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Why do we love Rita?
She blazed onto movie screens as Anita in West Side Story, a role that would earn her an Oscar as well as the title of "Latina Spitfire," but little did Rita Moreno know the impact that role would have on future generations of Latin performers.
At the age of five, Rosa Delores Alverio and her mother moved from a small town in Puerto Rico to the "island Manhattan" when the pressures of the Great Depression hit their small farm town. Mother went to work in the garment district and Rosita went about soaking up the culture, learning English, and dancing. Making her Broadway debut at thirteen, she caught the eye of a Hollywood talent scout and appeared in her first movie, at seventeen. At the request of MGM mogul, Louis B. Mayer, Rosita became Rita Moreno (her stepfather's name) and continued to toil in an assortment of ethnic roles in minor movies. It was in two small musical roles where she would finally be noticed - first as Zelda, the silent movie star in Singin' in the Rain and then as Tuptim in The King and I. A few roles followed her Oscar-winning turn in West Side Story, but it was still a battle in Hollywood, so Rita turned to the stage and television. Post Oscar, she added to her award collection, winning a Tony for her role as Googy Gomez in The Rink, a Grammy as part of a cast album for PBS's The Electric Company, and two Emmy awards for roles on The Muppet Show and The Rockford Files.
Aging gracefully is often looked down upon in the entertainment industry, but Rita continues to dazzle audiences with her cabaret shows and as part of the critically acclaimed HBO drama, Oz, where she's winning a new generation of fans.
Listed in the Guinness Book of World Records as being the first woman to win the Oscar, Emmy, Tony, and Grammy, perhaps her greatest achievement has been as a role model to an entire community and to women, everywhere.
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Biography:
Born - December 11, 1931
Humacao, Puerto Rico
Achievements:
- 1962 - Academy Award, Best Supporting Actress for West Side Story (1961)
- 1962 - Golden Globe, Best Supporting Actress for West Side Story (1961)
- 1972 - Grammy Award - The Electric Company Album
- 1975 - Tony Award, Supporting or Featured Actress (Drama) for The Ritz
- 1977 - Emmy Award, Outstanding Continuing or Single Performance by a Supporting Actress in Variety or Music (The Muppet Show)
- 1978 - Emmy Award, Outstanding Continuing or Single Performance by a Supporting Actress in Variety or Music (The Rockford Files)
- 1998, 1999, 2002 - ALMA Award, Outstanding Actress in a Television Series for Oz
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In her own words -- On being taken seriously:
"I thought it [winning the Oscar] was such an anomaly. And indeed it was in a way. It didn't change things much at all. What it did change, which I didn't know for years and years and years, was the climate within the Hispanic community. I cannot tell you how many Hispanic stars have since then either said in print or told me personally that my appearance in that movie and then getting the Oscar meant all the difference to them to the extent that they then felt that they could be in show business and that somehow they could make it happen for them."
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