‘Sound of Music’ Star Nicholas Hammond Recalls Downside of Childhood Fame (Exclusive)

Nicholas Hammond was only 14 years old when he instantly gained a slice of cinematic immortality by playing Friedrich von Trapp, one of the seven singing siblings at the heart of the classic musical The Sound of Music. Now, 60 years after the film’s debut – and a lifetime of acting later – he admits that it wasn’t easy being in such a white-hot spotlight at such a formative age.

“It was a joyous film to make. I’m enormously proud of having a small part in it and being a part of something that’s brought so much pleasure to so many, now billions of people over the years,” Hammond, 75, tells PEOPLE exclusively.

“[But] the fact that you go from just being a kid in the ninth grade at Williamsburg Junior High School in Arlington, Va., and by the time you come back from that, you are one of the seven most famous children in the world, that’s a big thing to put on a 14-year-old.”

As one of the seven von Trapp children who help bring their closed-off widowed father (Christopher Plummer) together with their open-hearted governess (Julie Andrews) as they flee the Nazi takeover of Austria in the days leading up to World War II, Hammond and his follow young actors found themselves at the center of pop cultural attention as the musical was embraced as an instant family classic. 

But for a teen performer taking his first steps into a larger world, all the attention proved more than a little daunting. “Being a teenager is always a bit of a challenging time for a lot of reasons,” Hammond says. “It can be a time of great insecurity. It can be a time of you’re having growth spurts and all that sort of thing.”

Hammond says he’s deeply thankful he shared the experience with “the other six from the film, because we only had each other, really.”

“It was only us seven that knew what that experience was like,” he explains. “Our own siblings and our parents kind of did, but didn’t really. They didn’t know what it was like to walk into the school cafeteria and suddenly 500 people just stop eating and turn and stare at you. And it’s not what you want, but it happens.”

Hammond, whose mother had also been an actress in her native England, began performing at age 11 and had already amassed one Broadway credit and one film credit – in 1963’s critically acclaimed The Lord of the Flies (“By the time we finished the shoot 10 weeks later, something within me decided, ‘This is it – this is what you’re going to do for the rest of your life,’” he recalls). 

But those experiences couldn’t prepare him for the massive global celebrity The Sound of Music afforded him. He credits his costars and his family for helping him navigate overnight fame while remaining as grounded as he could.

“I know there are stories of child actors who have had really unfortunate times, and I feel for that, and I can see how it can happen,” he continues. “I just feel so blessed that I had a series of good, positive experiences working with people whom I admired and who treated me respectfully. And so to me, it was just the greatest job in the world.”

“I was lucky in that I had the support of all those people, but also I did keep working — it’s not like that was it,” he reveals. Indeed, Hammond would quickly move to land several more roles over the next decade — including another landmark pop culture touchstone, a guest spot on The Brady Bunch as the handsome high schooler who loses interest in Marcia after her nose is briefly disfigured by an errant football. However, several of his younger costars struggled to build their show business resumes in the years following The Sound of Music’s phenomenal success.

“I think a couple tried for a little bit, but most didn’t, with the exception of Angela [Cartwright],” he says, noting that Cartwright had previously starred in the family sitcom The Danny Thomas Show and, following The Sound of Music, quickly landed the sci-fi series Lost In Space. 

“But Angela and I were already with the William Morris Agency. We’d already worked a lot as child actors before The Sound of Music,” he explains. “So we were kind of in a slightly different category from the others, some of whom were literally kids off the street of L.A. who had been plucked out by a casting director. And so I think for them it was a lot tougher, is my guess.”

The cinematic colossus that was The Sound of Music “was a huge thing, but we all kind of took it in our stride, maybe some better than others,” he reflects. “But in my case, it was always a good thing. It was never a bad thing. I never felt badly done by it or regretted I did it or felt that I’d been compromised in my childhood.”

Six decades later, Hammond has nearly 100 film and television roles to his credit. Though he never chased fame on a level like he experienced as a teen, he would occasionally land squarely in big spotlights, like when he played the first live-action incarnation of Marvel Comics’ famed web-spinning superhero in the CBS TV series The Amazing Spider-Man from 1977 to 1979. 

“I’ve done a couple of comic cons, I’m always just astonished by the length of the line of people waiting to come up and say ‘When I was 8 years old, you were my Spider-Man,’” he says. “I’m very proud of that.”

More recently, he appeared in another high-profile project, writer-director Quentin Tarantino’s 2019 film Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, playing the flamboyant director of a 1960s TV Western inspiring Leonard DiCaprio’s guest-starring actor Rick Dalton to summon his inner Hamlet. Hammond’s role was named for real-life actor-director Sam Wanamaker, but per Tarantino’s instruction, he portrayed the role akin to the imperious, larger-than-life conductor Wanamaker played in the 1980 movie The Competition.

“That character in that film, he was this purist, hugely energetic, excitable kind of director, and of course, we had great fun,” Hammond reveals. “And then Quentin started saying, ‘I want to direct the way you direct!’ ”

Looking back at his long and vibrant career, Hammond – who now resides primarily in Sydney, Australia – recalls when he first proclaimed to his parents that he wanted to be an actor. “They never encouraged me, but they never discouraged me. They just said, ‘You know what, Nicky? As long as you’re enjoying this, do it. The minute you stop enjoying it, walk away.’ ”

Hammond says his parents always made it clear that there was “no shame in just saying, ‘Well, I had fun and now I’m going to do something else.’ ”

“Well, we’re 62 years later and I still haven’t decided to walk away!” he laughs, scoffing at the idea of retirement.

“I don’t ever want to do anything in the world except wake up in the morning and know I either have a play to go to that night, a film set to be on or a TV studio to be in,” he adds. “Those are the only three things I want in life…and that’s just never changed.”

For the first time ever, The Sound of Music is now available worldwide in 4K Ultra HD Digital & Blu-ray disc. Featuring remastered sound, restored visuals and bonus content.