Whatever Happened to ‘West Side Story’ and ‘Twin Peaks’ Star Richard Beymer?

Richard Beymer, best known for playing Tony in West Side Story and, decades later, the scheming Ben Horne on Twin Peaks, turns 88 on February 20, 2026. Though he’s been quiet in recent years, Beymer had an incredibly long career, which took him not only across film and TV roles, but also into the directing chair.

How did Richard Beymer begin his career?

Beymer began acting as a child and built an extensive television résumé throughout the ’50s. His breakout dramatic role came as Peter van Daan in The Diary of Anne Frank (1959), a performance that established him as a serious young actor. That success led to a contract with Twentieth Century Fox and increasing expectations that he would become a major leading man. Those expectations peaked when he was cast as Tony in 1961’s film adaptation of West Side Story, one of the most celebrated films of the era.

Although West Side Story was a massive hit and earned Beymer a Golden Globe nomination, he was reportedly candid later in life about his dissatisfaction with his own performance and discomfort with stardom. His singing in the film was dubbed by Jimmy Bryant, a common practice at the time, but it bothered him. Rather than embrace the heartthrob image, Beymer questioned it.

In the mid-’60s, Beymer stepped back from major studio films and became involved in the Civil Rights Movement. He participated in Freedom Summer in Mississippi and directed the documentary short A Regular Bouquet: Mississippi Summer in 1964, which focused on voter registration efforts. Around the same time, he studied at the Actors Studio and reassessed what kind of actor he wanted to be.

Suzanne Tenner/Showtime/Everett Collection

During the ’70s, Beymer shifted toward independent and experimental filmmaking. His most personal project, The Innerview (1973), was written, directed, produced, edited, and shot by Beymer himself, and later won the Josef von Sternberg Award at the Mannheim-Heidelberg International Film Festival. This period also marked his deeper involvement in photography, writing, and visual art.

A wider audience rediscovered Beymer in the early ’90s when he appeared as Ben Horne on Twin Peaks. He focused on documentaries throughout the 2000s and 2010s, shooting, directing and editing them himself. In 2002, he released one cheekily titled Whatever Happened to Richard Beymer?

Where is Richard Beymer today?

Beymer later reprised the character of Ben Horne when Twin Peaks returned in 2017, reconnecting him with longtime fans and a new generation of viewers. It is his most recent acting credit, although he did release his most recent documentary, Behind the Red Curtain,  that same year.

In recent years, Beymer has lived far from Hollywood, spending much of his time in Fairfield, Iowa. He continues to write, paint, sculpt, and make films, including documentaries, and he practices Transcendental Meditation. In 2019, he visited the set of Steven Spielberg‘s remake of West Side Story, a quiet full-circle moment.

Rachel Zegler, who played Maria in the 2021 version of the film, posted on Instagram about Beymer’s set visit:

 

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In the second photo, she included a shot of Beymer conversing with director Steven Spielberg; in the fourth photo, she’s pictured embracing Beymer, with the caption “hugging richard beymer as he says ‘te adoro maría’ to me over and over again, while our brilliant tony kushner watches on.”

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