Whatever Happened to Rita Moreno: 94 and Still Filling Theaters

The girl from Humacao who crossed the sea by boat

Rita Moreno was born on December 11, 1931, in Humacao, Puerto Rico. At age 5 she sailed to New York with her mother, and by 13 she was on Broadway. The road was no red carpet: Hollywood typecast her as the "exotic Latina," asked for an accent she didn't have, and the studio even changed her name —she was born Rosita Dolores— to package her as another Rita Hayworth.

And still, she made it. Her Anita in West Side Story (1961) won the Oscar. Then came the Tony, the Grammy, and two Emmys: the first Latina —and one of the very few people on earth— to win all four major entertainment awards, the famous EGOT. In 2004 she received the Presidential Medal of Freedom. And this very decade we saw her again as the abuelita in One Day at a Time and in the film 80 for Brady.

Seventy-five years without leaving the stage

Her career runs past 75 years, and the curtain is not coming down. In August 2026 she returned to the broadcast booth of the Drum Corps International finals, a national marching music competition: her first time in that booth was in 1980. She came back 46 years later.

She is one of the figures in "Roctogenarians" (2024), Mo Rocca's book about triumphs and comebacks after 80. The idea of appearing together in Palm Desert was HERS, not the theater's. On Tuesday, October 20, she spoke live, in person, at the Lovinger Theatre of Lehman College in the Bronx. And this week, in a phone interview with The Desert Sun, she dropped the line that sums it all up: "I'm not 94 for nothing." On December 11 she turns 95.

Her health topic, in her own voice: prediabetes

Rita doesn't hand out health advice, and nobody here will invent any for her. But she said it herself —on the Wiser Than Me podcast, in December 2024— that she is prediabetic: that is why she does watch her sugar, though without obsessing over diet. She eats what she likes. She gives more weight to genetics and attitude.

Her declared fuel? Humor: with the years, she says, she takes life less seriously. And small acts of kindness, as an everyday routine. In 2019 she rounded it off with a line that belongs on the door of many a doctor's office: she doesn't mind being called an "old lady"; what bothers her is the idea that some experiences should be off-limits because of age. "Why would I limit myself by a number? You only get one life: live it."

Prediabetes: the silent stage that can still be slowed

Rita's story is not celebrity trivia: it is the pending conversation in millions of Latino homes. Prediabetes means blood sugar is higher than normal, but not yet diabetes. It is a warning stage —and a window, because it can still be slowed down.

The numbers that define it, per the CDC: an A1C between 5.7% and 6.4% (diabetes is 6.5% or higher), or fasting glucose between 100 and 125 mg/dL (diabetes starts at 126). The problem is that it doesn't announce itself: it has no symptoms, and more than 8 in 10 people who have it don't know it. And our community carries more risk than average: the CDC estimates that a Latino adult in the United States has a greater than 50% chance of developing type 2 diabetes over a lifetime.

What does move the needle, with no miracle promises: losing 5% to 7% of body weight if there is overweight, and moving about 150 minutes a week. In the Diabetes Prevention Program study, that lifestyle change cut the move from prediabetes to diabetes by 58%. A 10-to-15-minute walk after meals also helps blunt the sugar spike. None of this guarantees anything — but it is exactly the window Rita is using: learn your number, watch it, and keep living.