Australian actor Nicholas Hammond’s beloved actress mother Eileen Bennett died earlier this month aged 105.
The 74-year-old Sound of Music star’s mother was born in London in 1919 and passed away on March 9, with reports of her death only just being made public.
No cause of death was given and it is believed she was in poor health for some time.
Bennett was a graduate of England’s Royal Academy of Dramatic Art and appeared in several popular British movies throughout the ’30s and ’40s.
These included roles in the 1943 movie Thursday’s Child, opposite Chitty Chitty Bang Bang star Sally Ann Howes.
She also worked alongside Batman’s Mister Freeze actor George Sanders before retiring from showbusiness in the late ’40s after getting married.
Australian actor Nicholas Hammond’s beloved actress mother Eileen Bennett died earlier this month aged 105
Bennett married her partner Thomas and had two sons with him, one of them being legendary Australian actor Nicholas Hammond.
She instilled a love for performing in her son, who was born in America in 1950, who went on to appear in the legendary 1965 musical The Sound of Music.
Early in his career they appeared together in a stage play and he went on to be the first actor to portray Peter Parker, in the ’70s TV series The Amazing Spider-Man.
Hammond relocated to Australia in the 1980s and began working in local films and TV shows, going on to become one of the country’s most esteemed actors.
Some of the popular productions he has appeared in include Crocodile Dundee in Los Angeles, Mao’s Last Dancer, The Flying Doctors and the 2015 mini-series Gallipoli.
He has been in a de facto relationship with Australian actress Robyn Niven since 1987.
Hammond most recently appeared in the Stan Original Series C*A*U*G*H*T, opposite Sean Penn and Lincoln Younes.
With his chiseled jaw and dazzling smile, Hammond quickly became a heartthrob in the late ’70s.
The 74-year-old Sound of Music star’s mother was born in London in 1919 and passed away on March 9
Bennett instilled a love for performing in her son, who was born in America in 1950, who went on to appear in the legendary 1965 musical The Sound of Music. (Pictured in the movie fourth from right)
The American-born star who played oldest son Friedrich from The Sound Of Music later reflected on 50 years of the Oscar-winning movie, admitting fame bought him no shortage of women.
But the actor – who went on to star in The Love Boat and Dallas – says he questioned the motives of his adoring fans, telling Daily Mail Australia in 2015: ‘Did they want to sleep with me or Friedrich from The Sound Of Music?’
In an interview with DMA to mark the Sound Of Music’s anniversary, he said: ‘When you’re very famous, very young there’s that little thing of “Are they being nice to me because they think I’m a nice person?”
‘Or is it because they want to tell their friends “Guess who I was with last night..? Friedrich, the guy from the Sound Of Music.’”
He added: ‘Carrie Fisher said after Star Wars “Is he trying to go to bed with Princess Lea or does he want to be with me?” You do wonder…’
Hammond, who swapped his native America for Australia and is living in the Southern Highlands, south of Sydney, said he never regretted starring in the Sound Of Music.
‘The girls… It wasn’t a terrible problem, let’s admit,’ he says, adding: ‘I never went through that awkward period of being rejected by girls.’
But after divorcing wife Laura Soli, to whom he was married from 1978–1984, he chose to settle with Australian actress Robyn Nevin, who he met when they starred in Alan Ayckbourn’s Woman in Mind at the Sydney Theatre Company in 1987.
‘We’ve been happily together for years,’ he said, adding: ‘She very famous herself. I’m safer being with someone more famous than me,’ he joked.
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