Sound of Music Actress Eleanor Parker Dies

The Oscar-nominated actress played the baroness in the 1965 musical film

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Eleanor Parker, the actress best known for her 1965 role as the icy baroness in The Sound of Music opposite Julie Andrews and Christopher Plummer, has died at the age of 91. A family friend told the Associated Press that Parker passed away in California on Dec. 9, from complications of pneumonia.

Though The Sound of Music was Parker’s last major film role, Parker had a varied film and television career and even received three Oscar nominations for best actress. The first nomination came in 1951, for Parker’s role in Caged, followed by an Oscar nod in 1952 for her part in Detective Story. In 1956, her part as an ill opera singer in Interrupted Melody earned her a final nomination.

“Eleanor Parker was and is one of the most beautiful ladies I have ever known,”  Plummer said in a statement to the AP. “Both as a person and as a beauty. I hardly believe the sad news for I was sure she was enchanted and would live forever.”

[NYT]

(MORE: The recent ‘Sound of Music’ broadcast a ratings hit for NBC)