Golden Globes: ‘The Artist,”The Descendants’ make some noise

BEVERLY HILLS, Calif. -- Christopher Plummer has won the supporting-actor Golden Globe for his role as an elderly widower who comes out as gay in the father-son drama "Beginners."

Claiming the first prize of the night at Sunday's Globes may give the 82-year-old Plummer the inside track for the same prize at next month's Academy Awards.

"I must praise my distinguished competitors, who whom I have the greatest admiration and to whom I apologize most profusely," said Plummer, who added warm regards to "Beginners" star and Scottish actor Ewan McGregor. "I want to salute my partner, Ewan, that wily Scot, Ewan `My Heart's in the Highlands' McGregor, that scene-stealing swine from the outer Hebrides."

Oscar consideration has been elusive for Plummer, who has been nominated for Hollywood's top honor only once in his 60-year career -- two years ago, for the Leo Tolstoy drama "The Last Station."

Plummer is regarded as one of the finest Shakespearean stage actors of the last half century. His film roles range from Austrian widower Captain von Trapp in "The Sound of Music" and Tolstoy in "The Last Station" to newsman Mike Wallace in "The Insider" and a treacherous Klingon general in "Star Trek: The Undiscovered Country." He also co-starred in the current thriller "The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo."