RIP Bobby Banas

 

Bobby Banas, Dancer in ‘West Side Story’ and ‘Mary Poppins,’ Dies at 90

Also an actor and choreographer, he famously did “The Nitty Gritty” on ‘The Judy Garland Show’ and was kissed by Marilyn Monroe in ‘Let's Make Love.’

The Hollywood Reporter

By Mike Barnes

July 30, 2024

 

Bobby Banas, the actor, dancer and choreographer who played Joyboy in West Side Story and worked in such other famed movie musicals as Bye Bye Birdie, The Unsinkable Molly Brown and Mary Poppins, has died. He was 90.

Banas died Monday of pneumonia at an assisted living facility in Encino, his son, director and photographer Eden Tyler Banas, told The Hollywood Reporter.

Banas received newfound attention when a clip of him leading five others in a dance number to the song “The Nitty Gritty” on a 1964 episode of CBS’ The Judy Garland Show found its way on YouTube. It has since been viewed many millions of times.

Banas’ Joyboy was a member of the Jets in West Side Story (1959). Later, the performer was bowled over by a kiss from Marilyn Monroe in Let’s Make Love (1960), played a chimney sweep in Mary Poppins (1964) and danced in a nightclub with Ann-Margret in Made in Paris (1966).

Born in New York on Sept. 22, 1933, Robert Joseph Banas took ballroom dancing lessons when he was a teenager. He went on to partner with future West Side Story co-star Natalie Wood in the Michael Panaieff Children’s Ballet Company and attend the Hollywood Professional School and Hollywood High.

After working on the stage, he did “The Charleston” in his onscreen debut, Has Anybody Seen My Gal (1952), then showed up in four 1956 movies: Carousel, The King and I and Bill Haley & His Comets’ Rock Around the Clock and Don’t Knock the Rock.

He performed for choreographer Jerome Robbins in 1954-55 on Broadway in Peter Pan and then in The King and I, and that certainly helped him get cast in West Side Story, directed by Robbins and Robert Wise.

Banas’ dancing résumé also included Damn Yankees (1958), The Girl Most Likely (1958), L’il Abner (1959), Babes in Toyland (1961), Ann-Margret’s Bye Bye Birdie (1963), Debbie Reynolds’ The Unsinkable Molly Brown (1964), Elvis Presley’s Girl Happy (1965) and a 1966 episode of Get Smart.

As a choreographer, he worked on The Kraft Summer Music Hall, Malibu U., The Jonathan Winters Show, Mork & Mindy, Hart Like a Wheel (1983) and Down and Out in Beverly Hills (1986).

In addition to his son, survivors include his daughter-in-law, Roxanne, and his grandson, Dylan.

BANAS, Bobby (Robert Joseph Banas)

Born: 9/22/1933, New York City, New York, U.S.A.

Died: 7/29/2024, Encino, California, U.S.A.

 

Bobby Banas’ westerns – choreographer, actor:

Annie Get Your Gun (TV) – 1957 (Indian dancer)

How The West Was Won – 1964 (dance hall dancer)

The Unsinkable Molly Brown – 1964 (dancer)

The Virginian (TV) – 1969 [choreographer]