Early life

Hammond was born in Washington, D.C., the son of Col. Thomas West Hammond, Jr. by his wife Eileen Hammond, née Bennett. While Hammond's father was a US citizen and an officer in the US Army, his mother was an Englishwoman who had played a role in a theatre play, namely Much Too Shy, in 1942. Hammond has one elder brother, David (b. 1946). Hammond's parents had met and married in London during the War, when his father had been posted there. After the war, the couple had moved to the US permanently, and since the Colonel had a transferrable army job, the family moved numerous times to various army stations across the country during Hammond's childhood. The Colonel, who Hammond adored, died in 1970.

Career

Hammond was less than 10 years old when he made his acting debut in in the Broadway play The Complaisant Lover in 1961. At the same time, he began to shoot for the 1963 film Lord of the Flies, which marked his film debut. After this, Hammond made what was to be his most visible screen role for many years, as Friedrich von Trapp (the elder of the two boys) in the 1965 hit The Sound of Music.

Hammond's next acting role came in 1970, when he appeared in his second Broadway play, Conduct Unbecoming. This was his first role as an adult. In 1972, Hammond appeared as Peter Linder in Skyjacked. In 1973, he made a guest appearance on The Brady Bunch, in the fourth-season episode #090 "The Subject Was Noses", as the high school hunk Doug Simpson who loses interest in Marcia after her tragic football accident. That year he also appeared in an episode of The Waltons, called "The Townie" as Theodore Claypool, Jr. After making the transition from juvenile to young leading man, he spent several seasons in daytime soaps such as General Hospital. He also appeared on many television shows of the 1970s including Hawaii Five-O.

In the late 1970s, Hammond re-joined fellow The Sound of Music alumna Heather Menzies (who played Louisa von Trapp) for one episode of the TV adaptation of Logan's Run. He contributed to the book The Sound of Music Family Scrapbook.

Spider-Man

From 1977 to 1979, Hammond essayed the role for which he is perhaps best known, as Peter Parker/Spiderman in the television series The Amazing Spider-Man. Hammond described his approach to the character: "I liked the idea of taking a fantasy hero and making him believable as a person. I made it clear going into it that I wasn't interested in doing something that was just a camp joke." The series aired sporadically on CBS, with 13 episodes airing over two seasons. A pilot movie appeared in the fall of 1977, with the series returning as a mid-season replacement for five episodes in the spring of 1978. While the show did well in the ratings, CBS was unwilling to commit to a regular timeslot due to its relatively weak showing in the lucrative adult demographic. The second season aired six episodes, each an hour long, in the fall of 1978 and winter of 1979, with a final two-hour episode in the summer of that year. Although Hammond played Peter Parker in the television series, in all of the scenes in which Spider-Man is seen performing stunts or without dialogue, a stunt double was filmed by a second camera unit.

Later career

After the Spider-Man series ended, Hammond guest-starred on a number of top-rated TV shows of the early 1980s, including The Love Boat, Magnum, P.I., Murder, She Wrote and recurring roles on Falcon Crest and Dallas. After being cast as yachtsman Dennis Conner in an Australian TV miniseries in the mid-1980s, Hammond liked the country so much that he decided to stay. He later became an Australian citizen. Since then, he has appeared in several television miniseries that have been filmed in Australia. This included an important role as an American WW-II officer based in Far North Queensland in the major mini-series Fields of Fire, series I and II, set in the cane-fields of tropical Australia. His character represented the gentler side of the culture-clash between Australians and Americans. He had a starring role, as "Sir Ivor Creevy-Thorne", in Mirror, Mirror, an Australia/New Zealand extended miniseries (a complete story of 20 serialised episodes, with cliffhangers between each of the episodes). Hammond also guest-starred in various Australian television series, including satirical television programs such as BackBerner and CNNNN, and the science fiction program Farscape, and also dramatic series such as The Flying Doctors, MDA and the Australian/USA co-production Mission: Impossible (which was filmed in Australia).

In 2005, Hammond portrayed television producer Aaron Spelling in Dynasty: The Making of a Guilty Pleasure, a fictionalized television movie based on the creation and behind the scenes production of Dynasty.

Hammond is a writer for Australian television, having written both the mini-series A Difficult Woman and the TV movie Secret Men's Business. In 2009 he made his directing debut with Lying Cheating Bastard, a play he co-wrote with magician James Galea.

Personal life

Hammond married Laura Soli in 1980 and the couple were divorced four years later in 1984. He moved to Australia in the mid-1980s, and currently lives in Sydney with his partner, Australian actress Robyn Nevin.

He has remained close friends with all six of his Sound of Music siblings; during their reunion on the 40th anniversary DVD, he said, "You're my best friends in the world".

Filmography

Film performances

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1963	Lord of the Flies	Robert
1965	The Sound of Music	Friedrich von Trapp	Released as Rodgers and Hammerstein's The Sound of Music in both the United States and the United Kingdom.
1971	Been Down So Long It Looks Like Up to Me	Agneau
1972	Skyjacked	Peter Lindner	Released as Sky Terror in the United States.
1972	Cherry Blossoms
1973	Superdad	Roger Rhinehurst
1977	Spider-Man	Spider-Man/Peter Parker
1977	Spider-Man Strikes Back	Spider-Man/Peter Parker
1980	Spider-Man: The Dragon's Challenge	Spider-Man/Peter Parker
1988	Emerald City	Ian Wall
1990	Beyond My Reach	Steven Schaffer
1990	Black Cobra 2	Lieutenant Kevin McCall
1993	Frauds	Detective Simms
1997	Paradise Road	Marty Merritt
2001	Crocodile Dundee in Los Angeles	Curator
2003	The Rage in Placid Lake	Bill Taylor
2005	The Saviour	Pastor
2005	Stealth	Executive Officer
2014	Turkey Shoot	General Charles Thatcher II

Television appearances

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1962	The Defenders	Bobby Braden	1 episode of television series: "The Last Six Months"
1967	Soldier in Love	Young John	Anthology series
1971	Mr. and Mrs. Bo Jo Jones	Evan Clark
1973	The Brady Bunch	Doug Simpson	1 episode of television series: "The Subject Was Noses"
1973	The Waltons	Theodore Albert Claypool Jr.	1 episode of television series: "The Townie"
1973	Outrage	Ron Werner
1974	Double Solitaire	Peter
1974	Sorority Kill
1974	Dirty Sally	John	1 episode of television series: Season 1, Episode 14
1974	Lucas Tanner	Andy	1 episode of television series: "Thirteen Going on Twenty"
1973-1974	Gunsmoke	Britt / Doak	3 episodes of television series: "Women for Sale: Part 1" (1973) "Women for Sale: Part 2" (1973) "Thirty a Month and Found" (1974)
1976	Rich Man, Poor Man	Walters	1 episode of television series: "Part I: Chapters 1 and 2"
1976	Petrocelli	Whitey	1 episode of television series: "Blood Money"
1976	Law of the Land	Brad Jensen
1976	Family	John Crosswell	1 episode of television series: "The Cradle Will Fall"
1974-1977	Hawaii Five-O	Roger / Calvin	2 episodes of television series: "The Banzai Pipeline" (1974) "Requiem for a Saddle Bronc Rider" (1977)
1977	The Fantastic Journey	Tye	1 episode of television series: "The Innocent Prey"
1977	The Oregon Trail		1 episode of television series: "The Army Deserter"
1977	Eight Is Enough	Harold	2 episodes of television series: "Yes Nicholas, There Is a Santa Claus: Part 1" "Yes Nicholas, There Is a Santa Claus: Part 2"
1977	Logan's Run	Hal 14	1 episode of television series: "The Judas Goat"
1978	The Hardy Boys/Nancy Drew Mysteries	Lieutenant Douglas Burke	1 episode of television series: "The Lady on Thursday at Ten"
1979	Supertrain	David	1 episode of television series: "Where Have You Been Billy Boy?"
1977-1979	The Amazing Spider-Man	Peter Parker / Spider-Man	Starring role in all 13 episodes
1980	The Martian Chronicles	Commander Arthur Black	3 episodes of television series: "The Expeditions" "The Settlers" "The Martians"
1980	The Love Boat	Paul Stockwood	1 episode of television series: "Not So Fast, Gopher/Haven't We Met Before?/Foreign Exchange"
1981	The Manions of America	Padric O'Manion / Sean O'Manion	2 episodes of television series: "Part I" "Part III"
1982	Walt Disney's Wonderful World of Color	Reverend Tull	1 episode of television series: "The Adventures of Pollyanna"
1982	The Adventures of Pollyanna	Reverend Tull
1982	Falcon Crest	D.A. Martin Deering / Michael Deering	2 episodes of television series: "Penultimate Questions" * "Ultimate Answers"
1982	Magnum, P.I.	Clarke Troubshaw	1 episode of television series: "Foiled Again"
1982	Dallas	Bill Johnson	3 episodes of television series: "Hit and Run" "The Ewing Touch" "Post Nuptial"
1985	Crazy Like a Fox		1 episode of television series: "Till Death Do Us Part"
1985	Murder, She Wrote	Todd Worthy	1 episode of television series: "Murder in the Afternoon"
1985	General Hospital	Algernon Durban
1986	The Challenge	Dennis Conner	Miniseries
1986	Cyclone Tracy	Harry	Miniseries
1989	The Flying Doctors	Richard Hull	1 episode of television series: "No Tears"
1989	Mission: Impossible	Woodward	1 episode of television series: "The Greek"
1989	Trouble in Paradise	Arthur
1992	Frankie's House	Major Frey
1990-1992	Embassy	Ed Benson	2 episodes of television series: "Pilot" (1990) "Nice Guys Finish Last" (1992)
1993	The Feds: Terror	Milton Morehouse
1993	Irresistible Force	Lieutenant Nash
1994	The Damnation of Harvey McHugh	Corky	1 episode of television series: "Hey St. Jude"
1995	Mirror, Mirror	Sir Ivor Creevey-Thorne
1996	Mercury	Jack Koper
1996	Flipper	F.C.C. Agent Smiley / Quarantine Doctor	2 episodes of television series: "Monkey Island" "Radio Free Flipper"
1997	20,000 Leagues Under the Sea	Saxon
1998	13 Gantry Row	Russell
2000	Tales of the South Seas		1 episode of television series: "The Rabblercrouser"
2000	On The Beach	United States President
2000	The Lost World	Phil Dillon	1 episode of television series: "Tourist Season"
2001	Child Star: The Shirley Temple Story	Adolphe Menjou
2000-2002	BackBerner		6 episodes of television series.
2003	Future Tense
2003	Farscape	Doctor Adrian Walker	2 episodes of television series: "Terra Firma" "A Constellation of Doubt"
2003	Always Greener	Nigel Milne	2 episodes of television series: "More Things in Heaven and Earth, Elizabeth" "A Tangled Web"
2003	CNNNN: Chaser Non-Stop News Network	Commander Oscar F. Hepple	2 episodes of television series: Season 2, Episode 3 Season 2, Episode 8
2005	Dynasty: The Making of a Guilty Pleasure	Aaron Spelling
2005	MDA	Doctor Nick Standish	4 episodes of television series: "Second Chance: Part 1" "Second Chance: Part 2" "Second Chance: Part 3" "Second Chance: Part 4"
2009-2011	The Jesters	Agent Smith	2 episodes of television series: "All Nighter" (2009) "Staged" (2011)
2012	Climb Every Mountain	Himself	Documentary by Sue Perkins and the BBC about the secret behind the film "The Sound of Music" and how the original Von-Trapp family made a living as the Von-Trapp Family Singers.
2015	Gallipoli	Henry Nevinson	Minor character appearing in several episodes.

[ Source: Wikipedia ]