I read all of the Sound of Music sections of his autobiography, and he didn't have a cold during filming. His only health issue was sciatic nerve pain.
He and many in the production did a lot of work prior to the filming, because the Broadway show was pretty bad, as I think people can tell from the Live Version a couple of years ago. He wasn't actually formally trained in theatre - he didn't go to an academy or a conservatory. He learned from his peers, on the job, and I think got his first big break on a show that went to Bahamas. He had leading man looks, was intelligent, had a resonant voice, could handle verse, and had presence. That's what started his career. He did plenty of dreck before SoM. In his autobiography, he claims what attitude he did have was insecurity about the singing, at the same time wanting to do his own singing and not be dubbed, and his fears that they'd not improved his own role. By "improve" I don't mean "expanded." Just give him some presence. He wasn't the Laurence Olivier of Canada at that point. He'd made a splash in Henry V and I think had done Hamlet, but was also doing the ordinary jobs most actors do. One of his better jobs was "Stage Struck" where he was a supporting character. The leads were Henry Fonda and Susan Strasberg, and his character lost the girl to Henry's. The trailers for the movie tried to sell him a bit as a hearthrob but it didn't stick.
His formal training was in classical piano.
Nobody put a gun to his head to sign for the movie. He wasn't under contract to a studio. He knew exactly what property he was signing up to film - he'd seen it on the stage. He put his faith in the director, in the screenwriter, who worked with him, and in wanting to work with Julie Andrews, whom he'd loved in My Fair Lady.
A couple of things that are funny two me - two show business guys whose names I forget tell a story of picking up Christopher Plummer at the airport and being told by no means mention "Sound of Music." No sooner do they get him to his hotel than he's at the piano belting out "Eidelweiss." Another time he surprised Andrews on stage when Victor Victoria closed on Broadway, and everybody again sang "Eidelweiss" led by Plummer. He's just being contrary. When people fawn over the movie he pushes back. He knows it was great for his box office when he did do theatre.
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