Amanda Michael Plummer, award winning stage, television and screen actress, is the only daughter of two well known theatrical people. Her father is the distinguished Canadian actor, Christopher Plummer, best known for his portrayal of Baron Von Trapp in the Sound of Music. Her great great grandfather, on her father's side, was John Abbott, who served as the prime minister of Canada in the 19th Century. Her mother is the Tony Award winning actress, Tammy Grimes. Amanda was born on March 23, 1957 in New York City. She was only three years old when her parents divorced, and since both parents were very busy with their show business careers, she saw very little of her father while she was growing up. Her father lived in England for a portion of the 1960's and 70's, and her mother was a Tony award winning actress/singer in the Unsinkable Molly Brown and in Private Lives on Broadway.
Amanda as a young child, frequently accompanied her mother to the theaters at which her mother appeared, occasionally appearing on stage in a small part. Amanda grew up as a tomboy, mostly in New York City, living with her mother and their pets, but spent much time at her mother's parent's home in Lynn, Mass. Her early education though, was in New York City at L'ecole Francais and United Nations High School. She often fantacized as a young girl about being someone else. Her parents expected her to become either a writer, a vet or even a jockey because of her love for horses and taking care of them. At the age of 14, Amanda had passed up an audition at the Belmont track, to ride for Alfred Vanderbilt stables, and she has reflected on that time as the greatest years of her life. Amanda was active in track and field, and turned down an invitation to participate in the the relays in the Olympics when she was a teen-ager. However, she decided at 17 to follow in her parents footsteps in acting. Amanda is fond of writing and reading books. Her favorite authors are Ibsen, Faulkner, Artaud, Tennessee Williams, Sam Shepard and Athol Fugard. Her live-in mate for several years was the English Director/Writer, Paul Chart, followed by a possible relationship with the horror film Director, Tobe Hooper.
Amanda graduated from Middlebury College after 3 years and went full time into acting. She studied at New York's famed Neighborhood Playhouse drama school briefly, where one of her instructors was George C. Scott. During her first years in learning about stage acting, she worked as a telephone operator, usher, and property mistress. She remembers hanging lights at Williamsburg- "going up tall, tall ladders and hanging these big mothers, setting up a stage and making costumes". She worked as a company actor at the Williamstown, Mass. Theatre Festival, with stage credits which included A Midsummer Night's Dream, Gossip and The Overcoat. She made her off Broadway debut at the age of 21 in Lily Agnes's Artichoke, and was likened by critic John Simon to "Shirley Temple doing Boris Karloff". However, Lamont Johnson was so impressed by her acting in that play, that he asked her to audition for his film Cattle Annie and Little Britches. She debuted as Annie in this 1980 Universal Studio film, starring Burt Lancaster. Unfortunately, this film is currently not on video, and plays very rarely on television. The famous film critic, Pauline Kael wrote about her in that film "The only other actress I've seen making a movie debut so excitingly, weirdly lyrical was Katharine Hepburn.."
In 1979, she appeared with her mother, Tammy Grimes in A Month in the Country, and in 1980, she acted with Michael Jeter in "The Rabbit's House", part of Alice in Concert. The following year, 1981, Amanda appeared in a revival of the play "A Taste of Honey" as Jo, on Broadway and she won a Tony nomination, and Drama Critics Award for the part. The next year she won the Tony Award, Outer Critics Circle and Theater World Award for her portrayal of the nun Agnes in the Broadway play "Agnes of God". In a major loss to filmgoers, she was passed over for the film role of Agnes in favor of Meg Tilly, who received a Best Supporting Oscar nomination for the role. In 1983 she played Laura Wingfield in The Glass Menagerie, and that same year, she was directed by Sidney Lumet in the film Daniel, in which he compared her to the young Marlon Brando. In 1985 she appeared in Beth Henley's Life Under Water, and in A Lie of the Mind as Beth. In 1986 she played Dolly Clandon in You Can Never Tell, and in 1987 she appeared in The Milk Train Doesn't Stop Here Anymore, and in Pygmalion as Eliza Doolittle, receiving another Tony nomination. She starred with Peter O'Toole, as Professor Higgins. In 1990 she appeared as a mail order bride on stage with Tess Harper in Beth Henley's Abundance.
Amanda won an Emmy for her television part as Lusia Weiss in Hallmark Hall of Fame's Miss Rose White in 1992. She has appeared in many films and Television short subjects in her career, her filmography includes Pulp Fiction, The Fisher King, Butterfly Kiss, and A Simple Wish. Her 1996 Television work garnered more awards for her part in Don't Look Back (Cable Ace Award) and The Outer Limits "A Stitch In Time" ( A well deserved Emmy- Guest Artist). She reprised the role in the Final Outer Limits "Final Appeal" which also starred Charlton Heston.
Amanda has chosen to play small eccentric parts in many films. She specializes in these kind of roles, 'having a strong propensity ....to be invisible'. She prefers to pursue big roles in small movies, as Lawrence Bender said- "In a low budget film, there are fewer financial pressures, and an actor like Amanda can take more risks". In 1995 Amanda was raising money for a movie about Emily Dickinson, since she had toured earlier as Emily in The Belle of Amherst.
Amanda is, in this author's opinion, one of the best screen and stage actresses of the many good actresses who have not yet been nominated for an Oscar. Because of her preference for small eccentric parts, it is unlikely that she will be nominated soon. She recently starred in the film American Perfekt, brilliantly written and directed by her then companion, Paul Chart. She was the voice of Clotho one of the fates, in Disney's Hercules, and she played a transformed dog in A Simple Wish. In 1999, she appeared in at least three films including The Apartment Complex, a made for Showtime TV movie, directed by Tobe Hooper. Soon after, she began attending premieres and other events with Tobe, and rumors have circulated that they were married, or at least living together, although their relationship appears to now be a thing of the past. Other recent films in which Amanda appeared include You Can Thank Me Later and October 22, The Apartment Complex and Seven Days to Live, and the films of Ken Park, Triggermen, Darkness and Get a Clue. In May, 2003, Amanda appeared at the McCarter Theatre in Princeton, N.J. as Sonya in the play 'Uncle Vanya', and repeated the part in June, 2003 at the La Jolla Playhouse in La Jolla, Calif. She told her mother that she was planning to move to the East Coast and live in Brooklyn. Amanda was scheduled to appear in the off-Broadway play 'Bug' in February, 2004, but withdrew from the play just before it opened because of 'artistic differences'. Amanda has not appeared in any films, stage plays or TV shows for most of the year 2004 except as a guest actress on Law and Order: Special Victims Unit in November, '04. However, Amanda is scheduled to play Joan of Ark in the play "The Lark" in the summer of 2005 at the Stratford Ontarion Shakespeare Stage.
~Thanks to Glenn A. for the assistance on the biography.
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