Christopher Plummer has insisted he does not feel relegated to playing “old men dying” just yet.

The Sound Of Music star – who is set to add his hand and footprints to the cement collection at Hollywood’s Chinese Theatre in a special ceremony on March 27 – is up for a spot of action in his upcoming film roles.

Christopher said: “”They’re not all boring, old men dying. Even though I am kind of 85 now, I think I can pass for late 60s, 70, so maybe there’s a few more years yet. I’d love to play a dashing young thing, though, who jumps in and out of Rolls Royces, who has a huge wardrobe that I could take home afterward.”

The Canadian star plays a manager to Al Pacino’s ageing rock star in next month’s Danny Collins and shares the screen with John Travolta in the crime thriller The Forger.

A professional actor for almost 60 years, Christopher originally wanted to be a concert pianist but switched courses when he realised what a lonely occupation that would be. Acting, he said, “is much more gregarious”.

His career is as he expected it would be, and he loves the work as much now as he ever did.

“I adore the profession,” he said. “In acting, you go all over the world, you’re paid for it and you stay there so you get to know the country and the people, because they’re working alongside you, so it’s a huge learning experience…

“That part of filmmaking is divine, and of course I’m crazy about the theatre. I’ve been in it all my life, and I don’t think there’s anything that replaces the feeling of a live audience.”