Rita Moreno, a Puerto Rican actress, singer, and dancer was born Rosa Dolores Alvero Marcano on December 11, 1931. With a distinguished career spanning more than seven decades in the entertainment business, she is known for her work in a variety of film, television, and theater ventures.

She has been in supporting roles in a number of well-known musical movies, including Singin’ in the Rain (1952), The King and I (1956), and the West Side Story film adaptations from 1961 and 2021. Popi (1969), Carnal Knowledge (1971), The Four Seasons (1981), I Like It Like That (1994), and the cult classic Slums of Beverly Hills are among her other significant productions (1998). She was also a television actress best remembered for her roles in the HBO series Oz and the children’s television series The Electric Company (1971–1977). (1997–2003).

From 1994 to 1999, she performed the title character in Where on Earth Is Carmen Sandiego? She has received praise for her performances in the revival of Norman Lear’s One Day at a Time and Jane the Virgin (2015–2019). (2017–2020). She gained fame in the theater for playing Googie Gomez in the 1975 musical The Ritz.

Moreno is one of the rare performers to have received an Emmy, a Grammy, an Oscar, and a Tony award among her many other honors (EGOT). She is also one of only 24 actors to have won the individually contested Tony, Emmy, and Academy honors for acting, together known as the Triple Crown of Acting. She was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2004, the nation’s highest civilian honor, by George W. Bush.

President Barack Obama awarded her the National Medal of Arts in 2009. She won the Screen Actors Guild Life Achievement Award in 2013. She received a Kennedy Center Honor in 2015 for her commitment to performing arts in America. In 2019, she received the Peabody Award. The 2021 film Rita Moreno: Just a Girl Who Decided to Go for It featured a profile on her life.

Rita Moreno parents: Paco Alverío, Rosa María

Moreno was born in Humacao, Puerto Rico, to farmers Francisco José “Paco” Alvero and Rosa Mara, a seamstress. “Rosita” was her nickname.

Moreno, whose mother was 17 when she was born, was brought up in the nearby Juncos community. Justino Marcano, a native of Puerto Rico, and Trinidad, a native of Spain, were her maternal grandparents.

In 1936, Moreno’s mother relocated to New York City with her daughter but not with her son, Francisco, Moreno’s younger brother, whom Moreno would not see again until 2021.

Moreno took up the last name of Edward Moreno, her first stepfather, and Rosa Maria’s second husband. She resided in the Long Island villages of Valley Stream, which are a part of the town of Hempstead that borders New York City, during her adolescent years.