Christopher Plummer Wins SAG Award; Sets Sights on Becoming Oldest Oscar Winner Ever

Christopher Plummer is on the role of a lifetime. Of course, fans of the Canadian actor have lauded his talent on stage and screen for more than five decades, but it seems that Hollywood has finally caught up.

Plummer won a Screen Actors Guild Award Sunday night for best supporting actor for playing a father who comes out of the closet at age 75 in the film Beginners. The SAG win, coupled with his Golden Globe win for the same role in the same category a few weeks back, leaves Plummer an Academy Award short of completing the award season hat trick – a feat he could accomplish on Feb. 26 when heads into the Oscar ceremony as a nominee for best supporting actor. An Academy Award win for Plummer this year would also put him into the record books for another reason: at 82, he’d become the oldest actor to ever win an Oscar.

The current record holder is Jessica Tandy who, at 80 years and 292 days old, won the statue for her leading role in 1989’s Driving Miss Daisy. George Burns holds the record for oldest winner in the best supporting actor category, at 80 years and 69 days old. He took home the award for his role in 1975’s The Sunshine Boys.

Plummer, certainly has a legitimate shot at winning the award, as Zoomer examined last week. He would not, however, be the oldest ever nominee. That title goes to Gloria Stuart, who was nominated as an actress in a supporting role for her work in 1997’s Titanic. She was 87. As well, screen legend Eli Wallach technically took home an Academy Award in 2012 at age 94, but it was an Honorary Oscar and not awarded for one specific performance.

Plummer was nominated for an Academy Award once before, also for best supporting actor, for his portrayal of legendary Russian writer Leo Tolstoy in The Last Station in 2009.

“Actors are gregarious and wacky, are they not?” Plummer mused at the SAG awards. “And I love them dearly, but when they honour you it’s like being lit by the holy grail. Thank you, thank you, thank you.”

Could an Oscar speech be far behind?