Rita Moreno Biography

Rita Dolores Moreno (born Rosa Dolores Alvero, December 11, 1931) is a Puerto Rican-American actress, dancer and singer. Her career has spanned over 70 years; among her notable acting work are supporting roles in the musical films The King and I and West Side Story, as well as a 1971-77 stint on the children's television series The Electric Company, and a supporting role on the 1997-2003 TV drama Oz.

Moreno is one of twelve performers to have won all four major annual American entertainment awards: an Oscar, an Emmy, a Grammy and a Tony. She is also one of 22 people who have achieved the so-called Triple Crown of Acting, with individual competitive Academy, Emmy and Tony awards for acting; and one of only two people who have achieved both distinctions, the other being Helen Hayes. She has also won numerous other awards, including various lifetime achievement awards. Moreno also received the Presidential Medal of Freedom, America's highest civilian honor.

Early years

Moreno, was born Rosa Dolores Alvero in Humacao, Puerto Rico, to Rosa Mara (ne Marcano), a seamstress, and Francisco Jos "Paco" Alvero, a farmer. She was originally nicknamed "Rosita". Moreno, whose mother was 17 at the time of her birth, was raised in nearby Juncos. Rita's mother moved to New York City in 1936, taking her daughter, but not her son, Rita's younger brother, Francisco. Rita later adopted the surname of her first stepfather, Edward Moreno, Rosa Maria's second husband.

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.

Film

Moreno acted steadily in films throughout the 1950s, usually in small roles, including in The Toast of New Orleans (1950) and Singin' in the Rain (1952), in which she played the starlet "Zelda Zanders". 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 The King and I as Tuptim.

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:

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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), and followed that with Popi (1969), Marlowe (1969), Carnal Knowledge (1971) and The Ritz (1976). Another notable role was in the hit film The Four Seasons (1981). 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.

Television

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.

Rita Moreno appeared in the variety series The Muppet Show, and she has made numerous guest appearances on television series since the 1970s, including The Love Boat, The Cosby Show, George Lopez, The Golden Girls, and Miami Vice.

One notable guest appearance was a three-episode arc on The Rockford Files in 1977 as former call girl Rita Kapcovic. For her portrayal, Moreno won a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Guest Actress - Drama Series. 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).

She was a regular on the first three seasons of the sitcom version of Nine to Five (based on the film hit) during the early 1980s.

During the mid-1990s, Moreno provided the voice of Carmen Sandiego on Fox's animated series Where on Earth is Carmen Sandiego?

In the late 1990s, she gained exposure to a new generation of viewers when she 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.

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.

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.

In January 2016, it was announced that Moreno would costar in the Netflix reboot of Norman Lear's classic sitcom One Day At A Time, playing the grandmother of the Cuban-American family at the center of the series.

Theater

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 Chicago in the female version of The Odd Couple, for which she won the Sarah Siddons Award in 1985.

In 2006, she portrayed Amanda Wingfield in Berkeley Repertory Theatre's revival of The Glass Menagerie.

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.

Other

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.

She released an eponymous album of nightclub songs in 2000 on the Varse Sarabande label, with liner notes by Michael Feinstein.

Personal life

Moreno had an eight-year-long affair with actor Marlon Brando. In an interview with Good Day LA, 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, Presley backed off. Moreno would later confirm that she only dated Presley to make Brando jealous.

Moreno has also had relationships with actors Anthony Quinn and Dennis Hopper, and theater critic Kenneth Tynan. She claims that Tynan stalked her.

On June 18, 1965, Moreno married Leonard Gordon, a cardiologist who was also her manager. He died on June 30, 2010. They have one daughter, Fernanda Luisa Fisher, and two grandsons, Justin and Cameron Fisher. Moreno once considered leaving her husband but could not because she did not want to break up the family.

Awards

Among Moreno's awards and recognition are the following:

• Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress (West Side Story), 1961
• Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actress (West Side Story), 1961
• Joseph Jefferson Award: Best Chicago Theatre Actress, 1968
• Grammy Award for Best Album for Children (The Electric Company Album), 1972
• Tony Award for Best Featured Actress in a Play (The Ritz), 1975
• Emmy Award for Individual Performance in a Variety or Music Program, 1977
• Emmy Award for Outstanding Guest Actress - Drama Series (for The Rockford Files), 1978
• 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
• The Hispanic Organization of Latin actresses (HOLA) renamed their Award for Excellence in her honor (known as the HOLA Rita Moreno Award for Excellence since 2000)
• Special Recognition Award from the International Latin Music Hall of Fame, 2001
• Presidential Medal of Freedom from President George W. Bush, June 2004
• A star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame
• Inducted into the California Hall of Fame, 2007
• National Medal of Arts from President Barack Obama, 2009
• Hispanic Organization of Latin actresses (HOLA) Lifetime Achievement Award, 2010
• Latin Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award, 2012
• Screen Actors Guild Life Achievement Award, 2013 (presented on Saturday, January 18, 2014)
• Kennedy Center Honors Lifetime Artistic Achievement Award, 2015
• Honorary doctorate of music, awarded by the Berklee College of Music, May 7, 2016.

Filmography

Film

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1950	So Young So Bad	Dolores Guererro	Rosita Moreno
1950	'	Tina
1950	Pagan Love Song	Terru
1952	The Ring	Lucy Gomez
1952	Singin' in the Rain	Zelda Zanders
1952	The Fabulous Senorita	Manuela Rodrguez
1952	Cattle Town	Queli
1953	Fort Vengeance	Bridget Fitzgibbon
1953	Ma and Pa Kettle on Vacation	Soubrette	Uncredited
1953	Latin Lovers	Christina
1953	'	Jara
1954	Jivaro	Maroa
1954	The Yellow Tomahawk	Honey Bear
1954	Garden of Evil	Cantina Singer
1955	Untamed	Julia
1955	Seven Cities of Gold	Ula
1956	'	Sandra Roberts
1956	'	Tuptim
1956	'	Huguette
1957	The Deerslayer	Hetty Hutter
1960	This Rebel Breed	Lola Montalvo
1961	West Side Story	Anita
1961	Summer and Smoke	Rosa Zacharias
1963	Cry of Battle	Sisa
1968	'	Vi
1969	Popi	Lupe
1969	Marlowe	Dolores Gonzles
1971	Carnal Knowledge	Louise
1976	The Ritz	Googie Gomez
1977	Voodoo Passion
1978	'	Esther Rose
1980	Happy Birthday, Gemini	Lucille Pompi
1981	'	Claudia Zimmer
1991	Age Isn't Everything	Rita
1993	Italian Movie	Isabella
1994	I Like It Like That	Rosaria Linares
1995	Carmen Miranda: Bananas is My Business	Herself	Documentary
1995	Angus	Madame Rulenska
1998	Slums of Beverly Hills	Belle Abromowitz	Nominated"?ALMA Award for Outstanding Actress in a Feature Film in a Crossover Role
1999	Carlo's Wake	Angela Torello
1999	'	Herself	Documentary
2000	Blue Moon	Maggie
2001	Piero	Miguel's Mother
2003	Casa de los Babys	Seora Muoz
2003	Scooby-Doo! and the Monster of Mexico	Dona Dolores and Woman#3	Voice
2003	Beyond Borders: John Sayles in Mexico	Herself	Documentary
2004	King of the Corner	Inez
2006	Play It By Ear	Ruth
2014	Rio 2	Mimi	Voice
2014	Six Dance Lessons in Six Weeks	Ida Barks

Television

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1958	Father Knows Best	Chanthini	Episode: "Fair Exchange" (24 November 1958)
1960	Bourbon Street Beat	Manuela Ruiz	Episode: "Suitable for Framing" (16 May 1960)
1963	Burke's Law	Margaret Cowls	Episode: "Who Killed Julian Buck?" (18 October 1963)
1971-1977	'	Carmela Otto The Director Pandora the Little Girl, Millie the Helper	780 episodes
1974	Dominic's Dream	Anita Bente
1974	Out to Lunch	Various	Nominated"?Emmy Award for Outstanding Continuing or Single Performance by a Supporting Actress in Variety or Music
1976	'	Herself
1978	'	Rita Capkovic	Nominated"?Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series }}
1979	Anatomy of a Seduction	Nina
1979	'	Herself/Host	Special
1981	Evita Pern	Renata Riguel
1982-1983	9 to 5	Violet Newstead
1982	Working	Waitress
1982	Portrait of a Showgirl	Rosella DeLeon	Nominated"?Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Miniseries or a Movie
1986	Golden Girls	Renee	Episode: "Empty Nest"
1987	'	Mrs. Granger	Episode: "You Only Hurt the One You Love"
1989-1990	B.L. Stryker	Kimberly Baskin	2 episodes
1994	'	Miss Wickervich/Mrs. Stone	Episode: "The Gym Teacher"
1994-1998	Where on Earth Is Carmen Sandiego?	Carmen Sandiego	Voice Nominated"?Daytime Emmy Award for Outstanding Performer In An Animated Program (1995, 1996, 1997)
1994-1995	'	Angie Corea	2 episodes
1995	'	Mom
1995	'	Dr. Camrina Skeledon	Episode: "The Busasaurus"
1997-2003	Oz	Sister Peter Marie Reimondo
1998	'	Irma Kelly
1999	Resurrection	Mimi
2004	Copshop	Mary Alice
2005	Law & Order: Special Victims Unit	Mildred Quintana	Episode: "Night"
2005	Law & Order: Trial by Jury	Mildred Quintana	Episode: "Day"
2006-2007	Law & Order: Criminal Intent	Frances Goren	3 episodes: "Endgame"; "The War at Home" and "Brother's Keeper"
2007	George Lopez	Luisa Diaz	Episode: "George Testi-Lies for Benny"
2007	Ugly Betty	Aunt Mirta	Episode: "A Tree Grows in Guadalajara"
2007	Cane	Amalia Duque	13 episodes
2010	In Plain Sight	Rita Ramirez	Episode: "Coma Chameleon"
2011	Special Agent Oso	Abuela	Voice Episode: "For Tamales with Love/Pinata Royale"
2011-2013	Happily Divorced	Dori Newman
2013	Nicky Deuce	Tutti	TV movie
2014	Old Soul	Rita	TV movie
2015-2016	Jane the Virgin	Liliana De La Vega	4 episodes: "Chapter Eighteen", "Chapter Thirty-Three", "Chapter Thirty-Two", "Chapter Thirty-One" Online Film & Television Association Award for Best Guest Actress in a Comedy Series
2015	Nina's World	Abuelita
2015	A Gift of Miracles	Beverly	TV movie
2016	Grey's anatomy	Gayle	Episode: "Odd Man Out"
2016	Grace and Frankie	Lucy	Episode: "The Vitamix"
2017	One Day at a Time	Lydia	Main

See also

• List of famous Puerto Ricans
• List of Puerto Ricans in the Academy Awards
• List of people who have won an Emmy, a Grammy, an Oscar and a Tony Award
• List of Puerto Rican Presidential Medal of Freedom recipients
• History of women in Puerto Rico