The hills were alive with the sound of music when the actors who portrayed the von Trapp children surprised Julie Andrews at a gala tribute where she was presented with the AFI Life Achievement Award.
Nicholas Hammond (Friedrich), Duane Chase (Kurt), Angela Cartwright (Brigitta), Debbie Turner (Marta) and Kym Karath (Gretl) appeared onstage during the presentation and led the crowd in a sing-a-long to “Do Re Mi.”
Dick Van Dyke and Anne Hathaway also made appearances via taped messages.
Carol Burnett presented Andrews with the award.
Andrews dedicated the award to all those she worked with over her nearly 80-year career.
“This night reminds me with great clarity how many people are involved with making movies,” she said. “What a huge collaborative effort it takes to bring film to the screen. My husband Blake never liked when people referred to filmmaking as the business or an industry. He insisted that film was an art form and should always be called that. And I know that is exactly the way the AFI feels also.”
While it was special to see the von Trapp children reunite with Andrews, who received an Oscar nomination for her role as Maria, the reunion was also bittersweet.
Several people weren’t able to be in attendance. Charmian Carr (Liesl) and Heather Menzies-Urich (Louisa) passed away in 2016 and 2017, and Christopher Plummer, who portrayed Captain Georg von Trapp, di ed in 2021.
