Larry Kert

Larry Kert (born Lawrence Frederick Kurt; December 5, 1930 – June 5, 1991) was an American actor, singer, and dancer. He is best known for creating the role of Tony in the original Broadway version of West Side Story.

Born as Lawrence Frederick Kurt in Los Angeles, California, the youngest of four siblings, Kert's eldest sister, Anita Ellis, became a vocalist, noted for dubbing Rita Hayworth and other non-singing stars in their films. The siblings graduated from Hollywood High School. From a Shubert Theater playbill for 1963's 'I Can Get It For You Wholesale', starring Kert: "He attended Los Angeles City College. As a teenager he worked at breaking wild horses to saddle-- which led to a teen-age career as a stunt man, stand-in, and extra in well-nigh 100 films". Kert's first professional credit was as a member of a theatrical troupe called the "Bill Norvas and the Upstarts" in the 1950 Broadway revue Tickets, Please!. After a seven-month run, he worked sporadically in Off-Broadway and ballet productions as a dancer until 1957, when he was cast in West Side Story.

In 1955, while dancing in the chorus in the Sammy Davis, Jr. show Mr. Wonderful, Kert was recommended by his fellow dancer and friend Chita Rivera, who eventually won the role of Anita in West Side Story, to audition as a dancer for Gangway during the earliest Broadway pre-production of the Arthur Laurents-Leonard Bernstein-Stephen Sondheim musical later titled West Side Story, an adaptation of Romeo and Juliet set on the west side of mid-town Manhattan in the 1950s. Kert was the 18th out of 150 hopefuls to audition, but was the first one to be cut. A few months later, while he was working for Esquire in an advertising show, Stephen Sondheim approached him after seeing him perform and set up an audition for the part of Tony. Kert was reluctant to accept the offer, but a few weeks later, he was informed that he had the role.

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