What Happened To The Sound Of Music Cast? What The Surviving Stars Look Like Today

Few musicals have stood the test of time as steadfastly as "The Sound of Music" has. Made by cinema legend Robert Wise, the family musical, which follows the story of a happy-go-lucky governess and her (mis)adventures with the von Trapp family on the cusp of World War II, has consistently endeared itself to each new generation since its release in 1965. Much to the delight of fans, who keep showering love upon the beloved film that gave the world sing-along hits like "Do Re Mi" and "My Favorite Things," the musical's ensemble cast has been as involved in upholding the timeless legacy of the film as they have. 

"The Sound of Music" brought its actors so close together that their familial bonds spilled over into their real lives after the film. Lead stars Julie Andrews and Christopher Plummer's lifelong friendship became as legendary as the musical itself, while the seven von Trapp children continued steadily as off-screen siblings, becoming fixtures in each other's lives. Though their professional journeys diverged after "The Sound of Music," the cast keeps returning to their early roots and, either through reunions or just by sentimentally talking about the film, continues to keep the magic of "The Sound of Music" alive. 

Here's where the cast of "The Sound of Music" is now and what its surviving stars look like today. 

Even for audiences watching "The Sound of Music" in 1965, it would have been hard to miss that something big was unfolding for the future of Hollywood. The musical marked a second major screen breakthrough of sorts for Julie Andrews (she had already bagged an Oscar for "Mary Poppins"), whose titular role as the sometimes bumbling, always good-natured Maria von Trapp was just another glimpse of the greatness she went on to achieve. 

From the stage — which was essentially her launchpad to acting fame — to television and movies, Andrews kept the entertainment industry charmed on all fronts throughout her pre- and post-"Sound of Music" eras. So much so that it would be impossible to concisely capture the full extent of her career, decorations, and legacy within a limited space. Andrews herself needed to write two thick memoirs, "Home" and "Home Work," to eventually achieve that feat. 

Relevant as she remained in showbiz, Andrews momentarily suffered a setback around the turn of the millennium, when she tragically lost her famous singing voice following throat surgery complications. "I went into a depression. It felt like I'd lost my identity," she told AARP. But the reasons why audiences stopped seeing Andrews on-screen as frequently as before were manifold. She found fresh creative outlets through voice acting and writing children's books. 

Complicated as his own relationship was to the film, there is no denying that Christopher Plummer played a key part in immortalizing "The Sound of Music." As family patriarch Captain von Trapp, he quietly grounded the chaos of the film with the sobriety of his legendary character that, by some accounts, is still counted as the highlight of his long and celebrated Hollywood career. 

He probably would have disagreed, though, given the derision with which he often looked back at the role. "I think the part in 'The Sound of Music' was the toughest," he once said during a Hollywood Reporter roundtable, in one of his milder criticisms of the 1965 musical. "Because it was so awful and sentimental and gooey ... You had to work terribly hard to try and infuse some minuscule bit of humor into it." 

Fortunately for him, "The Sound of Music" wasn't his career apex and, though it launched him to global stardom, the real award magnets came afterward. In the 1970s, Plummer earned his first Emmy and Tony wins, and in 2012, after securing an Oscar for "Beginners," he joined an elite club of performers honored with the triple crown of acting. The acting legend remained committed to his love for the stage and screen right up until his heartbreaking death in 2021. He was 91. 

Charmian Carr waltzed into our hearts as Liesl von Trapp in 1965 and never left. The eldest of the singing-dancing von Trapp brood, she embodied the teenage arc of "The Sound of Music" as a 16-year-old going on 17 whose concerns went beyond just creating mischief with her siblings. From the topic of forbidden love to her relationship with her mother, Liesl's journey became the film's bridge between childhood and young adulthood. 

Glorious as she was as Liesl, Carr didn't really lean into her acting talents after 1965. Beyond an appearance in the 1966 television musical "Evening Primrose," opposite Anthony Perkins no less, Carr all but retired from acting in pursuit of other avenues. Marriage was one; interior designing pop icon Michael Jackson's home was another. 

But though her life in Salzburg was long behind her, Carr carried Liesl with her for years. As she said on "Coast to Coast With Heather Dawson": "You know, I'm not sure where Charmian ends and Liesl begins." Carr continued to step back into her alter ego's shoes every now and then at the musical's reunions. She tragically died in 2016 after developing a rare form of dementia. 

Nicholas Hammond was a teenager when he kick-started his long and eventful showbiz career with a role in "The Sound of Music." As older brother Friedrich von Trapp, he gave an early glimpse into the screen presence that would prove useful to his acting endeavors beyond 1965. He went on to straddle both big-screen titles like "Superdad" and television appearances in popular series like "The Brady Bunch."

But Hammond's most notable claim to renewed fame after "The Sound of Music" came in the late 1970s, when he stepped into the then-new shoes of Peter Parker for the Marvel superhero's first-ever live-action television adaptation. For a whole generation growing up in that era, Hammond was their Spider-Man — a milestone he seems to hold as close to his heart as he does "The Sound of Music." 

"It's a wonderful feeling when you've more than just made a piece of entertainment," he said in an interview with SilverKris. With decades of work behind him, Hammond is close to reaching 100 acting credits, which also include more recent successes like "Once Upon a Time... in Hollywood." 

If there was one von Trapp sibling who fully embraced an acting career after "The Sound of Music," it was Heather Menzies. After delighting audiences as Louisa von Trapp — one of the middle-borns in the troupe whose chief distinction came from leaving spiders in their governess' bed — Menzies went on to make a name for herself in the world of television. 

Episodic appearances across shows seems to have been her forte, with credits spanning crime series like "Dragnet 1967" and Westerns like "Bonanza" and "Alias Smith and Jones." The only show she led was the short-lived "Logan's Run." Menzies simultaneously continued her love affair with movies, none of which came close to the success of "The Sound of Music," but which kept her alive in public imagination throughout her nearly 25-year career.

Off-screen, she made a bigger splash than she ever could on-screen post-1965, with a scandalous feature in Playboy magazine in 1973. Menzies was married twice in her life, the second time to fellow actor Robert Urich, in whose name she ran a nonprofit for cancer research after his death from the disease in 2002. Cancer claimed her life too in 2017. 

In his only major film role, former actor Duane Chase played the adorable Kurt von Trapp in "The Sound of Music." The younger of the two von Trapp brothers, Kurt often sang to the tune of his siblings, save for one iconic line in the film that he single-handedly nailed: "Silly, only grown-up men are scared of women." Chase later told Parade magazine: "Kurt was a little precocious and I think perhaps my personality probably fit that role pretty well." 

The acting high didn't wear off for Chase after the musical released in 1965 — at least, not immediately — and he made minor appearances in film and television the following year. His calling lay elsewhere, though. Always a bit of an explorer of the natural world, Chase became a Forest Service officer and eventually built a career in the world of geology tech. 

He lives in Oregon, far away from the glamour of Hollywood. And while he shows up to "The Sound of Music" reunions and obliges nostalgic conversations surrounding the 1965 musical from time to time, he doesn't let his one big film role define him. As he told Northwest Prime Time: "It's not something I trumpet about. And so when [people] find out they say ... 'Gee, why didn't you tell us!'" 

Angela Cartwright was already a notable child star when she delighted fans as the outspoken Brigitta von Trapp in "The Sound of Music." Though the 1965 musical was undeniably her big breakthrough, it was essentially just another feather in the cap of an actor who had shared screen space with cinema legends like Paul Newman and Sidney Poitier years before as a toddler. 

After the success of "The Sound of Music," Cartwright moved back to the world of television, which had been her initial launching pad to fame in the 1950s. "Lost in Space" and "Make Room for Granddaddy," which she was a regular on, were arguably her most popular post-1965 credits. And while she went largely unnoticed on the awards circuit, she remained committed to her craft. 

Off-camera, she also accrued other identities as a photographer, mixed-media artist, author, and host of "The Sound of Music" tours in Salzburg. The latter pursuit was hardly surprising, considering that Cartwright continues to be among the cast members who are the most enthusiastic about reveling in the legacy of the iconic film. 

Debbie Turner was nothing but charming in her role as Marta von Trapp, the second youngest of the von Trapp siblings, in "The Sound of Music." And while she looked back on her time working on her first and only major film with fondness for years afterward, Hollywood wasn't as kind to her as it was to the rest of her movie kin.

Save for a minor role in the 1979 sports comedy "North Dallas Forty," Turner had little to show for her acting resume after 1965 — a situation that she claimed wasn't entirely voluntary. "I'd go in interviews and they'd go, 'Oh, so you were in The Sound of Music?'" she told People. "And then it's like, I don't know if I got put on a pedestal or I got thrown out the side ... I just didn't get jobs." 

Surprising as the whole affair was, Turner's downfall from movie fame hardly meant that she was left professionally unfulfilled. She switched gears and found renewed recognition, this time as a floral designer who could count the White House among her clientele. In recent years, though, Turner has been enjoying a somewhat retired life, devoting herself to family and frequently also to the legacy of "The Sound of Music." 

Kym Karath entertained for many years after "The Sound of Music," but even now, her chief distinction relates to her time as the youngest (and easily the cutest) of the von Trapp children in the 1965 film. In the role of Gretl von Trapp, Karath delighted audiences with her cherubic yet sharp screen presence, which few 5-year-olds could have managed. And while that worked well for Karath during her early years in the industry, the sense of endearment that surrounded her turned into something far more sinister as she grew up. 

"There were some very scary offers and pedophile-ish people who were circulating," she told The Times, claiming that she was raped by producer Patrick Curtis when she was 15. "It was really a terrible, frightening period of time." So after a few television appearances on shows like "Family Affair" and "The Brady Bunch," Karath all but bowed out of the industry. 

After completing her studies, she tried returning to Hollywood but was met with the same experiences. She eventually left for good, got married, and devoted herself to caring for her son, who tragically sustained brain damage in childhood. Karath also remains connected to her von Trapp family, who jokingly call themselves the "non-Trapps." 

By the time "The Sound of Music" rolled around, Eleanor Parker had already bagged three Oscar nominations for best actress. While her supporting role as Baroness Elsa von Schraeder may not have endeared her to younger audiences as much — considering that her gray character stood in stark contrast to Julie Andrews' vivacious and kid-friendly Maria — Parker was undeniably the most decorated actor on the sets of the musical. 

"The Sound of Music" did bring her great distinction, though — a kind that differed from the Hollywood acclaim she had earned in the years before with classic noir and war films. And even though she continued to actively entertain in television as an Emmy-nominated star for decades after the success of the 1965 film, her characterization of the baroness eclipsed the rest of her career. 

Parker famously took time to come to terms with that legacy. As her son Paul Clemens once remarked: "[I]t was hardly her greatest role. It was only in the last 10 years of her life that she became glad she had done the film" (via the Los Angeles Times). Until her retirement in 1991, Parker worked primarily in television. After bowing out of the spotlight, she lived a private life until her death from pneumonia complications in 2013. She was 91.

Richard Haydn joined the cast of "The Sound of Music" as an already famous screen and stage star. But the 1965 musical, in which he played the genial Max Detweiler — or Uncle Max to the kids — was notably what set him up for an enduring Hollywood legacy that is talked about even today. His signature eccentricity, which had won him earlier acclaim in films like "The Green Years" and "Ball of Fire," wasn't a character requirement for his role as the impresario in "The Sound of Music," but it nevertheless showed through appealingly in his conduct. 

Though he continued work across television and film after 1965, "The Sound of Music" overshadowed all the credits he amassed in his later career. He took up work periodically during the early '70s, but toward the end of his life, Haydn had by and large bidden his farewell to the industry he had worked in for nearly half a century. His last showbiz credit, for a voice role in "The Hugga Bunch," was in 1985, the same year he died. He was 80. 

If villainy had a face in "The Sound of Music," it was Rolfe Gruber, the young telegram boy who betrays the von Trapp family as they try to flee Austria to escape the Nazi regime. Daniel Truhitte played him to perfection in whatever little screen time he was assigned, so much so that audiences have continued to resent his character even 60 years after his on-screen act of backstabbing. 

Truhitte, meanwhile, remembers that time from his life far more pleasantly, even continuing to have a touch of humor about the fact that, thanks to his character, he was largely excluded from "The Sound of Music" press appearances that spotlighted the von Trapp children. "You know, I was always an outsider, and they would always cut the bad guy," he told The Charlotte Observer, albeit with a laugh. 

Though not a von Trapp, Gruber was one of the only youngsters in the film with formal music training — a discipline that continued to anchor his life. He completed a few years of service with the U.S. military — joking, "I had such a guilt complex about being a Nazi, I joined the Marine Corps" — but he eventually returned to the world of music, where he performed at least into the mid-2010s.

Though Peggy Wood's role as Mother Abbess in "The Sound of Music" wasn't front and center, the film's legacy can never be complete without an honorable invocation of Wood, easily one of the most accomplished actors in the 1965 musical. With just a few minutes of screen time as the abbey head who serves as Maria's guiding light, Wood charmed the Academy into nominating her for best supporting actress — her first and only Oscar nod — before bowing out of the big screen forever. 

Career greatness had existed for Wood long before her Hollywood swan song. Her credits go as far back as the early 1900s, when she established herself as a noteworthy theater artist and eventually, a Broadway star. Though she also did a lot of screen work — peaking in the 1940s and '50s for her Emmy-nominated lead role in "Mama" — the stage seems to have been Wood's first love. She returned to it often, accruing over 70 Broadway credits throughout her life and even once telling the press: "I have no idle hours. I'm in the theater" (via The New York Times). Wood died in 1978 following a hemorrhage. She was 86.