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In Spite of Myself (Abridged) Audiobook
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A rollicking, rich portrait of a life. And what a life! By one of today’s greatest living actors. Plummer tells how “this young bilingual wastrel, incurably romantic, spoiled rotten, tore himself away from the ski slopes to break into the big bad world of theatre, not from the streets up but from an Edwardian living room down,” and writes of his early acting days as an eighteen-year-old playing the lead in Shakespeare’s Cymbeline. We see his glorious New York of the fifties, where life began at midnight, with the likes of Arthur Miller, Carson McCullers, Tennessee Williams, and Paddy Chayefsky, and how Plummer’s own Broadway world developed and swept him along through the last Golden Age the American Theatre would ever remember . . . how the sublime Ruth Chatterton (“she might have been created by F. Scott Fitzgerald and Sinclair Lewis”) introduced him to the right people in New York . . . how Miss Eva Le Gallienne gave Plummer his Broadway debut at twenty-five in The Starcross Story (“It opened and closed in one night! One solitary night! But what a night!”). He writes about his film career: The Sound of Music (affectionately dubbed “S&M”) . . . Inside Daisy Clover, which brought him together with the beautiful Natalie Wood . . . John Huston’s The Man Who Would Be King (Plummer was Rudyard Kipling). He tells the story of accepting Sir Laurence Olivier’s invitation to join the National Theatre Company, playing in Amphytron directed by Olivier himself (“a great actor but lousy director”), and writes about falling deeply in love with and eventually marrying a young actress and dancer, Elaine Taylor—to this day, his “one true strength.” Seamlessly written, with stories that make us laugh out loud and that make real the fascinating, complex, exuberant adventure that is the actor’s (at least this actor’s) life.
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"Loved this audio book! We get a big extra as Plummer involves his acting gifts in it, both in reading lines from plays and in character impersonations.He is a gifted story teller, who is so affective in bringing out readers emotions. I find myself laughing out loud one moment and reduced to tears in another.He is so endearing, with all his flaws that he chooses to highlight, one discovers a sea of goodness underneath. And I find myself wishing with all my hearts things would work out for him."
— Tal (5 out of 5 stars)
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“[A] fascinating memoir…The book records so many trysts, pratfalls, drunken evenings—and afternoons—that it’s amazing he has survived Amply shows how Mr. Plummer has managed a long, successful career in spite of himself.”
— Wall Street Journal -
“For anyone who loves, loves, loves the theater…A finely observed, deeply felt time-traveling escape.”
— New York Times Book Review -
“A staggering parade of theater-world luminaries struts, swaggers, and yes, occasionally staggers through this compulsively readable memoir…[Plummer] has a tasty anecdote about onstage, backstage, or drinking-hole doings about every single one of them.”
— New York Times -
“The veteran actor’s delightfully sprawling account of his life and career.”
— USA Today -
“Splendid, lively…An immensely satisfying memoir, of rare grace, good humor, and unapologetic self-honesty…In tact and generosity of spirit, it is the very model of what a memoir should be.”
— Daily Beast -
“An enchanting observer of the showbiz cavalcade, drawing vivid thumbnails of everyone from Laurence Olivier to Lenny Bruce and tossing off witty anecdotes like the most effortless ad libs. The result—a sparkling star turn from a born raconteur for whom all the world is indeed a stage.”
— Publishers Weekly -
“This work is more of a full-fledged autobiography than a memoir as actor Plummer offers a highly entertaining, well-connected series of adventures and anecdotes of his long and successful life and career. The content is made all the more enjoyable by Plummer’s affable, highly conversational narration. His skilled performance features his resonant voice as he discusses matters as diverse as his family’s role in the political and business leadership of Canada and his well-known role in the film The Sound of Music. It seems that none of his life is off-limits. Listeners will feel they come to know more of this charming individual.”
— AudioFile -
“An enjoyable read, packed with anecdotes and amusing stories…This belongs on any library’s film or theater shelves.”
— Booklist -
“A veteran actor of stage and screen rehearses his long personal and professional life, often with humor, rarely with rancor…Revealing and charming.”
— Kirkus Reviews
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About Christopher Plummer
Christopher Plummer has acted in more than one hundred feature films, including The Man Who Would Be King, The Sound of Music, Stage Struck, and The Insider, and he has starred in three of the world’s most important theater companies: the Royal National Theatre, the Royal Shakespeare Company, and the Stratford Festival of Canada. He received two Tony Awards for Best Actor, and he has been nominated for the award seven other times. He also received a London Evening Standard Award for Best Actor for Becket. He has received Emmys, the John Gielgud Quill Award, the Edwin Booth Award, The Jason Robards Award for Excellence, and has been inducted into the Theater Hall of Fame. He received an Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actor for his role in Beginners. He lives in Connecticut with his wife, Elaine Taylor.