This slim, attractive performer made a huge hit in the 1961 musical "West Side Story", but was never able to capitalize on his success. The Ohio-born son of Greek immigrants, George Chakiris had the dark good looks read by Hollywood as "Latin Lover". He started his career in films and TV in 1953, as a chorus boy in "Give a Girl a Break". He danced in "There's No Business Like Show Business" (as one of Marilyn Monroe's Heat Wave boys) and "Brigadoon" (both 1954), and appeared in the CBS special "You're the Top" (1956) before getting his big break.
Cast as Bernardo, the Puerto Rican gang member in the film version of "West Side Story" (1961), Chakiris scored both an Oscar and a Golden Globe for Best Supporting Actor. Although he went on to appear in "Diamond Head" (1962), "Kings of the Sun" (1963) and numerous war and action films including "Flight from Ashiya" (1964), "663 Squadron" (1964), "The High Bright Sun" (1965) and "Is Paris Burning?" (1966), Chakiris remained a journeyman actor. He has worked steadily but to little effect in such vehicles as "The Young Girls of Rochefort" (1967), the "groovy" exploitation film "The Big Cube" (1969, with Lana Turner) and "Pale Blood" (1990).
Since the 1970s, he has also made guest appearances on scores of TV series, including "Fantasy Island", "Hawaii Five-O", "CHiPs", "Matt Houston", "Medical Center" and "Murder, She Wrote". Chakiris' biggest success on the small screen was as Chopin opposite Rosemary Harris' Georges Sand in the seven-part miniseries "Notorious Woman" (PBS, 1975). His only continuing role in a TV series was as the villainous Nicholas during the 1985-86 season of the CBS primetime soap "Dallas".