Chita Rivera, Tony-Winning Broadway Legend, Dead at 91
Chita Rivera, the pioneering Broadway legend who dazzled in productions such as West Side Story, Kiss of the Spider Woman, and Chicago, has died, ET can confirm. She was 91.
"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," her rep, Merle Frimark, shared in a statement on Tuesday.
Her daughter, Lisa Mordente Rivera, also shared a statement, sharing that her mother died in New York "after a brief illness."
"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. Her funeral will be private. A memorial service will be announced in due course," the statement reads, asking for any donations in her memory to be made to Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS.
The three-time Tony Award winner, whose birth name was Dolores Conchita Figueroa del Rivero, was born in Washington, D.C., on Jan. 23, 1933. Rivera's father died when she was 7 years old and her mother, a government clerk, worked at the Pentagon to support the family.
Rivera's love for the stage began as a child when she and her brother put on shows in the basement of the family home. She later attended the Jones Haywood School of Ballet, and earned a scholarship from the prestigious George Balanchine's School of American Ballet as a teen.
Rivera landed her first official theater gig in the 1951 traveling production of Call Me Madam.She toured with the production for nearly a year before being cast in Guys & Dolls, and the chorus of Can-Can. In 1954, Rivera left Can-Can and joined the off-Broadway production of Shoestring Revue. She also appeared in the productions Seventh Heaven and Mr. Wonderful. In 1957, Rivera debuted as Anita in the stage production of West Side Story. The performance earned Rivera her first of 10 Tony nominations.
Rivera was married to dancer Tony Mordente from 1957 until 1966. The couple welcomed their daughter in 1958.
After West Side Story, Rivera joined the traveling production of Can-Can, the musicals Sweet Charity, Zenda, and the first installment of the Broadway's Chicago. Nearly 20 years after taking the theater world by storm, Rivera finally won her first Tony Award for The Rink. Despite being nominated multiple times, Rivera didn’t win another Tony Award until 1993 for Kiss of the Spider Woman. Two years later, Rivera was involved in a car accident that left her leg broken in a dozen places, but the resilient entertainer returned to performing after undergoing surgery and physical rehabilitation.
Although Rivera made her name in theater, she worked in film and TV, making cameos on The Outer Limits, The Carol Burnett Show, The New Dick Van Dyke Show, Dora the Explorer, Will & Grace, Johnny and the Sprites and Pippin: His Life and Times, among other shows. She returned to Broadway in 2003’s Nine, a role which earned her an eighth Tony nominations.
Rivera found herself back on Broadway in 2013 for The Visit. Three years later, Rivera received a Lifetime Achievement honor at the Tony Awards, but she had no intentions of retiring.
Despite shining in the theater version of West Side Story, Rivera was not cast in the film 1961 adaptation. Rita Moreno took over the role of Anita and went on to become the first Hispanic actress to win an Oscar.
In 2018, Rivera received a Lifetime Achievement in Theatre honor from the Tony Awards and was officially declared a living landmark by the New York Landmarks Conservancy. A decade earlier, Rivera was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom and in 2002, Rivera became the first Hispanic woman and first Latin American woman to receive Kennedy Center Honor.
Even after more than 70 years in show business, Rivera had no desire to slow down. She referred to retirement as “the r word,” and worked well into her final years.
"I love watching TV. I love reading, but I can do all that on the road," Rivera, then 85 years old, explained in a 2018 interview promoting her one-woman show, Chita: A Legendary Celebration.
"I have to imagine. I have to play. That's how you stay young and share what you've got," she added. "You feel better just doing, not sitting around for a long time. You sit down too long, you become a stone."
Reflecting on her accolades during a 2023 interview on the Tamron Hall Show, she told Hall there was one award that felt like a culmination of all her success: "When I won the Kennedy Center [Honor], I couldn’t believe it, you know? I kept saying they’ve made a mistake!"
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