Sound of Music star Angela Cartwright reveals how she turned down the adult magazine – and has no regrets as the cast celebarte hit musical’s 60th anniversary year
It’s been 60 years since Brit Angela Cartwright captivated the world as Brigitta – the bookish middle child of the 10 Von Trapp kids in The Sound of Music.
Premiering in the UK on March 29 1965, the movie made a global star of its leading lady Julie Andrews as the young nun, Maria, who became their governess – also capturing the heart of their widowed dad Captain Georg Von Trapp, played by Christopher Plummer.
“It’s a movie that so many generations connect to – young and old,” Angela tells The Mirror. “Can you think of another film that has had such an effect for so long?”
This legacy means Angela, now 72 – who appeared in Lost in Space between 1965 and 1968 and had a cameo in Netflix’s 2018 reimagined version of the series – will always be remembered.
She says of the film’s star: “We didn’t really know who Julie was when we met her. Nobody had seen Mary Poppins when we filmed, but our director Robert Wise knew that she was a star in the making.
“I had read the book (Mary Poppins) so I knew the story, but I didn’t know then that it was going to be such a cute movie.”
Angela and her fellow Von Trapp children were delighted when Julie taught them songs from the 1964 musical co-starring Dick Van Dyke.
“She taught us all the lyrics to all the songs – A Spoonful of Sugar and Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious – and she taught us to sing that backwards, which I can still say!” she laughs.
“Julie was so sweet and very smart. She endeared herself to us. Between takes she sang, and we would dance. We adored her. It really shows in the film itself, which is one of the reasons I think it was so successful.
“She is a very strong woman. I think Mary Poppins and The Sound of Music were both kind of sweetzy roles. She’s a lot funnier than that. She often says she has the mouth of a sailor.”
Set in late 1930s Austria just before World War II, multi-Oscar-winner The Sound of Music broke box office records worldwide on its release, becoming the then-highest-grossing film of all time.
By the time it came out, Angela, who was born in Altrincham, Cheshire – moving to America as a baby with her parents and elder sister – was already on the path to child stardom.
“It was after the war and and there were no homes,” she says, of her family’s decision to emigrate. “My mom had always dreamed of coming to America, so we all got on a boat and went to America to fulfill the American dream, which they never thought would include show business in a million years!
“We were in Canada for a year until we were able to enter the US, because you had to be sponsored. The woman who was living down the hall from us had a child that did commercials and she said to my mum, ‘oh your kids are cute – you should go and see this agent’. It was just meant to be.”
Angela was a successful child actor by the time she became Brigitta and began filming in Salzburg, Austria.
“It was supposed to be for five weeks but, because of the rain, it was three months,” she recalls, speaking to us from her home in Dallas, Texas.
Meticulous rehearsals meant everyone was word perfect when they arrived in Austria. “We knew the roles, songs, and the script inside out,” says Angela, who only recalls one mishap.
“We knew where we had to stand on the faux steps at Salzburg’s Mirabell gardens for Do, Re, Mi. That had taken a lot of practice.
“But I remember Heather(Heather Menzies who played Louisa) was annoyed that she had made a mistake.
“She would say ‘why was that take chosen for the final edit?’ She ends up on the wrong step, and she looks very sheepish at the end and kind of steps back.
“But I think that take was chosen because the director Robert Wise wanted it not to be perfect. He wanted the kids to be real. He didn’t want little robots. In the stage versions, all the kids were blonde, blue-eyed—perfect. We were all very different. “
The seven Von Trapp children actors – who are now reduced to five, calling themselves the ‘Non Trapps’ – reunited in 2022 to honour Julie, now 89, when she received the American Film Institute’s Life Achievement Award.
Meanwhile, Angela – who has been an established photographer for 30 years – still has a die-hard fan base, despite barely acting for 40 years.
“People can be really over the top when they find out I’m Brigitta! They even say I look the same, but I don’t believe them!” she chuckles.
Angela actually auditioned for two roles – Brigitta and Louisa.
“I got Brigitta instead of Louisa, but I was more like Brigitta, so I was glad to be playing her,” she says, of her character, who was very observant. “That is me! But I was never as outspoken as Brigitta.
Heather Menzies, who died aged 68 in 2017, four weeks after being diagnosed with brain cancer, and Angela became great friends.
“Heather and I were very close. We became fast friends as soon as we met,” she says. “The two of us were wild about The Beatles and we were so close in age.”
Heather, who went on to have a successful film and TV career and married actor Robert Urich, also modelled for Playboy magazine – appearing in a controversial nude photoshoot for the August 1973 issue, entitled The Tender Trapp.
Angela says: “I think Heather just didn’t want to be typecast in sweet roles, so that’s why she did Playboy.
“These days, everything is so overexposed—they don’t leave anything to the imagination, so it was a big thing back then, but I think they are beautiful photographs.
“Afterwards, she did do more interesting roles—like on Logans Run, which was very popular in the US.
“I was asked to do Playboy, but it didn’t interest me. I did a lot of modelling, but I didn’t feel I needed to do Playboy for my career. “
Angela expresses her sadness over the death of Charmian Carr, who died in 2016, aged 73, from a rare form of dementia.
She says: “How shocking that was to us all.”
Angela and her surviving screen siblings – Debbie Turner, who played Marta, Kym Kareth who played the youngest Gretl, Nicholas Hammond( Fredrich) and Duane Chase (Kurt) recently met on Zoom to celebrate the 60th anniversary of the film.
“We zoomed with Duane, who lived in Colorado, and Nicky ( Nicolas), who lives in Australia. Debbie, who lives in Minnesota, flew in, and I flew in from Texas to LA so we were both together at Charmaine’s daughter’s house when we zoomed the others It was just so fun to catch up,” she says.
“It’s hard to meet up face to face but I do see Debbie a lot. When we meet, we reminisce and share our memories of Charmain, Heather, and Christopher.”
Their on-screen father, Christopher Plummer – who famously disliked the film for being overly saccharine and found his character “boring” – died aged 91 in hospital after a fall at home in 2021.
“It was really sad,” says Angela. “Christopher was very much a budding actor at the time but I think he saw his career in Shakespeare.
“But taking on the role was the smartest thing he ever did – as it made him a household name. “
Angela, who had a variety of film and TV roles, turned her focus to her photography career.
She married Steve Gullion in 1976 and has two children and five grandchildren.
Her elder sister Veronica, 75, was also a child actress – although her breakout role came much later than Angela’s, in 1976, when she appeared alongside Sigourney Weaver in Alien, going on to star inThe Witches of Eastwick and Flight of The Navigator.
“We had very different careers,” says Angela. “My sister still makes movies and has won many awards. I’m very proud of her.”
Reflecting on her experiences of filming The Sound of Music in Austria feels especially poignant for Angela, as the 80th anniversary of the end of World War II approaches.
“Filming was a very fun experience, but it was also an educational experience, “ she says. “ I remember we went to Eagle’s Nest, which was Hitler’s home near Berchtesgaden in Bavaria, Germany, as part of our schooling when we were not shooting. And I remember it was very difficult for the Austrians to see us shooting the Nazi marching scenes – because not that much time had passed since the end of the war. It was still very raw for them.
“I think they ended up cutting those scenes when it was shown in Germany. “
But it is the message of family unity that Angela feels has given The Sound of Music its lasting appeal.
She says: “Even in the most challenging circumstances, it reminds us to stay true to ourselves and stand firm in what we believe — and that’s why it continues to be so loved.”
A newly restored and remastered version of Sound of Music will be released on 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray later this year.
Angela’s website is at AngelaCartwright.Studio.com.