Schell, Loren and ‘West Side Story’ top Oscar winners 50 years ago this hour (1962)

(Monday, April 9, 1962, 7:30 p.m. PST)West Side Story was named Best Picture of 1961 tonight at the 34th Academy Awards, hosted by Bob Hope at the Santa Monica Civic Auditorium in Santa Monica, California. The film’s directors, Jerome Robbins and Robert Wise, were named Best Director.

Maximilian Schell, the flinty defender of Nazi war criminals in Judgment at Nuremberg, and Sophia Loren, the earth war refugee of Two Women, were picked as the Best Actor and Actress.

George Chakiris and Rita Moreno each won the supporting actor awards for West Side Story.