[6][7] Chakiris attended one year at Long Beach City College, but wanted to pursue a career in dance, so he dropped out and moved to Hollywood.

[7] For several years he appeared in small roles, usually as a dancer or a member of the chorus in various musical films, including The Great Caruso (1951), Stars and Stripes Forever (1952), Call Me Madam (1953), Second Chance (1953), and The 5,000 Fingers of Dr. T. (1953).

Chakiris was sometimes cast in non-Caucasian roles, including in West Side Story as a Puerto Rican and in Diamond Head as a native Hawaiian.

The stage musical West Side Story had been running for a year on Broadway, and Chakiris auditioned for Jerome Robbins.

They thought his dark complexion made him more suited to the role of Bernardo, leader of the Sharks, and cast Russ Tamblyn as Riff.

[13][6] The film adaptation of West Side Story (1961) was hugely successful, and Chakiris won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his performance.

[17] Chakiris played a Greek terrorist in Cyprus in a British film, The High Bright Sun (1965), with Dirk Bogarde.

[18] He appeared with Catherine Deneuve and Gene Kelly in Jacques Demy's French musical film The Young Girls of Rochefort (1967).

"[17] He also performed a nightclub act at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas, his first stage work since West Side Story.

The show was successful and led to Chakiris receiving an offer to appear with Jose Ferrer in a TV production of Kismet (1967).

Chakiris worked heavily on TV in the 1970s and 1980s in Britain and the U.S., guest-starring on Hawaii Five-O, Police Surgeon, Thriller, Notorious Woman, Wonder Woman, Fantasy Island, CHiPs, Matt Houston, Scarecrow and Mrs. King, Poor Little Rich Girls, Hell Town and Murder, She Wrote.

On TV, he had a recurring role on the series Superboy as Professor Peterson from 1988 to 1990, and guest-starred on Human Target and the miniseries The Girls of Lido.

The movie, directed by Valerio Zanoli, stars Karen Grassle and five Academy Award winners: George Chakiris, Cloris Leachman, Louis Gossett Jr., Tatum O'Neal, and Olympia Dukakis.