Christopher Plummer and Charmian Carr Starring In Sound of Music

This is Charmian Carr. She is the actress who played ‘Liesl’ in the musical, The Sound of music, starring Julie Andrews, Christopher Plummer, and Heather Menzies.Is there really anyone out there that can’t sing Rolf and Liesl’s ‘You are 16, going on 17′ song from The Sound of Music? Charmain Carr is forever identified with that character and that song. It’s hard to believe it was forty years ago when The Sound of Music was released into theatres. It remains a favorite on the screen and on stage even today.

Charmian Farnon or Charmian Carr was born on December 27, 1942 in Chicago, Illinois so her age is 66. Charmian is best known for her role as Liesl, the oldest Von Trapp daughter in The Sound of Music where she starred with Julie Andrews, Christopher Plummer, Nicholas Hammond, Heather Menzies, Duane Chase, Angela Cartwright, Debbie Turner, and Kym Karath.

Her parents were Vaudeville actress Rita Oehman and musician Brian Farnon who named her Charmian after a character from Shakespeare’s play Antony and Cleopatra. It was her mom, Rita, who got her an audition for a role in The Sound of Music. Charmian at the time was working and going to college and her mother never even asked her if she wanted to try out for the part.

It seems the director for The Sound of Music thought ‘Farnon’ too long a last name for her, and after handing her a list of single syllable surnames she chose Carr to be her stage name.Charmian says working on the movie was a very happy experience for her, but during the filming of the gazebo scene she slid straight through a window and had to complete the scene in alot of pain.

While publicising The Sound of Music after it’s release, she met and married Jay Brent in May of 1967 and had two daughters, Jennifer and Emily. The marriage lasted until 1991. She now has two grandchildren, Emma and Derek.Charmian Carr also appeared in Evening Primrose, a one-hour musical written by Stephen Sondheim, which aired in 1966. The male lead was Anthony Perkins. She has done little acting since.

Charmian started an interior decorating company whose clients include Michael Jackson and has written two books, Forever Liesl and Letters to Liesl.On December 12th, 2007, Charmian Carr made a rare television appearance as a guest on Loose Women where she shared some of her memories of making The Sound of Music with the hosts.