The musical adaptation called for a versatile young actress who was also an accomplished singer. Although a number of established stars coveted the part, Lerner, Loewe and director Moss Hart decided to take a chance on the 20-year-old Julie Andrews, who had never before acted in such a demanding role.

How old were the children in Sound of music?

Characters –

• Maria Rainer, a postulant at Nonnberg Abbey
• Captain Georg von Trapp
• The Children:
  • Liesl von Trapp, age 16
  • Friedrich von Trapp, age 14
  • Louisa von Trapp, age 13
  • Kurt von Trapp, age 11
  • Brigitta von Trapp, age 10
  • Marta von Trapp, age 7
  • Gretl von Trapp, age 5
• The Mother Abbess, the head of Nonnberg Abbey
• Baroness Elsa Schrader “wealthy and sophisticated” and Captain von Trapp’s would-be fiancée
• Max Detweiler, Captain von Trapp’s friend, a music agent and producer
• Rolf Gruber, the 17-year-old Nazi delivery boy who is in love with Liesl
• Sister Bertha, the Mistress of Novices
• Sister Margareta, the Mistress of Postulants
• Sister Sophia, a sister at the Abbey
• Franz, Captain von Trapp’s butler
• Frau Schmidt, Captain von Trapp’s housekeeper
• Herr Zeller, the Gauleiter
• Admiral von Schreiber, a high-ranking member of the German Navy
• Ensemble includes nuns, high-society neighbors of Captain von Trapp who attend the ball thrown in Elsa’s honor, Nazi soldiers and contestants in the festival concert

Did Julie Andrews do her own singing in The Sound of Music?

Did Julie Andrews actually sing in The Sound of Music? Yes, Julie Andrews sang all of her musical performance in The Sound of Music herself. Her career actually began on the stage, her soprano voice had an impressive four octave range and she has perfect pitch.

What happened to Julie Andrews in Sound of music?

Andrews does her final curtain call for the Broadway musical ‘Victor/Victoria’ in 1997. She had to leave the show toward the end of its run as she was having trouble with her voice. She later had surgery to remove a non-cancerous growth on her vocal cords, and the surgery caused her to lose her singing voice.

When did Julie Andrews lose her singing voice?

News Julie Andrews Settles Malpractice Lawsuit Over Loss of the Sound of Her Music Actress Julie Andrews, who famously sang “Do-Re-Mi,” has settled her malpractice lawsuit over a 1997 throat operation that she claimed ruined her professional singing career, Reuters reported Sept.7.

Actress Julie Andrews, who famously sang “Do-Re-Mi,” has settled her malpractice lawsuit over a 1997 throat operation that she claimed ruined her professional singing career, Reuters reported Sept.7. The terms of the settlement against two doctors at New York City’s Mt. Sinai Hospital were not disclosed.

She filed the lawsuit in Manhattan in Dec.14, 1999. “I am glad to have settled this case in a favorable manner and am glad to close this chapter on an event which was unfortunate for all concerned,” Andrews said in a statement. Andrews, 64, who made her fame in the stage version of My Fair Lady and the films “Mary Poppins” and “The Sound of Music,” charged last year that doctors botched her throat surgery to remove a small polyp in 1997.

1. She was left, she said, with hoarseness, vocal chord damage and other complications, Reuters reported.
2. I think she’s still doing rehabilitative exercises,” Andrews’ publicist, Gene Schwam, said.
3. She’s continuing to do what she can under medical supervision to improve her condition.” “Singing has been a cherished gift, and my inability to sing has been a devastating blow,” Andrews said in a 1999 statement.

* In fall 1998, Andrews’ husband, Blake Edwards, told the world that he didn’t think Andrews would ever sing again. Andrews publicly dismissed Edwards’ negativity about her hoarse condition, and was reportedly angry over the breach of privacy. However, on ABC’s “20/20” Feb.12, 1999, the legendary musical theatre and film actress Andrews ( My Fair Lady, Camelot, “Mary Poppins,” “The Sound of Music”) told Barbara Walters that, in fact, she can’t sing and doctors don’t give her much hope of doing so.

1. She will try, she said at the time.
2. To not sing with an orchestra, to not be able to communicate through my voice which I’ve done all my life and not to be able to phrase lyrics and give people that kind of joy, I think I would be totally devastated,” Andrews told Walters in the interview.
3. Will she sing? “Well I can only say I hope so,” Andrews said.

“I have to be optimistic. I think to some degree I’m in a form of denial about it.” * Andrews has performed on stage since her childhood in England. She won acclaim in The Boyfriend in London and came to the U.S. where her clarion soprano voice in Broadway’s My Fair Lady and Camelot earned her Hollywood offers and subsequent international acclaim for films of “The Sound of Music” and “Mary Poppins.” She returned to the stage for Victor/Victoria in 1995, reprising her 1982 film role.

1. The film and stage show were both directed by Edwards.
2. She missed several weeks of performances due to various health problems.
3. Prior to Victor/Victoria she had earlier performed Off-Broadway’s Stephen Sondheim revue, Putting It Together, which yielded a cast album.
4. She has also recorded two solo albums, “Julie Andrews Broadway: The Music of Richard Rodgers” and an Alan Jay Lerner disc, in the past several years.

Recent non-singing appearances for Andrews included the June 8, 1998, Cameron Mackintosh tribute, “Hey, Mr. Producer,” in London and a Sept.28, 1998, Carnegie Hall Diva Concert. – By Kenneth Jones

Who played the 16 year old in Sound of Music?

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Charmian Carr (born Charmian Anne Farnon ; December 27, 1942 – September 17, 2016) was an American actress best known for her role as Liesl, the eldest von Trapp daughter in the 1965 film version of The Sound of Music,

Who played the youngest von Trapp in The Sound of Music?

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Kym Karath is an American former actress, best known for her role as Gretl, the youngest of the Von Trapp children in The Sound of Music,

Did Julie Andrews get along with the children in The Sound of Music?

Julie Andrews is keeping The Sound of Music family together! In an interview with the TODAY Show Wednesday morning, Andrews, 86, reflected on her tight bond with the cast of the 1965 classic. The cast members reunited earlier this month at Andrews’ AFI Life Achievement Award ceremony, where Nicholas Hammond, Duane Chase, Angela Cartwright, Debbie Turner and Kym Karath, who played the von Trapp children, surprised the actress onstage.

• We do keep in touch, but not on a really regular basis,” Andrews explained to TODAY.
• I mean, Christmases, maybe birthdays and certainly get-togethers, but we just bonded so hard that I think we’re family anyway.” Andrews also had kind memories of fellow costar Christopher Plummer, who played her love interest in the movie and passed away last year,

“Working with dear Chris Plummer,” she said, “whom I adored.” Andrews added, “We were friends for years.” “It really was the most beautifully crafted movie,” she said to host Hoda Kotb, “I mean, the details in the movie, first of all, the scenery, children, songs, music, all of it.” Emma McIntyre/Getty Andrews won a Golden Globe and received an Academy Award nomination for her performance as Maria in The Sound of Music, which also won the Oscar for Best Picture.

1. The beloved musical film tells the true story of the von Trapp family, who escaped Nazis in Austria.
2. It unfortunately wasn’t a complete reunion as Charmian Carr (who played Liesl) died at age 73 from complications with a rare form of dementia in Sept.2016, and her onscreen sister Heather Menzies-Urich (Louisa) died at age 68 after she was diagnosed with cancer in Dec.2017.

During the event, Andrews enjoyed a few other cast reunions including with her Princess Diaries costar Hector Elizondo, plus a virtual appearance from her onscreen granddaughter Anne Hathaway, Mary Poppins star Dick Van Dyke also paid tribute with a recorded message.

1. This night reminds me with great clarity how many people are involved with making movies.
2. What a huge collaborative effort it takes to bring film to the screen,” Andrews said during her speech, after she was presented with the award by Carol Burnett,
3. Axelle/Bauer-Griffin/FilmMagic Never miss a story — sign up for PEOPLE’s free daily newsletter to stay up-to-date on the best of what PEOPLE has to offer, from juicy celebrity news to compelling human interest stories.

The Victor/Victoria actress previously told PEOPLE the advice she’d give her younger self. “What I know now is that there’s always something more to learn, because you never stop really,” she said in 2017. “You don’t just grow up and get set, at least you shouldn’t.” “What I know now is to remain curious and that nothing is wasted.

Did Julie Andrews have a good voice?

What made Julie Andrews a great singer? Utah’s vocal coaches helped explain SALT LAKE CITY — Kimberly Knighton wants to start a YouTube channel imitating Julie Andrews. Instead of “My Favorite Things” or “A Spoonful of Sugar,” though, Knighton would sing current pop songs in that iconic Julie Andrews style.

Knighton, a vocal coach who lives in Orem, was raised on Andrews’ delightfully sweet vocal tone. And she, like the rest of us, will inevitably compare Emily Blunt’s forthcoming “” performance to Andrews’ Oscar-winning original. Given the occasion, we interviewed some local voice coaches about what made Andrews’ voice so captivating.

“She often moves between speaking and singing. So she kind of has this lilt in her voice as she moves between notes — she’ll scoop the notes a little bit more,” Knighton explained. “She enunciates really well, especially the consonants at the beginnings and ends of her words.” Andrews, she added, utilized vibrato at the end of her phrases, and avoided breathiness. Julie Andrew, center, in a scene from the film “Mary Poppins.” No, Andrews didn’t belt, but she did have a four-octave range., she performed onstage with her mother and stepfather, who were entertainers. And, less than a month after turning 12, Andrews made her professional solo debut.

By age 19 she was performing lead roles on Broadway, and she worked in theater and television for another decade before her big-screen debut in “Mary Poppins” in 1964. Those we interviewed mentioned Andrews’ seeming ease in all parts of her broad vocal range. It never sounded strained or difficult — though usually, it actually was pretty hard.

“Even in ‘The Sound of Music,’ she hit a high C at the end of ‘Do-Re-Mi,'” said Carol Ann Allred, a voice teacher and assistant professor/lecturer at the University of Utah’s School of Music. (Allred’s daughter,, sings the popular song “Never Enough” in the film “The Greatest Showman.”) “I love any place where Andrews gets to go up high,” Allred added.

• I was always so excited about those moments.
• Whenever we get to hear her high range, it’s so inspiring to me to hear this freedom in her high range and the lightness and sweetness in her voice.” Allred was a kid when “Mary Poppins” and “The Sound of Music” were released — “I just worshipped her,” Allred remembered — but for others, the introduction came later.

Jen Marco, a voice teacher in American Fork, didn’t really get familiar with Julie Andrews until her adult years. (Marco’s father wouldn’t allow “The Sound of Music” in their home — he thought Captain von Trapp’s children disobeying him set a bad example.) When she finally saw “The Sound of Music,” Marco recalled, “I wasn’t thinking about technique or pitch — I really liked the way that she made me feel as I was listening. Julie Andrews on “The Muppet Show” in 1977. Andrews’ graceful singing style could be deceptive that way: She sounds so conversational, it’s easy to forget the technical expertise behind it. “It doesn’t really make a ton of sense until you actually try to sing the song.

• And then you go, ‘Oh my goodness, this is something else,'” Marco said.
• People take for granted, she added, the kind of physical toll that singing can take.
• For Andrews, it eventually did.
• In 1997, Andrews to remove noncancerous nodules in her throat.
• The surgery didn’t go as planned, and Andrews lost practically all of her vocal range.

Andrews sued for medical malpractice, and the case was settled in 2000., a Utah-based vocal coach whose clients include former “American Idol” contestant David Archuleta, said the music industry’s approach to female singers changed in the years Julie Andrews rose to prominence.

While Andrews’ voice was pure and sweet, singers like Barbara Streisand ushered in a new era — one that focused more on pure power. Pushing one’s voice, perhaps beyond its natural limits, became the norm. “Some people are just born with it. Kind of like Michael Jordan,” Kaelin said. “That’s the nice thing about Julie Andrews is it was just so natural.

Julie Andrews was almost the last of that kind of singer.” : What made Julie Andrews a great singer? Utah’s vocal coaches helped explain

Can Julie Andrews play guitar?

50 things about ‘The Sound of Music’ to help celebrate the movie’s 50th anniversary FILE – In this Feb.1, 1965 file photo, actress Julie Andrews tunes her guitar on the set of “The Sound of Music.” The Oscar-winning film adaptation of the Rodgers & Hammerstein musical “The Sound of Music” is celebrating its 50th birthday in 2015 and its star Andrews can’t quite believe it.

• Fifty years ago this year, on March 2, 1965, the film adaptation of the musical “The Sound of Music” premiered.
• The film, which starred Julie Andrews and Christopher Plummer, has gone on to become one of the most beloved movie musicals of all time.
• In honor of the 2015 anniversary, here’s a look at 50 things you might not know about “The Sound of Music” film:

1. In 1962, after the stage version of “The Sound of Music” became a big hit, Julie Andrews appeared in a spoof of the musical with Carol Burnett. Three years later, the movie — starring Julie Andrews — was released.
2. The film version of “The Sound of Music” is based on the stage version of “The Sound of Music,” which is based on a 1956 German film version called “Die Trapp-Familie,” which was based on a book Maria von Trapp wrote about the family.
3. Actor Christopher Plummer did not want to take the role of Captain von Trapp because he did not think the role was his type of role. Director Robert Wise flew over to London to convince him to take the role, and Plummer worked closely with the film’s writer to flesh out his character and give Captain von Trapp more depth.
4. Age was a concern in casting Christopher Plummer — he was in his 30s and there were fears that he wouldn’t look old enough to have a daughter of 16 going on 17.
5. The seven von Trapp children were cast as a result of casting sessions in Hollywood, London and New York. Six of the seven children came from the Los Angeles casting sessions. Only one — Nicholas Hammond as Friedrich — came from elsewhere.
6. Liesl was the last child cast for the film; the young actors and actresses had been rehearsing “My Favorite Things” with a slew of temporary Liesls for more than two weeks before she joined them.
7. Charmian Carr (Liesl) was asked if she would mind changing her name for the film. At the time, she was going by her real name, which was Charmian Farnon, but filmmakers thought the full name was too exotic. Director Robert Wise gave her a list of single-syllable last names and encouraged her to pick one, and she chose “Carr.”
8. According to Charmian Carr’s book, “Forever Liesl: A Memoir of the Sound of Music,” many well-known people auditioned for the film roles of the von Trapp children, including Alan, Wayne, Merrill and Jay Osmond, Richard Dreyfuss, Kurt Russell and Mia Farrow. Her book also states that the Osmonds’ hair was too black to be considered for the roles.
9. Nicholas Hammond, who plays Friedrich, had had an accident while skiing prior to auditioning for the film. He showed up at his audition in New York with a broken arm and with missing front teeth.
10. Angela Cartwright, who played Brigitta in the film, did a screen test as Louisa while wearing a blonde wig. She said it was a relief to be cast as dark-haired Brigitta instead.
11. When filming started, Nicholas Hammond (Friedrich) was shorter than Charmian Carr (Liesl). However, Hammond grew six inches in six months, meaning filmmakers frequently had to “cheat” to hide his added height using shoe lifts, boxes and space between the two actors.
12. “My Favorite Things” was the first thing shot on “The Sound of Music” because the schedule called from them to start shooting in April, but they couldn’t shoot in Salzburg because there was still snow on the ground.
13. During filming, Julie Andrews taught all the children to say “supercalifragilisticexpialidocious” both forward and backward. Considering filming started some six months before “Mary Poppins” was released, the word probably didn’t make much sense to anyone who heard it.
14. It costs a lot of money to film on location, so efforts were made to get group shots done first. The last things filmed in Austria, then, were the shots flying over the city used at the very beginning of the movie, and the shot of Maria singing in the mountains. The opening of the movie was really the close of filming in Austria.
15. Julie Andrews says that the opening shot of her in the film — twirling and singing in the mountains — was captured using a helicopter that would come in sideways across the field with a cameraman hanging out the side. After getting the shot, the helicopter would swoop around and reset for another take, and Andrews says the downdraft of the chopper would catch her every time, absolutely leveling her against the ground.
16. When the filmmakers found the location where they wanted Maria to be singing as the film opened, they thought they made a deal with the farmer to let his grass grow tall. However, when they came back to film, the farmer had cut his grass. It should’ve been longer, director Robert Wise says.
17. According to Julie Andrews, the stream she walks across in “The Sound of Music” was made for the film, and the farmer who owned the land where they were shooting once became irate with their filming and poked a hole in the plastic lining of the stream with a pitchfork, which then drained the stream.
18. During the filming of Maria’s song on the mountain, she looks like she’s all alone. On a film set, of course, that’s not possible — the directors and other people on set were hiding in the trees so the camera could not see them.
19. Marni Nixon — famous without being famous for having dubbed the singing voices of Audrey Hepburn in “My Fair Lady,” Natalie Wood in “West Side Story,” and “Deborah Kerr in “The King and I” — was cast as Sister Sophia in “The Sound of Music” because director Robert Wise wanted people to see her face and appreciate her work.
20. Choreographer Dee Dee Wood said she and the other choreographers would put on nun habits and walk around as they worked on getting the look and feel of the song “Maria” (aka “How Do You Solve a Problem Like Maria?”) just right.
21. Weather in Salzburg was a challenge, so filmmakers used the Mother Abbess’s office as a “cover set,” or a set to be used when the weather was bad and no other filming could be done. The scene between the Mother Abbess and Maria in the beginning of the film was shot over the course of all the on-location filming.
22. During filming in Austria, the real Maria von Trapp showed up on set with some family members. They appear in the background of the song “I Have Confidence,” just as Julie Andrews is walking under an archway.
23. Julie Andrews says she had a real problem with one line of the song “I Have Confidence,” which then affected the entire way she performed that number in the film. The line was: “Strength lies in nights of peaceful slumbers,” and Andrews says she couldn’t figure out how that line made sense. In order to make it seem believable, she decided to make Maria seem so nervous about her new job that she would go “quite dotty,” so Andrews swung around her guitar case, ran, tripped and did other things to distract herself from thinking about the lyric.
24. It rained frequently in Salzburg, but shooting often continued despite that, because it must be raining very hard for rain to show on film. The scene where Maria stands outside of the gate and looks up at the von Trapp family house, for instance, was shot while it was raining, but you can’t tell.
25. The names of the real von Trapp children were Rupert, Agathe, Maria, Werner, Hedwig, Johanna and Martina. Maria and Georg von Trapp had three children together: Rosmarie, Eleonore and Johannes.
26. According to Johannes von Trapp, his father really did use a bosun’s whistle to signal the kids, and they all really did have their own signals that they responded to. The marching, however, was not true.
27. Julie Andrews says she was worried she’d have to hold a real frog when the children play their first trick on Maria as she arrives at the von Trapp home. However, the one in her pocket was not real, which she says made her feel “hugely relieved.”
28. The night before shooing started, the filmmakers decided they needed one more blonde child, so Nicholas Hammond’s hair was lightened from brunette to blonde.
29. On the first take of the dance scene between Charmian Carr (Liesl) and Daniel Truhitte (Rolf) in the gazebo, Carr jumped onto a bench only to discover that her shoes hadn’t had rubber put on them. She slipped, and went right through the glass window. Although she wasn’t cut when she went through the window, she did sprain her ankle. Filmmakers wrapped her ankle and covered the bandage in makeup, put tights on her to hide the bandage and gave her a vitamin B-12 injection. She then filmed the number without any problems. Carr says you can see the bandage on her ankle in older versions of the film, but that it has been removed in later releases.
30. During the Liesl and Rolfe scene in the gazebo, the crew was hidden under black cloths so they wouldn’t be seen in reflections on the glass.
31. When Maria is praying for each of the children on her first night at the von Trapp home, Julie Andrews says “God bless whatshisname” more loudly than the rest of her lines as a signal for Charmian Carr to enter. Carr had a hard time hearing the line over the sounds of the fake thunder and lightning.
32. The scene where Charmian Carr (Liesl) tries to sneak through Maria’s room was Carr’s first scene in a movie. She says she started the movie wet (being hosed down before doing that scene) and ended the movie wet (her final scene was in the rain at the gazebo with Rolfe).
33. Director Robert Wise said he was “very taken” by a glacier in the mountains of Austria while filming “Do-Re-Mi,” so the shot of Kurt and Friedrich tossing a ball around was included in the films specifically so he could get a shot of the glacier.
34. Julie Andrews did not play the guitar when she started the film, so she was taught. Director Robert Wise says she’s such a good musician that she picked it up quickly, although she struggled with playing and singing at the same time. Andrews says playing the guitar was like trying to pat her head and rub her tummy at the same time.
35. Christopher Plummer was also taught to play the guitar for the film, thanks to his needing to play it during “Edelweiss.” He says he “loathed” the guitar because it hurt his fingers. Plummer is a pianist, though, and often performed at night after the day’s shooting was done.
36. When the children and Maria fall out of the boat, Julie Andrews was supposed to fall forward and pick up Kym Karath, who played little Gretl. Karath couldn’t swim, so it was important that someone grabbed her quickly. The first take went fine, but on the second take, Andrews fell backwards instead of forwards. Heather Menzies (Louisa) eventually grabbed Karath, but not before Karath had swallowed so much water that she vomited on Menzies. Andrews says she still feels bad about the incident.
37. The front of the von Trapp house was filmed at Schloss Frohnburg, but the back of the house was filmed at Schloss Leopoldskron. Schloss Frohnburg did not have a lake behind it, which was why two locations were needed.
38. In the scene where Maria and the Captain fight over the children, Maria’s half of the scene was filmed at Schloss Frohnburg while Captain von Trapp’s half of the scene was filmed at Schloss Leopoldskron. That’s the magic of filmmaking.
39. The singing voice Captain von Trapp in “The Sound of Music” was provided by Bill Lee, who also did the singing for the character of Roger in Disney’s “101 Dalmatians.”
40. Julie Andrews says the song “Edelweiss” is probably one of her favorite songs in the whole movie, and that she wishes she had gotten to sing it.
41. The song “Edelweiss” was the last song Richard Rogers and Oscar Hammerstein ever wrote together. Hammerstein died in 1960, several months after the show opened on Broadway.
42. In the song, “So Long, Farewell,” Liesl asks her father if she can stay at the party and taste her first champagne. Although she’s told “no” in that scene, actress Charmian Carr really did have her first taste of champagne while filming.
43. The real Captain von Trapp was a submarine commander in World War I.
44. The von Trapp family was invited to perform at Adolf Hitler’s birthday party, but declined the offer. It was one of several events that helped them decide they needed to leave Austria.
45. Heinrich Himmler, one of the most powerful men in Germany’s Third Reich, took over the von Trapp villa in Austria after the family fled, making it his headquarters.
46. All of the children have things about the final film they don’t necessarily like. For Nicholas Hammond, it’s the fact that he’s the only one who doesn’t stop pointing at himself while riding in the carriage and singing “Do-Re-Mi.”
47. For Debbie Turner (Marta), the part she dislikes about her performance is that during “My Favorite Things,” at one point she starts to mouth the words along with Julie Andrews.
48. If you watch Heather Menzies and Charmian Carr on the stairs during “Do-Re-Mi,” you’ll see one of them make a mistake, and then both attempt to get back in unison with the other. For 40 years, Menzies believed she was the one who made the mistake; on the 40th anniversary DVD, Carr admitted that it was actually her. Neither thought that was the take that would end up in the film, but it did.
49. The filmmakers saved the poignant moment where Captain von Trapp begins to sing with the children until the very end of shooting. The children, many of whom cry in that scene, say they get complimented about being good actors, but in reality they were crying because they were sad about wrapping the film.
50. The United States Library established the National Film Preservation Board in 1988 to preserve films considered to be “culturally, historically, or esthetically important.” “The Sound of Music” was added to the registry in 2001.

: 50 things about ‘The Sound of Music’ to help celebrate the movie’s 50th anniversary

How many octaves can Julie Andrews sing?

By David Raether Julie Andrews isn’t quite who you think she is. If your idea of Julie Andrews is a combination of Mary Poppins and Maria the virginal nun, well, I’ve got some news for you. Long known in Hollywood as the Iron Butterfly, Julie Andrews is both a prodigious talent and a tough-as-nails woman who has fought her way through numerous career and personal challenges.

Her career in show business has been a very long one. It began in 1945 England during the waning days of vaudeville, where she started to perform with her parents at the age of 10. Andrews has worked regularly ever since, working as recently as 2020 in the Netflix series Bridgerton as the narrator. That’s 75 years (and counting) of work, for those of you doing subtraction in your head right now.

Andrews’ chief asset? That glorious soprano voice. She reportedly had a five-octave range during the height of her powers as a singer. For comparison, the great Italian tenor Luciano Pavarotti had a four-octave range. Andrews was one of the biggest box office draws in Hollywood during the 1960s, ranking 1st at the box office in both 1966 and 1967 and in the top five in both 1965 and 1968.

1. Andrews has won an Emmy, a Grammy, and an Oscar over the course of her career.
2. She’s one of those rare stars who has fans across several generations thanks to her appearances in Mary Poppins (1964) and The Sound of Music (1965) in the 1960s, 10 (1979) and S.O.B.
3. 1981) in the 1970s and 1980s, and the two Princess Diaries (2001 ; 2004 ) movies in the 2000s.

Today, she remains incredibly popular from her voice work in the animated Shrek (2001) and Despicable Me (2010) movies of the past twenty years. Julie Andrews was born on October 1, 1935, in the village of Walton-on-Thames, fifteen miles from central London.

Her parents’ marriage was not a happy one—Andrews was conceived as a result of an affair her mother was having—and they split up when she was five years old. Both of her parents remarried, but she spent the bulk of her time with her mother. Her stepfather was no gem, as he was an alcoholic who was prone to violence.

Andrews had to put a lock on her bedroom door to keep him from trying to sexually assault her while drunk at night. She recalled in her memoir that the family was very poor, lived in a slum, and remembers the war years in London as a dark time in her life.

1. After the war, her mother and stepfather continued their vaudeville careers, often bringing Julie up onto the stage to show off her prodigious voice talent.
2. In 1948, at the age of 13, she performed in the Royal Variety Performance for King George VI and his young daughter, Princess Elizabeth, who would later become Queen.

Andrews spent the next several years performing in several musicals in London’s West End. The work would lead to a huge breakthrough: at 19 years old, she was cast as Eliza Doolittle in the Broadway production of Lerner and Loewe’s My Fair Lady. It was not an easy time in her life—Andrews was alone in New York, performing eight shows a week, and the subject of almost relentless hostility from her co-star, Rex Harrison,

Harrison was dismissive of her ability as an actress and was not shy about expressing it. However, Richard Rodgers was so impressed that he and Oscar Hammerstein composed a musical version of Cinderella (1957) and reserved the starring role for her. In 1960, she appeared as Queen Guineivere in the Lerner and Loewe musical Camelot.

It was widely anticipated that she would repeat her role as Eliza Doolittle in the film version of My Fair Lady (1963 ), but Warner Brothers chief Jack Warner cast Audrey Hepburn in the role with someone else to do the singing for her. In 1959, Andrews married British costume and set designer (and childhood sweetheart) Tony Walton.

Two years later, Andrews gave birth to their only child together, Emma Walton Hamilton, who is now an award-winning children’s book author. The three of them remain close to this day and have all worked together on several occasions. In an interview with Eric Schmidt (yes, the guy who used to run Google), Andrews stated that Walton’s arrival in New York was a great relief while she was starring in My Fair Lady on Broadway.

The marriage to Walton ended in 1967, and in 1969, she wed director and writer Blake Edwards, Their marriage lasted 41 years until his death, and she was by his side when he died. Despite the My Fair Lady film-casting setback, Andrews was cast in the Disney musical version of the beloved children’s book, Mary Poppins (1964),

It became the biggest movie in Disney’s history, and Andrews won the Academy Award for Best Actress. In her acceptance speech, she fired off a barb that revealed her tough, sarcastic side: “And, finally,” she said, “My thanks to a man who made a wonderful movie and who made all this possible in the first place, Mr.

Jack Warner.” My Fair Lady was in direct competition with Mary Poppins. The last laugh usually is the best one. Andrews followed up Mary Poppins with another iconic film: The Sound of Music (1965), This earned her another nomination for Best Actress, and the title is now ranked as the third biggest movie of all time, based on an inflation-adjusted index by IMDB.com.

• The following year, she took a sharp turn away from musicals and light comedy by co-starring with Paul Newman in Alfred Hitchcock ‘s Torn Curtain (1966),
• Andrews decided to focus more on television specials during the ensuing years, and her movie output dwindled as a result.
• In 1979, she appeared in a supporting role in Blake Edward s ‘s very amusing sex comedy 10 (1979), followed by another Edwards comedy, S.O.B.

(1981), in which she briefly appeared topless. She later earned her third nomination for a Best Actress Oscar in yet another Edwards comedy, Victor/Victoria (1982), Andrews made a return to the stage in 1995 with a theatrical production of the film but was forced to drop out after developing hoarseness.

Surgery was performed to address her throat issues and it was a disaster—Andrews lost her ability to sing! Her powerful, five-octave voice was reduced to a “fragile alto.” Of her reduced vocal capacity, Andrews said, “I can sing the hell out of ‘Old Man River’.” She would eventually have four more surgeries performed on her vocal cords, but only her speaking voice was fully restored—the singing voice was gone.

In 2010, Andrews made a comeback to London after a 21-year absence, performing a concert at the O2 Arena, where she was accompanied by the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra and an ensemble of five performers. While initially promising to only perform “speak-singing,” she actually sang two solos and a few duets during the concert.

Andrews received standing ovation after standing ovation, but critics were quick to criticize the overall performance. Later that year, her husband Blake Edwards died of pneumonia. Now in her mid-eighties, Julie Andrews continues to work, particularly as a voice actress. From a hardscrabble childhood to the pinnacles of film, television, and stage, to almost the incomprehensible loss of her voice, it’s hard to think of a better nickname for her than “The Iron Butterfly.” Here are six Julie Andrews movies you need to add to your queue.

Who doesn’t love this movie? Well, the English, for one. It is widely mocked by them, mainly due to Dick Van Dyke ‘s ham-fisted version of a Cockney accent—if you can call it that. Alas, who cares what the English think, right? Based on the beloved children’s book about a magical nanny who uses music and adventure to help two rambunctious children become closer with their somewhat preoccupied parents, this is a wonderful film to watch with your kids.

1. And there are just too many memorable songs from this film to list.
2. We surely all know them by now.
3. It’s worth mentioning that Mary Poppins was also quite innovative at the time; Walt Disney managed to meld live action, animation, and animatronic puppets (that bird Andrews sings to) into a happy, energetic, and profoundly joyful film.

Andrews is simply delightful as the titular character, turning in yet another iconic musical performance whose relevancy transcends decades and continues to delight new generations. Time to watch it again—ideally with a child who has not seen its magic yet.

Andrews made this film right after Mary Poppins and just before The Sound of Music, so it’s easy to see why this dark comedy-drama is an often overlooked part of her filmography. Released during the buildup to the Vietnam War, this is a powerful anti-war movie set in the days leading up to the D-Day invasion.

Andrews stars as Emily, a young English driver for the American officers in London planning the forthcoming D-Day attack. James Garner plays a cynical American officer whose job is to keep the senior staff fully equipped with good food and luxury items.

Garner’s character falls in love with Emily, who is still grieving the deaths of her husband, father, and brother from the war. Emily is both disgusted and drawn to Garner’s character, and an ill-fated romance blossoms. The script came courtesy of the great Paddy Chayevsky, who is widely viewed as one of the best screenwriters of all time, having penned titles such as The Hospital (1970) and Network (1976),

Directed by Arthur Hiller (who also directed Love Story (1970) ) and featuring a cast rounded out by James Coburn, this one is definitely worthy of a rental. Also of note: both Garner and Andrews have considered this film their personal favorite, so take that for what it’s worth.

• Yes, this landmark Rodgers and Hammerstein musical is maybe a bit saccharine at times.
• And yet, somehow, this tale of a spunky and innocent young nun falling in love with a worldly widow and his children—set against the backdrop of World War II—is entirely irresistible.
• And boy, is this musical singable: “The Sound of Music,” “How Do You Solve a Problem Like Maria?,” “So Long, Farewell,” and on and on.

Right at the very center of this enormously popular movie is Julie Andrews in all her glory. Her exceptional soprano voice makes this movie all her own. If it’s been a while since you’ve seen this, you are way overdue to watch it again. Whether you’re home alone in your apartment or at a big family gathering, this film always works its magic.

1. Go ahead. Sing along with Julie Andrews.
2. Whoa, hold on.
3. Julie Andrews was in an Alfred Hitchcock movie? And with Paul Newman? Yes, she absolutely was, and it’s a good one.
4. In this Cold War political thriller, Newman plays an American physicist who appears to defect to East Germany.
5. Andrews plays his fiancée and assistant who is roped into the drama when she realizes the defection is a ruse to gain information on East Germany’s nuclear program.

The film is a classic similar to Topaz (1969) or North by Northwest (1959), both excellent Hitchcock spy classics as well. There are some who have always claimed Andrews was an outstanding singer but never much of an actress. I offer this film as compelling contradictory evidence.

This movie was a surprising turn for Andrews. She plays the put-upon and fed-up girlfriend of George Wallace ( Dudley Moore ), a wealthy songwriter who decides on a whim to follow a beautiful young woman he sees on her wedding day to her honeymoon in Mexico. Moore is, of course, tremendously amusing as a 42-year-old man terrified at the thought of becoming middle-aged.

However, Andrews is simply excellent as the woman who is simply not having it with his pathetic mid-life crisis. This is a very amusing and quite sexy movie, which famously serves as the film debut of Bo Derek —who plays the woman Moore’s character becomes obsessed with.

1. It caused quite a sensation when it was released.10 is one of eight movies Andrews made with her husband, Blake Edwards, who served as both writer and director.
2. My favorite of their collaborations is Victor/Victoria (1982).
3. This title is a real delight as well, so go ahead and add it to your queue.
4. If you have a daughter or are one yourself, there’s a good chance you’ve seen this movie—or will at some point.

I’m obviously speaking from experience. Not that you have to be a daughter (or parent) to enjoy this modern Disney fairy tale set mainly in San Francisco, based on the novel by Meg Cabot. Andrews plays Clarissa Renaldi, the reigning queen of the mythical European kingdom (or queendom, in this case) of Genovia.

• Her estranged granddaughter, Mia Thermopolis, is played by Anne Hathaway,
• Clarissa comes to San Francisco to prepare her will and teach her spunky California granddaughter in the ways of minor European aristocracy—after first revealing the fact that she’s the heir to a European principality’s throne.

Andrews plays it straight and takes the material for what it’s worth, and has a lot of fun with it in the process. The late Gary Marshall served as director, and the film’s production credits include Whitney Houston in her first feature film production venture.

• This is a delightfully fun movie that is followed by a very enjoyable sequel.
• David Raether is a veteran TV writer and essayist.
• He worked for 12 years as a television sitcom writer/producer, including a 111-episode run on the ground-breaking ABC comedy “Roseanne.” His essays have been published by Salon.com, The Times of London, and Longforms.org, and have been lauded by The Atlantic Magazine and the BBC World Service.

His memoir, Homeless: A Picaresque Memoir from Our Times, is awaiting publication.

What condition did Julie Andrews have?

Hollywood Icon Julie Andrews Fights Against Huntington’s Disease.

Why did they leave at the end of Sound of Music?

The Sound of Music What’s Up With the Ending? | Shmoop The store will not work correctly in the case when cookies are disabled. What’s Up With the Ending? Refusing to sacrifice his principles, the captain knows he can’t remain in Austria and serve in the navy under the German occupation.

• The film ends with the von Trapp family traipsing through the Alps to Switzerland, secretly escaping from Herr Zeller and his Nazi minions.
• The scene also refers back to climbing those metaphorical mountains that the Reverend Mother sang about; it completes the story’s circle.
• It’s an anxious scene, but full of hope and courage.

It leaves the family’s fate up in the air, but we have faith in the captain to lead everyone to safety. Plus, we know that the real von Trapps got out of Austria. Then again, maybe we didn’t know that when we were seven. Especially since that’s not really how the von Trapps got out of Austria (they actually took a train to Italy and told people where they were going), many critics saw the ending as overly sentimental and melodramatic.

What voice type is Julie Andrews?

Over time, though, Julie’s once-pristine soprano lowered fairly dramatically to that of a mezzo-soprano; by the ’90s, her voice was much weightier and somewhat less confident singing high, to the point where in 1997 she received unsuccessful surgery for vocal nodules.

Did Julie Andrews get vocal surgery?

Julie Andrews – The Sound of Music star had vocal surgery in 1997 to remove a cyst on her vocal cord. Shortly after, Andrews underwent a second surgery to remove non-cancerous nodules from her vocal cords that left her with permanent damage to her singing voice. Credit: MediaPunch/Shutterstock

Why did Julie Andrews have short hair in Sound of Music?

After her breakthrough in “Mary Poppins,” Julie Andrews worried that taking the role of Maria in “The Sound of Music” might lead to being typecast as a nanny. The short, blond look she sported in the second film was actually designed to cover up a hairstyling mishap that turned her normally brown hair bright orange.

Visiting the Von Trapp villa in Austria for the location shooting turned out to be a disturbing experience once she learned that the place had been taken over during World War II by SS leader Heinrich Himmler. Those are a few of the intriguing tidbits in Andrews’ new book, ” Home Work: A Memoir of My Hollywood Years,” written with daughter Emma Walton Hamilton.

But unlike many Hollywood memoirs these days, it doesn’t contain any shocking or titillating revelations. For the record: 3:41 p.m. Oct.13, 2019 An earlier version of this article misidentified the title of Andrews’ book as “Home Again” in the final paragraph.

Instead, the 84-year-old British-born actress and singer comes across pretty much as the Julie Andrews that we admire on the screen — graceful, elegant and wholesome, but not particularly complicated or troubled. “Home Work” is the story of an ordinary person blessed with extraordinary gifts, including a soaring, angelic soprano voice, whose big struggle was to maintain that normalcy in a Hollywood rife with exploitation and excess.

As detailed in her previous book, 2008’s ” Home: A Memoir of My Early Years,” Andrews got her start in show business at age just before her tenth birthday, standing on a beer crate to reach the microphone as she sang in her mother and stepfather’s vaudeville act.

By the time she was a teenager, she had become her family’s main means of support, roaming England and trying to cheer up dreary dressing rooms with a bunch of flowers between twice-an-evening performances in smoke-filled halls full of inebriated adults. The young Andrews, who never had time for an education, said she feared for her future in British vaudeville’s dying days.

She was saved by the grace of her talent, which led producers to cast her in British musical theater. Andrews’ performance in “Cinderella” at the London Palladium was so good she got an offer to cross the Atlantic and play the lead role in a Broadway production of “The Boy Friend,” just before her 19th birthday.

• During rehearsals, an American producer, Cy Feuer, took the inexperienced actress out to the theater’s fire escape and gave her a bit of sage advice: Abandon any trace of camp or shtick, and play her character as simply and truthfully as she could.
• Andrews did just that and “The Boy Friend” became a smash hit.

That led Alan Jay Lerner and Frederick Loewe, those giants of the Broadway musical, to offer her the stage role of Eliza Doolittle in “My Fair Lady,” where she honed her craft under the supervision of legendary director Moss Hart. After seeing her perform in “Camelot,” Walt Disney enticed Andrews to Hollywood for the lead in “Mary Poppins.” Andrews recounts how she headed west with then-husband, set-director Tony Walton, and their infant daughter Emma for a crash course in film acting alongside the more experienced comedian Dick Van Dyke.1 / 1 Carol Burnett, left, and Julie Andrews reunited for TV special “Julie and Carol: Together Again.” (ITV/Shutterstock) Andrews admits she was unhappy about being passed over for the role of Eliza Doolittle in the film version of “My Fair Lady,” in favor of non-singer Audrey Hepburn.

( Marni Nixon, the famous Hollywood “ghost singer,” did the actual vocals in the film.) But Andrews says she ultimately felt grateful for the snub, because it enabled her to star in “Mary Poppins.” Of all her films, “Mary Poppins” gets the most lavish, detailed description in “Home Work,” from the ballet-influenced walk she developed for her character, to the advice she gave Van Dyke as he struggled to approximate a cockney accent.

She recalls Disney in glowing terms — “always very encouraging and full of bonhomie” — and learned, to her amazement, about the daunting amount of editing, re-recording of dialogue and other tinkering that a major production required to get into theaters.

• Andrews’ debut film earned her a lead actress Oscar in 1965.
• By then, she already had another massive musical hit, “The Sound of Music.” The most interesting part of that production for her was traveling to Austria to shoot on location, where she was moved by the beauty of the mountains and chilled to learn about the Himmler connection to the villa.

“You can literally feel the evil that once permeated those walls,” she recalls. She reveals that her favorite song in the film is “Edelweiss,” even though she only got to sing it in the Von Trapp ensemble, not as a solo. Back in Hollywood, Andrews — still in many ways a small-town English girl — struggled with press appearances and other requisites of stardom.

• She and Tony Walton drifted apart, due to the frequent separations required by their work.
• In an effort to save her marriage, Andrews sought help from a psychoanalyst and even briefly considered abandoning her acting and singing career, until her therapist advised her that it would take her a long time to become as good at anything else.

Moreover, he explained, it was a shame to waste a gift that gave so much pleasure to others. Andrews’ first marriage didn’t survive, but as she was leaving the therapist’s office one day, she had a chance encounter in the street with the man who would become the love of her life, director and writer Blake Edwards,

1. Initially, he wanted to cast her in his film “Darling Lili,” but a romance soon blossomed and the two eventually married.
2. Andrews’ portrait of Edwards, to whom she was married until his death at age 88 in 2010, is more revealing than anything she writes about herself.
3. He is as complex as she is straightforward.

She describes him as witty, insightful and kind, and a gifted cinematic storyteller, but also prone to depression and dependent upon painkillers to cope with a bad back. She writes that he became embittered by a bullying, callous Hollywood studio culture, which he battled to keep his films from being ruined by executives’ meddling.

Andrews herself seems to float above the 1960s-70s counterculture tumult in Hollywood, an old-fashioned movie star who probably would have been more at home in the Golden Age of the 1940s. Nevertheless, the book documents her encounters with colorful figures such as Alfred Hitchcock, who directed her in “Torn Curtain,” and with the hard-living Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton.

The lone intersection with “Once Upon a Time in Hollywood” is when she and Edwards invited martial arts great Bruce Lee to lunch at their home, where he entertained them by springing from his chair into a flying side kick. (“Can Nureyev do this?” Lee asked.) The most moving part of the book is Andrews’ account of postwar Vietnam and Cambodia, which she visited in the early 1980s as part of a humanitarian delegation.

• She has two adopted daughters, Amelia and Joanna, who were Vietnamese orphans.) She devotes more space and vivid detail in the book to those scenes of heart-wrenching deprivation and suffering than she gives to some of her movies.
• The trip, she notes, changed her “on a profound level,” giving her a new sense of purpose.

She became an activist, lobbying for legislation to allow the Asian American children left behind by U.S. servicemen to immigrate to this country. “I never anticipated any of it,” Andrews says of her film career. “I just took the opportunities that were in front of me and waded in.” That degree of candor — and Andrews’ refreshing unpretentiousness and gentle sense of bemusement at her life’s adventures — make “Home Work” a book that will appeal to fans of her films, as well as anyone who wants to be reassured that being a celebrity doesn’t have to involve scandal.

Who is the oldest actor in The Sound of Music?

Christopher Plummer, actor known for starring in ‘The Sound of Music’, dies at 91 Christopher Plummer, a patrician Canadian who starred as widower Captain von Trapp opposite Julie Andrews in the blockbuster 1965 musical ‘The Sound Of Music’, has died at the age of 91.

• Plummer died peacefully at his home in Connecticut with his wife Elaine Taylor at his side, US media reports.
• Plummer, an accomplished Shakespearean actor honoured for his varied stage, television and film work in a career that spanned more than six decades, was best known for his role in ‘The Sound Of Music’, which at the time eclipsed ‘Gone With the Wind’ as the top-earning movie ever.

Plummer flourished in a succession of meaty roles after age 70 – a time in life when most actors merely fade away. He claimed a long-awaited Oscar at age 82 for his supporting performance in ‘Beginners’ as an elderly man who comes out of the closet as gay after his wife’s death. “You’re only two years older than me, darling,” Plummer, who was born in 1929, purred to his golden statuette – first given for films made in 1927 and 1928 – at the February 2012 Oscars ceremony. “Where have you been all my life?” Plummer became the oldest actor to win a competitive Academy Award – supplanting Jessica Tandy and George Burns, who both were 80 when they won theirs.

What is the oldest sound player?

What Are Old Music Players Called? – French inventor Édouard-Léon Scott de Martinville crafted the first music player and known sound recording machine in the early 1800s — known as the phonautograph — but his intention was never to play those sounds back.

• Instead, his machine visually recorded the vibrations of different sounds and transcribed them for later study.
• Although not a music machine, the phonautograph was an essential part of the development of later technologies.
• The first music-playing device able to both record and play back music was the phonograph.

The old-time music player – AKA the phonograph – was created by Thomas Edison in July 1877 and captured sounds and engraved the movements into tinfoil cylinders. Edison first had the idea for a sound recording device when he was working on his diagrams for the telephone transmitter and realized he could replicate those vibration indentations for other purposes. With the help of machinist John Kruesi, Edison finished the first model of the phonograph by December of the same year. The first sound ever recorded and played back was Edison’s rendition of “Mary Had a Little Lamb,” likely because his children were 5 and 2 years old at the time.

When the invention worked, Edison wasn’t the only one surprised. The creation helped earn him the titles “Inventor of the Age” and “The Wizard of Menlo Park.” Although the sound recording was poor quality and could only be played back once, Edison unintentionally sparked a revolution in the music industry.

If one could ask, he would probably be shocked at the evolution of his invention. His original plans for the old music player phonograph centered around business-related diction, not music. Nevertheless, he laid the groundwork for all the music devices and recording equipment to come.

How old was the oldest girl in The Sound of Music?

Charmian Carr was a little bit older than her character Liesl von Trapp was supposed to be in the movie. – Charmian Carr in “The Sound of Music.” 20th Century Fox Rather than being 16 going on 17, the actress was actually 21 years old when she played the eldest von Trapp child in her breakout role. According to The Telegraph, it was Carr’s mother who recommended her to a casting agent for “The Sound of Music,” saying, “She’s 21, but she could pass for 16.” The actress was working as a physician’s assistant at the time and had no theatrical or musical training.

Is The Sound of Music Based on a true story?

The Sound of Music is based on the true story of the Trapp family, their renown and their escape from Austria.

How old was Gretel in The Sound of Music?

Sound of Music Character Descriptions | Broadway Rose Theatre Company

• Please note: The age ranges listed are the characters’ ages, not necessarily the ages of the actors.
• LEAD ADULT CHARACTERS: Maria Rainer (musical theatre mix/soprano, dance, 20-35)
 A postulant at Nonnberg Abbey – young, free spirited, warm, gentle and kind with much determination.

Captain Georg von Trapp (baritone, moves well, 35-45)
 A retired Austrian naval captain. Polished, yet very military in the way he runs his life to repress his sadness over the death of his wife; underneath, he is warm, understanding, and determined.

1. Max Detweiller (tenor/baritone, moves well, 30+)
 Charming and vital; a man of sophistication who enjoys the good life; true and loyal friend to the von Trapp family.
2. Elsa Schrader (mezzo soprano, moves well, 35-45)
 A baroness of taste and elegance, sophisticated, dignified and mature.
3. Mother Abbess (legit soprano, wide vocal range, 40+, very strong actress) 
Motherly, understanding, strong and authoritative, but kind.
4. FEATURED CHARACTERS: Sister Berthe (alto, moves well)
 Mistress of Novices, prudish, straight laced with a quick tongue, she is less tolerant than other nuns.
5. Sister Margaretta (mezzo, moves well) 
Mistress of Postulants, very kind, understanding and concerned.
6. Sister Sophia (soprano, moves well) 
Neither demanding nor critical, sticks with the rules.
7. Franz (non-singing, 30+)
 The von Trapp butler, rather formal but not without spirit, he is very German and loyal to the Fascist cause.

Frau Schmidt (non-singing, 30+)
 The housekeeper, stoic, very little personality; she does her job efficiently but without affection. Strong and somewhat dominating. Herr Zeller (non-singing, 40+)
 Stern and unsmiling, a typical Nazi official whose primary concern is to see that everyone toes the line.

• Rolf Gruber (low tenor, dance, 17) 
Suitor to Liesl, telegram delivery boy, later Nazi soldier.
• A very pleasant young man, somewhat aggressive but in a gentle way.
• LEAD CHILDREN’S ROLES: All children, apart from their character description must be able to be conservative with their emotions and “serious.” Liesl von Trapp (mezzo, dance, 16)
 The oldest child, blossoming into a young lady with an interest in boys.

She has a maternal edge to her and cares very deeply for her younger siblings.

• Friedrich von Trapp (age 14) 
Tough exterior, very much trying to be “the man” of the family.
• Louisa von Trapp (age 13) 
Rebellious attitude.
• Kurt von Trapp (age 10, falsetto)
 Gentle and mischievous.
• Brigitta von Trapp (age 9) 
Smart, reads a lot.
• Marta von Trapp (age 7)
 Very sweet and gentle.
• Gretl von Trapp (age 6) 
Must have the cute factor.
• CHORUS: 5-10 male chorus members (16-60+ years) – Nazi soldiers, neighbors, Salzburg 
citizens and Georg’s friends (of naval background).
• 5-10 female chorus members (16-60+ years) – Salzburg citizens, new postulant, nuns, novices, postulants and contestants in the Festival Concert.

: Sound of Music Character Descriptions | Broadway Rose Theatre Company

Who was the 6th von Trapp child?

History of the group – Maria and Georg Ludwig von Trapp Georg von Trapp had seven children at the time of the death of his first wife, Agathe Whitehead, and in 1927 he married Maria Kutschera, who was twenty-five years his junior, and had three more children with her. Both parts of the family were musical, and by 1935 the family was singing at the local church in Aigen, where they made the acquaintance of a young priest, Dr Franz Wasner, who encouraged their musical progress and taught them sacred music to add to the folk songs, madrigals and ballads they were already singing.

Whilst singing at their Salzburg home they were also heard by the German concert singer Lotte Lehmann, who persuaded them to take part in the song competition in Salzburg in 1936, for which they won a prize; after this, accompanied by Dr Wasner, the family toured and performed in Vienna and Salzburg, and undertook a European tour that encompassed France, Belgium, the Netherlands, Italy, Germany and England.

When Adolf Hitler annexed Austria in 1938, the family decided to leave, first for Italy (of which the Zadar -born Georg and thus the family were legally citizens). For some months in 1938, just after their flight, they lived in Warmond, near The Hague, Netherlands, as the guests of a Dutch banker, Ernest Menten.

• This episode is described by local historian Miep Smitsloo in her 2007 Dutch book ‘Tussen Tol en Trekvaart’ (‘Between Toll and Canal’).
• In her account of the flight, Maria von Trapp does not mention this stay.
• From there they went to London and then to the United States, where they stayed until the expiration of their visas.

After touring in Scandinavia, they returned to the United States on 1939-09-07 where they applied for immigrant status. They arrived with very little money, having lost most of the family fortune earlier during a 1935 banking collapse in Austria. Once in the United States they earned money by performing and touring nationally and internationally, first as the “Trapp Family Choir” and then, the “Trapp Family Singers”, a change suggested by their booking agent Frederick Christian Schang,

After living for a short time in Philadelphia and then Merion, Pennsylvania, where their youngest child Johannes was born, the family settled in Stowe, Vermont, in 1941. They purchased a 660-acre (270 ha) farm in 1942 and converted it into the Trapp Family Lodge, initially called “Cor Unum” (Latin for One Heart ).

After World War II, they founded the Trapp Family Austrian Relief fund, which sent food and clothing to people impoverished in Austria. By now based permanently in the United States, the family performed their unique mixture of liturgical music, madrigals, folk music and instrumentals to audiences in over 30 countries for the next 20 years. The Trapp Family rehearsing before a concert, near Boston, 27 September 1941. Cor Unum (later the “Trapp Family Lodge”), home of the Trapp Family Singers in the U.S., in 1954 Maria wrote an account of the singing family The Story of the Trapp Family Singers which was published in 1949 and was the inspiration for the 1956 West German film The Trapp Family, which in turn inspired Rodgers and Hammerstein ‘s 1959 Broadway musical The Sound of Music and then its 1965 film adaptation starring Julie Andrews and Christopher Plummer, which held the title of highest-grossing film of all-time for five years.

How old is the oldest child in The Sound of Music?

Charmian Carr was a little bit older than her character Liesl von Trapp was supposed to be in the movie. – Charmian Carr in “The Sound of Music.” 20th Century Fox Rather than being 16 going on 17, the actress was actually 21 years old when she played the eldest von Trapp child in her breakout role. According to The Telegraph, it was Carr’s mother who recommended her to a casting agent for “The Sound of Music,” saying, “She’s 21, but she could pass for 16.” The actress was working as a physician’s assistant at the time and had no theatrical or musical training.

How old was Louisa in The Sound of Music?

Image source, Ronald Grant Archive Image caption, Heather Menzies, second right next to Julie Andrews, has died aged 68 Heather Menzies-Urich, who played Louisa Von Trapp in The Sound of Music, has died aged 68. Her death was announced by the estate of the musical’s creators, Rodgers & Hammerstein, on Monday.

She was diagnosed with brain cancer four weeks ago and died on Christmas Eve, news site TMZ quoted her son Ryan as saying. “She was an actress, a ballerina and loved living her life to the fullest,” he told TMZ. Born Heather Menzies in Toronto, she was 15 when the musical film was released in 1965. It went on to win 10 Oscars, including best picture.

She played the mischievous third Von Trapp child Louisa, but her later television and film appearances did not hit the same heights. At 23, she posed nude for Playboy magazine under the headline The Tender Trapp, a decision she said horrified her Presbyterian parents, who were originally from Scotland.

1. She married actor and film producer Robert Urich in 1975, but he died in 2002.
2. Among those to pay tribute were Kym Karath, who played Gretl in the film.
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4. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser.
5. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.

This Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. “Heather was part of ‘the family’,” Ted Chapin, of the Rodgers & Hammerstein estate, said.

Heather was a cheerful and positive member of the group, always hoping for the next gathering. We are all lucky to have known her, and she will happily live on in that beautiful movie. We will miss her.” Her death comes 14 months after that of Charmian Carr, who played the eldest Von Trapp daughter Liesl.

Image source, Getty Images Image caption, From L to R: Heather Menzies-Urich (Louisa von Trapp), Debbie Turner (Marta) and Kym Karath (Gretl) at the 50th anniversary of the film in 2015

How many children are in the Von Trapp family in the 1965 film The Sound of Music?

Plot – Maria is a free-spirited young Austrian woman studying to become a nun at Nonnberg Abbey in Salzburg in 1938. Her youthful enthusiasm and lack of discipline cause some concern. Mother Abbess sends Maria to the villa of retired naval officer Captain Georg von Trapp to be governess to his seven children—Liesl, Friedrich, Louisa, Kurt, Brigitta, Marta and Gretl.

The Captain has been raising his children alone using strict military discipline following the death of his wife. Although the children misbehave at first, Maria responds with kindness and patience, and soon the children come to trust and respect her. While the Captain is away in Vienna, Maria makes play clothes for the children out of drapes that are to be changed.

She takes them around Salzburg and the mountains while teaching them how to sing. When the Captain returns to the villa with Baroness Elsa Schraeder, a wealthy socialite, and their mutual friend Max Detweiler, they are greeted by Maria and the children returning from a boat ride on the lake which concludes when their boat overturns.

Displeased by his children’s clothes and activities and Maria’s impassioned appeal that he get closer to his children, the Captain attempts to fire Maria. However, he hears singing coming from inside the house and is astonished to see his children singing for the Baroness. Filled with emotion, the Captain joins his children, singing for the first time in years.

The Captain apologizes to Maria and asks her to stay. Impressed by the children’s singing, Max proposes that he enters them in the upcoming Salzburg Festival, but the Captain disapproves of letting his children sing in public. During a grand party at the villa, where guests in formal attire waltz in the ballroom, Maria and the children look on from the garden terrace.

When the Captain notices Maria teaching Kurt the traditional Ländler folk dance, he steps in and partners Maria in a graceful performance, culminating in a close embrace. Confused about her feelings, Maria blushes and breaks away. Later, the Baroness, who noticed the Captain’s attraction to Maria, hides her jealousy by indirectly convincing Maria that she must return to the abbey.

However, Mother Abbess learns that Maria has stayed in seclusion to avoid her feelings for the Captain, so she encourages her to return to the villa to look for her purpose in life. When Maria returns to the villa, she learns about the Captain’s engagement to the Baroness and agrees to stay until they find a replacement governess.

1. However, the Baroness learns that the Captain’s feelings for Maria haven’t changed, so she peacefully calls off the engagement and returns to Vienna while encouraging the Captain to express his feelings for Maria, who marries him.
2. While the couple is on their honeymoon, Max enters the children into the Salzburg Festival against their father’s wishes.

Having learned that Austria has been annexed by the Third Reich, the couple return to their home, where Captain receives a telegram, ordering him to report to the German Naval base at Bremerhaven to accept a commission in the Kriegsmarine, Strongly opposed to the Nazis and their ideology, the Captain tells his family they must leave Austria immediately.

That night, the von Trapp family attempt to flee to Switzerland, but they are stopped by a group of Brownshirts, led by the Gauleiter Hans Zeller, waiting outside the villa. To cover his family’s tracks, the Captain maintains they are headed to the Salzburg Festival to perform. Zeller insists on escorting them to the festival, after which his men will accompany the Captain to Bremerhaven.

Later that night at the festival, during their final number, the von Trapp family slips away and seeks shelter at the abbey, where Mother Abbess hides them in the cemetery crypt. Zeller and his men soon arrive and search the abbey, but the family is able to escape using the caretaker’s car.

Who was the oldest boy in Sound of Music?

‘Sound of Music’ at 50: A look at the ‘The SoM 7′ actors who played the von Trapp children LOS ANGELES – Seven young actors became part of cinematic history when they were cast as the von Trapp children in Rogers & Hammerstein’s “The Sound of Music” – and they also became lifelong friends.

1. Nown as “The SoM 7,” they formed their own sort of family over the months of making the musical.
2. Their parents befriended one another as the young performers traveled to Austria for filming, and the actors themselves have remained close for decades.
3. We’re beyond friends.
4. We’re second family,” said Kym Karath, who played the youngest von Trapp, Gretl.

“As adults, we were deeply bonded, so our lives have really interwoven with each other.” As “The Sound of Music” celebrates its 50th anniversary, here’s a look at what the “SoM 7” are doing now: LIESL: Now 72, Charmian Carr played the eldest von Trapp daughter and has published two books about her experience making the film: “Forever Liesl” and “Letters to Liesl.” She maintains a website () where she sells the custom furniture she designs, as well as autographed photos from her “Sound of Music” days.

1. She lives in Southern California and regularly sees her “Sound of Music” sisters.
2. BRIGITTA: Angela Cartwright, who started performing at age 3, went on to star in the TV series “Lost in Space” and “Make Room for Granddaddy” after playing Brigitta in “The Sound of Music.” She traded acting for other artistic pursuits after having children.

Now 62, Cartwright works as a photographer, painter and writer in Los Angeles. Her most recent book was released last year: “Styling the Stars: Lost Treasures from the Twentieth Century Fox Archive.” KURT: Duane Chase, who played little brother Kurt von Trapp, continued acting until his teens, including an appearance in the 1966 Kurt Russell film, “Follow Me, Boys!” Chase switched gears in college, earning a bachelor’s and master’s degree in geology and working as a software engineer.

Now 64, he recently went on sabbatical and is considering retirement. He lives near Seattle with his wife and their two cats. FRIEDRICH: For Nicholas Hammond, who portrayed the eldest von Trapp son, “The Sound of Music” came early in a still-thriving entertainment career. Hammond continued to collect film and TV credits as he pursued an English literature degree at Princeton.

Now 64, he lives in Australia and works as an actor, writer and director. GRETL: Kym Karath was only 5 years old when she played Gretl von Trapp. She quit acting for high school and college at USC, and focused on parenting rather than performing when her son was born with disabilities.

Along with other parents, Karath helped establish the Aurelia Foundation, which provides services for special-needs individuals once they finish high school. Now 56, Karath is returning to her entertainment career as an actress and writer. LOUISA: “The Sound of Music” was Heather Menzies-Urich’s first movie.

She continued acting after she wed actor Robert Urich, but stopped when their children were born. Now 65, Menzies-Urich runs the nonprofit organization she established after her husband died from a rare form of cancer. The Robert Urich Foundation provides funding for cancer research and to help families relocate for specialized treatment.