Charmian Carr.
(Image credit: Valerie Macon/Getty Images)

Charmian Carr, the actress who played Liesl von Trapp in The Sound of Music, died in Los Angeles of complications from a rare form of dementia. She was 73.

In the 1965 classic, Carr portrayed the eldest of the von Trapp children, famous for singing "Sixteen Going on Seventeen." When Carr, born in Chicago and raised in Southern California, was cast in the role, she had never taken any singing or acting lessons, and her only other major role was in the Stephen Sondheim television musical Evening Primrose.

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Catherine Garcia, The Week US

Catherine Garcia has worked as a senior writer at The Week since 2014. Her writing and reporting have appeared in Entertainment Weekly, The New York Times, Wirecutter, NBC News and "The Book of Jezebel," among others. She's a graduate of the University of Redlands and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.