By Vickie Sellers

FROM WIKIPEDIA COMMONS

Dolores Conchita Figueroa del Rivero Anderson (January 23, 1933 – January 30, 2024), known professionally as Chita Rivera, was an American actress, singer, and dancer. Rivera received numerous accolades including 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 the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2009. She won the Tony Award for Lifetime Achievement in 2018.

After making her Broadway debut as a dancer in Guys and Dolls (1950), she went on to originate roles in Broadway musicals such as Anita in West Side Story (1957), Velma Kelly in Chicago (1975), and the title role in Kiss of the Spider Woman (1993). She was a ten-time Tony Award nominee, winning the Tony Award for Best Actress in a Musical twice for her roles in The Rink (1984) and Kiss of the Spider Woman (1993). She was Tony-nominated for her roles in Bye Bye Birdie (1961), Chicago (1975), Bring Back Birdie (1981), Merlin (1983), Jerry’s Girls (1986), Nine (2003), Chita Rivera: The Dancer’s Life (2005), and The Visit (2015).

Rivera acted in the film Sweet Charity (1969) and appeared in Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band (1978), and Tick, Tick… Boom! (2021). She played Connie Richardson in the CBS sitcom The New Dick Van Dyke Show (1973–1974). She also appeared on television in The Judy Garland Show (1963), The Carol Burnett Show (1971), and Will & Grace (2005). Her autobiography, Chita: A Memoir, was published in 2023.

On December 1, 1957, Rivera married fellow West Side Story dancer Tony Mordente. Her performance was so important for the success of the show that the London production of West Side Story was postponed until she gave birth to the couple’s daughter Lisa in 1958. They were divorced in 1966.

Rivera died in New York following a brief illness on January 30, 2024, at the age of 91.