Comments on: Aggie: Two Movies That Shaped Our Psyches

By: James Pate

James Pate — Sun, 30 Nov 2008 01:05:14 +0000

My sister heard somewhere that “Rolf” was played by Jon Voight, so she thought for a second that we had a big-time celebrity who believed the way we did. But, alas, it turned out that Jon Voight played in a broadway Sound of Music, not the Julie Andrews one.

By: AggieAtheist

AggieAtheist — Sat, 29 Nov 2008 17:00:32 +0000

Found Daniel Truhitte here. No mention of any past church involvement, but I did find this on his bio page:

In the original Broadway show, Rolf does not turn the family in," explains Dan. But in the movie, when Captain Von Trapp tells Rolf, "You'll never be one of them," the young Nazi proves his loyalty to the Fuhrer. "You have that incredible, almost insane reaction of Rolf's indoctrination, to literally blow the whistle and turn that family in, knowing they could have been murdered," Dan notes. "Nobody knows more than I do what a rat I was," he laughs. Rolf's betrayal saved the movie from saccharin overload, Dan contends, and reflected Hitler's intense hold over young people. "Right after I finished being a nasty Nazi, I joined the U.S. Marine Corps and served my country," Dan says with irony.

I knew my memory wasn't failing me, he's been mentioned on AW here. Also see camfinch's comment, just a little bit below (I can get Richard's comment to link, but not Camfinch's.)

By: steve

steve — Sat, 29 Nov 2008 15:09:25 +0000

Wasn’t he Daniel Truhitte? I’m not sure if he’s the one, but if he’s still attending Herbie’s cult…too bad.

By: FT

FT — Sat, 29 Nov 2008 06:09:03 +0000

I never remembered the Ten Commandments nor the Sound of Music being “mandatory” for church viewing, but I remember it was rather “popular” for church members to watch it (though the historic WCG was a philistine culture when it came to the arts and popular culture). I even have the DVD for The Ten Commandments but I have yet for the Sound of Music. I still enjoy both movies and I don’t need any church to recommend my tastes.

The actor you are referring to in The Sound of Music who played Rolph is a guy by the name of Dan Truhitte. He left the WCG during the Exodus in 1973-74 and has never looked back. I seen him on Entertainment Tonight in 1991. At that time he was doing okay, even now playing the father Von Trapp in the plays. So much for that silly notion if you leave the church, bad things will happen to you. He even has a website at http://www.danieltruhitte.com/index.html. In other words, there is life after the WCG, no matter what time you left and life more abundantly. Thank goodness.