Heather Menzies as Louisa von Trapp
Heather Menzies, a young and inexperienced actress, was chosen to play the role of the third eldest von Trapp sibling in The Sound of Music. She was born in Canada, and Louisa von Trapp was her most famous acting role, along with her role as Jessica 6 on sci-fi series Logan’s Run.
In 1973, when she was 24, Menzies appeared in a Playboy spread entitled “Tender Trapp.” She was married for many years to prolific actor Robert Urich and the two had three children. Sadly, Heather Menzies passed away from brain cancer in 2017.
Julie Andrews as Maria
Julie Andrews is one of Hollywood’s most celebrated actresses and she has only improved with age. Andrews was born in England but made a name for herself on Broadway in classic shows like My Fair Lady, Camelot, and Cinderella. She made her film debut in the unforgettable Mary Poppins and won an Academy Award for the part. More recently, Julie Andrews has starred alongside Anne Hathaway in Disney films, The Princess Diaries and The Princess Diaries 2: Royal Engagement, and still lends her voice to animated features.
Julie Andrews was named a Dame by the Queen of England in 2000 and was listed as one of the 100 Greatest Britons. She is also the recipient of the Screen Actors Guild Lifetime Achievement Award for her remarkable career.
Nicholas Hammond as Friedrich von Trapp
Nicholas Hammond played the part of Friedrich in The Sound of Music film. He had the perfect personality for the role, but physically he came up a bit short. Producers put lifts in his shoes so that he would be taller than the other actors, especially than the actress who played Louisa.
In the end, puberty finally arrived and by the time the movie was finished shooting, Hammond had grown by several inches. Now it was the other actors who had to stand on boxes so that their height appeared consistent throughout the entire movie.
Duane Chase as Kurt von Trapp
Duane Dudley Chase was just 14 years old when he got the part of Kurt, the second von Trapp boy, in The Sound of Music. After the movie came out and he graduated from high school, Chase decided not to pursue acting and joined the United States Forestry Service in Santa Barbara, California. He attended UC Santa Barbara and graduated in 1976 with a B.S. in Geology, after which he enrolled in the University of Alabama and completed his master’s degree, also in geology.
He married a nurse by the name of Petra Maria, of German origin, and currently lives in Washington state and works as a software engineer who designs tools for geologists and geophysicists.
Angela Cartwright as Brigitta von Trapp
Angela Cartwright is an American actress who was born in England. She is one of the few von Trapp children who went on to have a successful acting career. Other than her portrayal of Brigitta von Trapp, she played Linda Williams, the stepdaughter, on The Danny Thomas Hour. Sadly, the show was cancelled when her TV father passed away suddenly from a heart attack. She went on to star in the cult sci-fi program Lost in Space, in the mid-sixties.
Today, Cartwright works as a professional photographer with over 30 years of experience and displays her work in her own gallery, in Studio City, LA. She has released several books about art in collaboration with fellow artist, Sarah Fishburn.