The Sound of Music’s youngest Von Trapp child looks unrecognisable 56 years on

THE Sound Of Music’s youngest Von Trapp child star Kym Karath looks unrecognisable from her role as Gretl over five decades on.

The American actress is best known for her role as the youngest of the children in the iconic musical – which she starred in at just six years old.

Kym, now 63, rose to fame as a tot and had a number of acting titles under her belt before she was cast as Gretl in The Sound of Music.

The hit film follows the story of Austrian nun-in-training Maria – played by Julie Andrews – who ends up working as a nanny for the rich Von Trapp family.

The tale is set in 1938 as the lead character ends up falling for the father of the seven von Trapp children, then becoming their step-mother.

It’s been a whopping 56 years since the film was first released, and all of its stars look completely different to what they did back then, especially the von Trapps’.

The seven-strong brood was made up of two sons and five daughters; Friedrich, Louisa, Kurt, Brigitta, Marta, Liesl, and youngest Gretl.

Kym had starred in Spencer’s Mountain with Henry Fonda at the age of three, as well as The Thrill Of It All with Doris Day and James Garner, before the film.

The actress featured in a number of scenes alongside main star Julie, including one where she was flung into the water from a rowboat.

Kym opened up recently that she was still not fond of swimming after she nearly drowned during the scene, as she had not been taught how to swim yet.

She turned her attention away from acting in her teens, and went on to graduate from the University of Southern California with a humanities degree.

The star then moved to Paris where she worked as a model and studied art history, as well as marrying Philippe L’Equilbec, who she shares a son with.

Kym returned to acting in 2005 to star in a number of big-name productions including The Brady Bunch, All My Children and an episode of Lost In Space.

She and her family moved back to the USA to settle in Conneticut to allow her to be closer to many of the filming locations.

Kym isn’t the only Sound of Music star to look totally different from the film – with Liesl von Trapp star Charmian Carr also shocking fans.

Charmain Carr was the actress who played the stand-out role of Liesel, whose character was infamously “16 going on 17”, in the film, as the song explained.

At the time, the star was actually 23-years-old, and beat out some huge names such as Geraldine Chaplin and Mia Farrow for the role.

Despite her popularity in the role, Charmain didn’t continue acting and retired from the profession in order to start a family and found her own business.

She ran a successful interior design business over in California, and raised her two daughters of the following years.

However, she didn’t put her Sound of Music fame all in the past, dedicating time to write two books on the experience titled Forever Liesl and Letters to Liesl.

In her 70s, Charmain still looked every bit as gorgeous as she did in the Sound of Music, and although she might not be instantly recognisable, her bright blue eyes still stood out.

Sadly, she passed away on September 17, 2016, aged 73 in her home of Los Angeles, California, due to the effects of frontotemporal dementia.