Rita! Rita! Rita!
Monday, July 22, 2013 at 7:26PM 
Rita made the cover of "Life" in 1954 Congratulations to "Anita" herself, Rita Moreno. The EGOT winner, West Side Story MVP, and showbiz legend will be honored with the SAG Lifetime Achievement Award this coming January at the SAG Awards Ceremony live on TNT and TBS on Saturday, Jan. 18, 2014. Unlike the Academy Awards (for shame) the Screen Actors Guild still understands the importance of honoring the giants of showbiz history each year on their broadcast, bless them.
Rita was the third actor to win the coveted "Triple Crown" (Tony, Emmy, Oscar) and coincidentally also the third performer to manage an "EGOT" (Emmy, Grammy, Oscar and Tony). What's most impressive about both achievements is that the awards were spread out over two decades and came for entirely different things (it's possible, after all, to win Grammys and Oscars for the same film and theoretically possible to win Emmys for performing on a Tony Awards show ;). This indicates true staying power and a lovely capacity to evolve. And, in Rita's case, she did this in an industry that was notoriously difficult for actresses of color to navigate. It still is to some degree but less so thanks to people like Rita.
The Puerto Rican triple threat first made waves via movie musicals -- Singin' in the Rain (1952), The King and I (1954), West Side Story (1961, Oscar) -- but maintained her fame through work on stage (The Ritz won her the Tony in '75), and television in such memorable shows as The Muppet Show (Emmy), Electric Company (Grammy), HBO's Oz and so on and so on. Children's Television, Immortal Musicals, and Racy Maximum-Security Drama; that's some range! And she's still working. She recently wrapped filming on a little movie called Six Dance Lessons in Six Weeks which co-stars other wonderful older actresses like Gena Rowlands and Jacki Weaver.
Now about the award... while my personal preference is to give lifetime achievement and honorary prizes to people who haven't logged a lot of hours holding golden statues up in triumph, we all know this is not how Hollywood works. They love a winner so you have a lot better shot getting a lifetime achievement for your career if you've already won prizes for that career over the years and don't need the lifetime honor for anyone to remember you. In this case we don't mind so much since Rita is a truly special figure and breakthrough in Hollywood history. Bring this on.
Rita celebrating WSS's 50th anniversary a couple of years back
Anita's gonna get her kicks, SAG Nii-iiii-iiiight ♩ She'll have a private little mix, SAG Nii-iiii-iiight
Tell us how much you love Rita in the comments. You know you do.
Reader Comments (14)
She's going to be here in El Paso next month for a film festival, they're going to be showing West Side Story and she's going to be in attendance. I am so excited to be honest.
I caught Rita's one-woman show in Berkeley a few years back. She told amazing stories about growing up in Puerto Rico, being a child in show business, being a woman of color in Hollywood, dating Elvis, her affair with Marlon Brando...
She's still got it-- singing, dancing, crack comic delivery. It was such an energetic performance it's hard to believe she's in her 80s.
She's one of the all-time greats.
3rd Actor & 3rd Performer to win the egot......aren't these one in the same?
What's the difference between actor & performer?
I loved her in West Side Story but i honestly really only became a fan after seeing her as Sister Pete on HBO's Oz.
She remained flawless even when the show took some left turns. Some of my favorite scenes from the show involve her and my beloved manipulative sociopathic bastard, Chris Keller (Christopher Meloni).
It's a shame how Oz is often so overlooked and forgotten.
I know I do! Totally well deserved, despite being criminally underused in movies for decades.
Mark: Third actor to win the triple crown and third actor to win the EGOT (the triple crown + 1 coined by Philip Michael Thomas, popularized by 30 Rock.) :)
I remember being so besotted with Alan Alda's The Four Seasons that I saw it twice at the theater. Rita was simply beguiling as the straight-shooting friend who also had a heart the size of her mouth. She also got to act with Carol Burnett and Sandy Dennis. Not too shabby. Wish I could track down The Ritz.
She lives in Berkeley, which means those of us SF, get a chance to see her at public appearances now and then. A few years ago she did an onstage talk before a screening of West Side Story at the Castro Theater. She was funny, charming, irreverent and classy. I adore her.
The proudest moment in my family history happened in the 1970s when my uncle Carlos met Rita Moreno. He saw her at a bodega and recognized her as the goddess of Puerto Rican pop culture that she is, and he approached her for an autograph. She thought he was so cute, she gave him a kiss instead.
I'm not kidding, that story gets told at EVERY family get together. And rightly so. Because Rita Moreno is awesome.
The Ritz, The Ritz, The Ritz. Love West Side, but The Ritz is one of the best comic performances ever put to film.
She has always been (and probably always will be) my favorite EGOT, since she did it as a true triple threat: Rita was the first, and so far only, person to get the Grammy part of the EGOT for singing and not have to get any honorary awards to do it (like Barbra and Liza). And her Oscar-winning performance contains a lot of great dancing. Love, love LOVE her!
Echo Peggy Sue's comments about being underused!
barbra has the honorary tony. La Liza's are all competitive. she should have been nominated for an emmy this year.
Such a talent and from different interviews I seen her give wonderfully down to earth and realistic. Also not afraid to express her opinion whether she thinks it will be popular or not.