Chita Rivera

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American actress, dancer and singer, born 23 January 1933 in Washington, D.C., USA, died January 30, 2024 in New York. She was married to Tony Mordente from 1957 to 1966 (divorced).

With a career spanning seven decades, Rivera's accolades include two Tony Awards, two Drama Desk Awards, and a Drama League Award. She was the first Latina and the first Latino American to receive a Kennedy Center Honor in 2002, and Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2008; she won the Tony Award for Lifetime Achievement in 2018.

Rivera's breakthrough came as "Anita" in the original Broadway production of “West Side Story” (1957). She went on to play memorably hard-edged women: Rosie in “Bye Bye Birdie” (1960), the murderous floozy Velma Kelly in “Chicago” (1975) and the title role in “Kiss of the Spider Woman” (1993). She sang enduring numbers in those roles: “America” in “West Side Story,” “One Boy” and “Spanish Rose” in “Bye Bye Birdie,” and “All That Jazz” in “Chicago.” Often critically lauded as perhaps the greatest musical-theater dancer ever; of her Tony Award-winning performance as Anna in “The Rink” (1984), Richard Corliss in Time magazine wrote: “Packing 30 years of Broadway savvy into the frame of a vivacious teenager, the 51-year-old entertainer could by now sell a song to the deaf.”

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