Rita Moreno

Rita Moreno was born Rosa Dolores Alverío Marcano on December 11, 1931. Her career has spanned over 70 years. Among her notable acting work are supporting roles in the musical films Singin' in the Rain (1952) and West Side Story (1961) She is best known for her role as Googie Gomez in The Ritz. She voiced the titular role of Carmen Sandiego from 1994 to 1999. She is currently portraying the role of Lydia Margarita del Carmen Inclán Maribona Leyte-Vidal de Riera in the 2017 remake of One Day at a Time. She is one of 23 people who have achieved what is called the Triple Crown of Acting. She has won numerous other awards, including various lifetime achievement awards and the Presidential Medal of Freedom. In 2015, she was awarded a Kennedy Center Honors Lifetime Artistic Achievement Award for her contribution to American culture, through performing arts. She will be awarded the Peabody Career Achievement Award in 2019. She will receive the award for her work in the field of radio and television. She was awarded the award in 2012. She is the daughter of former President Jimmy Carter and his wife, Rosalie.

Rita Hayworth began dancing with a Spanish dancer known as "Paco Cansino" When she was 11 years old, she lent her voice to Spanish language versions of American films. She had her first Broadway role, as "Angelina" in Skydrift, by the time she was 13. Moreno debuted her film career during the later years of the Golden Age of Hollywood. Moreno acted steadily in films throughout the 1950s, usually in small roles. In 1961, Moreno landed the role of Anita in Robert Wise and Jerome Robbins' film adaptation of Leonard Bernstein's and Stephen Sondheim's West Side Story. After winning the Oscar, Moreno thought she would be able to continue to perform less stereotypical film roles, but was disappointed. "I didn't make another movie for seven years after winning the Academy Award," she said. "Before West Side Story, I was always offered the stereotypical Latina roles," she added. "I was always barefoot. The Conchitas and Lolitas in westerns. It was humiliating, embarrassing stuff. But I did it because there was nothing else," he says. "I was barefoot, I was bare-foot. I was a little girl. I didn't know what else to do." Moreno had a major role in Summer and Smoke (1961), released soon after West Side Story. She did appear in one film during her self-imposed exile from Hollywood – Cry of Battle (1963) She made her return to film in The Night of the Following Day (1968) with Marlon Brando. Moreno will star in, and executive produce along with Steven Spielberg, the remake of West Side Story. She is the third person (after Richard Rodgers and Helen Hayes) to have won an Oscar (1962), a Grammy (1972), a Tony (1975), and an Emmy (1977) She had a recurring role on Law & Order: Criminal Intent as the dying mother of Detective Robert Goren. She played the family matriarch on the short-lived 2007 TV series Cane, which starred Jimmy Smits and Hector Elizondo. In 2014, Moreno appeared in the NBC television film Old Soul, alongside Natasha Lyonne, Fred Willard and Ellen Burstyn. Moreno plays the matriarch of a Cuban-American family in the Netflix sitcom One Day at a Time. Critics overall praised the show, and especially the performances of Moreno and the series' star, Justina Machado. The film was intended as a pilot for a television series, but it was not picked up. She appeared in the female version of The Odd Couple that ran in Chicago, for which she won the Sarah Siddons Award in 1985. In September 2011, Moreno began performing a solo autobiographical show at the Berkeley Rep (theater) in Berkeley, California, Rita Moreno: Life Without Makeup.

In June 1965, Moreno married cardiologist and her manager Leonard Gordon. They remained together until his death in 2010. Moreno and Gordon have one daughter, Fernanda Gordon Fisher, and two grandsons. The couple also have a son and daughter-in-law. Moreno was romantically involved with actor Marlon Brando. It was a tumultuous relationship due to his infidelity. When Moreno became pregnant, Brando arranged for an abortion. Moreno once considered leaving her husband but could not because she did not want to break up the family. After a botched abortion, Moreno tried to commit suicide by overdosing on his sleeping pills. She dated Elvis Presley for quite some time, but whenever the opportunity presented itself to take the relationship to another level, she said Presley backed off. Moreno stated that theater critic Kenneth Tynan stalked her.