West Side Story... is forever.
Monday, April 6, 2020 at 9:00AM by Nathaniel R
Rita Moreno, still sensational at 88 years young.It occurred to us last week while looking at photos from Steven Spielberg's 2020 remake of West Side Story that a huge swath of the original cast members from the 1961 Best Picture winner are still with us today. It's not just the legendary trailblazer Rita Moreno though she's the liveliest of the bunch despite being the oldest at a spritely 88.
So after the jump all the surviving cast members!
We honor their contributions to an indelible piece of film history even though there are a great many of them that didn't say in movies thereafter. Anyway, thiis is us doing our small part to suggest and hope that they get a bit of attention when the new iteration of the greatest musical ever written arrives. Invite them to the December premiere at least, Spielberg, won'tcha?
Here they are...
Character names in white = the actor is still with us today
THE JETS
Robert Banas as "Joyboy" (86 years old)
He danced in several motion pictures, often uncredited, before West Side Story. His last film was the comedy Odd Jobs (1986) starring Paul Reiser.
Russ Tamblyn as "Riff" (85 years old)
He was only 14 when his first film arrived so Tamblyn was the biggest star cast in West Side Story at the time other than the headliner Natalie Wood (they had both been nominated once for supporting Oscars in the mid 50s before this legendary musical came calling). Tamblyn still works in both features and TV series with frequency, recently appearing in Django Unchained, the Twin Peaks reunion series, and the Haunting of Hill House streaming series.
Harvey Evans as "Mouthpiece" (79 years old)
He worked every so often in film and television (he even dances in the Amy Adams hit Enchanted)
Bert Michaels as "Snowboy" (76 years old)
After the film version of West Side Story he became a regular on the Broadway musical stage until the mid 1970s. He only appeared in a couple of more movies though.
David Bean as "Tiger" (unknown years old)
Also still with us.
and a couple of cool pieces of trivia...
Tony Mordente as "Action" (84 years old)
After regular roles on Broadway in the 1960s he moved into television directing where he had a long successful career. Curiously "Action" was his only credited film role, despite how strong he was in the film. He seems to have retired in the early Aughts. He was also in the original 1957 Broadway production of West Side Story as "A-Rab" and married that production's "Anita," the legendary Chita Rivera. The marriage didn't last the 1960s but it resulted in Chita Rivera's only child.
Eliot Feld, a major player in ballet after the film
Eliot Feld as "Babyjohn" (77 years old)
After West Side Story he became a major star choreographer in the ballet world, founding two ballet schools.
OKAY ON TO THE SHARKS...
The names in white were played by actors who are still alive today.
George Chakiris as "Bernardo" (85 years old)
Chakiris started showbiz young at the age of just 12. You can spot him in the choruses of a few classic musicals (most memorably right behind Rosemary Clooney during her big solo in White Christmas) before West Side Story made him famous... and an Oscar winner, too! He kept busy on the big screen all throughout the 1960s and moved to TV in the 1970s where he worked regularly until the early 90s. He hasn't appeared in a movie since 1990, though.
Jamie Rogers as "Loco" (unknown years old)
He was a regular dancer on the Sonny & Cher show after West Side Story and like many of the cast members eventually worked in choreography. He now works as a dance teacher.
Eddie Verso as "Juano" (unknown years old)
He was a very celebrated dancer after West Side Story, considered a major interpreter of Jerome Robbins work. Then he became the director of the Dance Center of New Jersey.
Jay Norman as "Pepe" (unknown years old)
He only made a couple more movies and not much is known about him.
Nick Covacevich as "Toro" (unknown years old)
He is in a couple of other major musicals as a dancer (Let's Make Love, My Fair Lady) and worked as a choregorapher in Vegas.
and a piece of interesting trivia....
Gus Trikonis as "Indio" (82 years old)
He's the offscreen brother of the actress who played Graziela (though she was with the Jets on the other side in the movie). He had a successful career after West Side Story acting in several features before he moved to directing. And, get this, he was married to Goldie Hawn during her Oscar winning movie-star-becoming years!
OKAY, MOVING PAST THE GANGS WE HAVE...
Rita Moreno (center), Yvonne Wilder (second from right with short hair/red dress)
Rita Moreno as "Anita" (88 years old)
Rita's film career began way back in 1950 and her list of classics --hell, her whole career -- is astounding (Singin' in the Rain, King and I, West Side Story, Carnal Knowledge, Electric Company, One Day at a Time, The Ritz, etctera) when you stop to consider the institutional racism that prevented her from snagging the kind of regular star roles she was clearly capable of nailing with her unmistakable magnetism. She's been doing Emmy worthy work on One Day at a Time for a few years now and she's still acting in big screen films, too, on occassion. She'll even appear in the new version of West Side Story as the shop owner "Valentina," a gender-flipped variation on the character of "Doc" from the original we hear.
Yvonne Wilder as "Consuelo" (82 years old)
She had a successful acting career after West Side Story with a handful of movie roles and numerous TV guest spots until the early 90s (she was last seen on the sitcom Full House).
Richard Beymer as "Tony" (82 years old)
Though his leading performance in the musical has been much maligned in the year's since, he has kept busy as an actor through the years, recently reprising his memorable performance as Ben Horne in the Twin Peaks reunion series. He also makes documentary shorts now!
Riff & Graziella showing off
Graziela and Velma with their Jets boyfriends
Gina Trikonis as "Graziella" (81 years old)
Riff's main squeeze, and one time sister-in-law to Goldie Hawn, only had a few roles after West Side Story but stayed in showbiz, moving into the costume and wardrobe departments of TV series (like Freaks and Geeks, Full House, Step by Step, and more) where she worked steadily until retirement in 2001.
Carole D'Andrea as "Velma" (unknown years old)
This was her only motion picture but she's now a successful acting / singing coach and she's even on twitter!
We believe that "Anybodys" is still with us (though information is very hard to come by) but sadly Ice (Tucker Smith) died young of cancer at only 52
Susan Oakes as "Anybodys" (75 years old)
She was memorable in West Side Story but it proved to be her only film role. She made a few tv appearances before vanishing from showbusiness in the mid-60s. We can't find any info on her though so don't actually know that she's still with us. But we hope so.
Had you heard any of these West Side Story stories before? We have discussed the movie in depth in the past.
Reader Comments (33)
I think this must be the best looking cast of any film in history!
Great update on the cast!
I'm guessing the fact that they were all, or mostly, dancers and therefore athletic has played into the rate of their longevity.
I never realized Yvonne Wilder was in this. I remember her from tons of TV appearances when I was a kid in different roles. Her parts were usually small but she made an impression in them.
George Chakiris is also prominent in Marilyn Monroe's iconic "Diamonds Are a Girl's Best Friend" number in Gentlemen Prefer Blondes.
David Bean and his wife (a dancer in her own right) own a delightful little cafe and shop in the Hudson Valley called "Jeanie Bean and Family." There's a painting of him from around his West Side days on the wall and, if you catch him there, he is a delight to chat with over coffee. He has some STORIES to tell.
I prefer the Jets over the Sharks (particularly the musical number 'Cool' over 'America') but both gangs are fantastic.
I would love for future musical films they will hired professional singers and dancers like these ensemble instead of put together a bunch of famous names that sings limitedly and have no skills to dance the kind of choreographies of West Side Story.
Just your daily (sporadic) reminder that Renée Zellweger is a two-time Academy Award winning Actress.
Has any musical had this level of success for their supporting cast after a show has finished its run?
John Astin, the MC of the dance hall is still among us !
OK, if they're still alive. Couldn't they at least make some kind of cameo appearance in the film? It would be at least a great tribute to these people.
Russ Tamblyn still amazes me in this role. His dancing was amazing. He also had a part as one of the Seven Brides for Seven Brothers. He played the youngest brother - Gideon.
@Nathaniel (ka)R(ma)
Okay. We get it. Will you please stop now. At least on posts that have nothing to do with RZ. You're just spam at this point.
the jets were way ahead of their time - so many perfect grindr usernames
GiveItARest should give it a rest. Considering Nathaniel did the Julianne Moore daily reminder for an interminable length of time after her win I say let this only slightly exaggerated parody continue. The constant ‘Moore will die Oscarless’ narrative Nathaniel and co were spinning only 5 years after two consecutive years of finishing 6th in an Oscar race followed by the daily reminders was very annoying. So I stand with Nathaniel ka(R)ma, if Peggy Sue can get a million actor or actress fake commenter accounts that never get a single comment from you GIveItARest then it seems you are just virtue signalling somebody who isn’t in his close circle.
The original 1961 film version of West Side Story is my all time favorite movie, hands down, and it's still a great, golden oldie-but-keeper of a classic movie-musical, regardless of what its critics and detractors have to say. Moreover, I never get tired of seeing it over and over again, especially when it gets played on a great big, wide screen, in a real movie theatre with the lights down low. It's great that so many of the original 1961 film version's cast is still with us.
Looking at the pictures of both the Jets, the Sharks and their girls in the original 1961 film version of West Side Story warms me all over. Having said all of the above, I believe that the search engines should give much more weight to the original 1961 film version of West Side Story and make it so that fans of the film West Side Story can choose between seeing the original 1961 film version and Spielberg's newer version. That could and should be done by having more frequent national re-releases of the original 1961 film version in movie theatres, along with the reboot/remake of the film.
I do wish the original film would be re-released to theaters- love to see this one the big screen were it belongs.
Hi, Jaragon! You're not the only one who wishes the original 1961 film version of West Side Story would be re-released into the movie theatres and shown on the great big, wide screen, where it really and truly belongs. I'm totally with you on this one.
What a great article! Thank you!
Great dancers keep movies re-watchable for decades.
Richard Beymer as Tony was vastly under appreciated. His naturalistic style remains fresh and adds texture to the movie. His sweetness and sincerity as a character makes the movie tragic.
I hear you MPLO- these movies were made for the BIG SCREEN it should be re-released to IMAX- but I doubt Spielberg would allow it.
I hear you, too, Jaragon! You've got a point here. Frankly, I think it's a disgrace that Spielberg took on this project at all. Just because he busted his hump for 15 years to get the rights to the film version of West Side Story doesn't mean that it was a wise decision on his part to take on this project. I plan on voting my pocketbook and boycotting Spielberg's reboot/remake of the film West Side Story. Inotherwords, not going to see it when it hits the movie theatres at around Christmastime of this year.
I will go see the new film version because hey I went to see"Cats" but I'm sure this will be better. If Spielberg had wanted to do a big screen musical I wish he would have made an original film or adapted something else- for example "Ragtime" would have been perfect for him
Jaragon -- omg. RAGTIME yeah.
Spielberg should’ve remade one of two classic musicals that have been butchered on screen—either Rent or A Chorus Line. He could have made a truly superior version of one of these stage shows and finally did it justice. The original West Side Story is nearly perfect.
You've made some excellent points that are well-taken, brookesboy! If Spielberg had as much affection for West Side Story as he's always claimed to have, he would've gone to something else such as Rent, Chorus Line, or other musicals that have never been made into movies, or, as you put it, were butchered when they were transferred from stage to screen.
Alwaya thought Tony Mordente was the hottest
Tony Mordente was fantastic as the hot-tempered instigator-troublemaker, Action. Both his looks and his personality suited him perfect for that role!
Gus Trikonis - wow.
I really liked Richard Beymer’s performance.
He was different from the rest of the guys because he was different. He had quit the gang life.
I thought his performance was sensitive and heart wrenching, especially when told the love of his life was dead. The bedroom scene between he and Natalie Wood was beautifully filmed and sensual. “Somewhere” is my favorite song of all tone and whenever I hear it, I think of the bedroom scene. Richard was handsome and sexy.
With all due respect to Steven Spielberg, he should have left “WSS” alone.
The choreography is the best as was the chemistry between Rita Moreno and George Chakiris.
The original 1961 film version of West Side Story will be having a 60th Anniversary screening and national re-release of it in selected movie theatres nationwide, sometime in November of this year, courtesy of TCM (Turner Classic Movies) and Fathom Events, which I'm looking forward to seeing. They don't have a definite date in November, but I'm very excited and I plan on going to see it at that time, come hell or high water!
Looking at these pics of the original 1961 film version of West Side Story warms me all over. I've seen a bunch of pics of Spielberg's upcoming reboot/remake of the film West Side Story, however, and, frankly, I am not impressed. The colors are either way too subtle or too jarring, and the scenic backdrops look far more like the tonier, wealthier parts of the city than the impoverished, rough-and-rundown parts of an urban area.
Moreover, the Jets, the Sharks and their girls in Spielberg's upcoming reboot/remake of the film West Side Story look far more like wealthy suburban prep-school kids that are dressed to the nines for partying all over town than two street gangs at war with each other.
The Jets, the Sharks and their girls in the original 1961 film version of West Side Story look far rougher and tougher than the Jets, the Sharks and their girls in Spielberg's upcoming "West Side Story". The same can be said for Richard Beymer's Tony, Simon Oakland's Lt. Schrank,
Bill Bramley's Officer Krupke, and even Ned Glass's Candy Store owner, Doc.
The fact that they're doing the "America" scene on the street during the day in Spielberg's West Side Story, rather than on a tenement rooftop at night is rather disconcerting, as well.
Ansel Elgort, imho, does not have the looks, charm, or personality to play an ex-gang member who's reformed himself. The fact that he has a history of assaulting underage girls, and that, more recently, he posted a picture of himself in the nude while showering for some cause that he's involved in indicates what kind of a person he is, as well. Overall, I prefer Richard Beymer to Ansel Elgort.
I really like Russ Tamblyn in his role as Riff, the late Tucker Smith as Ice, Tony Mordente as Action, George Chakaris and Rita Moreno as Shark gang leader Bernardo and his girlfriend, Anita, as well as Susan Oakes as Anybodys. Carole D'Andrea as Ice's girlfriend, Velma, and Gina Trinkonis as Riff's girlfriend, Graziella, were really good, also. All of the actors and actresses in the original 1961 film version of West Side Story were great.
Rita Moreno was spectacular as Anita. She really wanted the part of Anita, and she worked her tail off in order to get the part. It was a perfect role for her. Rita Moreno will be playing Valentina, the female rendition of Doc in Spielberg's West Side Story. Given Rita Moreno's looks and overall personality, however, this new role seems all wrong for her.
Having said all of the above, I look forward to seeing the original 1961 film version of West Side Story on the great big, wide movie theatre screen, when it comes out in November, for its 60th Anniversary screening.
Hey, Jaragon!
The original 1961 film version of West Side Story is scheduled to have a 60th anniversary screening, courtesy of Fathom Events and TCM (Turner Classic Movies) sometime in November of this year, through a national re-release of it in selected movie theatres nation-wide, here in the United States, although no definite date in November of this year has been selected yet. Keep looking in fathomevents.com.
I'm so excited--and Im looking forward to it!
I wish they'd set a date for the screening of the original 1961 film version of West Side Story for November! i'm SO looking forward to seeing it again, on the great big wide screen! Why am I so excited over a 60 year old movie? I don't know, but what the heck--I'll sit back and enjoy it!:)
I'm happy to announce that the 60th Anniversary Screening of the original 1961 film version of West Side Story will be playing in select theatres throughout the United States on Sunday, November 28th, at 3:00 p. m. and 7:00 p. m., and on Wednesday, December 1st, at 3:00 p. m. and at 7:00 p. m.
As this is my all time favorite movie, hands, down, I'm looking forward to seeing the old, original 1961 film version of West Side Story on the great big, wide screen, and have purchased tickets for me and friends of mine, on both evenings.
The dates for the fathomevents.com/Turner Classic Movies sponsored 60th Anniversary screening of the original 1961 film version of West Side Story, which is scheduled to be played for 2 days in selected movie theatres throughout the United States, nationwide, have arrived, and they are as follows:
Sunday, November 28th, at 3:00 p. m. and at 7:00 p. m.
Wednesday, December 1st, at 3:00 p. m. and at 7:00 p. m.
All one has to do is to log onto the fathomevents.com website, and follow the instructions for purchasing tickets on there. Tickets for both of the above screening dates of the original 1961 film version of West Side Story are presently on sale--right now! Hope I've been of some help to everybody who wants to see this great golden oldie-but-keeper of a classic movie-musical on the great big, wide screen, in a real movie theatre, with the lights down low.
mplo -- thanks for the updates. I will revive/repost this when we get closer to those dates and the remakes release.
Hi, Nathaniel R. You're welcome! That would be great! Hopefully, more people will go to see the original 1961 film version of West Side Story.