The Sound of Music (film) of the film; the actor accepted after being assured that he could work with Lehman to improve the character; Plummer later described himself as having become quite arrogant at the time, "spoiled by too many great theater roles". Wise also spent considerable time and effort on casting the secondary characters. For the role of Max Detweiler, Wise initially considered Victor Borge, Noël Coward, and Hal Holbrook among others before deciding on Richard Haydn. For the character of Baroness Elsa Schraeder, Wise looked for a "name" actress—Andrews and Plummer were not yet widely known to film audiences—and decided on Eleanor Parker.
Eunice Gayson and studied operatic singing. Gayson played a major role in the Hammer horror film "The Revenge of Frankenstein" and appeared on television in series such as "The Saint" (which starred a future James Bond, Roger Moore) and "The Avengers". She played the Baroness Elsa Schraeder in the 1962 London production of "The Sound of Music", during which time she also filmed scenes for the first two Bond films, "Dr. No" (1962) and "From Russia with Love" (1963). She remained a regular in London theatre, appearing in, among other productions, the comedy "The Grass Is Greener" (1971). In the early 1990s,