Rita Moreno: b'day series
Beedow's Birthdays in History: A New Series... for when I don't have other things to write about slash time to write it in.
Today we featured Rita Moreno, born December 11 1931. She was on Broadway at age thirteen in the short-lived play SKYDRIFT (seven whole performances at the Belasco--which recently hosted the terrific revival of Odet's AWAKE AND SING!), which also starred Eli Wallach. She earned great recognition at age thirty for her role in the movie-fied WEST SIDE STORY as ingenue Maria.
What's the coolest thing about Rita? Well, she has an Oscar, Tony, Jefferson, Grammy, Emmy and a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. Only eight other people, and no other Hispanics, have rec'd the Big Four awards. But some will remember her best for yelling "Hey you guys" on PBS back in the 80s.
2 comments:
What a great picture of her!
And what's a Jefferson? (Oh, sure, I could Google, but then you'd have no comment from me...)
And, wait, didn't Natalie Wood play the part of Maria in the movie? Moreno played... uh... the other girl who wasn't Maria?
Was Moreno in the original Broadway version?
aha! true. Wood played Maria, Moreno Anita. Dear me, what a booboo that was. No, she wasn't on the b'way in WSS.
A Jefferson is the award for Chicago theatre. Check it out at jeffawards.org
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