Honestly, it’s hard to wrap your head around the fact that The Sound of Music hit theaters way back in 1965. Even now, if you flip through the channels on a random Sunday, there’s a solid chance you’ll see Julie Andrews twirling on a mountain. It’s a juggernaut. But while we all know Maria and the Captain, the actual lives of the Sound of Music cast shifted in some pretty wild directions once the cameras stopped rolling. Some stayed in the spotlight. Others basically vanished into "normal" life. A few dealt with the heavy weight of being typecast for decades.
It wasn’t all Edelweiss and sunshine behind the scenes, either.
Julie Andrews and Christopher Plummer: The Complicated Leads
Julie Andrews was already a massive star because of Mary Poppins, but this film made her untouchable. She was the heart of the set. Interestingly, though, she almost didn't take the role because she was worried about being "too nanny-ish" after Poppins. We lucked out that she changed her mind. Her career after the hills went everywhere—from her Oscar-nominated turn in Victor/Victoria to becoming the voice of Queen Lillian in Shrek and the narrator of Bridgerton. She’s a Dame now. She’s literal royalty in the industry.
Then there’s Christopher Plummer.
Plummer was... let's say "difficult" about the movie for a long time. He famously called it "The Sound of Mucus." He was a serious Shakespearean stage actor and thought the movie was sentimental goop. He even admitted to being a bit tipsy during the filming of the music festival scene. Despite his initial grumpiness, he and Andrews remained incredibly close friends until his death in 2021. Plummer eventually softened his stance on the film, realizing that it allowed him the financial freedom to pursue the "serious" roles he loved. He finally won an Oscar at age 82 for Beginners, proving that there was plenty of life after Captain von Trapp.
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The von Trapp Children: Fame, Trauma, and Different Paths
The kids are usually who people ask about most. You have to remember, these seven actors spent months together and basically became a secondary family. But child stardom is a weird beast.
Charmian Carr, who played Liesl, wasn't actually sixteen going on seventeen—she was 21. She had a brief brush with Hollywood after the film, starring with Anthony Perkins in a TV pilot, but she quickly pivoted. She started an interior design business in Encino, California, and her client list included Michael Jackson. She wrote two books, Forever Liesl and Letters to Liesl, documenting how the film defined her life until she passed away in 2016.
Nicholas Hammond (Friedrich) had perhaps the most "Hollywood" career of the siblings. If you’re a comic book nerd, you might recognize him—he was the first live-action Peter Parker in The Amazing Spider-Man TV series in the late 70s. He eventually moved to Australia, where he works as a writer and director.
The Middle Kids
Heather Menzies-Urich (Louisa) married actor Robert Urich and spent much of her life dedicated to cancer research after his diagnosis. She passed away in 2017. Duane Chase (Kurt) did the most dramatic pivot of the group. He left acting entirely, joined the United States Forest Service, and became a geologist. Think about that: from singing high notes in the Alps to studying rocks and soil in the real mountains.
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Angela Cartwright (Brigitta) was already a veteran from Make Room for Daddy and went on to star in Lost in Space. Today, she’s a successful photographer and artist. She’s often the one keeping the remaining cast members connected.
The Youngest Duo
Debbie Turner (Marta) followed a similar path to Duane, leaving the industry to raise a family and start a floral design business. Then there’s Kym Karath, the tiny Gretl. She continued acting for a while, appearing in shows like The Brady Bunch, but later focused on advocacy for individuals with special needs, inspired by her son.
Why the Sound of Music Cast Still Matters Today
There’s a reason we’re still talking about these specific people sixty years later. It’s not just the songs. It’s the fact that this cast represented a very specific moment in the shift from the "Golden Age" of Hollywood to something new.
When you look at the Sound of Music cast, you’re looking at a group that survived the transition from the studio system to the modern era. They’ve participated in countless reunions, from The Oprah Winfrey Show to the AFI Life Achievement awards. Their longevity is a testament to the film's chemistry. If they hadn't actually liked each other, the "family" vibe wouldn't have worked, and the movie would have felt like a cheap Hallmark card.
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Real-World Connections and Expert Trivia
- The Voice Dubbing: Most people don't realize that Christopher Plummer’s singing was dubbed by Bill Lee. Plummer worked hard on the songs, but the producers wanted a specific "folk" sound for the Captain.
- The Weight of History: Peggy Wood, who played Mother Abbess, was a silent film era star. Her presence on set brought a level of gravitas that the younger actors frequently cited as intimidating but inspiring.
- The Salary Gap: Julie Andrews was paid $225,000. For 1965, that was huge. The kids? They made significantly less, with some of them earning only a few thousand dollars for months of grueling work and rehearsals.
Handling the Legacy
The surviving cast members—Hammond, Cartwright, Chase, and Karath—still meet up. They are the keepers of the flame. When Christopher Plummer passed, they all spoke about him not as a distant co-star, but as a father figure who, despite his grumbling, cared deeply about the "von Trapp kids."
If you want to truly appreciate what this cast did, don't just watch the movie for the songs. Watch the way they look at each other during "So Long, Farewell." That isn't just acting; it's a group of people who had been rehearsing in a hot studio for weeks, bonding over the sheer absurdity of their sudden fame.
Next Steps for Fans and Researchers:
- Read the Memoirs: If you want the unfiltered truth, pick up Forever Liesl by Charmian Carr. She doesn't sugarcoat the exhaustion of the press tours or the difficulty of transitioning back to a "normal" life.
- Visit the Sites: If you ever head to Salzburg, skip the generic tours and find the Leopoldskron Palace. This is where the backyard scenes were filmed. Standing there gives you a much better sense of the scale the cast was working with.
- Check the Archives: The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences holds several oral histories from the production crew that detail just how much the cast had to endure during the rainy Salzburg summer, which delayed filming for weeks.
- Follow Angela Cartwright: She remains active on social media and often shares rare, behind-the-scenes photos from her personal collection that you won't find in official studio galleries.