Rita Moreno

But before that award, included among the 10 Oscars that West Side Story won , Rita Moreno had already had more than ten years of acting career. And although it is true that most of her works at that time were limited to episodes of television series, she had also been part of films with great packaging. What is clear is that Rita Moreno knows a lot about acting. It is not by chance that she is one of the few actresses of Hispanic descent, and perhaps the only one, who has won an Oscar, an Emmy, a Grammy and a Tony. It is said soon.

Rita Moreno’s real name is Rosita Dolores Alverio, and she was born in Humacao (Puerto Rico) on December 11, 1931. At the age of six she moved with her mother to New York and there she soon began to make her first steps in the world. of the interpretation. At the age of 11, she worked dubbing movies into Spanish and shortly before turning 14 she made her Broadway debut in the play “Skydrift”, where she coincided with a young Eli Wallach . In 1950, when she was 19, she first appeared in three films: the drama So Young So Bad , starring Paul Henreid ; Norman Taurog ‘s musical The Toast of New Orleans , which starred Kathryn Grayson ; and Pagan Love Sun, another musical starring Esther Williams . In general, these and many more future roles responded to the clichés of the time around women of Latin descent, thus highlighting her exoticism and her beauty in a way that the actress did not like. But she would have to keep pushing and seize the opportunity if she wanted to make it to the top.

One of those opportunities was obtained by Rita two years later, when she was offered a small role in the classic of the classics, Singing in the Rain . After that film, Rita joined casts of correct films, which sought adventure in exotic places, such as Cattle Town (1952), My Brazilian Love (1953), Jívaro (1954), The King and I (1956) , with the memorable role of Tuptim, or The Deerslayer (1957), set in the days of the North American colonies. She was also signed to take part in some westerns of a certain category, such is the case of El jardín del diablo (1954) or Caravana to the south(1955). But the actress hadn’t quite found her ‘status’ and she continued with unimportant roles that were too pigeonholed, to the point that she frequented various episodes of discreet television series…

Her life changed for her when Robert Wise and Jerome Robbins and their exceptional West Side Story arrived . With her memorable role as Puerto Rican Anita, Maria’s ( Natalie Wood ) inseparable friend, Rita Moreno looked splendid and the Academy awarded her the Oscar for best supporting actress. That same year she also stood out in the superb drama Summer and Smoke , adapted by Tennessee Williams .. 1965 was a happy year, as the actress married Lenny Gordon, with whom she had a son and with whom she shared her life for 45 years, until his death in 2010. But fate is capricious and in the filmography of the actress high-quality films began to shine again by their absence. She never disappeared from the scene, because she did not stop making series or TV movies, but viewers began to forget her smiling face and her lively eyes. Works with a certain pull were Popi (1969), with Alan Arkin ; Marlowe, a Very Private Detective (1969), with James Garner ; the morbid Carnal Knowledge (1971), with Jack Nicholson ; and especially The Ritz(1975), Richard Lester ‘s accomplished and rowdy comedy . He enjoyed success again in 1978, although on television and especially from the point of view of critics, when he won the Emmy Award thanks to the series The Rockford Cases .

At the age of fifty, he shot an important role in the comedy The Four Seasons , by Alan Alda , and later made sporadic appearances in well-known television series such as Holidays at Sea (1983), The Bill Cosby Hour (1987), The Girls of gold (1987) and even in an episode of Miami Vice . In 1997, she especially highlighted her work on the crime series Oz , which she ran for six seasons. In the year 2000 she starred in Moonstruck (2000) , a new version of the one shot in 1987 by Norman Jewison . And in 2003 Rita was rescued for many viewers in Casa de los babys, creditable drama from independent John Sayles . Since then, Rita Moreno has remained very active, with appearances in the series Law and Order: Criminal Action , Cane or the most recent Happily Divorce .