Life and career

Chakiris was born in Norwood, Ohio, to Steven and Zoe (née Anastasiadou) Chakiris, immigrants from Greece. Chakiris studied at the American School of Dance.

Chakiris made his film debut in 1947, in the chorus of Song of Love. For several years he appeared in small roles, usually as a dancer or a member of the chorus in various musical films. He was one of the dancers in Marilyn Monroe's "Diamonds Are a Girl's Best Friend" number in Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (1953), and appeared as a dancer in 1954 White Christmas. He can also be seen in the funeral dance in the MGM musical film Brigadoon.

His biggest success came with the 1961 film West Side Story, for which he won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his role as Bernardo, leader of the "Sharks". Prior to the film, he had appeared as "Riff", leader of the "Jets", in the West End (London) production of the same musical. This led him to be contracted by the Mirisch Company, where he made several films (including 633 Squadron with Cliff Robertson).

Chakiris was in much demand. He starred as a doctor in the film Diamond Head (1963) opposite Charlton Heston and Yvette Mimieux, and appeared alongside Yul Brynner in Flight from Ashiya and Kings of the Sun. His fee around this time was a reported $100,000 per movie.

Later he acted along with Catherine Deneuve and Gene Kelly in Jacques Demy's French musical Les Demoiselles de Rochefort (1967).

In addition to film, Chakiris performed on stage in London and around the U.S. and on television. In the early 1960s, he embarked on a career as a pop singer, resulting in a couple of minor hit songs. In 1960, he recorded one single with noted producer Joe Meek. He starred in the first national tour of the Stephen Sondheim musical, Company, touring as Bobby in 1971-72.

Chakiris worked more in television in the 1970s and 1980s, appearing on such series as Wonder Woman; Medical Center; Hawaii Five-O; Dallas; Murder, She Wrote; and the daytime soap opera Santa Barbara. He appeared in the final episode of The Partridge Family as an old flame/suitor to Shirley Partridge (Shirley Jones, also a musical theater veteran). Their kiss goodbye was the final scene in the program's run.

Chakiris had a recurring role on the TV show Superboy as Professor Peterson during the first two seasons from 1988-1990. Chakiris's last role to date was in a 1996 episode of the sitcom Last of the Summer Wine. He has given occasional television interviews since then, but is mostly retired. His hobby of making sterling silver jewelry has turned into a new occupation, working as a jewelry designer for his own brand, George Chakiris Collections, consisting of handmade original sterling silver jewelry. He maintains a personal website at http://georgechakiris.com.

Filmography

Year	Film	Role	Notes
1947	Song of Love	Choir boy	as George Kerris
1951	The Great Caruso	Dancer	uncredited
1952	Stars and Stripes Forever	Ballroom dancer	uncredited
1953	Give a Girl a Break	Dancer	uncredited
	Second Chance	Background Observer in Dance Sequence	uncredited
	Gentlemen Prefer Blondes	Dancer (Diamonds Are A Girl's Best Friend")	uncredited
	The 5,000 Fingers of Dr. T	Dancer	as George Kerris
1954	There's No Business Like Show Business	Dancer	uncredited
	The Country Girl	Dancer with pick	uncredited
	White Christmas	Dancer in 'Mandy' and 'Love' numbers	uncredited
	Brigadoon	Specialty dancer	uncredited
1955	The Girl Rush	Chorus boy, 'Hillbilly Heart' number	uncredited
1956	Meet Me in Las Vegas	Young groom	as George Kerris
1957	Under Fire	Pvt. Steiner	uncredited
1961	West Side Story	Bernardo Nunez	Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actor - Motion Picture
1962	Two and Two Make Six	Larry Curado
1963	Diamond Head	Dr. Dean Kahanna
	La ragazza di Bube	Bebo
	Kings of the Sun	Balam
1964	The High Bright Sun	Haghios
	633 Squadron	Lt. Erik Bergman
	Flight from Ashiya	2nd Lt. John Gregg
1966	Is Paris Burning?	GI in tank
	On a volé la Joconde (fr)	Vincent
1967	Les Demoiselles de Rochefort	Étienne
1968	Sharon vestida de rojo
	Le Rouble à deux faces	Eric Ericson
1969	The Big Cube	Johnny Allen
1979	Why Not Stay for Breakfast?	George Clark
1982	Jekyll and Hyde... Together Again	Himself
1990	Pale Blood	Michael Fury

Selected television appearances

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Year	Film	Role	Other notes
1956	Ford Star Jubilee		episode - "You're the Top"
1969	The Jackie Gleason Show		episode - "Mousey the Dip"
1970-1975	Medical Center	Alex Solkin	3 episodes
1972	Hawaii Five-O	Chris Lahani	1 episode
1974	The Partridge Family	Capt. Chuck 'Cuddles' Corwin	episode - "Anchors Aweigh"
	Thriller	Robert Stone	episode - "Kiss Me and Die"
	Notorious Woman	Frédéric Chopin	TV mini-series
1978	Wonder Woman	Carlo Indrezzano	episode - "Death in Disguise"
	Return to Fantasy Island	Pierre
1982	Fantasy Island	Captain Claude Dumont	episode - "The Magic Camera/Mata Hari/Valerie"
1983	CHiPs	Bernard DeJardine Fox Trap	TV episode
	Matt Houston	Brett Cole	episode - The Showgirl Murders
1984	Matt Houston	Clark Sawyer	episode - "Waltz of Death"
	One Life to Live		unknown episodes
	Poor Little Rich Girls	Prince Rudolph	episode - "The Gentleman Caller"
	Nihon no omokage	Lafcadio Hearn	mini-series
	Scarecrow and Mrs. King	Angelo Spinelli	episode - "Lost and Found"
1985	Hell Town	Ric Montenez	episode - "Let My Jennie Go"
1986	Dallas	Nicholas	14 episodes.
1988	Santa Barbara	Daniel Espinoza
1989	Murder, She Wrote	Eric Bowman	episode - "Weave a Tangled Web"
1989-1990	Superboy	Professor Peterson	9 episodes
1992	Human Target	Robillard	episode - "Chances Are"
1995	Les Filles du Lido	Saskia	mini-series
1996	Last of the Summer Wine	Max Bernard	episode - "Extra! Extra!"

[ Source: Wikipedia ]