GaryMrMets
04-06-2002, 10:48 PM
http://people.aol.com/people/features/wherearetheynow/0,10950,220253,00.html
Where Are They Now?
April 2, 2002
The Cast of The Sound of Music
http://i.timeinc.net/people/images/features/watn/020408/soundintro.jpg
The story of the singing von Trapp family fleeing Nazi-controlled Austria won 1965's Best Picture Oscar and four more (out of 10 nominations). "We had no idea it was going to go through the roof like it did," says Best Director winner Robert Wise, 87. "It's still one of the highest-grossing musicals of all time."
(Screen Scenes)
Christopher Plummer and Julie Andrews
(Captain and Maria von Trapp)
On the set Plummer, who played the curmudgeonly von Trapp père, referred to the film as The Sound of Mucus. And while many of the kids remember him as aloof, his distance "made the children's performances better," says Charmian Carr, who portrayed his daughter Liesl, "because they were really intimidated by him." Costar Julie Andrews told Salt Lake City's Deseret News last year that Plummer's approach tempered the film's "potential sugary sentiment." Now 72, the actor, who last appeared as Russell Crowe's psychiatrist in A Beautiful Mind, lives in Connecticut with his wife of 31 years, actress Elaine Taylor, 58. Time has softened his views on The Sound of Music. On CBS's The Early Show last year he said, "I know I was particularly irreverent about the piece many times, but underneath it all I am grateful for it."
Unlike her irascible leading man, Andrews was "a dream lady to work with," says director Robert Wise. "Between scenes, she was teaching us songs and had us in fits of giggles," says Nicholas Hammond (Friedrich). "She knew it was important that when the cameras went on, we just adored her, and we did." So did Oscar: Andrews earned her second of three Best Actress nominations for Music (she won for 1964's Mary Poppins). In 1997 Andrews, now 66, suffered severe damage to her vocal cords after minor throat surgery. She continues to act and writes children's books in East Hampton, N.Y., and Manhattan, where she lives with her second husband of 32 years, director Blake Edwards, 79, with whom she raised five children. Of her 55-year career, Andrews told Larry King last year," Imagine being asked to do Mary Poppins, and then somebody comes along and says, 'Would you like to do The Sound of Music?' My God, how lucky I got!"
http://i.timeinc.net/people/images/features/watn/020408/jandrews.jpg
==========
Debbie Turner (Marta von Trapp)
With dozens of commercials behind her by age 7, Turner impressed director Robert Wise with her audition -- but distressed him during filming. "He had a screen to soften the background," she says. "I fell through it and put a body-sized hole in it. I don't think he ever forgave me." Turner, 45 (with her mixed-breed dog Mr. Bare, above), did more commercials and modeling in L.A. until her early 20s, when she married aircraft mechanic Richard Larson, now 44, and moved to Chanhassen, Minn., where they raised four daughters, ages 9 to 19. Now freelancing as a floral designer and marketing homemade collectible Santas online, Turner, who e-mails the other "kids" regularly, says the film's message of love and honor explains its enduring popularity. "It's a very heartfelt story. You walk out of the movie singing."
http://i.timeinc.net/people/images/features/watn/020408/dturner.jpg
=============
Nicholas Hammond (Friedrich von Trapp)
It's a credit to director Robert Wise for casting "normal children," says Hammond, 51, that he and his movie siblings -- whom he still counts among his closest friends -- have turned out so well. "None of us are on drugs, none of us are in jail. We are all in relationships, we all have normal working lives." For Hammond that has meant playing Peter Parker in the '70s TV series The Amazing Spider-man and guest-starring on some 100 other shows. While filming a miniseries in Australia in 1987, the Washington, D.C., native fell in love with the country and moved to Sydney, where he lives with girlfriend Robyn Nevin, 49, artistic director of the Sydney Theatre Company. Though Hammond won a screenwriting award in 1999 for an Australian miniseries, Music remains an unsurpassable touchstone: "My mum still has the telegram saying 'Nicky got the job.' It was a total thrill."
http://i.timeinc.net/people/images/features/watn/020408/nhammond.jpg
========
Kym Karath (Gretl)
This was the plan for the rowboat scene: When the boat tipped, Julie Andrews was to catch the 5-year-old Karath in her arms as they fell into the lake. Instead, on the second take, Andrews and Karath landed in the water on opposite sides of the boat. "That was a little traumatic-someone had to save me!" says Karath, now 43. After what she refers to as too many "dumb blonde" roles in films and TV, she moved to Paris, where she met banker Philippe L'Equilbec. Married in 1985, they have a 10-year-old son, Eric. She took time off to be a stay-at-home mom, but now Karath, who shuttles between homes in L.A. and Connecticut, is back on the audition circuit.
http://i.timeinc.net/people/images/features/watn/020408/kkarath.jpg
=========
Duane Chase (Kurt)
When director Robert Wise asked Chase to come to Austria, the California native replied, "Oh, sure, and you don't even have to pay me!" A veteran of TV commercials (one for IHOP led to his Music audition), the then-13-year-old says that he "never intended acting to be a lifelong career." He made just one film after Music, then went on to earn a geology degree from UC-Santa Barbara and a master's in geology from the University of Alabama. In 1987 he married Petra, 54, a nurse, and settled in Redmond, Wash. Though he is now a software engineer, Chase, 51, finds that his life is still filled with The Sound of Music. "Ironically Petra's mom is Austrian and Petra originally came to the U.S. as a nanny -- and her middle name is Maria, "he says. "But it's all coincidence. My attraction to her had nothing to do with any of that!" Still, 37 years later, Chase says, watching the film is "like watching a giant home movie of my childhood."
http://i.timeinc.net/people/images/features/watn/020408/dchase.jpg
================
Heather Menzies Urich (Louisa)
"Some movie being filmed in Australia starring Julie Harris" is how 13-year-old Menzies described her Music audition to a friend. But after six months of tryouts, she says, "I wanted it more than anything." In the 1970s Menzies, now 52, starred in the TV series Logan's Run, posed for Playboy ("I thought, 'Ooh, let's see what it's like to be sexy' ") and met her husband, actor Robert Urich, 55, while filming a commercial for Libby's Corned Beef Hash. They live in L.A. and have three children -- Ryan, 23, Emily, 21, and Allison, 4.
http://i.timeinc.net/people/images/features/watn/020408/hmenzies.jpg
==========
Charmian Carr (Liesl)
When a 21-year-old Carr trilled the lyrics "I am 16 going on 17," that wasn't the only subterfuge going on. After spraining her ankle in an earlier take, she had to wear a camouflaged bandage. "You can see it if you know to look," says Carr, now 59. "I don't know how I managed to dance that dance." She gave up acting for interior design because, she says, "I wanted children and a career I could control." With husband Jay Brent (they divorced in 1991), she had daughters Jennifer, 32, and Emily, 28, and worked as Michael Jackson's interior designer through the '80s. (Current clients include several Music alumni.) Now living in Encino, Calif., and dating forest ranger Gary Oldham, 59, Carr appears at "Sing-A-Long Sound of Music" events across the country. "They show the words onscreen and the audience sings along," she explains. "Going back to performing was seamless for me. Liesl takes over and I stay in the background."
http://i.timeinc.net/people/images/features/watn/020408/ccarr.jpg
=============
Angela Cartwright (Brigitta)
After seven years on TV's The Danny Thomas Show, the British-born Cartwright was a professional on the Music set and an 11-year-old off it. When she wasn't debating the cutest Beatle with Heather Menzies (Louisa), she was learning to say "supercalifragilisticexpialidocious" backward from Mary Poppins herself. ("I still can," the 49-year-old says proudly.) Three years of TV's Lost in Space followed, then acting took a backseat as she and husband of 26 years Steve Gullion, 53, opened a gift boutique (now online) in Toluca Lake, Calif., where she sells her own hand-tinted black-and-white photos. Life came full circle as she watched daughter Rebecca, now 20 (she also has a son, Jesse, 16), play Maria in a summer-theater production of Music eight years ago. "When she came out singing 'The hills are alive . . .,' " Cartwright remembers, "tears streamed down my face."
http://i.timeinc.net/people/images/features/watn/020408/acartwright.jpg
==========
Daniel Truhitte (Rolf)
Truhitte says that he landed the part of Liesl's Austrian boyfriend because "I could sing and dance and play a Nazi." He later turned down similar roles, eventually choosing to run dance studios over acting. "I was raising a family," says Truhitte, 58. "There was no security in it." Living in North Carolina, the husband of Tarealia, 54, and father of three sons from two previous marriages is attempting a comeback as one of "the last song-and-dance men." If that doesn't work out? "I was Rolf," he says. "What more could a person ask for?"
http://i.timeinc.net/people/images/features/watn/020408/dtruhitte.jpg
=============================
Which 'Sound of Music' song is your fave?
'Do-Re-Mi'
'Sixteen Going on Seventeen'
'So Long, Farewell'
'The Sound of Music'
'My Favorite Things'
'Edelweiss'
'Climb Ev'ry Mountain'
Where Are They Now?
April 2, 2002
The Cast of The Sound of Music
http://i.timeinc.net/people/images/features/watn/020408/soundintro.jpg
The story of the singing von Trapp family fleeing Nazi-controlled Austria won 1965's Best Picture Oscar and four more (out of 10 nominations). "We had no idea it was going to go through the roof like it did," says Best Director winner Robert Wise, 87. "It's still one of the highest-grossing musicals of all time."
(Screen Scenes)
Christopher Plummer and Julie Andrews
(Captain and Maria von Trapp)
On the set Plummer, who played the curmudgeonly von Trapp père, referred to the film as The Sound of Mucus. And while many of the kids remember him as aloof, his distance "made the children's performances better," says Charmian Carr, who portrayed his daughter Liesl, "because they were really intimidated by him." Costar Julie Andrews told Salt Lake City's Deseret News last year that Plummer's approach tempered the film's "potential sugary sentiment." Now 72, the actor, who last appeared as Russell Crowe's psychiatrist in A Beautiful Mind, lives in Connecticut with his wife of 31 years, actress Elaine Taylor, 58. Time has softened his views on The Sound of Music. On CBS's The Early Show last year he said, "I know I was particularly irreverent about the piece many times, but underneath it all I am grateful for it."
Unlike her irascible leading man, Andrews was "a dream lady to work with," says director Robert Wise. "Between scenes, she was teaching us songs and had us in fits of giggles," says Nicholas Hammond (Friedrich). "She knew it was important that when the cameras went on, we just adored her, and we did." So did Oscar: Andrews earned her second of three Best Actress nominations for Music (she won for 1964's Mary Poppins). In 1997 Andrews, now 66, suffered severe damage to her vocal cords after minor throat surgery. She continues to act and writes children's books in East Hampton, N.Y., and Manhattan, where she lives with her second husband of 32 years, director Blake Edwards, 79, with whom she raised five children. Of her 55-year career, Andrews told Larry King last year," Imagine being asked to do Mary Poppins, and then somebody comes along and says, 'Would you like to do The Sound of Music?' My God, how lucky I got!"
http://i.timeinc.net/people/images/features/watn/020408/jandrews.jpg
==========
Debbie Turner (Marta von Trapp)
With dozens of commercials behind her by age 7, Turner impressed director Robert Wise with her audition -- but distressed him during filming. "He had a screen to soften the background," she says. "I fell through it and put a body-sized hole in it. I don't think he ever forgave me." Turner, 45 (with her mixed-breed dog Mr. Bare, above), did more commercials and modeling in L.A. until her early 20s, when she married aircraft mechanic Richard Larson, now 44, and moved to Chanhassen, Minn., where they raised four daughters, ages 9 to 19. Now freelancing as a floral designer and marketing homemade collectible Santas online, Turner, who e-mails the other "kids" regularly, says the film's message of love and honor explains its enduring popularity. "It's a very heartfelt story. You walk out of the movie singing."
http://i.timeinc.net/people/images/features/watn/020408/dturner.jpg
=============
Nicholas Hammond (Friedrich von Trapp)
It's a credit to director Robert Wise for casting "normal children," says Hammond, 51, that he and his movie siblings -- whom he still counts among his closest friends -- have turned out so well. "None of us are on drugs, none of us are in jail. We are all in relationships, we all have normal working lives." For Hammond that has meant playing Peter Parker in the '70s TV series The Amazing Spider-man and guest-starring on some 100 other shows. While filming a miniseries in Australia in 1987, the Washington, D.C., native fell in love with the country and moved to Sydney, where he lives with girlfriend Robyn Nevin, 49, artistic director of the Sydney Theatre Company. Though Hammond won a screenwriting award in 1999 for an Australian miniseries, Music remains an unsurpassable touchstone: "My mum still has the telegram saying 'Nicky got the job.' It was a total thrill."
http://i.timeinc.net/people/images/features/watn/020408/nhammond.jpg
========
Kym Karath (Gretl)
This was the plan for the rowboat scene: When the boat tipped, Julie Andrews was to catch the 5-year-old Karath in her arms as they fell into the lake. Instead, on the second take, Andrews and Karath landed in the water on opposite sides of the boat. "That was a little traumatic-someone had to save me!" says Karath, now 43. After what she refers to as too many "dumb blonde" roles in films and TV, she moved to Paris, where she met banker Philippe L'Equilbec. Married in 1985, they have a 10-year-old son, Eric. She took time off to be a stay-at-home mom, but now Karath, who shuttles between homes in L.A. and Connecticut, is back on the audition circuit.
http://i.timeinc.net/people/images/features/watn/020408/kkarath.jpg
=========
Duane Chase (Kurt)
When director Robert Wise asked Chase to come to Austria, the California native replied, "Oh, sure, and you don't even have to pay me!" A veteran of TV commercials (one for IHOP led to his Music audition), the then-13-year-old says that he "never intended acting to be a lifelong career." He made just one film after Music, then went on to earn a geology degree from UC-Santa Barbara and a master's in geology from the University of Alabama. In 1987 he married Petra, 54, a nurse, and settled in Redmond, Wash. Though he is now a software engineer, Chase, 51, finds that his life is still filled with The Sound of Music. "Ironically Petra's mom is Austrian and Petra originally came to the U.S. as a nanny -- and her middle name is Maria, "he says. "But it's all coincidence. My attraction to her had nothing to do with any of that!" Still, 37 years later, Chase says, watching the film is "like watching a giant home movie of my childhood."
http://i.timeinc.net/people/images/features/watn/020408/dchase.jpg
================
Heather Menzies Urich (Louisa)
"Some movie being filmed in Australia starring Julie Harris" is how 13-year-old Menzies described her Music audition to a friend. But after six months of tryouts, she says, "I wanted it more than anything." In the 1970s Menzies, now 52, starred in the TV series Logan's Run, posed for Playboy ("I thought, 'Ooh, let's see what it's like to be sexy' ") and met her husband, actor Robert Urich, 55, while filming a commercial for Libby's Corned Beef Hash. They live in L.A. and have three children -- Ryan, 23, Emily, 21, and Allison, 4.
http://i.timeinc.net/people/images/features/watn/020408/hmenzies.jpg
==========
Charmian Carr (Liesl)
When a 21-year-old Carr trilled the lyrics "I am 16 going on 17," that wasn't the only subterfuge going on. After spraining her ankle in an earlier take, she had to wear a camouflaged bandage. "You can see it if you know to look," says Carr, now 59. "I don't know how I managed to dance that dance." She gave up acting for interior design because, she says, "I wanted children and a career I could control." With husband Jay Brent (they divorced in 1991), she had daughters Jennifer, 32, and Emily, 28, and worked as Michael Jackson's interior designer through the '80s. (Current clients include several Music alumni.) Now living in Encino, Calif., and dating forest ranger Gary Oldham, 59, Carr appears at "Sing-A-Long Sound of Music" events across the country. "They show the words onscreen and the audience sings along," she explains. "Going back to performing was seamless for me. Liesl takes over and I stay in the background."
http://i.timeinc.net/people/images/features/watn/020408/ccarr.jpg
=============
Angela Cartwright (Brigitta)
After seven years on TV's The Danny Thomas Show, the British-born Cartwright was a professional on the Music set and an 11-year-old off it. When she wasn't debating the cutest Beatle with Heather Menzies (Louisa), she was learning to say "supercalifragilisticexpialidocious" backward from Mary Poppins herself. ("I still can," the 49-year-old says proudly.) Three years of TV's Lost in Space followed, then acting took a backseat as she and husband of 26 years Steve Gullion, 53, opened a gift boutique (now online) in Toluca Lake, Calif., where she sells her own hand-tinted black-and-white photos. Life came full circle as she watched daughter Rebecca, now 20 (she also has a son, Jesse, 16), play Maria in a summer-theater production of Music eight years ago. "When she came out singing 'The hills are alive . . .,' " Cartwright remembers, "tears streamed down my face."
http://i.timeinc.net/people/images/features/watn/020408/acartwright.jpg
==========
Daniel Truhitte (Rolf)
Truhitte says that he landed the part of Liesl's Austrian boyfriend because "I could sing and dance and play a Nazi." He later turned down similar roles, eventually choosing to run dance studios over acting. "I was raising a family," says Truhitte, 58. "There was no security in it." Living in North Carolina, the husband of Tarealia, 54, and father of three sons from two previous marriages is attempting a comeback as one of "the last song-and-dance men." If that doesn't work out? "I was Rolf," he says. "What more could a person ask for?"
http://i.timeinc.net/people/images/features/watn/020408/dtruhitte.jpg
=============================
Which 'Sound of Music' song is your fave?
'Do-Re-Mi'
'Sixteen Going on Seventeen'
'So Long, Farewell'
'The Sound of Music'
'My Favorite Things'
'Edelweiss'
'Climb Ev'ry Mountain'