Christopher Plummer receives the inaugural Stratford Shakespeare Festival lifetime achievement award—for a lifetime of being awesome

Earlier this year we learned that Christopher Plummer was to be the recipient of the Stratford Shakespeare Festival’s inaugural lifetime achievement award, and last night Plummer received the accolade at a gala with Cynthia Dale, Brian Dennehy, Gordon Pinsent and TIFF Rising Star Katie Boland in attendance. Plummer told guests that he was honoured, since he considers Stratford a second home; as well as winning Emmy and Tony awards and playing the iconic Captain Von Trapp in The Sound of Music, Plummer has more than 10 seasons of Stratford performances under his belt (he started at the festival in a 1956 production of Henry V). We weren’t surprised to hear that Pinsent, who presented Plummer with the award on stage, was as charming as ever, calling Plummer a “masterful actor who creates magic onstage.” The lifetime award was not a push for Plummer’s retirement, as he’s set to star in next season’s one-man show, A Word or Two—a play by Plummer himself that explores his personal work, his love for literature and how books have shaped his life. We expect references to Stephen Leacock, George Bernard Shaw and, of course, the original bard, William Shakespeare.