Rita Moreno

Rita Moreno born Rosa Dolores Alverío Marcano; December 11, 1931 is a Puerto Rican actress, dancer, and singer. Her career has spanned over 70 years; her notable acting work includes supporting roles in the musical films Singin’ in the Rain (1952), The King and I (1956) and West Side Story (1961), as well as a 1971 to 1977 stint on the children’s television series The Electric Company, and a supporting role as Sister Peter Marie Reimondo on the HBO series Oz from 1997 to 2003. Her other notable films include Popi (1969), Carnal Knowledge (1971), The Four Seasons (1981), I Like It Like That (1994) and the cult film Slums of Beverly Hills (1998). She voiced the titular role of Carmen Sandiego in Where on Earth Is Carmen Sandiego? from 1994 to 1999. For theater, she is best known for her role as Googie Gomez in The Ritz.

As of 2020, she is currently portraying the role of the matriarch Lydia Margarita del Carmen Inclán Maribona Leyte-Vidal de Riera in the 2017 remake of One Day at a Time.

Moreno is one of the few artists to have won all four major annual American entertainment awards: an Emmy, a Grammy, an Oscar and a Tony. She is also one of 23 people who have achieved what is called the Triple Crown of Acting, with individual competitive Academy, Emmy and Tony awards for acting; she and Helen Hayes are the only two who have achieved both distinctions. She has won numerous other awards, including various lifetime achievement awards and the Presidential Medal of Freedom, America’s highest civilian honor. In 2015, she was awarded a Kennedy Center Honors Lifetime Artistic Achievement Award for her contribution to American culture, through performing arts. She was awarded the Peabody Career Achievement Award in 2019.

Early years

Moreno was born in Humacao, Puerto Rico, to Rosa María (née Marcano), a seamstress, and Francisco José “Paco” Alverío, a farmer. She was nicknamed “Rosita”. Moreno, whose mother was 17 at the time of her birth, was raised in nearby Juncos. Her maternal grandparents were Justino Marcano (b. Puerto Rico) and Trinidad from Spain. Moreno’s mother moved to New York City in 1936, taking her daughter, but not her son, Moreno’s younger brother, Francisco. Moreno adopted the surname of her first stepfather, Edward Moreno, Rosa Maria’s second husband. She spent her teenage years living in the villages of Valley Stream, New York on Long Island.

Career

Early career

Rita began her first dancing lessons soon after arriving in New York with a Spanish dancer known as “Paco Cansino”, who was a paternal uncle of film star Rita Hayworth. When she was 11 years old, she lent her voice to Spanish language versions of American films. She had her first Broadway role—as “Angelina” in Skydrift—by the time she was 13, which caught the attention of Hollywood talent scouts.

Moreno debuted her film career during the later years of the Golden Age of Hollywood. Moreno acted steadily in films throughout the 1950s, usually in small roles, including in The Toast of New Orleans (1950) In 1952, she appeared in Stanley Donen’s classic musical comedy film Singin’ in the Rain alongside Gene Kelly, Debbie Reynolds and Donald O’Connor. In the film she played silent film star “Zelda Zanders”. She described getting the role by Gene Kelly “wanting her in the movie” and that she “seemed to fit the role for him”. Moreno praised Kelly for casting her in a non stereotypical hispanic role playing the Zelda saying, he never said “Oh she’s too Latina, he just thought i’d be fine for it”. She called the experience working in the film as an “amazing experience” and a “privilege”.

In March 1954, Moreno was featured on the cover of Life magazine with the caption “Rita Moreno: An Actress’s Catalog of Sex and Innocence”.

Moreno disliked most of her film work during this period, as she felt the roles she was given were very stereotypical. One exception was her supporting role in the film version of Richard Rogers and Oscar Hammerstein’s The King and I directed by Walter Lang. In the film she played Tuptim, a slave brought from Burma to be one of the King’s junior wives. She starred alongside Yul Brynner and Deborah Kerr. The film was a critical and financial success. It received nine Academy Award nominations including five wins including Best Actor, Best Art Direction – Color, Best Costume Design – Color, Best Original Score, and Best Sound Recording.

In 1959, Moreno appeared as Lola Montez on the TV western Tales of Wells Fargo in the episode “Lola Montez”.

1960s

In 1961, Moreno landed the role of Anita in Robert Wise and Jerome Robbins’ film adaptation of Leonard Bernstein’s and Stephen Sondheim’s groundbreaking Broadway musical West Side Story, which had been played by Chita Rivera on Broadway. Moreno won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for that role.

After winning the Oscar, Moreno thought she would be able to continue to perform less stereotypical film roles, but was disappointed:

Ha, ha. I showed them. I didn’t make another movie for seven years after winning the Oscar…. Before West Side Story, I was always offered the stereotypical Latina roles. The Conchitas and Lolitas in westerns. I was always barefoot. It was humiliating, embarrassing stuff. But I did it because there was nothing else. After West Side Story, it was pretty much the same thing. A lot of gang stories.

Moreno had a major role in Summer and Smoke (1961), released soon after West Side Story. She did appear in one film during her self-imposed exile from Hollywood – Cry of Battle (1963) – although it had been filmed directly before and after she won the Academy Award.

She made her return to film in The Night of the Following Day (1968) with Marlon Brando, and followed that with Popi (1969), Marlowe (1969) with James Garner.

Moreno’s Broadway credits include Last of the Red Hot Lovers (1969), the very short-lived musical Gantry (1970), and The Ritz, for which she won the 1975 Tony Award for Best Featured Actress. She appeared in the female version of The Odd Couple that ran in Chicago, for which she won the Sarah Siddons Award in 1985.

1970s

From 1971 to 1977, Moreno was a main cast member on the PBS children’s series The Electric Company. She screamed the show’s opening line, “Hey, you guys!” Her roles on the show included Millie the Helper, the naughty little girl Pandora, and Otto, a very short-tempered director.

Moreno also starred in Mike Nichols’ Carnal Knowledge (1971) alongside Jack Nicholson, Candice Bergen, Ann-Margret, and Art Garfunkel. In the film she plays a prostitute Louise, who Jack Nicholson plays cards with. The film was a critical success. In 1976 she starred as Googie Gomez in Richard Lester’s film adaptation of the comedy farce The Ritz alongside Jack Weston, Jerry Stiller, and F. Murray Abraham. Charles Champlin of the Los Angeles Times wrote that the film made the transition from the stage “surprisingly well, given the odds,” with “two of the most flamboyantly entertaining and skillful comedy performances of the year” by Jack Weston and Rita Moreno.

Moreno’s appearance on The Muppet Show earned her a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Individual Performance in a Variety or Music Program in 1977. As a result, she became the third person (after Richard Rodgers and Helen Hayes) to have won an Oscar (1962), a Grammy (1972), a Tony (1975), and an Emmy (1977), frequently referred to as an “EGOT”. She won another Emmy award the following year, 1978, this time a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Guest Actress – Drama Series, for her portrayal of former call girl Rita Kapcovic on a three-episode arc on The Rockford Files.

1980s-1990s

In the 1980’s Moreno starred as Lucille in Richard Benner’s comedy-drama film Happy Birthday, Gemini alongside Madeline Kahn, and in Alan Alda’s The Four Seasons (1981) which was a financial and critical hit. The film starred Alda, Carol Burnett, Len Cariou, Sandy Dennis, and Jack Weston.

She was a regular on the three season network run of 9 to 5, a sitcom based on the film hit, during the early 1980s. Rita Moreno has made numerous guest appearances on television series in the 1980s, including The Love Boat, The Cosby Show, George Lopez, The Golden Girls, and Miami Vice.

During the mid-1990s, Moreno provided the voice of Carmen Sandiego on Fox’s animated series Where on Earth Is Carmen Sandiego? In the franchise’s 2019 animated series, Moreno voices the character Cookie Booker.

In the late 1990s, Moreno played Sister Pete, a nun trained as a psychologist in the popular HBO series Oz, for which she won several ALMA Awards. She made a guest appearance on The Nanny as Coach Stone, Maggie’s tyrannical gym teacher, whom Fran Fine also remembered from her school as Ms. Wickavich.

2000s-present

She released an eponymous album of nightclub songs in 2000 on the Varèse Sarabande label, with liner notes by Michael Feinstein. In 2006, she portrayed Amanda Wingfield in Berkeley Repertory Theatre’s revival of The Glass Menagerie. She had a recurring role on Law & Order: Criminal Intent as the dying mother of Detective Robert Goren. She played the family matriarch on the short-lived 2007 TV series Cane, which starred Jimmy Smits and Hector Elizondo. She played the mother of Fran Drescher’s character in the 2011–13 TV sitcom Happily Divorced.

She has continued to work in film since then, including a small voice role in the 2014 film Rio 2, perhaps her most commercially successful film. In September 2011, Moreno began performing a solo autobiographical show at the Berkeley Rep (theater) in Berkeley, California, Rita Moreno: Life Without Makeup written by Berkeley Rep artistic director Tony Taccone after hours of interviews with Moreno. In 2014, Moreno appeared in the NBC television film Old Soul, alongside Natasha Lyonne, Fred Willard and Ellen Burstyn. The film was intended as a pilot for a television series, but it was not picked up.

Moreno plays the matriarch of a Cuban-American family in the Netflix sitcom One Day at a Time, a remake produced by Norman Lear of Lear’s 1975–84 sitcom. The first season premiered in January 2017. Critics overall praised the show, and especially the performances of Moreno and the series’ star, Justina Machado.

Moreno will star in, and executive produce along with Steven Spielberg, the remake of West Side Story.

Personal life

In June 1965, Moreno married cardiologist and her manager Leonard Gordon. They remained together until his death in 2010. Moreno and Gordon have one daughter, Fernanda Gordon Fisher, and two grandsons. Moreno once considered leaving her husband but could not because she did not want to break up the family.

Moreno was romantically involved with actor Marlon Brando. It was a tumultuous relationship due to his infidelity. When Moreno became pregnant, Brando arranged for an abortion. After a botched abortion, Moreno tried to commit suicide by overdosing on his sleeping pills.

In interviews with Good Day LA (2013) and Wendy Williams (June 28, 2018), as well as her biography, Moreno stated that Elvis Presley was not a good lover. They dated for quite some time, but whenever the opportunity presented itself to take the relationship to another level, she said Presley backed off, “like a baby brother who couldn’t make interesting conversation.”

Moreno stated that theater critic Kenneth Tynan stalked her. During the 1952 presidential election, Moreno supported Adlai Stevenson’s campaign.

Politics

In 1993, she was invited to perform at President Bill Clinton’s inauguration and later that month was asked to perform at the White House.

Charity

In 2017, she and others contributed to Lin-Manuel Miranda’s single “Almost Like Praying” where proceeds from the song went to the Hispanic Federation’s UNIDOS Disaster Relief program to benefit those affected by Hurricane Maria that devastated the island of Puerto Rico.

Awards and honors

Moreno has achieved what is called the Triple Crown of Acting, with individual competitive Academy, Emmy and Tony awards for acting; as well as the EGOT. In 1962, she won the Oscar for Best Supporting Actress for West Side story. In 1972 she received a Grammy Award for Best Children’s Album for The Electric Company. In 1975 she won the Tony Award for Best Featured Actress in a Play for The Ritz. She won her Primetime Emmy Awards in 1977, and 1978 for her performances in The Muppet Show and The Rockford Files.

She has also received a Golden Globe Award, a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, she was Inducted into the California Hall of Fame, 2007 In 2013, she received the Screen Actors Guild Life Achievement Award which was presented to her by Morgan Freeman.

She has won numerous other honors, including various lifetime achievement awards and the Presidential Medal of Freedom, America’s highest civilian honor. In 2009 President Barack Obama presented her with the National Medal of Arts In 2015, she was awarded a Kennedy Center Honors Lifetime Artistic Achievement Award for her contribution to American culture, through performing arts. She was awarded the Peabody Career Achievement Award in 2019.

Since 2000, The Hispanic Organization of Latin actresses (HOLA) renamed their Award for Excellence in her honor, known as the HOLA Rita Moreno Award for Excellence.

Among Moreno’s awards and recognition are the following:

• Joseph Jefferson Award: Best Chicago Theatre Actress, 1968
• Sarah Siddons Award for her portrayal of Olive Madison in the female version of The Odd Couple, 1985
• Library of Congress Living Legends Award, April 2000
• Special Recognition Award from the International Latin Music Hall of Fame, 2001
• Hispanic Organization of Latin actresses (HOLA) Lifetime Achievement Award, 2010
• Latin Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award, 2012
• Honorary doctorate of music, awarded by the Berklee College of Music, May 7, 2016.
• Ellis Island Medal of Honor, May 11, 2018.
• Grand Marshal of the 2020 Rose Parade