The multi-talented dancer and choreographer turned actor and producer, Bobby Banas, has died aged 90, per the Hollywood Reporter.
Robert Joseph Banas was born in New York in 1933, and from the age of five, he loved dancing to big band records. During World War II, his parents worked in the munitions industry while Bobby and his sister lived on their grandmother’s Pennsylvania farm. He began taking dancing lessons at this time.
After the war ended, the family moved to Los Angeles, where Bobby joined the Michael Panaieff Children’s Ballet Company – with a young Natalie Wood as his regular dancing partner – and attended the Hollywood Professional School. While preparing for university, Bobby auditioned for the LA Civic Light Opera and won a main role in its production of Rodgers and Hammerstein’s Carousel.
He made his Broadway debut in 1954 when another musical, Peter Pan, transferred to New York. When Carousel was adapted for the big screen by Darryl F. Zanuck in 1956, Bobby made an uncredited appearance. He went on to dance in the Oscar-winning musical, The King and I, and one of the first rock ‘n’ roll movies, Rock Around the Clock.
In 1960, Bobby joined a group of male dancers surrounding Marilyn Monroe for her provocative rendition of Cole Porter’s ‘My Heart Belongs to Daddy‘ in Let’s Make Love — which is generally considered the film’s highlight. As conceived by Jack Cole – Monroe’s favourite choreographer, whom Bobby said had “great style” – the performance subtly inverts the song’s title.
The number is staged as the rehearsal for an off-Broadway revue, with Marilyn and her dancers wearing bulky sweaters, overlooked throughout by leading man Yves Montand and Tony Randall.
Marilyn finally throws off her sweater, and slides down a pole in her black bodystocking. As the song comes to an end, she turns and kisses a flabbergasted Banas, whose elfin features and boyish innocence contrast with the other ‘daddies.’
“I became the envy of all the other male dancers because of the kiss. but it was a great experience to work with Jack Cole, who gave me a lot of strength and posture to better my dance technique,” Bobby told The Andrew Martin Report in 2013.
“Working with Marilyn Monroe was a dream. But to be choreographed to kiss her, at the end of the dance number … oh, I thought my heart would explode. What was so funny was, during the end of the dance number, she grabbed me and Alex [Plasschaert] by the hair before she was to swing around one of the poles. Well, I had a lot of pomade in my hair, and after grabbing it she flew around the pole and lost her balance. She turned to the director and said, ‘I think someone has too much grease in his hair.’ OOPS! So they sent me to makeup to wash my hair. I returned, and the number began again. Now the end was approaching, and I was supposed to kiss her, so I hit her lips with mine but slid across her face. So I turned to the director and said in a low voice, ‘I think someone has too much grease on her face.’ To which they both laughed. Of course it was sad to learn of her death. I felt the same when I learned about Natalie Wood. Both had unusual circumstances and questionable facts about the truth.”
Jerome Robbins – the Broadway director and choreographer who had worked with Bobby on Peter Pan – cast him as ‘Joyboy,’ a member of street gang the Jets, in the Warner Brothers adaptation of West Side Story, starring Natalie Wood, Richard Beymer and Rita Moreno. Upon its release in 1961, it became highest grossing film of the year.
Among Bobby’s fellow Jets was Russ Tamblyn, who had appeared in an early Monroe film, As Young As You Feel; and George Chakiris – who danced with Marilyn in Gentlemen Prefer Blondes and There’s No Business Like Show Business – led the rival Sharks.
Bobby appeared a dancehall scene in How the West Was Won (1962). He danced in musicals like Bye Bye Birdie (1963), with Ann-Margaret; and The Unsinkable Molly Brown (1964), with Debbie Reynolds; and Girl Happy (1965), with Elvis Presley. In the same year, he joined Dick Van Dyke as a chimney sweep in the beloved children’s fantasy, Mary Poppins.
As moviegoers’ appetite for musicals waned, Bobby worked steadily on the small screen, and was hailed as ‘the best boy dancer on television.’ In 1964, he led five other dancers in an energetic routine to the sound of ‘The Nitty Gritty‘ (a hit for soul singer Shirley Ellis) on The Judy Garland Show. The regular choreographer was unavailable when the clip was shot, so Banas devised the group’s performance himself. Introduced by a besuited (and bemused) Peter Lawford, the clip became a viral hit 60 years later, racking up millions of views on YouTube.
He also appeared in a 1966 episode of the spy caper series, Get Smart, and established himself as a choreographer on variety shows like Shivaree, a rock ‘n’ roll revue; Malibu U., hosted by Ricky Nelson; The Kraft Summer Music Hall; and a CBS special, Frank Sinatra: The Man and His Music (1966.) He was an associate producer on Swingin’ Country.
Bobby entered the next decade choreographing musical sequences in The Virginian, Barnaby Jones, The Bad News Bears, and Mork & Mindy. One of his last TV spots was in a 1982 episode of Cagney & Lacey. From behind the scenes, he made a big-screen comeback as the choreographer on the hit comedy, Down and Out in Beverly Hills (1986), starring Nick Nolte and Bette Midler; and Steven Spielberg’s Always (1989), with Holly Hunter.
In addition to his TV and film work, Bobby taught at the Dick Grove School of Music, and set up the Bob Banas Musical Dance Company for youngsters. He also lectured at universities and worked with disabled children. Cher, John Travolta, and Bruce Lee all studied with Banas. In later years he turned to gardening, specialising in roses. Among his clients was a former leading lady, Debbie Reynolds.
Bobby Banas died of pneumonia at an assisted living facility in Encino, California on July 29, 2024, at the age of 90. He is survived by his son, director and photographer Eden Tyler Banas.
The Marilyn Report 