A legend is gone.
The American comedian, singer and actress Chita Rivera, a great figure in Broadway musicals, died Tuesday at the age of 91, her family said.
She died in New York after a “brief illness,” her daughter Lisa Mordente said in a statement.
Chita Rivera, a pioneer of Hispanic actresses in the very closed world of Broadway, was notably known for having interpreted the role of Anita in “West Side Story” (1957), a play considered to be the greatest jewel of Broadway, or again that of Velma Kelly in “Chicago” (1975).
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However, she did not land the leading role in the legendary 1961 film adaptation of "West Side Story", which was given to Rita Moreno, another Hispanic actress.
Arriving on the Broadway stages before she was 20, she did not leave them until she was 80, multiplying collaborations with the biggest names in American theater.
Victim of a serious car accident which crushed her right leg in 1988, it took her many months of rehabilitation to regain her dancing talents and return to the stage.
“It never occurred to me that I would never dance again.
Never.
I can't explain to you why.
It’s hard work, but it’s what I do,” she told the AP.
Decorated by Barack Obama in 2009
Born Dolores Conchita Figueroa del Rivero in Washington in 1933, Chita Rivera learned singing, piano and ballet from a young age.
She said she compared herself, during auditions, to the long-legged blondes who were competing with her at the time.
“And there I was, little, dark-skinned, in a black skirt and a leotard, with a nose that looked like nothing,” she wrote in an autobiography published in 2023.
With ten nominations, she was one of the most nominated actresses at the Tony Awards, the major awards for American theater, where she received two distinctions.
She has also received two Drama Desk Awards and a Drama League Award, other recognized American theater honors.
When she received a Tony Award for Lifetime Achievement in 2018, she said: “I wouldn't trade my life in theater for anything, because theater is life.
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Chita Rivera was the first Latin American to receive a Kennedy Center Honor in 2002, an American honorary award given to performing arts artists who have contributed to American culture.
She also received the Presidential Medal of Freedom from Barack Obama in 2009, the United States' highest civilian honor.