The seven young actors who portrayed the Von Trapp family children sang and danced throughout 1965’s movie classic, “The Sound of Music.” They remained close — two of them even went to prom together.
“I loved my ‘Sound of Music’ siblings — I still love them!” said Kym Korath, who was only 5 when she played Gretl, the youngest Von Trapp.
In an interview with People, Karath, now 67, said, “It was such a gift to be given six siblings. My sister and brother were 16 and 15 years older than I was, respectively, so I almost grew up as a little bit of an only child. So I suddenly had all of these siblings … And yeah, they’ve remained in my life forever.”
Rodin Eckenroth/Getty Images for AFI
Rodin Eckenroth/Getty Images for AFI Julie Andrews reunited with the Von Trapp kids in 2022. From L to R: Debbie Turner (Marta), Angela Cartwright (Brigitta), Julie Andrews (Maria), Nicholas Hammond (Friedrick), Kym Karath (Gretl), Duane Chase (Kurt).
In fact, one of the Von Trapp siblings escorted Karath to her prom.
“Nicky — Nick Hammond — took me to my first prom because my mother did not trust anybody else with me at that point,” said Karath. “And she thought she could trust Nicky — and she could trust Nicky.”
Hammond, now 75, played the oldest (and often stern) brother Friedrick in the movie.
“We know we’ve been through a lot with each other: we’ve been through marriages, we’ve been through divorces; we’ve been through the deaths of family members and deaths of now two of our siblings from the film. And those are huge things,” he told People.
Only five of the original Von Trapp siblings remain: Charmian Carr (Liesl) and Heather Menzies (Louisa) died almost a decade ago.
“It was only us seven that knew what that experience was like,” Hammond said in a People interview. “Our own siblings and our parents kind of did, but didn’t really. They didn’t know what it was like to walk into the school cafeteria and suddenly 500 people just stop eating and turn and stare at you.”
Even now, 60 years after the film premiered, Hammond said that he often hears from some of his castmates on a weekly basis.
“I know there are stories of child actors who have had really unfortunate times, and I feel for that, and I can see how it can happen,” he said. “I just feel so blessed that I had a series of good, positive experiences working with people whom I admired and who treated me respectfully. And so to me, it was just the greatest job in the world.”
This story first appeared on TODAY.com. More from TODAY:
