Chita Rivera

Chita Rivera, born Dolores Conchita Figueroa del Rivero on January 23, 1933, in Washington, D.C., was an American actress, singer, and dancer whose Broadway career spanned from 1950 to 2015. She died on January 30, 2024. Her father, Pedro Julio Figueroa del Rivero, was a Puerto Rico-born clarinetist and saxophonist with the U.S. Navy Band whose family names are of Galician origin; her mother, Katherine, née Anderson, was of Scottish, Irish, and African-American descent and worked as a government clerk. Rivera was one of five children. Her father died when she was seven, after which her mother took a position at the Pentagon. In 1944, her mother enrolled her in the Jones-Haywood School of Ballet. At fifteen, Rivera was among two students selected to audition for George Balanchine's School of American Ballet in New York City, accompanied by instructor Doris Jones. She was accepted and awarded a scholarship.

Rivera made her Broadway debut as a dancer in Guys and Dolls in 1950. The following year, she joined the touring company of Call Me Madam, a role she won after accompanying a friend to the audition. Additional early Broadway credits included Can-Can, Mr. Wonderful starring Sammy Davis Jr., and Seventh Heaven. In 1956 she appeared on The Maurice Chevalier Special. Her breakthrough came in 1957 when she originated the role of Anita in West Side Story, establishing her as a major Broadway presence. In 1960 she created the role of Rose in Bye Bye Birdie opposite Dick Van Dyke, earning her first Tony Award nomination. She performed the show in London opposite Peter Marshall and appeared three times on The Ed Sullivan Show in connection with the production, though she was not cast in the film adaptation.

Rivera originated the role of Velma Kelly in the 1975 original Broadway production of Chicago, directed by Bob Fosse and co-starring Gwen Verdon, earning a Tony Award nomination. She cited both Verdon and composer Leonard Bernstein as influential to her career. She had previously starred in the national tour of Sweet Charity, also directed by Fosse, and played Nickie in the 1969 film adaptation alongside Shirley MacLaine. Between 1973 and 1974, she played Connie Richardson on the CBS sitcom The New Dick Van Dyke Show. She received Tony and Drama Desk nominations for Bring Back Birdie in 1981 and a Tony nomination for Merlin in 1983. In 1984, she starred opposite Liza Minnelli in the Kander and Ebb musical The Rink, winning her first Tony Award for Best Actress in a Musical as well as a Drama Desk Award for her portrayal of Anna. While earning a Tony nomination for the Jerry Herman musical Jerry's Girls in 1986, Rivera sustained severe injuries when her car collided with a taxi on West 86th Street in Manhattan, breaking her left leg in twelve places and requiring eighteen screws and two braces. She returned to performing after rehabilitation.

In 1993, Rivera won her second Tony Award for Best Actress in a Musical and a Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Actress in a Musical for her dual portrayal of Aurora and the Spider Woman in Kiss of the Spider Woman, a musical also written by Kander and Ebb. She was a ten-time Tony Award nominee overall, with additional nominations for Nine in 2003, Chita Rivera: The Dancer's Life in 2005, and The Visit in 2015. In the 2003 Broadway revival of Nine, she played Liliane La Fleur alongside Antonio Banderas. Chita Rivera: The Dancer's Life, a retrospective of her career, opened on Broadway in December 2005. Rivera had starred in the Goodman Theatre production of The Visit as Claire Zachanassian in 2001, and the production subsequently moved to Broadway, where it appeared among her verified credits alongside The Mystery of Edwin Drood and Chance & Chemistry.

Beyond Broadway, Rivera appeared in the 1978 film Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band and made a cameo in the 2002 film version of Chicago. She guest-starred on The Judy Garland Show in 1963, appeared on The Carol Burnett Show, and guest-starred in a 2005 episode of Will & Grace alongside Michele Lee. She appeared as Fastrada in a filmed-for-television production of Pippin in 1981. Her autobiography, Chita: A Memoir, was published in 2023.

Rivera received numerous honors recognizing her career and cultural significance. In 2002, she became the first Latina and the first Latino American to receive a Kennedy Center Honor. President Barack Obama presented her with the Presidential Medal of Freedom in August 2009. She received the Tony Award for Lifetime Achievement in 2018. Rivera's Broadway career, which began in 1950 and continued through The Visit in 2015, encompassed originating some of the most celebrated roles in American musical theater history.