Who is George Chakiris?
George Chakiris was born in Norwood, Ohio USA, on 16 September 1934 – his zodiac sign is Virgo and he holds American nationality. He is a former actor, singer and dancer, who gained recognition after he portrayed Bernardo in the musical crime movie “West Side Story” in 1961, which was written by Ernest Lehman and Arhur Laurents, and directed by Jerome Robbins and Robert Wise. The movie also starred Natalie Wood and Richard Beymer, and followed two young people from separate New York City gangs who fall in love – it was a huge hit as it won 28 awards including 10 Oscars, and was nominated for ten other awards.
For his performance, George won an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor, as well as a Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actor – Motion Picture.
Where is he now?
George retired for his acting and dancing career in 1996, and has since been leading a presumably peaceful life at his home in Los Angeles, California.
Childhood and education
George was raised as an only child in Norwood by his father Steven Chakiris who was an insurance agent, and his mother Zoe Anastasiadou who was a housewife – both of his parents emigrated from Greece before he was born.
George became interested in acting while attending a high school in Tucson, as he was a member of the school’s drama club and appeared in several plays there, however, he still wanted to pursue a college degree rather than to focus on acting, so upon matriculation in 1952, he enrolled at a college, but spent only a year there before realizing that acting was indeed his true calling – he moved to Hollywood in Los Angeles where he started working at a department store while practicing his acting and dancing skills at night.
Roles in movies
George has been credited with around 60 appearances in movies and TV series and we are going to mention some of his most notable roles in this article.
He made his debut film appearance in 1947, when he played the Choir Boy in the biopic “Song of Love”, then made two uncredited appearances in the biographical movie “The Great Caruso” in 1951, and another biographical movie “Stars and Stripes Forever” in 1952. In 1953, he played George Kerris in the musical fantasy movie “The 5,000 Fingers of Dr. T” which was followed by uncredited appearances in eight movies, some of which were the musical comedy “Gentlemen Prefer Blondes”, another musical comedy “Give a Girl a Break” and the musical “There’s No Business Like Show Business”.
He started making credited appearances in 1962 after his role in “West Side Story”, in movies such as the romantic comedy “Two and Two Make Six” and the romantic drama “Diamond Head”.
He portrayed Balam in the movie “Kings of the Sun” in 1963, and appeared in three films in 1964 – the Italian crime movie “La Ragazza di Bube”, the fiction movie “Flight from Ashiya” and the British war film “633 Squadron”. Some of his following roles were in the French comedy movie “The Mona Lisa Has Been Stolen” (“On a volé la Joconde”) in 1966, the French musical comedy “The Young Girls of Rochefort” (“Les Demoiselles de Rochefort”) in 1967, and the American thriller movie “The Big Cube” in 1969.
Three of his final roles in movies before retiring were in the drama “Why Not Stay for Breakfast” in 1979, the comedy “Jekyll and Hyde… Together Again” in 1982 and the vampire movie “Pale Blood” in 1990.
Roles in TV series
George made his debut TV series appearance in 1956, when he appeared as a dancer in the episode “You’re the Top” of the anthology series “Ford Star Jubilee” – this was followed by his appearances in single episodes of both “The Carol Burnett show” and “The Jackie Gleason Show”, in 1968 and 1969 respectively.
He went on to guest star as Alex Solkin in three episodes of the medical drama “Medical Center”, and then portrayed Chris Lahani in the critically acclaimed police procedural series “Hawaii Five-O”. Most of George’s following roles were in single episodes of various series, such as the musical sitcom “The Partridge Family” in 1974, the fantasy drama “Fantasy Island” in 1978, and the crime drama “CHiPs” in 1983.
The year 1984 saw him guest star in five series some of which were the crime drama “Matt Houston”, the soap opera “One Life to Live” and the drama “The Scarecrow and Mrs. King”.
He began portraying the supporting character Nicholas in the critically acclaimed prime time soap opera series “Dallas” in 1986 – the series starred Larry Hagman, Ken Kercheval and Patrick Duffy, and followed a rich Texan who is working with oil, and who manipulated and blackmailed Texan people. “Dallas” won 47 awards, including a Golden Globe, and was nominated for 82 others.
Three of George’s final roles in TV series before retiring from acting were in the 1992episode “Chances Are” of the action drama “Human Target”, in which he played Robillard, the mini-series “Les Filles du Lido” in which he played Saskia in 1995 and the 1996 episode “Extra! Extra!” of the British sitcom “Last of the Summer Wine” in which he portrayed Max Bernard.
Here I am with Marilyn Monroe. Full size (8×10) photos of me are available on my website and you can opt to have them signed by me.https://t.co/UHAL67NKaC pic.twitter.com/FVzgDtrI3t
— George Chakiris (@GeorgeChakiris_) October 9, 2018
Who is his partner and is he gay?
George has kept most details of his love life hidden from the media’s attention, since launching his acting career as a teenager, however, it is widely believed among Hollywood actors and actresses that George is gay – even the popular movie and TV series rating website IMDb has featured George in their list ‘500 Gay Actors & Personalities’. There are many people on the internet who have claimed to have seen George with multiple male partners, while being rather too close with them at clubs and bars in Los Angeles – some have even claimed that George secretly married his long-term partner sometime in the 2000s, but no proof has been provided to support the claims.
As George hasn’t commented on any of these rumors, he is single as of September 2020, hasn’t married and doesn’t have children.
Hobbies and other interests
George started designing silver jewelry as a hobby, and turned it into a job in 2012 – some pictures of his work can be found uploaded onto his Instagram account.
His main hobby during his career was travelling, and George’s job as an actor and a dancer took him all around the world, including to countries such as Japan (Asia), Norway (Europe) and Canada.
He likes to play various games such as darts and billiard, and is also an avid ice skater and skier.
George is a lover of animals and has had several pet dogs.
He has his own favorite actors and actresses, some of whom are the late Robin Williams, Will Smith and Emma Watson, and some of the movies he likes to watch the most are “Good Will Hunting”, “Seven Pounds” and the franchise “Harry Potter”.
Age and height
George’s age is 86. He has short brown hair and brown eyes, his height is 5ft 11ins (1.8m) and he weighs around 165lbs (75kgs).
As of September 2020, his net worth has been estimated at over $24 million.
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