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Rita Moreno

American postcard.

Puerto Rican actress Rita Moreno (1931) is one of the very few performers to win the Oscar in 1962, the Grammy in 1972, the Tony in 1975 and her first of two Emmys in 1977. Moreno is best known for her role as Anita, the girl of the leader of the Puerto Rican street gang the Sharks in the classic musical West Side Story (1961). She was the first Hispanic woman to win an Oscar when received the Academy Award for best female supporting actor for this film.

Rita Moreno was born Rosita Dolores Alverío in 1931 in a hospital in Humacao, Puerto Rico. She was raised in nearby, smaller Juncos, which had no hospital. Her parents were seamstress Rosa María (Marcano) and farmer Francisco José "Paco" Alverío. Her mother moved to New York City in 1937, taking Rita with her while leaving her reportedly unfaithful husband and Rita's younger brother behind. Rita's professional career began early. From the age of nine, she performed as a professional dancer in New York nightclubs. At age 11, she landed her first film experience, dubbing Spanish-language versions of US films. In 1945, the 13-year-old made her Broadway debut in the play 'Skydrift' at the Belasco Theatre, costarring with Arthur Keegan and a young Eli Wallach. Although she would not appear again on Broadway for almost two decades, Rita Moreno, as she was billed in the play, had arrived professionally. In 1950, she was signed by MGM, but the studio dropped her option after just one year. She was often cast as a Hispanic pepper pot or as another 'exotic' such as in the TV series Father Knows Best (1954) as an exchange student from India. The young Puerto Rican actress/entertainer was featured on the cover of the 1 March 1954, edition of 'Life Magazine' with the provocative title "Rita Moreno: An Actresses' Catalog of Sex and Innocence". The sexpot stereotype would plague her throughout the decade and Moreno had to play roles in films that she considered degrading. Among the better pictures, she appeared in were the classics Singin' in the Rain (Stanley Donen, Gene Kelly, 1952) and The King and I (Walter Lang, 1956) starring Yul Brynner and Deborah Kerr.

Rita Moreno was finally cast by director Robert Wise in West Side Story (Jerome Robbins, Robert Wise, 1961), the film version of the smash 1957 Broadway musical. West Side Story is a retelling of William Shakespeare's 'Romeo & Juliet', with the warring Venetian clans, the Montagues and Capulets, re-envisioned as Irish/Polish and Puerto Rican adolescent street gangs, the Jets and the Sharks. Moreno was cast as Anita, the Puerto Rican girlfriend of Sharks' leader Bernardo (George Chakiris), whose sister Maria (Natalie Wood) is the piece's Juliet. She played this role with great emotion and the song 'America' became a highlight because of her. However, despite her talent, interesting roles were not forthcoming in the 1960s. Jon C. Hopwood at IMDb: "The following decade would prove kinder, possibly because the beautiful Moreno had aged gracefully and could now be seen by filmmakers, TV producers and casting directors as something other than the spitfire/sexpot that Hispanic women were supposed to conform to."

Rita Moreno played a $100 hooker in Mike Nichols' brilliant Carnal Knowledge (1971), based on Jules Feiffer's acerbic look at male sexuality. Another role that signalled a career renaissance was Milly the Helper in the children's TV show The Electric Company (1971). Moreno won a 1972 Grammy Award for her contribution to The Electric Company's soundtrack album. Three years later, she won a Tony Award as Best Featured Actress in a Musical for 'The Ritz'. She would reprise the role in the film version, The Ritz (Richard Lester, 1976). She also won Emmy Awards for her TV roles in The Rockford Files (1974) and The Muppet Show (1976). Moreno continued to work steadily on screen (both large and small) and on stage. From July 1997 to February 2003, she played 56 episodes in the TV series Oz as Sister Peter Marie Reimondo where she was a psychiatrist for the inmates. Since 2017, she has played the role of Lydia Alvarez in the TV series One Day at a Time. She returned in the remake of West Side Story (Steven Spielberg, 2021). She played the elderly shopkeeper Valentina. Her reputation as a national treasure was officially ratified with the award of the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President George W. Bush in 2004. Rita Moreno was married to Dr. Leonard Isadore Gordon, an internist and cardiologist, from 1965 till his death in 2010. They had a daughter, Fernanda Gordon. A successful jewellery designer, Fernanda founded Nandiz Design. She is married to David Fisher and they have two sons, Justin (2002) and Cameron (2004).

Sources: Jon C. Hopwood (IMDb), Wikipedia (Dutch) and IMDb.

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Taken on: January 10, 2023

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