Lauri Peters

Lauri Peters (born Patricia Peterson; July 2, 1943) is an American actress, dancer, singer, drama teacher, and author.

Career

Peters created the role of Liesl Von Trapp in the original 1959 Broadway production of ''The Sound of Music''. She received a Tony Award nomination for Best Supporting or Featured Actress in a Musical, which she shared with her sibling castmates. She was married to actor Jon Voight (1962–67), whom she met when he joined the cast as Nazi messenger boy Rolfe, with whom Liesl shares a song ("Sixteen Going on Seventeen") and an attraction. She can be heard on the show's cast album, which has sold more than three million copies in the US.

In Britain, she is probably best known as Cliff Richard's romantic lead in the 1963 film '' Summer Holiday''. On film, she also acted alongside Fabian, James Stewart, and Sidney Poitier.

She appeared as Moll in the revival of Marc Blitzstein's ''The Cradle Will Rock'' directed by Howard Da Silva.

Although she worked primarily in the theater, on and off Broadway, and in touring companies, she also appeared on popular television shows of the 1960s and '70s, including ''Gunsmoke'', where she was featured as “Allie”, an innocent girl stuck in a poor family of eight (with a father and brother who were future-less lazy, whiners), yet she somehow remained kind and caring, as well as falling hard for her heartthrob, Marshall Dillon in the episode “Take Her, She’s Cheap” (S10E6).

That was after her first starring role on ''Gunsmoke'' in 1964 (S9E20) as the title character “Mayblossom”, portraying Festus’s cousin (who was promised to him for marriage), but who also falls prey to being violated by a townsman.

With acting teacher Sanford Meisner, Peters founded the Meisner Extension at New York University in 1993, where she was artistic director and master teacher. Teaching the technique away from Manhattan, she has written a book on Meisner.

Musical theatre

*1959 '' First Impressions''
*1959 ''Sound of Music'' as Liesl Von Trapp
*1964 ''The Cradle Will Rock'' as Moll

Film

*1962 ''Mr. Hobbs Takes a Vacation''
*1963 '' Summer Holiday''
*1968 ''For Love of Ivy''

External links

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Peters, Lauri
1943 births
Living people
American stage actresses
American film actresses
American television actresses
Drama teachers
Actresses from Detroit
21st-century American women