Christopher Plummer set for first Oscar After almost 200 movies and TV shows, and hundreds more appearances on stage, the Canadian actor may finally clinch the most coveted prize in the movie industry for playing a 75-year-old who joyfully comes out as gay after a long marriage, but who swiftly succumbs to terminal cancer. "It would be a huge upset if anybody but Christopher Plummer were to take this home, and it is only his second Oscar nomination, so he is way overdue," Hammond said. But Plummer has a rival who is just as beloved, overlooked and respected by his peers. Swedish-born Max von Sydow, also 82, is mounting a strong challenge for his performance as an elderly World War Two survivor who becomes a mentor to a young boy after the Sept.11 2001 attacks on New York's World Trade Center buildings in "Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close." And von Sydow does it all without uttering a word. His character in the Oscar best picture contender, known only as The Renter, does not speak because of the trauma of witnessing a World War Two bombing as a child. If either of the two men win at Sunday's Academy Award ceremony, he will become the oldest person ever to win an Oscar, surpassing Driving Miss Daisy star Jessica Tandy by two years. "We have two 82 year-old veterans slugging it out in a category that has a history of honoring the senior statesmen of Hollywood," said Tom O'Neil of awards website Goldderby.com.