Rita Moreno's Real Name: Rosa Dolores Alverio

Quick answer: The performer is known professionally as Rita Moreno. AllMusic says she was born Rosa Dolores Alverio in Puerto Rico, and a Library of Congress name record lists the same form. Encyclopaedia Britannica gives her birth date as December 11, 1931, in Humacao, Puerto Rico, and records the given name as Rosita Dolores Alverio. The two sources give different forms of her given name.

Real name and early life

AllMusic's biography, by Kim Summers, says she was born Rosa Dolores Alverio in Puerto Rico. Britannica gives December 11, 1931, in Humacao, Puerto Rico, and lists Rosita Dolores Alverio as her other name. The Library of Congress authority file carries both Rosa Dolores Alverío and Rosita Dolores Alverío as variants, along with the fuller Rosa Dolores Alverío Marcano.

Britannica says that after her parents divorced she moved to New York City with her mother in 1935, and that her mother later remarried; she then began using her stepfather's surname, Moreno. Both sources say she took dance lessons as a child. AllMusic names her dance mentor as Paco Cansino. Britannica adds that she dubbed voices for American child stars in films released in Spanish-speaking countries.

Both sources say she made her Broadway debut at 13 in Skydrift. Britannica dates that to 1945 and says her first film, So Young, So Bad (1950), credited her as Rosita Moreno before she settled on Rita.

Career highlights

Both sources describe years of stereotyped casting. Britannica lists Singin' in the Rain (1952) and The King and I (1956) among her early films, and AllMusic says she played Tuptim in the latter.

Both sources say she played Anita in West Side Story (1961) and won the Academy Award for best supporting actress. Britannica says she was the first Hispanic woman to win an Oscar and that her singing in the film was dubbed. It says she won a Tony in 1975 for playing Googie Gomez in The Ritz, a Grammy in 1972 for The Electric Company album, and Emmys in 1977 for The Muppet Show and in 1978 for The Rockford Files, completing the EGOT.

Britannica also lists the prison drama Oz, the voice of the title character in Where on Earth Is Carmen Sandiego?, One Day at a Time (2017–20), Steven Spielberg's 2021 West Side Story, and 80 for Brady (2023). It records the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2004, Kennedy Center Honors in 2015, and a 2013 memoir. AllMusic says she married Lenny Gordon, a doctor who became her manager, in 1965.

Name notes for searchers

People looking up Rita Moreno, Rosita Moreno, Rosa Dolores Alverio, or Rosita Dolores Alverio are looking for the same performer. Moreno was her stepfather's surname.