Chakiris is sometimes held up to be an example of the Oscar curse- you win an Oscar and are never heard of again.
It's a little unfair in his case.
He really came out of nowhere with West Side Story. Sure he'd danced a lot but mainstream audiences didn't know it. He got lucky being cast in the stage show then the film.
They did try to turn himself into a film star afterwards. The Mirisch Brothers put him in three big films - Kings of the Sun, Flight of Ashiya and Squadron 633. All were adventure films with good production values and co stars. 633 was a hit. The others weren't.
Then he kind of faded away.
Some of his films did the rounds - The High Bright Sun is on TV a lot. The Young Girls of Rochefort was an art house hit.
He definitely should have done more musicals. It's amazing that he became famous in one but didn't do any apart from Rochefort. He was announced for Carnival! but it was never made. The Mirisches didn't make that many.
To be fair the musical was in decline but there were some in which Chakiris could have worked - Bye Bye Birdie, Camelot, Sweet Charity. He could've gone to Broadway, like Rita Moreno. His looks may have limited him but there were "swarthy roles" (for lack of a better term) - Guns of Navarone, Lawrence of Arabia, Zorba the Greek (actually I should just say "Anthony Quinn" films), Magnificent Seven sequels.
There were better roles, and I feel Chakiris could have gotten them, but he didn't. Too much time in Europe. Not enough musicals.
Maybe he just didn't have the fire in the belly.
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