Parker was a big screen leading lady during the 1950s . Despite a long list of other distinguished film roles -- including opposite Frank Sinatra in Otto Preminger 's `` The Man with the Golden Arm '' ( 1955 ) and Clark Gable in `` The King and Four Queens '' ( 1956 ) -- it was a smaller role that audiences today are most likely to recognize . Eleanor Parker was nominated for best actress CNN times in the 1940s . She played the baroness who wanted to send the von Trapp children to a boarding school .
Parker was a big screen leading lady during the 1950s . Eleanor Parker was nominated for best actress CNN times in the 1940s . She played the baroness who wanted to send the von Trapp children to a boarding school .