Christopher Plummer, who starred in The Sound of Music, won an Oscar for Beginners and was nominated for All the Money in the World and The Last Station, died peacefully today at his home in Connecticut, his family confirmed. Elaine Taylor, his wife and true best friend for 53 years, was by his side.

Along with becoming the oldest person to win an Oscar, Plummer also won a pair of Emmys and two Tonys during a nearly 70-year career.

Plummer was a celebrated stage actor early on, having played most of the major classical roles by the time he was 35. But that was also the year of an early movie success, playing Capt. von Trapp in The Sound of Music, the role for which he’s likely to be remembered above all others, and one he tried in vain to distance himself from for the rest of his life. Indeed, it took him a while to find his footing in film as a character actor, and while he was constantly in demand, it was only in his 80s that he came to be regarded as a cinematic treasure, becoming the oldest person ever to win an Oscar when he was 82.

And he did not slow down. He played the patriarch in David Fincher’s The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo. At 85, he barely had time to plop his hands and feet into the cement outside the Chinese Theatre, as he had four films coming out within a few months of each other in 2015. A few years later, in 2019, he’d win over another generation of fans as the central character in Rian Johnson’s twisty murder mystery Knives Out.

“Retirement is just not possible,” Plummer had said at the handprint ceremony. “If I slow down now, I’ll die. I’ll drop dead.”