George Chakiris 90th Birthday Celebration at the Hollywood Museum

 George Chakiris  90th Birthday Celebration at the Hollywood Museum

By Karen Ostlund (WestHollywoodToday blogspot, CA September 18 2022)
                                                                              

Michele Lee, Donelle Dadigan, GEORGE CHAKIRIS and Melissa Manchester.

President of the Hollywood Museum Donelle Dadigan gathered friends and colleagues to celebrate the 90th birthday of the legendary dancer, singer and actor George Chakiris, September 15th at The Hollywood Museum.
The museum has now on display Mr Chakiris’s creations in silver jewelry as well as his Golden Globe and Academy Award for his role of Bernardo in the multi–Academy Award winning film “West Side Story.”
                                                                                

Among celebrities attending : George Chakiris himself (Academy Award Winner) , Melissa Manchester (Grammy winning singer and songwriter), Geoffrey Mark (Emmy & Grammy Nominee), Kym Karath (Sound of Music), Millicent Martin (Nothing But The Best), Kathy Garver (Family Affair), Alison Arngrim (Little House on the Prairie), Kate Linder (Young & The Restless), Diana Lansleen (Days of Our Lives), Merideth Thomas (The Wrong Blind Date) , Elaine Ballace (Camp Eliane), Darby Hinton (Daniel Boone), Alice Amter (Big Bang Theory) , Vanessa Angel (Super Babies:Super Genius 2) and Kira Reed Lorsch (Emmy Winner).

                                                                                    

George Chakiris blowing 90 candles on his birthday cake.

                                               

George Chakiris worked in films since 1947 and his debut was singing in the chorus of MGM’s "Song Of Love,” starring Katharine Hepburn. Other appearances included Paramount’s "White Christmas," MGM’s “Brigadoon," "There’s No Business Like Show Business,” "The Girl Rush," "Meet Me In Las Vegas" and as one of the wealthy suitors to Marilyn Monroe in the iconic “Diamonds Are A Girl’s Best Friend” in Fox’s "Gentlemen Prefer Blondes.”  

Before filming "West Side Story" George co-starred as “Riff” in the first London production of the Broadway-version of musical West Side Story, along with Chita Rivera. For the film-version, George played the dark and handsome "Bernardo” with Rita Moreno.

In 1961 "West Side Story” won Academy Awards for Best Picture, Direction, Screenplay, Cinematographer, Art Direction, Costume Design, Sound, Film Editing and Music Scoring. 

An honorary Award was also handed out to Jerome Robbins for Choreography.

Same year, Best Supporting actress Rita Moreno and  George Chakiris took home the Best Supporting female and male actor statuettes, now on display at the Hollywood Museum.

Upon winning the Academy Award, George made a number of films in short succession, including 633 Squadron (with Cliff Robertson) Diamond Head (with Charlton Heston and Yvette Mimieux) Flight from Ashiya and Kings Of The Sun (both with Yul Brynner)  and The Big Cube (with Lana Turner).
In 1967 he returned to musicals by appearing in the Jacques Demy film Les Demoiselles de Rochefort co-starring with Gene Kelly, Catherine Deneuve and Francoise Dorleac. George then launched an impressive nightclub act which played Caesar’s Palace in Las Vegas and Harrah’s in Lake Tahoe and toured Japan. He also recorded several popular LPs which included “Memories Are Made Of These,” “The Gershwin Song Book” and a debut album simply titled “George Chakiris”.

George Chakiris appeared as a guest-star in a number of television series like Hawaii Five-O, Wonder Woman, CHIPS, Scarecrow and Mrs. King, Murder She Wrote. He had a recurring role on Dallas in the 1985-86 seasons, and also known as sharing a kiss with Shirley Jones as her love interest, in the final episode of The Partridge Family.                            

George’s memoir book "My West Side Story" and his sterling silver jewelry is called George Chakiris Collections are available at GeorgeChakiris.com TheHollywoodMuseum.com #TheHollywoodMuseum