When, as a child, my mother took me to see
West Side Story at the movies, I instantly fell in love with Rita Moreno. All singing, all dancing, and so beautiful. I instantly developed a crush.
Rita Moreno was mostly cast in "exotic" cheesecake roles when she started her career, but did have supporting parts in
The Toast of New Orleans, Singing in the Rain, The King and I and
Summer and Smoke.
She landed the role of Anita in
West Side Story in 1961, winning a Best Supporting Actress Academy Award in the role originated on Broadway by Chita Rivera. She also had a brief but notable role in 1971's
Carnal Knowledge.
Rita Moreno appeared on Broadway in
The Last of the Red Hot Lovers, Gantry, the female version of
The Odd Couple and
The Ritz. She won a Tony for
The Ritz (which I had the privilege to see), in which she portrayed Googie Gomez, a send-up of her Latin spitfire roles. Googie was a cabaret singer performing in a gay men's bath house in the pre-AIDS era farce by playwright Terrence McNally. She later appeared in a film version of the play.
On tv, she was featured on
Electric Company and
The Muppet Show. She played Fran Drescher's tough high school gym teacher on
The Nanny and Drescher's mother on
Happily Divorced. She had recurring roles on HBO's
Oz and on
Law and Order: Criminal Intent.
She was married to Leonard Gordon, a cardiologist and her manager since 1965. He died on June 30, 2010. Previous to her marriage, she's discussed affairs with Elvis Presley and Marlon Brando. She has a daughter and two grandsons. In March 2013, her autobiography,
Rita Moreno: A Memoir, was released by Penguin Books.
