Canadian actress Heather Menzies-Urich, who played Louisa von Trapp in the popular musical The Sound of Music (1965), has died at the age of 68. Menzies-Urich had recently been diagnosed with brain cancer.
Menzies-Urich was 15 years old when she appeared in The Sound of Music. “The Toronto-born Menzies-Urich had her first screen credit in the 1964 TV series The Farmer’s Daughter, but it was her role a year later as Louisa, one of the von Trapp children in The Sound Of Music, for which she is best remembered,” said a report in Deadline. “Louisa’s the prankster, always trying to put one over on Maria, the governess played by Julie Andrews. The film won five Oscars, including Best Picture.”
Robert Wise’s movie is set in Austria in 1938. The film draws on the Rodgers-Hammerstein musical, which in turn is based on the memoir The Story of the Trapp Family Singers by Maria von Trapp. Julie Andrews plays Maria, who is employed as the governess of the unruly brood of widower Captain von Trapp (Christopher Plummer). Maria tames the children, marries her employer and escapes along with the family as the Nazis close in on Austria.
Menzies-Urich’s other credits include the movies Hawaii, Piranha, The Computer Wore Tennis Shoes, Endangered Species and the television shows Logan’s Run, Dragnet, Bonanza, The Bob Newhart Show, Vega$, The and T.J. Hooker. She was married to producer Robert Urich, who died of cancer in 2002. She is survived by two children and three grandchildren.
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