Biography

Banas had enjoyed renewed celebrity 11 years ago when a long-forgotten 1964 clip from "The Judy Garland Show" circulated on social media, racking up tens of millions of views. In it, Peter Lawford, Martha Raye and Garland make way for a troupe to interpret the dance called "the Nitty Gritty," with Banas giving the supecharged performance of a lifetime.

In 1942, he took ballroom dancing lessons, eventually partnering with child star Natalie Wood in the Michael Panaieff Children's Ballet Company.

Along with his "Judy Garland Show" number - which made him a meme at 80 - he is perhaps best remembered as Joyboy in "West Side Story" (1959) and as a lucky guy who receives a big kiss from Marilyn Monroe in the 1960 film "Let's Make Love.".

During the war, his father became a Military Chief Inspector for the steel mills in McKeesport, Pennsylvania, while his mother became a propeller inspector for Curtiss-Wright in Erie.

Robert Banas was an American dancer and actor who worked in films such as West Side Story (1961), Always (1989), and Down and Out in Beverly Hills (1986).