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.
Elsa Ratassepp Elsa Ratassepp Elsa Ratassepp (7 March 1893 – 4 April 1972), was an Estonian stage, radio and film actress whose career spanned over fifty years. Elsa Ratassepp was born in Raadi-Kruusamäe, a neighbourhood of Tartu. She joined the Vanemuine theatre as an actress in 1916 and was later a founder and actress in the travelling Rändteater based in Tallinn. The Rändteater troupe lasted from 1926 until 1928. Ratassepp had a long stage career throughout the 1910s and into the late 1960s. However, she didn't make a film appearance until the 1959 Juli Kun and Kaljo Kiisk directed comedy "Vallatud kurvid"