Broadway icon Chita Rivera has died at 91 years old, her rep revealed in a statement on Tuesday, January 30.
"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 said in a statement.
Rivera's daughter Lisa Mordente also revealed 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 message continued.
The late star's resume was quite impressive, as she is performed as Velma Kelly in Chicago and Anita in West Side Story. She later won the Tony Award for Best Actress in a Musical in 1983 for John Kander and Fred Ebb’s The Rink and again for the Kiss of The Spider Woman.
After West Side Story, Rivera's life drastically changed.
"I learned great choreography from Jerome Robbins and great music from Leonard Bernstein. We had great lines and lyrics, too, but those two taught me how to tell a story without words. From that moment on I wanted to tell stories, and fortunately I came up at a time when there were great librettists and shows to perform in," she said in an interview with Harvard Business Review in 2023.
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Rivera also shared what her secret was when to get over stage fright.
"I think my sense of humor gets me through. When things go wrong, you’ve got to get over it, because there’s not much else you can do. Laughter helps you get over the agony much faster," she revealed, adding that it's important to stay grounded.
"You get so much by being humble. And I don’t care how old you are, you should be constantly learning from the smallest names to the biggest. Every moment could be the one when you drop dead, and every day is the first day of the rest of your life," she added.
