By Michaela Gordoni
Kym Karath and Nicholas Hammond, who played two of the von Trapp children in THE SOUND OF MUSIC, recently got together in person.
Karath posted a photo on Instagram Wednesday of herself with Hammond at a Beverly Hills restaurant, Parade shared.
“Always a delight to catch up with my SOM brother Nicholas Hammond!” wrote Karath, who played the youngest von Trapp child, Gretl. Hammond played the second-oldest, Freidrich.
“It’s so great to see that you still make time to get together after all these years! 😊” one fan commented.
“You both look great!” another fan said.
Related: Why SOUND OF MUSIC Star Kym Karath Left Hollywood
Two of the von Trapp children, Charmian Carr, who played Liesl, and Heather Menzies, who played Louisa, have already passed away.
Karath has several happy memories on set, but she never liked filming the rowboat scene. She was five years old when she played Gretl.
“Poor Julie [Andrews] was told at the very last minute, ‘Make sure you catch the little one because she can’t swim.’ The first time round, she fell in the right direction and caught me,” Karath recalled. “But then we had to do the scene again because for some reason [the director] Robert Wise didn’t like that take.”
“Poor Julie fell in the wrong direction and I went under,” she said. “I still don’t like rowboats and swimming.”
Karath was rescued by Menzies, who Karath promptly threw up lake water on.
“I think she saved me from secondary drowning,” Karath noted.
Growing up, her von Trapp siblings were like a “second family.”
“Our mothers were on set with us so they became close. We ended up having Christmases and birthdays and all kinds of celebrations together over the years, and the bonds just grew,” she said. “Heather and her husband, Robert Urich, were godparents to my son, Eric.”
After THE SOUND OF MUSIC, Karath went on to star in LASSIE, PEYTON PLACE and THE BRADY BUNCH.
Karath stopped acting when she was 15, because she was raped by a producer. She felt like she couldn’t tell anyone what happened.
“But my parents kind of figured out what happened,” she recalled. “I couldn’t say much to them because I was afraid my father would go and literally murder the guy and I didn’t want my dad to go to jail.”
Her parents told her, “No more acting, just focus on school.”
She realized “It was the safe thing to do. It was really a terrible, frightening period of time.”
Now, the 67-year-old is happily retired in Malibu, where she oversees the Aurelia foundation, a program for young adults with disabilities.
Read Next: Celebrating the Von Trapp Legacy on The Anniversary Of Maria Von Trapp’s Birth
Questions or comments? Please write to us here.
– Content: +2Share:
– Content: +4