Amanda Michael Plummer (born March 23, 1957) is an American actress. She is known for her work on stage and in film, typically cast in strong female parts or eccentric roles. She made her film debut playing the title role in Cattle Annie and Little Britches (1981) and continued portraying supporting roles in films such as George Roy Hill's The World According to Garp (1982), Sidney Lumet's Daniel (1983), and Joe Versus the Volcano (1990). Plummer was nominated for a BAFTA Award for her role in Terry Gilliam's The Fisher King (1991) and gained further recognition for her role in Quentin Tarantino's Pulp Fiction (1994). Other film credits include So I Married an Axe Murderer (1993), The Prophecy (1995), Freeway (1996), A Simple Wish (1997), The Hunger Games: Catching Fire (2013), and Showing Up (2022).
Plummer also has had an extensive stage career, making her Broadway debut in 1981, as Josephine in A Taste of Honey, for which she was nominated for a Tony Award for Best Actress in a Play. She won a Tony Award in 1982 for her performance in Agnes of God. She has also appeared extensively in productions of the works of Tennessee Williams and starred in the original Off-Broadway production of Killer Joe in 1998.
On television, Plummer was nominated for a Primetime Emmy Award for her recurring role on L.A. Law (1989–1990). Later, she won the award three times, once for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Miniseries or Special for the television film Miss Rose White (1992), and twice for Outstanding Guest Actress in a Drama Series for her guest roles in The Outer Limits (1996) and Law & Order: Special Victims Unit (2005). She was most recently nominated for a Saturn Award for Best Guest Starring Role on Television for her recurring role in Star Trek: Picard (2023).
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Early life
Plummer was born on March 23, 1957, in New York City, the only child of American actress Tammy Grimes and Canadian actor Christopher Plummer. Her father said that they named their daughter Amanda Michael after Amanda Prynne, a character from the play Private Lives, and the actress Michael Learned. She attended the elite Trinity School before graduating from the United Nations International School (UNIS). She attended Middlebury College for two and a half years, and as a young adult, studied acting at the Neighborhood Playhouse School of the Theatre in New York City.
Career
Plummer has received critical acclaim for her film work, including such films as Cattle Annie and Little Britches (1981), The World According to Garp (1982), Daniel (1983), and The Hotel New Hampshire (1984). Other films of note include The Fisher King, for which she received a BAFTA film nomination (1992), a Chicago Film Critics Association Award nomination (1992), and a Los Angeles Film Critics Association Award (1992).
Her other films include Pulp Fiction, for which she received an American Comedy Award nomination, Girlfriend, Butterfly Kiss, My Life Without Me, Vampire, and Ken Park. She made her Broadway debut as Jo in the 1981 revival of A Taste of Honey, which ran for almost a year with Valerie French playing Helen, Jo's mother. She received a Tony Award nomination, a Theatre World, a Drama Desk, and an Outer Critics Circle Awards for her portrayal. She won a Tony Award for Featured Actress and the Drama Desk, Outer Critics Circle and Boston Critics Circle Awards for her portrayal of Agnes in Agnes of God, with Geraldine Page and Elizabeth Ashley. In 1983, she portrayed Laura Wingfield in a Broadway revival of The Glass Menagerie. Other Broadway performances include Dolly Clandon in You Never Can Tell (1986), and Eliza Doolittle in Pygmalion (1987, with Peter O'Toole and Osmund Bullock, for which she received her third Tony Award nomination, this time for Best Performance by a Leading Actress in a Play).
Her off-Broadway plays include as Beth in Sam Shepard's A Lie of the Mind, and Killer Joe, written by Tracy Letts. She has performed in many of Tennessee Williams' plays, including Summer and Smoke, The Gnädiges Fräulein, The Milk Train Doesn't Stop Here Anymore, and the world premiere of The One Exception.
In 1996, Plummer won an Emmy Award for her guest appearance on the episode "A Stitch in Time" of The Outer Limits. In 2005, she won an Emmy as Miranda Cole in the Law & Order: Special Victims Unit episode "Weak", in which she played a woman with schizophrenia.
She was nominated for a Golden Globe Award and received another Emmy Award for her performance in Miss Rose White, a Hallmark made-for-television film about a Holocaust survivor, for which she received the Anti-Defamation League Award. For her performance in Last Light (1993), she received a Cable Ace Award nomination. Her other awards include the Hollywood Drama Critics Award for her performance in the title female role in Romeo and Juliet, the Saturn Award for her performance as Nettie in Needful Things (1993), and a Cable Ace Award for her performance in The Right To Remain Silent (1996).
Personal life
Plummer dated screenwriter and director Paul Chart in the late 1990s. The two lived together in Los Angeles and worked together on Chart's film American Perfekt.