Oscar Profile #581: Rita Moreno

Born December 11, 1931 in Humacao, Puerto Rico, Rosa Dolores Alverio Marcano, known to the world by her stage name of Rita Moreno, was the daughter of a 17-year-old seamstress and her farmer husband. When she was 4, her mother moved with her to New York, leaving her younger son behind with her faithless husband. Moreno did not see her brother again until 2021.

Soon after arriving in New York, Moreno took dance lessons from Rita Hayworth’s uncle, Paco Cansino. With Cansino’s help, by the time she was 11, Moreno was voicing Hollywood films for their Spanish dubbed versions. She made her Broadway debut at 13 in Skydrift, which her to the attention of Hollywood scouts.

Moving with her mother to Los Angeles, she made her film debut as a teenager in 1950’s So Young, So Bad and worked steadily through the 1950s in such films as The Toast of New Orleans, Pagan Love Song, Singin’ in the Rain, Garden of Evil, Untamed, The King and I, and The Deerslayer. She had also been seen in numerous television productions beginning in 1952.

Moreno’s portrayal of Anita in the 1961 film version of West Side Story brought her an Oscar, the first step on her journey to becoming an EGOT, a rare winner of all four of the highest show business industry honors – an Emmy for her TV work, a Grammy for her recording work, an Oscar for her film work, and a Tony for her Broadway work.

In an off-and-on relationship with legendary actor Marlon Brando from 1954-1962, the actress married cardiologist Leonard Gordon in 1965 with whom she subsequently had a daughter and two grandsons. They remained married until his death in 2010.

In such later films as Summer and Smoke, Popi, Marlowe. and Carnal Knowledge, Moreno won a Grammy for 1972’s The Electric Company, a Tony for 1975’s The Ritz, and Emmys for 1977’s The Muppet Show and 1978’s The Rockford Files.

The actress’ most memorable works since the 1980s have included the 1981 film, The Four Seasons, the TV series Where in the World is Carmen Santiago? in which she voiced the title character from 1994-1999, and the HBO series, Oz from 1997-2003 in which she played Sister Pete, a nun and prison psychologist.

Her more recent films include 2014’s Six Dance Lessons in Six Weeks, 2016’s Remember Me, and Steven Spielberg’s 2021 remake of West Side Story for which she is again receiving awards recognition albeit in a different role than the one that won her an Oscar sixty years earlier.

Rita Moreno remains a force to be reckoned with at 90.

ESSENTIAL FILMS

THE KING AND I (1956), directed by Walter Lang

Original cast choices were Marlon Brando, Maureen O’Hara, and Dorothy Dandridge in the roles played by Yul Brynner, reprising his Broadway role, Deborah Kerr, and Moreno. Brynner originally wanted to direct, not act in the film. O’Hara was rejected by Richard Rodgers with the comment that “no pirate queen is going to play our Anna”, Dandridge was advised not to take the part because it was a supporting role. Moreno, a trained singer, is nevertheless dubbed on “We Kiss in a Shadow”, the only one of her songs that made it into the release print. She does, however, narrate “The Small House of Uncle Thomas”.

WEST SIDE STORY (1961), directed by Robert Wise, Jerome Robbins

Marni Nixon, who dubbed Deborah Kerr’s singing voice in The King and I, does the same for this film’s star, Natalie Wood as Maria, while Moreno, too, is once again dubbed in her iconic Oscar winning role as Maria’s friend, Anita. The film version of Leonard Bernstein and Stephen Sondheim’s 1957 Broadway musical was nominated for 11 Oscars and won 10 including Best Picture, Director (the first time two directors had won for the same fim), Supporting Actor (George Chakiris) and Supporting Actress (Moreno). The only nomination it lsot was for Best Adapted Screenplay.

THE RITZ (1976), directed by Richard Lester

Moreno won a Tony for Best Featured Actress in the 1975 Broadway production as a singer in a gay bathhouse chasing gangster in hiding Jack Weston who she mistakes for a nig-time Broadway producer in this hilarious farce written by Terrence McNally (Frankie & Johnny). The film version earned her a BAFTA nomination for Best Actress. Weston, Jerry Stiller, and F. Murray Abraham also reprised their stage roles with Kaye Ballard as Weston’s wife and Treat Williams as a squeaky-voiced private detective co-starring. Moreno sings “Everything’s Coming Up Roses”.

THE FOUR SEASONS (1981), directed by Alan Alda

Moreno and Weston were reunited for this popular comedy which also starred writer-director Alda, Carol Burnett, Len Cariou, Sandy Dennis, and Bess Armstrong. Alda, Burnett, Cariou, Dennis, Moreno and Weston comprise three couples who always take their vacations together. Their vacations, during the course of the film, comprise four in one year, one in each season from Spring to Winter. Armstrong replaces Dennis as Cariou’s latest fling after he dumps wife Dennis after their Spring vacation. Alda’s daughters play his and Burnett’s and Cariou and Dennis’ college age daughters.

WEST SIDE STORY (1961), directed by Steven Spielberg

Released sixty years after the first film version for which Moreno won her Oscar, she returns in a role specifically written for her as the widow of the soda shop owner from the earlier film. This time she gets to use her own singing voice, singing “Somewhere”. Rachel Zegler, Anton Kucher, Mike Faist, Daniel Alvarez, and Ariana DeBose have the roles previously played by Natalie Wood, Richard Beymer, George Chakiris, and Moreno. The film received strong critical notices and some early awards recognition upon its release, but box-office has been unexpectedly weak in the midst of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.