'Sound of Music' children re-unite
2001-03-29 09:46
London - The children who shot to stardom in The Sound of Music have re-united 35 years later for a bittersweet reflection on the "Von Trappings" of fame.
The stars of the 1964 film seen by one billion people worldwide returned to Salzburg together for the first time for a documentary recreating how they learnt to sing at the feet of
Julie Andrews.
Their lives certainly took them in many different directions - from posing nude in Playboy to starring in Spiderman and designing Michael Jackson's bedroom.
At first they found it difficult to create identities away from their roles and felt some bitterness over the slim rewards received for appearing in such a huge moneyspinner.
But they revealed in the Yorkshire Television documentary being shown on Wednesday night that they are now proud of their roles in the classic movie about the nun who found love and taught the Von Trapp family how to sing.
Charmian Carr was 21 and way past "Sixteen Going on Seventeen" when chosen to play Liesl.
At 57, she has written about her memories in "Forever Liesel" and runs her own interior design business. Among her clients was Michael Jackson.
She revealed in the documentary how she and the reclusive superstar bought 17 mannequins that he wanted for his bedroom.
"They are unbelievably real and it's so weird," she said.
She said the young cast were unhappy about "all the money that has been made on The Sound Music. It still bugs us."
Nicholas Hammond, who grew six inches during filming, went onto further fame as Spiderman and now lives in Australia. He
said: "The world will always think of me as Friedrich von Trapp
whether I want them to or not."
Heather Menzies, a Canadian ballet student who played Louisa, later posed nude for Playboy as "The Tender Trapp". Now happily married to American actor Robert Urich, she said: "The trip (back to Austria) made me realise what fun it was to do."
Duane Chase, who played Kurt, quit films and now designs computer software for geologists. "I just decided I wanted to
do other things," he said of his career switch.
Angela Cartwright was already a child star when landing the role of Brigitta. Now she is a photographer and runs a gift boutique on the Internet.
Debbie Turner, just seven when she played Marta, became a ski racer and now runs her own floral design business.
"The only bad part that I can remember was maybe the aftermath of the film - the false fame," she recalled.
Kym Karath, the baby of the party when she played Gretl at the age of five, still works as an actress in New York.
The documentary's producer Judith Holder is convinced the reunion was cathartic for the cast: "They all said that not only was it a one-off, it was the beginning of the process of saying goodbye to the film - and their childhoods."