Christopher Plummer Finally Gets His Day on TCM’s 2025 Summer Under the Stars!
It’s that time of year once again! Summer Under the Stars (SUTS), Turner Classic Movies’ annual August lineup of favorite stars along with a selection of their films, is back with eight new additions — Christopher Plummer being a first timer! — and a slew of network premieres to go along with them. As always, each day of the month will be devoted to one specific actor or actress. For more details, check out the calendar below.
Christopher Plummer (Aug. 2)
The acclaimed Academy Award winner is such an obvious choice for inclusion in SUTS it’s hard to believe this is his inaugural season! Christopher Plummer will make his premiere with 11 quality titles, including three premieres: the classic 1965 musical film The Sound of Music, the 1976 war film Aces High and 2009’s The Last Station, which garnered Plummer one of his three Oscar noms, for playing Russian author Leo Tolstoy. (But to many, he will always be known as Captain von Trapp.)
Sony Pictures Classics/courtesy Everett Collection
Plummer was a legendary actor who delivered towering performances in film, television and theater over a career spanning eight decades. Born in Toronto, Plummer got his start on the stage, making his Broadway debut in 1954’s The Starcross Story (which closed on opening night due to a plagiarism lawsuit). In the ’50s, he continued to act onstage in productions of J.B., Medea, Julius Caesar and The Tempest. While he made his film debut in director Sidney Lumet’s Stage Struck (1958), it wasn’t until 1965 that Plummer achieved movie star status: that year, he portrayed Captain Von Trapp in The Sound of Music, which surpassed Gone With the Wind to become the top-grossing film of all time.
TM & Copyright ©20th Century Fox Film Corp. All rights reserved/courtesy Everett Collection
While he worked steadily in the ensuing years, it was in the 1990s that he established himself as one of the greatest character actors in the business, and he never looked back. The length of credits over the last 30 years of his career is imposing: Plummer appeared in Malcolm X (1992), Wolf (1994), 12 Monkeys (1995), The Insider (1999), A Beautiful Mind (2001), National Treasure (2004), Syriana (2005), Inside Man (2006), Up (2009), The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo (2011) and Knives Out (2019), among many others. He won an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his performance in 2010’s Beginners and received Academy Award nominations for Best Supporting Actor for his performances in The Last Station (2009) and All the Money in the World (2017). His television work included The Thorn Birds (1983), Nuremberg (2000) and American Tragedy (2000). Plummer died in 2021 at his home in Weston, Connecticut, at the age of 91, following a fall that resulted in a head injury.
Other 2025 TCM Summer Under the Stars First-Timers include:
Ruby Dee (Aug. 7)
Courtesy of Everett
African American actress and civil rights activist Ruby Dee, who first made a splash in Hollywood for her role as Ruth Younger in the 1961 drama A Raisin in the Sun (airing at 8pm), will make her SUTS debut with 12 films, including three premieres: Long Day’s Journey Into Night (1982), Uptight (1968) and The Court-Martial of Jackie Robinson (1990).
Pedro Armendáriz (Aug. 12)
Everett Collection
Armendáriz was one of the biggest stars of the Golden Age of Mexican Film, frequently collaborating with acclaimed director Emilio Fernández and starring alongside legendary actresses like Dolores del Río and María Félix, before transitioning to Hollywood in the late 1940s.
Tragically, he was diagnosed with terminal cancer during the filming of the hit 1963 James Bond film From Russia with Love. Many believed his cancer was linked to his participation in the 1956 film The Conqueror, which was filmed near a nuclear testing site in Utah. Due to the complications and a desire to spare his family financial hardship, he died by suicide shortly after completing his scenes for the Bond film, at the age of 51.
Charles Bronson (Aug. 16)
Courtesy of Everett
Action hero and World War II veteran Charles Bronson makes his SUTS debut with a dozen action-packed films, including two premieres — Chato’s Land (1972) and Death Wish (1974) — plus Western classics such as The Magnificent Seven (1960) and Run of the Arrow (1957).
James Gleason (Aug. 18)
Gleason began his career in vaudeville and on the stage, writing and acting in Broadway productions, before moving to Hollywood in the 1920s, where he quickly became a highly sought-after character actor. His career spanned several decades, with over 150 film and television appearances, including Meet John Doe (1941), Arsenic and Old Lace (1944), The Bishop’s Wife (1947), and A Tree Grows in Brooklyn (1945).
Gina Lollobrigida (Aug. 23)
Courtesy of Everett
Iconic Italian actress, model, photojournalist and sculptor Gina Lollobrigada rose to international stardom in the 1950s and 1960s. She is probably most well-known for her role as Esmerelda in The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1956), or for her role alongside Rock Hudson in Come September (1961), for which she won a Golden Globe.
Donald O’Connor (Aug. 28)
On what would have been the actor/dancer’s 100th birthday, Donald O’Connor will make his SUTS debut, featuring some of his most well-known musical films, such as, of course, Singin’ in the Rain (1952), There’s No Business Like Show Business (1954) and the TCM premieres of The Milkman (1950) and Double Crossbones (1951).
Tom Courtenay (Aug. 26)
Esteemed English actor Tom Courtenay gained international recognition (and an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor) for his role as Pasha Antipov in David Lean’s epic adaptation of the classic Russian novel Doctor Zhivago (1965).
Courtesy of Everett
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