If her roles were sometimes routine, Moreno’s professionalism and commitment never were, and fortunately there were some worthy opportunities. In the HBO series Oz, playing a sternly compassionate nun serving in a grim prison facility, she seemed a million miles away from Anita or her other earlier roles. Later, she was cast hilariously against type as a Jewish mother in the sitcom Happily Divorced, and around that same time the body-of-work awards began to roll in: the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the National Medal of Arts, the Screen Actors Guild Lifetime Achievement Award, the Kennedy Center Honors, and a Peabody Career Achievement Award. She wrote a tell-much autobiography, starred onstage in a one-woman show, and then kept going. At the age of eighty-five, playing the grandmother in an updated version of the oldie One Day at a Time, she was again a delight and, with her vivacity and comic timing, such a wonder that the New York Times could only salute her as “the brightest star in our solar system.” After that, there was a rather stunning case of an outstanding career taking an old-yet-new turn.

In 1960, Rita Moreno had been one of the first actors to audition for West Side Story, returning ceaselessly for further readings, dance auditions, and screen tests until the final word came that she had been cast. Unlike other “hot-tempered” characters she had been playing for a decade, the role of Anita had substance and a degree of authenticity. In later years, Moreno recounted her experiences on the film with clear-eyed candor: the hard work involved in rehearsing and shooting the dances, the blistering perfectionism of Jerome Robbins, the demeaning “one color fits all” makeup worn by all those playing Puerto Ricans, the disappointment with the dubbed voice given her for “A Boy Like That,” the pain of filming that horrifying scene of Anita being mauled by the Jets, and the elation in the Puerto Rican community when she won her Oscar. Also, the dispiriting aftermath, when there were few opportunities any better than what there had been before Anita. While that last part changed, Anita would remain a high point and landmark in a career spanning eight decades. Much had happened since then in her life and career, yet somehow the conviction of that performance retained a distinct glow. Much of it was due to how good Moreno had been in the role, and a fair amount also had to do with the unique way, over the following decades, she had endured and kept rising to new challenges. Then, somewhat unexpectedly, West Side Story beckoned once again.