When audiences first saw Daniel Truhitte stride onto the screen in 1965’s The Sound of Music, he was the fresh-faced Austrian telegram boy Rolf Gruber – the young man who danced with Liesl in the romantic gazebo number Sixteen Going on Seventeen. The role made him instantly recognisable, and yet, unlike many of his co-stars, it would be his only major film role.
Born in Sacramento, California, in September 1943, Truhitte was already steeped in music and performance long before Hollywood came calling. Landing the part was no easy feat. The producers were determined to find a blond-haired, blue-eyed actor who could embody the look of a Hitler Youth, and Truhitte recalled that hundreds of hopefuls were tested in rapid succession. It took multiple auditions – including a dance test, vocal performances, and a final run before director Robert Wise – before he was chosen as the last actor to be cast. His hair was bleached to match the look, and he was soon rubbing shoulders with Julie Andrews and Christopher Plummer.
He struck up a relationship with Leisl’s stand-in on set, German actress Gabriele Hennig, who later became his first wife. In a twist of fate, her parents were named Rolf and Liesl, and the couple would go on to name two of their three sons after those characters.
But while the film went on to global acclaim, Truhitte took a very different path. Straight after filming, he enlisted in the U.S. Marine Corps and missed the movie’s premiere. His fellow recruits dubbed him “Private Hollywood” when they discovered his role, but Truhitte was far removed from the world of film promotion and publicity.
He settled in North Carolina, where he has lived since the 1980s with his third wife, Tarealia. The film’s enduring success has meant Truhitte never entirely left it behind. Fans across the world still recognise him as Rolf, and the gazebo duet is still seen as one of the most beloved moments in cinema.
His private life has been equally eventful. Now on his third marriage, Truhitte is father to six children and grandfather to 13. Among them is one particularly famous name in the world of classical music – his son Thomas Rolf Truhitte. A celebrated heldentenor, Thomas has made a name for himself in Wagnerian opera, with standout performances in Lohengrin, Die Walküre, Tristan und Isolde, and Fidelio. His middle name, “Rolf,” is a nod to his father’s defining role in The Sound of Music.
Truhitte, now 81, has also spoken candidly about surviving two heart attacks – one on Christmas Day 2019, and a second, more serious episode in June 2022 while attending a funeral. “They couldn’t get my heart started,” he recalled. “Then they got it started for a short time and it quit again. It didn’t look like I was gonna make it, but then all of a sudden they got it going.” He spent five days in intensive care, much of which he has no memory of. Doctors warned his family not to expect him to pull through, but Truhitte says he is “lucky to be alive.”
While he often wonders if staying in Hollywood might have led to a bigger career, Truhitte insists he has no regrets. “If you’re going to only do one film,” he said, “you couldn’t do better than The Sound of Music. I’m proud of the part I played, and I’m a part of it forever.”