Maria (West Side Story) after he meets and kisses Maria for the first time. Her name is sung 29 times in total. Natalie Wood was not the first choice to play Maria in the 1961 film version. Audrey Hepburn was considered, but she did not take it due to her pregnancy. Like Wood, Hepburn was not Puerto Rican; she was British, Dutch, and Austrian. Oh Maria, Maria / She remind me of a West Side story. Maria (West Side Story) Maria is the leading female character in the film "West Side Story". Maria is in her late teens when she arrives on the US
Robert Wagner a company of Darryl F. Zanuck's brother in law (the leads were all under contract to Fox) and released through United Artists. Back at Fox he was "Between Heaven and Hell" (1956), a war movie, and "The True Story of Jesse James" (1957), playing the lead role for director Nicholas Ray (Jeffrey Hunter was Frank). Both movies were box office disappointments and it seemed Wagner was unable to make the transition to top level star. This appeared confirmed when he was the lead in "Stopover Tokyo" (1957). In 1959, Wagner disparaged the film: When I started at Fox in 1950