Duane Chase born December 12 1950 is a former actor best remembered as Kurt von Trapp in The Sound of Music 1965 He started acting in commercials when he was 11 along with a bit of modelling work He left show business after high school moving out of Los Angeles and for a time fought fires with the forestry service He is now a computer software analystdesigner for oil and mining companies He enjoys climbing mountains and lives outside of Seattle Washington