Liesl actor dies: What did Charmian Carr do after The Sound of Music?

Actor Charmian Carr, who played Liesl von Trapp daughter in The Sound of Music, died on Saturday aged 73 from a complication of a rare form of dementia.

Born Charmian Farnon to an actress mother and a musician father in Chicago, Illinois, she and her two sisters grew up around the arts and became actors.

However, as a child, Carr was more interested in sports and only turned her hand to acting when she was a student, after her mother arranged for her to audition for Rodgers and Hammerstein'sThe Sound of Music.

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While the film's director, Robert Wise, was impressed with her take on the role of Liesl, his nod of approval came with one caveat: Charmian Farnon was too long a name, he said. Between them, they agreed on Carr as a snappier surname.

Although she had never taken acting or singing lessons, Carr's performance, particularly her rendition of Sixteen Going on Seventeen, was widely acclaimed.

She acted twice more - in the Stephen Sondheim television musical Evening Primrose and a TV pilot with Van Johnson - before deciding to leave the film industry as suddenly as she had entered it.

Instead, she opened a successful interior design business in California, with clients including the likes of Michael Jackson, CNN reports.

Although she never returned to the movie business, Carr, who married and had two children, regularly took part in special events connected to her famous screen role and authored two memoirs, Forever Liesl and Letters to Liesl.

Her ties to her Sound of Music cast-mates also remained strong. Kym Karath, who played Gretl, the baby of the Von Trapp family, last night tweeted a photo of her and Carr together as adults, saying she had been "like a sister" to her throughout her life.