She won the award for best supporting actress for the original film and in two months the also dancer and singer, who has been at the foot of the canyon for seventy years, could receive it again for the new version of the film
She won the Oscar as a supporting actress for the first ‘West Side Story’, and in two months she can win it again for the new version of that film. She is Rita Moreno, an actress and singer who has been at the foot of the canyon for 70 years.
Rosa Dolores Alverío, artistically known as Rita Moreno, is one of the few artists who have won the four main American entertainment awards: an Oscar, two Emmys, a Grammy and a Tony. She is also one of the 22 people who have achieved the Triple Crown of Acting, with individual awards from the Oscars, Emmys and Tonys, for acting.
Rita Moreno was born in Juncos, Puerto Rico on December 11, 1931. Her mother, Rosa María, was a seamstress, and her father, Francisco José Alverío, a farmer. Moreno, whose mother was 17 at the time of his birth, grew up near Juncos. In 1936 mother and daughter moved to New York. After a time, Rita adopted the surname of her first stepfather, Eduardo Moreno, Rosa María’s second husband. Rita had a stepbrother.
Moreno began his first dance classes in New York with a Spanish dancer, Paco Cansino, who was Rita Hayworth’s uncle. At the age of 11, he lent his voice to the Spanish versions of multiple American films. At the age of 13, she already had her first role on Broadway, as Angelina in ‘Skydrift’, which caught the attention of Hollywood talent scouts. Soon Rita Moreno appeared in small roles in films such as ‘The Toast of New Orleans’ or ‘Singing in the rain’, in which she played the star Zelda Zanders. In March 1954, Moreno appeared on the cover of Life magazine under the title ‘Rita Moreno: Catalog of actresses of sex and innocence’, and in 1956, she landed a supporting role in the first film version of ‘The King and I. ‘.
Her consecration comes as Anita in the Robert Wise and Jerome Robbins film, ‘West Side Story’, for which she won the Oscar for best supporting actress, which was followed by a long period of drought, fulfilling in her the legend of the curse of the Oscars.: «After winning the Oscar I didn’t do another movie for seven years… Before ‘West Side Story’ they were always offering me stereotypical roles of Latinas. The Conchitas and Lolitas in westerns. She was always barefoot. It was humiliating, embarrassing things. But I did it because there was nothing else. After ‘West Side Story’ it was more or less the same thing. A lot of gang stories,” the actress recalled.
In 1961 he starred in ‘Summer and smoke’ and in 1968 he stars in ‘The night after the next day’, in 1969 ‘Popi’ and ‘Marlowe’, in 1971 ‘Carnal knowledge’, and in 1976 ‘The Ritz’. The curse was over. From 1971 to 1999, he turned to television, having special appearances in series such as ‘Vacaciones en el mar’, ‘The Golden Girls’ or ‘Miami Corruption’.
Rita is the only Hispanic actress and one of the few artists to have won a Golden Globe (1961), Oscar (1962), Grammy (1972), Tony (1975), and Emmy (1977). In 2006, she played Amanda Wingfield in a new performance of ‘The Glass Menagerie’. He had a recurring role on the series ‘Law and Order’. After working on television, in 2011, she published her autobiography, ‘Rita Moreno: Life Without Makeup’. And again ‘West Side Story’ reappears in her life when Steven Spielberg calls her to make a cameo in the new version he was preparing. The actress convinces him to give her a bigger role. Spielberg accepts and decides that she be part of the cast of his film with the character of Valentina, 57 years later.
Rita Moreno had an eight-year relationship with Marlon Brando, during which time he was unfaithful to her on several occasions and was married twice. Out of spite, she had an affair with Elvis Presley. In 1965, Moreno married Leonard Gordon, a cardiologist, who was also her representative and who died on June 30, 2010. They had an only daughter, Fernanda Luisa Fisher, and two grandchildren, Justin and Cameron Fisher. In an interview, Moreno stated that Elvis Presley was not a good lover. They dated for a while, but whenever the opportunity to take the relationship to another level presented itself, Presley would walk away.
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