With some of the most memorable musical numbers of all time The Sound of Music is a classic movie that just keeps on giving, but where are its actors now?
It’s been a whopping 59 years since Maria and the von Trapp family burst onto cinema screens in The Sound of Music.
The 1965 smash hit movie grossed over $286,214,076 worldwide and adjusting for inflation, has earned around $2.366 billion in total – placing it among the top ten highest-grossing films ever made.
With cult classic songs such as ‘So Long, Farewell’, ‘Sixteen Going On Seventeen’ and ‘My Favourite Things’ to name just a few, The Sound of Music was the soundtrack to many of our childhoods.
But just where are the cast now and what happened after the von Trapps went trekking through the Alps to freedom? Let’s find out…
Julie Andrews (Maria von Trapp)
After winning a Golden Globe for her portrayal of Maria in The Sound of Music, Julie Andrews went on to have starring roles in movies including Thoroughly Modern Millie, Victor Victoria and the Princess Diaries.
Andrews has won an Oscar, a BAFTA, four more Golden Globes, three Grammys, two Emmys and a Screen Actors Guild lifetime achievement award since The Sound of Music and has three daughters Emma, Amy and Joanna from two marriages.
Most recently Julie Andrews voiced Lady Whistledown in the late-2020 smash hit Netflix series, Bridgerton.
Christopher Plummer (Captain Von Trapp)
Christopher Plummer had a wildly successful career after portraying disciplinarian Captain Von Trapp in The Sound of Music.
He went on to star in movies including The Man Who Would Be King, The Return of the Pink Panther, Malcolm X, 12 Monkeys and Syriana and in 2018 when he was 88 years old, set the world record for the oldest Oscar nominee for his work in All the Money in the World.
Plummer was married three times, lived in Connecticut with his third wife Elaine Taylor whom he married in 1970, and had a daughter Amanda with ex-wife Tammy Grimes.
Christopher Plummer died aged 91 on February 5, 2021.
Charmian Carr (Liesl von Trapp)
Actress Charmian Carr wasn’t actually “16 going on 17” when she played the eldest von Trapp child in The Sound of Music, but was in fact a young woman of 23 years old.
Charmian quit acting after the movie’s release and had two daughters, she then went on to open an interior design business in California and later wrote two books, Forever Liesl and Letters to Liesl.
Charmian died at 73 years old in Los Angeles on September 17, 2016 from complications related to dementia.
Nicholas Hammond (Friedrich von Trapp)
Nicholas Hammond, the actor who played the second eldest von Trapp child, Friedrich, is now in his 70s and stayed in the acting business after the runaway success of The Sound of Music.
Hammond starred in TV series The Amazing Spider-Man, played Bill Johnson in Dallas in 1982 and most recently starred in a mini-series on Gallipoli in 2015.
Nicholas Hammond moved to Sydney in the 1980s where he still lives today with actress Australian actress Robyn Nevin.
Heather Menzies (Louisa von Trapp)
After starring as Louisa von Trapp when she was 13 years old, actress Heather Menzies continued acting, most notably playing Jessica in the classic sci-fi series Logan’s Run and famously modelled for Playboy.
Heather’s first marriage was to John Cluett and the actress met her second husband, actor Robert Urich, on the set of a corned beef commercial and the pair married in 1975, before Heather stepped away from show business to raise her three children.
Heather sadly died of brain cancer aged 68 on Christmas Eve in 2017.
Duane Chase (Kurt von Trapp)
Duane Chase was just 11 years old when he played Kurt von Trapp in The Sound of Music and after filming wrapped he shunned the limelight and returned to school.
After he graduated High School, Duane fought fires in the United States Forest Service before returning to university to study for a Master’s degree in geology.
Since then Washington-based Duane, who with wife Petra Maria, has worked as a computer software engineer for oil mining companies and is now returning to forestry and wildlife work.
Angela Cartwright (Brigitta Von Trapp)
Angela Cartwright is the only British von Trapp, having been born in Cheshire before moving to the States to start acting.
After appearing in The Sound of Music aged 12, the Brigitta Von Trapp actress starred in the TV show Lost in Space from 1965–1968 and the movie Scout’s Honor in 1980.
Angela is now a full-time artist, showcasing her work in Studio City, Los Angeles, and has two children with actor and producer Steve Gullion to whom she has been married for 44 years.
Debbie Turner (Marta von Trapp)
Debbie Turner was just six years old when she played Marta von Trapp in The Sound of Music and stopped acting as soon as the movie wrapped.
Debbie went back to school and after graduating college met her husband Rick Larson at a ski resort she was working at, before marrying him in 1980.
Debbie has four daughters and runs her own event design company, ‘Debbie Turner Originals’ based in Minnesota.
At the start of the pandemic, Debbie found the same fabric used in The Sound of Music and used it to start making face masks that she now sells from her website.
Kym Karath (Gretl von Trapp)
Kym Karath was an experienced actor by the time she was six years old and starred in The Sound of Music; the youngster had previously been in Spencer’s Mountain with Henry Fonda when she was just three.
As a child actor, Kym also starred in The Thrill of It All with Doris Day and in 1964 was in Good Neighbor Sam with Jack Lemmon.
She later studied humanities at the University of Southern California and moved to Paris for further studies and to model, where at the age of 26 she married Philippe L’Equilbec and had a son in 1991.
Karen lived in Greenwich, Connecticut for a while before returning to acting in 2005.