December 11: Happy Birthday Rita Moreno

[TMC]

https://lebeauleblog.com/2016/12/11/...lee-steinfeld/

Rita Moreno, who turns 85 today, made her Broadway debut a few weeks prior to her 14th birthday, in a play called Skydrift (she was billed as “Rosita Cosio”). It’s hard to find out much about the play, but apparently Moreno made an impression, because she soon found herself working in film.

Moreno has described many of the roles she was offered in her first decade in film as “stereotypical Latina roles.” Exceptions included some appearances in film musicals—she played the small part of Zelda Zanders in Singin’ in the Rain, the major supporting role of Tuptim in The King and I, and then had another major supporting part in the film version of a musical that won Best Picture:


Even after winning an Oscar for West Side Story, Moreno found herself dissatisfied with the roles she was offered. She took much of the 1960s off from film and TV work (for part of the time working on Broadway), and since then has been somewhat selective about her roles. In addition to her Oscar, she has won a pair of Emmys (one for guesting on The Muppet Show), a Grammy for an album she made while appearing on PBS’s The Electric Company, and a Tony for Terrence McNally’s play The Ritz. She is one of only two people to have won a pair of unofficial “awards,” an EGOT and a Triple Crown of Acting (Helen Hayes is the other).