Bookpleasures.com welcomes as our guest, dancer, singer and actor, George Chakiris. George is best known for his appearance in the 1961 film version of West Side Story as Bernardo, the leader of the Sharks gang, for which he won both the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor and the Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actor – Motion Picture.

He has recently published My West Side Story: A Memoir.


Norm: Good day George and thanks for taking part in our interview.

How did you get involved in acting and where did you learn acting?




George: I first got involved in acting when I was cast as Riff in the London Company of West Side Story in 1958.

I found out that experience is a great way of learning, and I discovered that studying was equally important.

Norm: How many times in your careers have you experienced rejection? How did they shape you?

George: I don’t recall being rejected, but it must have happened as I can certainly identify with that feeling.


Norm: Did you have difficulty in turning yourself into the character of Bernardo in West Side Story and how did you do it?

George: I very strongly identified with Bernardo. Who he was and what he was experiencing. The prejudice. The exclusion.

Norm: What was the toughest role you had as an actor or dancer and why?

George: The toughest role I had was as Dracula in the theatre production of The Passion of Dracula at the Queens Theatre in  London in 1978. I had a hard time just getting past “Good evening” Dracula’s first words. It took me a while to get out of my own way. I was intimidated by having to be Dracula, and it took a while to “get comfortable”. Something I learned about “acting” in that play was that I couldn’t “be” Dracula by myself. Something different entered the room with Dracula, and the other characters could not respond to him casually.  They had to help me “be” Dracula.


Norm: If you had a magic wand, what other Broadway production or movie would you have liked to be in and why?

George: Just one of those great MGM musicals. I loved them a lot. I was in fact hired to play either the Puppeteer or the Magician in “Carnival”  at MGM but it was never made. I was sorry to not have that experience.   

Norm: If you could relive a moment in your life, which moment would you choose and why?  

George: I gave my personal manager at the time Power of Attorney, which gave her the legal right to make decisions without consulting me, and she made a few very bad decisions.  I would go back and retrieve that decision.  No one should ever give Power of Attorney to anyone.

Norm: What motivated your to write My West Side Story and how did you decide you were ready to write your memoir? 

George: I really don’t remember how it evolved. It took a while to “be ready”, and there were serious moments of hesitation.

 But I liked the idea of “talking to people” which is the way I felt about it. I liked sharing some of the wonderful times       

 I’ve had with so many wonderful people over the years. I’ve been really lucky.  Just talking about Elaine Stritch, for   
example, was such a pleasure.

 Norm: What were your goals and intentions in this book, and how well do you feel you achieved them?

George: My goal was just to be honest about circumstance, and and my experiences, and I HOPE I achieved that.

Norm: What purpose do you believe your memoir serves and what matters to you about your memoir?

George: What matters to me is honesty and hoping that someone can learn something from my experiences. My big thing for younger people is the Power of Attorney issue. And I hope no one makes the mistake that I did.

 Norm: What was the most difficult part of writing this book and what did you enjoy most about writing this book?

 George: The most difficult part was reliving and regretting my mistakes. What I enjoyed most was  reminding myself of the amazing people I have had the great good fortune to know and work with. I spent time with some pretty legendary people!  Including my family!

Norm: Did you learn anything from writing your book and what was it? 

George: I learned that I was blessed, starting with my beautiful mother and father,  and  that owe so much to the many people I was so very lucky to meet and know.

Norm: Could you tell our readers a little about the book?

George: Very simply it’s a book about my life experiences, many of which there was no time to put in the book.


 Norm: Where can our readers find out more about you and My West Side Story?

George: Well I guess more can be “learned” just by reading the book.  With West Side Story there there is endless information just reading about the artists who created it, namely: Jerome Robbins, Stephen Sondheim, Arthur Laurents, and of course Leonard Bernstein.  An amazing collaboration!

 Norm: What is next for George Chakiris?

George: Back to the drawing board making new pieces for my collection of Sterling Silver Jewelry.  Love doing that.


And spending time with friends.

Norm: If you could invite three celebrities, dead or alive, to your dinner table, who would they be and why?

George: Leonard Bernstein, because I got to meet him only once, and I would love to have a conversation with a man that had so much passion for his art, and for helping young people.

Jerome Robbins because working with him was so extraordinary but it would be so great to spend more time with that creative mind!


Noel Coward just to be in the presence of his talent and extraordinary wit.

Norm: Thanks once again and good luck with all of your future endeavors.