Charmian Carr, who played Leisl in the 1965 classic movie, The Sound of Music, has died. According to reports, she died in Los Angeles last Saturday from complications related to dementia. She was aged 73.
The actress is best known for one of the movie’s classic songs, Sixteen Going on Seventeen.
Kym Karath, who played youngest Von Trapp child, Gretl, called Carr “exquisite”
“Charmian Carr played the oldest Von Trapp child, and in some ways she maintained that role in real life — guiding, cheering, supporting and generally being there for the rest of her ‘sisters’ and ‘brothers,’ said Ted Chapin, president of the Rodgers & Hammerstein Organisation.
Carr was born Charmian Farnon on December 27, 1942, in Chicago, Illinois, the second child ofVaudeville actress Rita Oehmen and musician Brian Farnon. She had two sisters, both actresses (Shannon Farnon and Darleen Carr).
Her family moved to Los Angeles when she was 10. While a student at San Fernando High School, Carr was a cheerleader and played basketball and volleyball.
Carr was attending San Fernando Valley State College, studying speech therapy and philosophy, and working for a doctor, when her mother arranged for her to audition for a role in The Sound of Music.
Rita Farnon hadn’t asked Charmian if she wanted to audition for the part, but Charmian was sure her mother would consider getting a part in a film more important than earning a college diploma.
Carr appeared in Evening Primrose, a one-hour musical written by Stephen Sondheim, which aired on ABC Stage 67, in 1966. She also worked with Van Johnson on a pilot for a television programme,Take Her, She’s Mine.
Following her success in The Sound of Music, Carr married and left the movie business to raise her two children, according to her family.
She started an interior design business, whose clients included Michael Jackson. The two shared a special friendship, the family said.
Carr wrote two books, Forever Liesl and Letters to Liesl. She reunited with many of her co-stars from The Sound of Music on The Oprah Winfrey Show in October 2010 to celebrate the film’s 45th anniversary. In 2014, she recorded Edelweiss with the great-grandchildren of the von Trapps on the album Dream a Little Dream by the Von Trapps and Pink Martini.
Carr is the first of the actors, who played the seven Von Trapp children to pass away. Eleanor Parker, who played Baroness in the film, died in 2013.
