Celebrity Biographies
Shelley Morrison
She gained fame – especially in the United States – as Rosario Salazar, the Salvadoran maid from “Will & Grace.” Actress Shelley Morrison passed away on December 1, 2019, at age 83, of liver failure, in Los Angeles.
Born on October 26, 1936 in New York, Rachel Mitrani –her real name– belonged to a family of Sephardic Jews from the Bronx. She began working in the 1960s as an actress, although she was typecast in ethnic roles, as she played Native Americans in the westerns Three Guns from Texas , and Mackenna’s Gold, and Hispanics in El castillo del mal , El hombre y el niño, and La Beverly Hills Troop . Shelley Morrison began to stand out in the series The Flying Nun , along with Sally Field , where she played Sor Sixto, a very shy Latina nun who had trouble speaking English.
She signed in 1999 for the series Will & Grace , with the purpose of interpreting the employee with a home with character Rosario Salazar in a single chapter that concluded the first season. But the writers realized her potential, and that she excited the public, so they decided to leave her permanently. “Rosario gave me a wonderful opportunity to be spontaneous,” she stated in an interview. “The characters just didn’t know if she was going to love them, hate them, put them down or hug them. The audience really liked that.”
Over the years, the interpreter has also worked in the theater. She is survived by her husband of 1973, production assistant and essay writer Walter Dominguez. The couple adopted three sons and three daughters.