Trivia

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.

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.".

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

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).

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.

Banas worked steadily as a hoofer, appearing in a breathtaking array of pop-iconic films and TV shows, including dancing with live accompaniment from Bill Hailey and His Comets in "Don't Knock the Rock" (1956); "Carousel" (1956); "The Girl Most Likely" (1958) with Jane Powell; "L'il Abner" (1959); "Babes in Toyland" (1961); both "Bye Bye Birdie" (1963) and "Made in Paris" (1966) with Ann-Margret; "The Unsinkable Bobby Brown" (1964) with Debbie Reynolds; "Mary Poppins" (1964) as a chimney sweep in the rooftop scene with Dick Van Dyke and Julie Andrews; "Billie" (1965) with Patty Duke; the Elvis flick "Girl Happy" (1965); and serving beatnik dance moves to "the Leopard" on a 1966 episode of "Get Smart" opposite Geraldine Brooks.

A dance he choreographed for the Shirley Ellis song "The Nitty Gritty" and performed (with five other dancers) on The Judy Garland Show in 1964, drew him renewed attention on YouTube in the 2010s, where copies of it had been viewed more than 25 million times by mid-2023.

Banas proudly displayed a signed head shot from Monroe on his Instagram that is now likely worth many thousands of dollars.

He auditioned for the production of Carousel at the LA Civic Light Opera and was cast as Enoch Snow Jr. After that, he appeared in stage productions of Kiss Me Kate, Annie Get Your Gun, Brigadoon, Plain and Fancy, and Peter Pan.

His last credit was for "Odd Jobs" in 1986, after which he continued to work as a dance coach and choreographer in L.A.