Angela Cartwright Says ‘Sound of Music’ Cast Is Still ‘Like a Family’ 60 Years Later (Exclusive)

It’s been 60 years since actress Angela Cartwright first appeared on screen in The Sound of Music as one of the seven boisterous, singing Von Trapp children who brought Christopher Plummer, as their stern but secretly soft-hearted father, and Julie Andrews, as their ebullient governess Maria, together in one of the most beloved musical films of all time.

As the film returns to theaters Sept. 12, courtesy of Fathom Entertainment, to celebrate the landmark anniversary, Cartwright says she and her fellow child actors, now in their 60s and 70s, still feel bonded like family six decades later.

“We call ourselves ‘Non-Trapps,’ ” Cartwright, 73, chuckles to PEOPLE in an exclusive conversation. “We visit, we’ve been at births and marriages and deaths and been through experiences together.”

Cartwright, who played Brigitta von Trapp, was just 13 when the film debuted in 1965, alongside screen siblings Charmain Carr (Liesl), Nicholas Hammond (Friedrich), Heather Menzies (Louisa), Duane Chase (Kurt), Debbie Turner (Marta) and Kym Karath (Gretl) said the bonding began on set and continues unbroken today.

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“The five of us – there’s five us now – we have been through so much together and we are like a family,” the actress said. (Carr died in 2016, and Menzies a year later in 2017.) “We’re like a family that’s all over the world in separate places – and we are! I mean, from Australia all the way to Los Angeles and middle America, and yet we all come together. We’re like just a family again. We pick up where we left off.”

The family-oriented film’s phenomenal, perpetual popularity has ensured there have been ample opportunities for reunions over the years, she reveals. “We were just in Florence, Italy, for a showing of The Sound of Music in front of this Italian audience, and they were just in gasps – I mean, here it was with subtitles in Italian, and they were just so welcoming and so in love with this movie. They traveled from Rome to come and see it, a lot of people. So it’s worldwide and it’s just so amazing.”

Of course, the familial affection also extends to their movie matriarch, Andrews, who Cartwright says both lives up to her sweet, sunny on-screen reputation in real life, “and yet she’s sassy and fun and it’s not like she’s this prissy little person. She is real, she’s just great — I love her!”

“The last time I saw her was at her [AFI] Life Achievement Award,” Cartwright recalls, noting that the surviving von Trapp actors assembled at the 2022 ceremony to pay tribute to Andrews.

“We were all there and we all entered and we all sang ‘Sound of Music’ and everybody in the audience was singing ‘Do Re Mi,’ ” she says. “It was so surreal and she was just so lovely. And if anybody deserves a lifetime achievement award, it’s her. She is what she puts out there that she is, and she has a big birthday coming up soon!” (Andrews turns 90 on Oct. 1.)

“Filming the movie, she embraced all of us, and I think it really shows how much we adored her,” Cartwright remembers. “A lot of actors don’t do that, and it’s a shame… She just had this kind of mothering relationship with us, and when we were between takes — and believe me, there was a lot of rain when we were shooting the movie, so we had a lot of waiting time — she would sing, she would teach us songs, we would dance, and she was part of that. She didn’t go off to her dressing room. She was a real part of us being a family. It shows. I think that’s such an important part of why this movie is so successful. It’s the family aspect and people really believe it.”

“This is something that Chris Plummer brought to it [too], I think,” Cartwright adds, praising the film’s leading man, who died in 2021. “He’s this stern dad, but…if you watch the movie, especially on the big screen, there’s so many little nuances he does that makes you just really like him. He doesn’t know what to do with seven kids, and yet he loves his kids. It shows in the movie. He’s such a smart actor.”

That the entire cast was able to bond so deeply was largely due to the fact that they spent about a year shooting the film for director Robert Wise, including several months on location in Saltzburg, Austria — which led the sometimes-restless young actors to engage in a little mischief to break up the days.

“The movie took a lot longer than we thought it would to film, so we were away from home a lot longer than we expected, mainly because of rain, and so we got a little bored near the end,” Cartwright remembers. “We did a little mischief in the hotel, like moving the shoes around that were going to be cleaned, and changing them [room service] breakfast menus off of the doors. That was awful when I think about it now, but nothing terrible!”

“We did throw toilet paper out of a window and try to hit the umbrellas in the rain, I remember,” Cartwright laughed. “That would’ve just been Nicky, Heather and me…Yeah, a little mischievous here and there.”

The actress has also been afforded the opportunity to regularly rekindle her experience abroad. “I lead a tour every year with Craft Tours, and I take them to the different locations,” she says. “Salzburg looks exactly the same as it always did. I mean everything, the fountains and Mirabellgarden is just as gorgeous. Nothing has changed at all. So when you are on those steps, you can’t help but get swept away.”

Cartwright is eager for audiences to see the newly restored edition of The Sound of Music on the big screen during its limited anniversary release in all its expansive widescreen glory and resplendent Alpine scenery. “Sometimes when you see it on TV, you relate to old school movies because it’s smaller, but seeing it on the big screen is an incredible experience,” she says, “which is what is so exciting for generations that weren’t able to see it on the big screen…I know my grandkids love it, and I have a little four-year-old who’s just entranced in watching ‘Do Re Mi.’ He absolutely loved it, so I know it’s going to carry on, and that’s kind of a cool thing.”

Through the decades, Cartwright says there wasn’t ever a time in her life where she wasn’t eager to celebrate her place in The Sound of Music. “It was such an enjoyable experience. It was a great memory. I never get tired of people having enjoyed the movie, because isn’t that such a great thing to bring joy to people and be part of something that makes them happy? I mean, people have told me when they’re depressed, they put the movie on and it kind of brings them out of it because they love the movie.”

“So no, I never get tired of thinking about being part of The Sound of Music,” she proclaims.

Meticulously restored and remastered in stunning 4K for its 60th anniversary, The Sound of Music will be released  September 12–17 in theaters nationwide by Fathom Entertainment. Additionally, a 4K Blu-ray release will debut on September 23.