“Forgotten Hollywood”- SAG Awards to Honor Rita Moreno…

Posted on January 17, 2014 by raideoman1 | No Comments

Manny P. here…

sag_logo_color_highres_20    Rita Moreno will be the recipient of a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Screen Actors Guild on Saturday. She’s had a versatile career as a singer, dancer, and actress, and one of a few performers to have garnered all four major entertainment awards, which include an Oscar, Tony, Emmy, and Grammy; and only the second Puerto Rican to win an Academy Award.

   She had her first Broadway job — as Angelina in Skydrift — by the time she was 13, which caught the attention of Hollywood talent scouts, and it landed her an MGM contract. She had walk-ons in The Toast of New Orleans, Ma and Pa Kettle on Vacation, and Singin’ in the Rain. In 1954, she was featured on the cover of Life Magazine with the caption, Rita Moreno: An Actresses’ Catalog of Sex and Innocence. The star earned a small role in the movie version of The King and I.

rita_moreno_medium   In 1961, Moreno accepted the part of Anita in Robert Wise’s and Jerome Robbins’ film adaptation of Leonard Bernstein’s and Stephen Sondheim’s groundbreaking musical, West Side Story, which had been played by Chita Rivera on Broadway. Moreno won the Best Supporting Actress Academy Award. After winning the Oscar, she thought she would be able to perform less stereotypical film types, but was disappointed by the studio system. Rita was cast in Carnal Knowledge in 1968.   RITA MORENO —->

   She made appearances on television, including The Jack Benny Program, The Love Boat, The Rockford Files, The Cosby Show, George Lopez, The Golden Girls, and Miami Vice. Her Broadway credits include The Last of the Red Hot Lovers, Gantry, The Ritz (Rita won the 1975 Tony Award for Best Featured Actress), and the female version of The Odd Couple. She received the Sarah Siddons Award for her work in Chicago.

   In 1993, Moreno was invited to perform at Bill Clinton’s presidential inauguration, and later that month, she was asked to perform at the White House. She continues to be active on the stage and screen.

   Congrats to the vivacious Rita Moreno on her latest accolade!

Until next time>                               “never forget”

This entry was posted on Friday, January 17th, 2014 at 1:09 pm and is filed under Blog by Manny Pacheco. You can follow any comments to this post through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.


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