Rita Moreno is celebrating her 90th birthday Saturday. It just happens to fall on the opening weekend for Steven Spielberg’s revamped version of the 1961 film version of “West Side Story” for which Moreno won an Oscar as best supporting actress in the role of Anita.
In the new film, Moreno is appearing in the newly created role of Valentina, the widow of Doc, the candy store owner who tries to help the star-crossed lovers, Tony and Maria, with tragic results. She also was an executive producer of the film, charged with correcting some of the flaws of the 1961 film, particularly by casting Hispanic actors in the appropriate roles.
Brent Miller, a producer of the recently released documentary, “Rita Moreno: Just a Girl Who Decided to Go for It,” asked Moreno about how she felt turning 90.
The Deadline entertainment website reported that she replied:
”It doesn’t feel any different. On the face of it, nothing has changed I’m older and deeply grateful for still being here. And inevitably, now there is concern about what’s next after “West Side Story.” And anyone who tells you otherwise is a damn liar.”
Moreno was born in Humacao, Puerto RIco in 1931, and when she was five she emigrated to the U.S. with her mother, who was a seamstress. As a young girl, she helped support her family by working as a professional dancer in Greenwich Village nightclubs.
Moreno went on to become a Hollywood legend. She’s one of the few actors to accomplish an EGOT — the so-called “grand slam of show business” — by winning an Emmy, Grammy, Oscar and Tony award. Most of the 16 EGOT winners, not surprisingly, are songwriters.
Moreno won her Oscar (1961) for “West Side Story; her Grammy (1972) for Best Recording for Children — “The Electric Company; her Tony (1975) for Best Featured or Supporting Actress in a Play — “The Ritz; and two Primetime Emmys (1977 and 1978) for Outstanding Continuing or Single Performance by a Supporting Actress in Variety or Music — “The Muppet Show” and Outstanding Lead Actress for a Single Appearance in a Drama or Comedy Series — “The Rockford Files” for the episode “The Paper Palace.”
But despite the awards, Moreno had to battle both sexism and racism throughout her ground-breaking career.
Here’s the trailer for “Rita Moreno: Just a Girl Who Decided to Go For It,” which was released earlier this year. The full film is available on Apple TV, for PBS subscribers, and on other services.
And here’s an interview she recently gave for “60 Minutes”
As a teenager, she landed a studio contract with MGM. A talent scout said she looked like a “Spanish Elizabeth Taylor.” She did have a small part as a silent movie star, Zelda Zanders, in “Singin’ in the Rain,” a role she got at the urging of Gene Kelly, but she was often cast as exotic island girls.
She experienced Hollywood’s brand of racism when it came to casting for the musical “The King and I.” She told The Hollywood Reporter in a recent interview that she was screen-tested for the role of Tuptim, a concubine to the king, along with French-Asian actor France Nuyen, whom she felt would have been perfect for the part. Moreno got the role, perhaps because she was a contract player.
She had a tumultuous years-long affair with Marlon Brando, which in 1961 led her to attempt suicide. She told THR that Brando “didn’t have respect for women.” She even dated Elvis Presley to make Brando jealous.
At the same time she was gaining acclaim for her performance as Anita in “West Side Story.” But she told THR that she came close to rejecting the role because of one song -— her show-stopping number “America.”
She told The Hollywood Reporter that she was thrilled to get the part of Anita after auditioning the acting, singing and dancing scenes.
“And I was sitting at home, celebrating all that, and I decided to look at the lyrics of “America,” because I wanted to learn them. And I see myself singing, “Puerto Rico, you ugly island, island of tropic diseases,” and I stopped and said, “Oh, my God. I can’t do that. I mean, what are my people going to think?” And I just began to cry because I thought, “I have to back out of this.”
And I was about to call my agent, and I knew what he would say after all of my struggles to get this part — he would probably start screaming, “Are you fucking crazy? What are you talking about?” But literally, about two days later, I got a new script with new rewrites and new words to the verse of “America.” People think I went to Stephen Sondheim. I wouldn’t dare. I didn’t know him. Now it said, “Puerto Rico, my heart’s devotion, let it sink back in the ocean.” I thought, “That I can do.”
”
But despite her Oscar-winning performance, Moreno still found herself being offered stereotypical roles that she found degrading.
She told The Miami Herald in 2008:
“Before West Side Story I was always offered the stereotypical Latina roles. The Conchitas and Lolitas in westerns. I was always barefoot. It was humiliating, embarrassing stuff. But I did it because there was nothing else. After` West Side Story,’ it was pretty much the same thing. A lot of gang stories.''
But she persisted and overcame the obstacles, appearing on numerous TV shows, including recurring roles on “The Electric Company,” “The Rockford Files,” “9 to 5,” and “Jane the Virgin.” She appeared in such films as “Carnal Knowledge” and “The Four Seasons.”
Here’s a brief retrospective with some of her career highlights.
More recently, she played a Cuban-American grandmother on the remake of Norman Lear’s ‘70s sitcom, “One Day at a Time,” which initially was on Netflix.
Moreno received the Presidential Medal of Freedom from President George W. Bush in 2004, and the National Medal of Arts from President Barack Obama in 2009. In 2015, she and Spielberg were both among the Kennedy Center honorees.
Here’s the heartfelt Kennedy Center tribute by Gina Rodriguez, the star of “Jane the Virgin,” which featured Moreno in several episodes.
When Spielberg called about playing a role in “West Side Story, she told THR that initially she thought it would be a cameo.
“I was trying to be very delicate, but I said to Steven — and he’s one of my favorite directors ever — I said, “You know, I don’t do cameos. I just honestly feel it might hurt the movie.” And he interrupted me and says, “Oh, God, no, this is not a cameo. This is a real acting part.” I
Moreno might make history again. She could end up being nominated for Best Supporting Actress for the new “West Side Story.”
As an executive producer, she also worked closely with Spielberg and screenwriter Tony Kushner to make sure that this time they got things right. She told THR:
“One of the very first things they did was they called the University of Puerto Rico and sought feedback. I’ll tell you, they turned themselves into pretzels, those two, trying to get it right. There isn’t a Hispanic in this movie that isn’t Hispanic. It’s all for real, and they are their own colors because we are many colors. But they made every effort. There wasn’t a week that went by that they didn’t have someone lecture them. They brought in academics, and everybody had to hear these off-the-cuff lectures. Everybody. The Jets and the Sharks. What it was like then, all of this. In fact, the first week I joined them, which was for costume fittings and rehearsals, they were doing the dance rehearsals, and they had somebody in. And then they co-opted me and Tony said, “Please tell them about your life.” Because he knows my story. And he’d say, “Oh wait, you, you forgot something. What about this and that?”
And here are some birthday tributes to Rita Moreno:
Spielberg’s birthday is Dec. 18. Rachel Zegler stars as Maria in the film.