Rita Moreno

Rita Moreno is one of the very few performers to win an Oscar, an Emmy, a Tony and a Grammy, thus becoming an EGOT. She was born Rosita Dolores Alverío in the hospital in Humacao, Puerto Rico on December 11, 1931 (but raised in nearby, smaller Juncos, which had no hospital), to seamstress Rosa María (Marcano) and farmer Francisco José "Paco" Alverío.

Her mother moved to New York City in 1937, taking Rita with her while leaving her reportedly unfaithful husband and Rita's younger brother behind. Rita's professional career began before she reached adolescence. At age 11, she landed her first movie experience, dubbing Spanish-language versions of US films.

Cites Citizen Kane (1941) as her all-time favorite film.

Less than a month before her 14th birthday on November 22, 1945, she made her Broadway debut in the play "Skydrift" at the Belasco Theatre, costarring with Arthur Keegan and a young Eli Wallach. Although she would not appear again on Broadway for almost two decades, Rita Moreno, as she was billed in the play, had arrived professionally.

In her memoir she describes how stunned she was when a handsome stranger, with his wife on his arm, very brazenly flirted with her. It was the 1950s and the man was then-Sen. John F. Kennedy. Moreno also described her disappointment about one-time lover Elvis Presley being much more like "a baby brother" than a stud.

Among the better pictures she appeared in were the classic Singin' in the Rain (1952) and King and I, The (1956).

The cover of the March 1, 1954, edition of "Life Magazine" featured a three-quarters, over-the-left-shoulder profile of the young Puerto Rican actress/entertainer with the provocative title "Rita Moreno: An Actresses' Catalog of Sex and Innocence". It was sexpot time, a stereotype that would plague her throughout the decade.

If not cast as a Hispanic pepper pot, she could rely on being cast as another "exotic", such as her appearance on Father Knows Best (1954) as an exchange student from India. Because of a dearth of decent material, Moreno had to play roles in movies that she considered degrading.

However, despite her talent, roles commensurate with that talent were not forthcoming in the 1960s. The following decade would prove kinder, possibly because the beautiful Moreno had aged gracefully and could now be seen by filmmakers, TV producers and casting directors as something other than the spitfire/sexpot that Hispanic women were supposed to conform to.

Director Robert Wise, who was chosen to co-direct West Side Story (1961) (the film version of the smash Broadway musical, a retelling of William Shakespeare's "Romeo & Juliet" with the warring Venetian clans the Montagues and Capulets re-envisioned as Irish/Polish and Puerto Rican adolescent street gangs, the Jets and the Sharks), cast Moreno as "Anita", the Puerto Rican girlfriend of Sharks' leader Bernardo, whose sister Maria is the piece's Juliet.

Is one of the only 15 "EGOT"s, i.e. actors who [have] won, competitively, at least one of each of the four major entertainment awards: Emmy, Grammy, Oscar and Tony. The other "EGOT"s, in chronological order, are Richard Rodgers, Helen Hayes, Robert Lopez, John Gielgud, Audrey Hepburn, Marvin Hamlisch, Jonathan Tunick, Mel Brooks, Mike Nichols, Whoopi Goldberg, James Earl Jones, John Legend, Andrew Lloyd Webber, and Tim Rice. Moreno once held the record to win all four EGOT awards (Emmy, Grammy, Oscar, Tony) in the shortest amount of time, within a 16-year time frame -- the Oscar in 1962, the Grammy in 1972, the Tony in 1975 and her first of two Emmys in 1977. This record was broken by Robert Lopez in 2014, when he won an Oscar to complete his EGOT. He achieved the feat in a 10-year time frame.

Ironically, it was in two vastly diverging roles--that of a $100 hooker in director Mike Nichols' brilliant realization of Jules Feiffer's acerbic look at male sexuality, Carnal Knowledge (1971), and Milly the Helper in the children's TV show The Electric Company (1971)--that signaled a career renaissance.

Moreno won a 1972 Grammy Award for her contribution to "The Electric Company"'s soundtrack album, following it up three years later with a Tony Award as Best Featured Actress in a Musical for "The Ritz" (a role she would reprise in the film version, The Ritz (1976)).

She then won Emmy Awards for The Muppet Show (1976) and The Rockford Files (1974). She has continued to work steadily on screen (both large and small) and on stage, solidifying her reputation as a national treasure, a status that was officially ratified with the award of the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President George W.

In 1977, she became the ninth performer to win the Triple Crown of Acting: (Oscar: Best Supporting Actress in West Side Story (1961), Tony, Best Featured Actress, The Ritz (1975) and Emmy 1977 (The Muppet Show (1976)) and 1978 (The Rockford Files (1974)).

Appeared in the pilot for the sitcom Empty Nest (1988), which was an episode of The Golden Girls (1985). The premise was changed in the final version of Empty Nest (1988), in which she did not appear.

Best known by the television-viewing public for her starring role as Sister Peter Marie Reimondo in Oz (1997).

Moreno's late husband, Dr. Leonard Gordon, was an internist and cardiologist. The couple had one child, Fernanda Luisa Gordon (aka Fernanda Gordon), who was delivered via an emergency Caesarean section. A successful jewelry designer, Fernanda founded Nandiz Design. She is married to David Fisher and they have two children, Justin Gordon Fisher (born 2002) and Cameron David Fisher (born 2004).

In June 2004 she was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by George W. Bush.

She was awarded a Star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 7080 Hollywood Boulevard in Hollywood, California on July 20, 2005.

She was awarded the American National Medal of the Arts on February 25, 2010 at the White House in Washington D.C. for her services and contributions to the arts.

Following Debbie Reynolds's death in December 2016, Moreno is the last surviving main cast member of Singin' in the Rain (1952).

On August 10, 2019, she was honored with a day of her film work during the Turner Classic Movies Summer Under the Stars.