Rita Moreno

Award won Role or nomination

1. 1931 age 0

   Born

2. 1952 age 21

   CreditSingin' in the Rain

3. 1956 age 25

   CreditThe King and I

4. 1961 age 30

   CreditWest Side Story

5. 2021 age 90

   CreditWest Side Story

6. 2023 age 92

   CreditFast X

• ELErnest Lehman2 titles
• LBLeonard Bernstein2 titles
• JMJason Momoa1 title
• NENathalie Emmanuel1 title
• SASam Anderson1 title
• FFFrances Fisher1 title
• MRMichelle Rodriguez1 title
• KRKali Rocha1 title
• MHMark Harelik1 title
• CFCourtney Ford1 title

• Studied under

  • JCJeff Corey

Nothing recorded for: Spouse, Partner, Parents, Children, Siblings, Influenced by, Taught.

• It got me roles. And you know, for a while, that was wonderful — I was in the movies. But after a while I began to understand that it was really very demeaning. And I began to feel more and more and more diminished. I was already very unsure of myself anyway, because when I was a very young girl in New York City I ran into an awful lot of racial bias, and I got called some pretty nasty names, like 'spic' and — all the words you heard in West Side Story came directly from the streets — 'garlic mouth,' 'pierced ear.' So by the time I was doing those kind of roles — for a living, practically, in Hollywood — I was beginning to feel pretty bad about myself.

  Rita Moreno, CC BY-SA 4.0

• If you have been traumatised from the time you were a child to believe you were a ‘spic’, that you were a garlic-mouth, that you are not worthy, it takes a long time to get rid of that. That’s why therapy so often takes so long, because you’re trying to get rid of that trash before you can deal with the you that wants to get better. I went into therapy wanting to get better, knowing that in some way I had a sickness. And the sickness was Rita hates Rita.

  Rita Moreno, CC BY-SA 4.0

• I think that some people are genetically just strong. I really believe that my mom was like that. On the other hand, maybe you're forced to be that way because you realize you're either going to sink or swim, and the choice you make determines the kind of person you become…

  Rita Moreno, CC BY-SA 4.0

• I was told I was crying all the time I was unconscious…It wasn’t done for drama, that’s for sure. What I really wanted to do was kill the bad Rita who was always getting me in trouble, but it turned out if you’re going to kill the bad Rita, you’re also going to kill the good one.

  Rita Moreno, CC BY-SA 4.0

• What I say to my gente [people] is to hang on, and to remember who they are, be proud of who they are, and keep talking. And keep complaining, and just don't ever — don't give up. That's always been my motto anyway. My motto has always been "persevere" — perseverancia. And that's what we need to do.

  Rita Moreno, CC BY-SA 4.0

• I think part of the reason is because, unlike the black community, we don’t mainly come from America. We come from all kinds of countries and we’ve siloed ourselves rather than supporting each other, as we should have. We still think of ourselves as Argentinian or Puerto Rican or Mexican rather than Hispanic. Until we get over that and become one big wonderful community, we’re still going to have problems.

  Rita Moreno, CC BY-SA 4.0