, sex, talent…it was non stop.

At one point, somewhere near Sloan Square the young lady pulled the car to the side of the road and ordered both men to get out.”

“‘Both?’ Asked Christopher. ‘Yes, both of you.’ They got out of the car and she sped off down the street without looking back. So here was Christopher, the young Canadian just beginning his career and Finch, drunken, aggressive, boorish, actorly genius under lamplight. Alone…”

“Chris told me he was chilled with fear. Peter had threatened him with physical violence a number of times and he felt for sure he was about to suffer a beating at the hands of someone who’s performances he had admired greatly. Too cruel. Finch turned to him, eye ablaze…”

“In an instant the red anger left his face, and the piercing knives of his eyes resolved into something impish and charming…‘Thank fuck we got rid of her,’ he bellowed mellifluously, echoing off the empty street, then whispered, ‘let’s find a drink.’ They became friends.

“I loved working with Chris on The Insider, he was just impressive. It was a travesty that his role didn’t receive an Academy Award nomination because everyone talked about and knew that it was amongst the handful of truly formidable performances that year.”

“We worked together again on A Beautiful Mind. Occasionally we would spend time together after work. He preferred one on one, a good drink, not just any drink. I appreciated his candour and wisdom. As Actors do though, in the big circles we swing around, we fell out of touch.”

“I reached out to him in 2012 after he won the Academy Award to say, ‘On behalf of Finch and I, welcome to the club’. He laughed. Rest In Peace Mr Plummer. Good man. Fine actor.”

Get unlimited access to the coverage that shapes our culture.
to Rolling Stone magazine
to Rolling Stone magazine