Chita Rivera, the dynamic dancer, singer and actress who garnered 10 Tony nominations, winning twice, in a long Broadway career that forged a path for Latina artists and shrugged off a near-fatal car accident, died on Tuesday (Wednesday in Australia). She was 91.
Rivera’s death was announced by her daughter, Lisa Mordente, who said she died in New York after a brief illness.
“It is with immense personal sorrow that I announce the death of the beloved Broadway icon Chita Rivera. My dear friend of over 40 years was 91,” Rivera’s representative Merle Frimark said in a separate statement.
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“She is also survived by her siblings Julio, Armando and Lola del Rivero, (her older sister Carmen predeceased her), along with her many nieces, nephews and friends,” Frimark’s statement continued.
“Her funeral will be private. A memorial service will be announced in due course.”
Rivera first gained wide notice in 1957 as Anita in the original production of West Side Story and was still dancing on Broadway with her trademark energy a half-century later in 2015’s The Visit.
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“I wouldn’t know what to do if I wasn’t moving or telling a story to you or singing a song,” she told The Associated Press then.
“That’s the spirit of my life, and I’m really so lucky to be able to do what I love, even at this time in my life.”
In August 2009, Rivera was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the highest honor the U.S. can give a civilian. Rivera put her hand over her heart and shook her head in wonderment as President Barack Obama presented the medal. In 2013, she was the marshal at the Puerto Rican Day Parade in New York City.
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Rivera rose from chorus girl to star, collaborating along the way with many of Broadway’s greatest talents, including Jerome Robbins, Leonard Bernstein, Bob Fosse, Gower Champion, Michael Kidd, Harold Prince, Jack Cole, Peter Gennaro and John Kander and Fred Ebb.
She rebounded from a car accident in 1988 that crushed her right leg and became an indefatigable star on the road. She was on Broadway in a raucous production of The Mystery of Edwin Drood in 2012 and the chilly The Visit in 2014, earning another best actress Tony nomination.
She won Tonys for The Rink in 1984 and Kiss of the Spider Woman in 1993. When accepting a Tony Award for Lifetime Achievement in 2018, she said “I wouldn’t trade my life in the theatre for anything, because theatre is life.”
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She was nominated for the award seven other times, for Bye Bye Birdie, which opened in 1960; Chicago, 1975; Bring Back Birdie, 1981; Merlin, 1983; Jerry’s Girls, 1985; Nine, 2003; and Chita Rivera: The Dancer’s Life, 2005.
Her albums include 16 tracks pulled from her original cast recordings and put out as part of Sony’s Legends of Broadway series and two solo CDs – And Now I Sing for a tiny record label in the 1960s and And Now I Swing in 2009 for Yellow Sound Label.
In 1975, she originated the role of Velma Kelly (to Gwen Verdon’s Roxie Hart) in the original Broadway production of Chicago. Rivera had a small role in the 2002 film version, while Catherine Zeta-Jones won the best supporting actress Oscar as Velma – just as Rita Moreno had picked up an Oscar for her portrayal of Anita in West Side Story.
The songwriters for Chicago, Kander and Ebb, also wrote Rivera’s first Tony-winning performance, for The Rink. In winning the Tony for best actress in a musical, Rivera topped the show’s top star, Liza Minnelli, who also had been nominated. The two played a mother and daughter who struggle to rebuild their relationship after a long estrangement; the setting is an old-fashioned roller rink that has seen better days.
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Spider Woman had been her first Broadway show since 1986, when she suffered a broken leg in the traffic accident while she was appearing in Jerry’s Girls, a Broadway tribute to the songs of Jerry Herman.
At the Tony awards a few weeks later, she flashed her cast and belted out Put on a Happy Face from the musical Bye, Bye, Birdie.
It took months of physical therapy to bring back her dancing skills. She told The Associated Press: “It never entered my mind that I wouldn’t dance again. Never. I can’t explain to you why. It’s hard work getting back but that’s what I’m doing.”
“My spirit is still there.”
Rivera married fellow West Side Story performer Tony Mordente in 1957. The marriage ended in divorce. Their daughter, Lisa Mordente, also became a performer who occasionally appeared on Broadway, garnering a Tony nomination in 1982 for Marlowe.
“Our hearts go out to everyone who loved her,” GLAAD said in a statement. “Rivera spent much of her long career advocating for LGBTQ people and people living with HIV and AIDS.”