#Rita west side story movie#

“Those numbers will never, ever be out of fashion or out of mind,” Moreno says. “West Side Story” continues to engage audiences in part because of the enduring music by Leonard Bernstein and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim, but also because of those breathtaking, acrobatic dance numbers. He still carries himself that way,” Moreno says. Even when he would do the Sharks steps, somehow he had a way of doing them that made it so spectacularly elegant. All were in their 20s during filming (Moreno was just under the wire, at 29).Ĭhakiris, who is godfather to Moreno’s daughter, always impressed her with his style. Beymer, who played Tony, is 75, and Wood, who played Maria, died in a drowning accident at age 43 in 1981.

Of those “kids,” George Chakiris - her ‘Nardo’ - is now 79, as is Tamblyn. “I’m there if I can be Russ (Tamblyn, leader of the Jets) has been there. Moreno and her surviving castmates still have dinner occasionally in Los Angeles. I had to learn it from scratch,” she says. She was a competent dancer, but in the Spanish style, so Moreno had to adjust to the film’s cool, modern style of dancing. Robbins had worked with Moreno on the 1956 Rodgers & Hammerstein film “The King and I.” It was yet another ethnic role for the Puerto Rican-born actress, who played the Indian girl Tuptim. In 1960, the actress was recommended to “West Side Story” director Robert Wise by choreographer Jerome Robbins.

#Rita west side story movie#

26-28 at the Redford Theatre in Detroit for its three screenings of “West Side Story.” Before seeing the rival Sharks and Jets leap and pivot through New York streets on a full-sized movie screen (not to mention Natalie Wood and Richard Beymer in all their full screen youth and beauty), fans will be able to see Moreno in person at a special “red carpet” event one hour and 15 minutes before each screening. It’s because the movie was so special, but also because it was the first film for a lot of the younger people. “We have such a really strong bond, which doesn’t happen all the time.

Moreno’s sizzling performance as Anita, the unwilling go-between for the doomed Maria and Tony, earned her an Oscar. If you’ve seen the musical “West Side Story,” which adapted the star-crossed lovers theme of Shakespeare’s “Romeo and Juliet” and set it in gang-infested Manhattan, it isn’t hard to imagine how the young performers caught up in such a fiery, high-energy film formed lifelong bonds.Īctress Rita Moreno played the key role of Anita, the girlfriend of Bernardo, leader of the Puerto Rican Sharks gang.