George Chakiris made his film debut at the age of 12 singing in the
chorus of Clara Schumanns große Liebe (1947). Following his graduation from high school, he
supported his night-time dancing, singing and dramatic lessons with a
daytime job clerking in a Los Angeles department store. Later he
started his acting/dancing career appearing in musicals such as
Blondinen bevorzugt (1953)--he is one of the ballet dancers escorting Marilyn Monroe in "Diamonds
Are A Girl's Best Friend"--Weiße Weihnachten (1954), The Girl Rush (1955), Rhythmus im Blut (1954), Brigadoon (1954), and
Viva Las Vegas (1956). In 1957, he made his debut as a dramatic actor in Under Fire (1957). In
1958 he traveled to New York hoping for a Broadway "break." Hearing
that Jerome Robbins was casting the London company of "West Side Story", he
auditioned and was awarded the co-starring role of Riff. He played the
part for almost two years on the West End stage before acting, singing
and dancing as Bernardo in the Robert Wise film version (West Side Story (1961)), a
performance that earned him a Golden Globe and the Academy Award for
Best Supporting Actor. Since then, he starred in a succession of films,
including König von Hawaii (1962) with Charlton Heston, Zwei Tage und zwei Nächte (1964) with Claudia Cardinale, Die Mädchen von Rochefort (1967) with
Catherine Deneuve, Françoise Dorléac and Gene Kelly, Dosierter Mord (1968) with Lana Turner, Warum bleibst du nicht bis zum Frühstück? (1979), Jekyll & Hyde - Die schärfste Verwandlung aller Zeiten (1982),
and Pale Blood (1990). He is one of the most traveled stars in motion pictures,
having been to such locations as Hawaii, Japan, Mexico, Italy, England,
Spain, and France. His nightclub career was launched to rave reviews at
Caesar's Palace in Las Vegas and Harrah's Club in Lake Tahoe. In the
1970s and 1980s, his career focused on television and music. He
appeared as guest star in several TV series such as Hawaii Fünf-Null (1968) (Death is a
Company Policy - 1972), Wonder Woman (1975) (Death in Disguise - 1978), CHiPs (1977)
(Fox Trap - 1983), Agentin mit Herz (1983) (Lost and Found - 1984), Mord ist ihr Hobby (1984) (Weave a
Tangled Web - 1989), and he joined the cast of Dallas (1978) from 1985 to
1986. He has released several records: "George Chakiris," "Memories Are
Made of These," "The Gershwin Song Book," "West Side Story's
Dynamic...". Recently, he has appeared in several plays and stage
musicals: after "The King and I" in the US in 1995, he performed in
Britain the role of Rochester in "Jane Eyre".
