(Directed by Jerome Robbins, Robert Wise. With Natalie Woo...)
Directed by Jerome Robbins, Robert Wise. With Natalie Wood, George Chakiris, Richard Beymer, Russ Tamblyn. Two youngsters from rival New York City gangs fall in love, but tensions between their respective friends build toward tragedy.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0055614/
The Ritz (1976) - IMDb
(Directed by Richard Lester. With Jack Weston, Rita Moreno...)
Directed by Richard Lester. With Jack Weston, Rita Moreno, Jerry Stiller, Kaye Ballard. On his deathbed Carmine Vespucci's father tells him to "get Proclo". With "the hit" on, Gaetano tells a cab driver to take him where Carmine can't find him. He arrives at the Ritz, a gay bathhouse where he is pursued amorously by "chubby chaser" Paul B. Price and by entertainer Googie Gomez who believes him to be a broadway producer. His guides through the Ritz are gatekeeper Abe, habitue Chris, ...
Rita Dolores Moreno is a Puerto Rican-American actress, dancer and singer. Her career has spanned over 70 years; among her notable acting work are supporting roles in the musical films The King and I and West Side Story, as well as a 1971–77 stint on the children's television series The Electric Company, and a supporting role on the 1997-2003 TV drama Oz.
Background
Rosa Dolores Alverio was born in the small town of Humacao, Puerto Rico, in the southeastern region of the island. Her father was Paco Alverio and her mother was Rosa Maria Marcano. Her mother moved to the United States when Rita was just 5 years old and worked as a seamstress until she saved enough money to go back to the island and bring her daughter with her. A child of bright disposition, she expressed interest in dancing early on in her life. She was the kid who danced on tables at age 5 for Grandpa or anybody who would watch".
Education
As a child, she took dancing lessons with Paco Cansino. To supplement her family's income, she acted in children's theater productions, such as those in the toy department of Macy's in New York.
Despite the fact that she attended public schools and lived in the poor immigrant district of Washington Heights in New York, she pursued a career in entertainment and by the age of 13 debuted on Broadway in Skydrift as a flamenco dancer. Although the play lasted only a few performances, it introduced Rita to the world of entertainment which sire never again left. During her teens, she danced and worked in different nightclubs throughout the United States.
Career
When she was 17, a talent agent who had contacts with MGM, scouted her and introduced her to the legendary Louis B. Mayer who signed her as an actress with his studio. MGM asked her to change her name, so she shortened from Rosita to Rita and adopted her stepfather's last name.
During the 1950s, the 5'3" Puerto Rican actress was typecast by Hollywood in many В-rated movies that lacked importance or artistic significance. Since Hollywood producers limited anyone who had a different ethnic background to tight ethnic roles, she was recruited to play Latino roles but also a wide array of other "ethnic" roles. She had very little chances to showcase her talents or to be perceived as something other than an ethnic actress. One of Moreno's best acting opportunities of that period came in 1956, when she appeared with Yul Bryner as the Burmese slave girl Tuptim in the film the King and I. Moreno has said that Bryner was a wonderful mentor who paid for her acting lessons because he wanted her to be as good as he was. During the 1950s, while still working in films, she acted on the stage and worked with summer repertoire companies in California and throughout the United States. Ironically, she was offered the opportunity to audition for the stage version of West Side Story but refused because she was too involved in her film and acting careers on the West Coast.
Even when she had a steady professional career during the 1950s, Moreno lived through a scries of turbulent events and difficult love affairs in Hollywood that gave her a reputation as a hot and difficult Latina. After breaking a long and tumultuous relationship with actor Marlon Brando that had lasted almost ten years, she tried to commit suicide by overdosing on sleeping pills. Of that period she has said: "It was a turning point in my life, though. Life is really very precious and, 1 was reminded of that". She emerged from that situation with a renewed sense of direction and motivation, and with an energy that allowed her to build the stellar career for which she is brown today.
Moreno's significant career break occurred when she was selected to play the rebellious and rambunctious Anita in the film adaptation of West Side Story. Interestingly, she was to duplicate on film the role that brought such great accolades on Broadway to fellow Puerto Rican actress Chita Rivera. Directed by Robert Wise and choreographed by Jerome Robbins, the role gave Moreno an opportunity to display her vocal and dancing talents. West Side Story is an adaptation of Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet, modernized and contextualized within the gang rivalries that permeated New York during the 1950s. Her energetic dancing as the girlfriend of Bernardo, one of the gang leaders, undisputedly made her one of the central performers in the movie. She has said that its heavily orchestrated choreography "damn near killed me, I was the old lady of that group". Even though today West Side Story is seen by many as politically incorrect, damaging, and stereotypical of Puerto Ricans, her singing and dancing routines particularly the one for the song "America" have become historic milestones, as one of the first times a Puerto Rican woman occupied such a relevant role in a mainstream American film.
During the 1960s and early 1970s, Moreno continued to garner great reviews in both film and theater projects. In an interesting career move, she joined the cast of the Children's Television Workshop's Electric Company, along with entertainer Bill Cosby. Her participation in the show's soundtrack earned a Grammy in 1972 as the best recording for children. In 1975 she appeared in Terrence McNally's The Ritz as Googie Gómez. The role had been created by Moreno herself as a diversion while filming West Side Story. Her performance at the Longacres Theater in Broadway brought her a Tony Award in 1975. To some extent, this role, where she plays a Puerto Rican singer with a strong Spanish accent, has been seen as her way of getting back at Hollywood and Broadway for her earlier typecasting in ethnic roles. The Ritz was made into a film, but although she got great reviews, it had little success at the box office. Later in the 1970s, she appeared on The Muppet Show (1977) and The Rockford Files (1978), for which she earned two Emmys.
She has become active in educational campaigns to promote language competency among Americans, and has also written to support the pro-choice movement in the United States, describing her own difficult choice to have an abortion earlier in her career .
Connections
Married Leonard I. Gordon, June 18, 1965. 1 child, Fernanda Luisa.