Rita Moreno

I say, how many stars are more iconic than Rita Moreno?

Rita Moreno is an actress, singer and dancer who has been around, like, forever.  Originally from Puerto Rico, she moved with her family to Long Island as a girl and began acting on Broadway as a teenager.

She had some supporting roles in musical movies such as 1950's  The Toast of New Orleans and 1952's Singin' In the Rain, but her career really took off thanks to her portrayal of Anita in the 1961 movie version of West Side Story, winning her the Best Supporting Actress Oscar for that role.  Ms. Moreno would eventually make her way back to the theater in the 1969 Neil Simon comedy Last of the Red Hot Lovers, about a straight-laced fellow who wants to get a piece of the action in the sexual revolution (he doesn't). 

The 1970s saw Ms. Moreno perform in the cast of the children's educational show "The Electric Company" (alongside Morgan Freeman) and as a prostitute in Mike Nichols' 1971 movie Carnal Knowledge.  She also played Googie Gomez, a third-rate entertainer who wants to perform on Broadway, in the 1975 production of Terrence McNally farce The Ritz, about a straight businessman - played by Jack Weston - who unwittingly goes into a gay bathhouse.  She picked up a Tony Award for Nest Featured Actress In a Play for that role.

Ms. Moreno and Jack Weston would reunite for the 1976 film version of The Ritz (directed by Richard Lester) and in Alan Alda's 1981 friendship comedy-drama movie The Four Seasons, in which she played a non-Hispanic role - Claudia, an Italian-American who has a habit of announcing her ethnic origin to justify her attitude.  (Jack Weston played her paranoid husband.) 

And she even found the time to be the second guest star on "The Muppet Show," which won her an Emmy.  Not too many performers win an an an Oscar, a Tony and an Emmy in their careers.  And Rita Moreno even won a Grammy - for a long-play record version of "The Electric Company"!

Ms. Moreno turns ninety this December, but she isn't slowing down.  In fact, she recently wrapped up her work in a reboot of the old sitcom "One Day At a Time," in which Justina Machado played Penelope, a Cuban-American single mom of two kids trying to get by.  Rita Moreno played Penelope's mother.

Aw, heck.  Let's just build a fence around Rita Moreno and declare her a national treasure. 😊