Palisades former Honorary Mayor Rita Moreno accepting an honorary doctorate degree in the Arts at Harvard University.
By BERNICE FOX
Former Pacific Palisades Honorary Mayor Rita Moreno is now Dr. Rita Moreno. She’s received an honorary doctorate from Harvard University. And she’s posted this excited message on her Facebook page: “Little Rosita from Puerto Rico just received a doctorate from Harvard University. The sky’s the limit y’all.”
Moreno’s honorary degree is a Doctor of Arts. She was one of six, including Kareem Abdul-Jabbar to receive the honor at Tercentenary Theatre on the campus during the 374th Commencement.
The Harvard Crimson reported that “as Carolyn Hao ’26 sang Somewhere from West Side Story — a movie that Moreno starred in — Moreno quietly sang along with tears streaming down her face.”
This is just the latest high-level honor she’s been awarded over her long career. Previously, Moreno received a Presidential Medal of Freedom, a Kennedy Center Honor and the National Medal of Arts.
Moreno won the Oscar for her supporting role of Anita in the 1961 movie version of West Side Story.
And there’s more.
Moreno, 93, is one of the few artists to be an EGOT — winner of an Emmy, Grammy, Oscar and Tony award.
Moreno was honorary mayor of Pacific Palisades in 1988. Later, she and her husband, Leonard Gordon, moved to a home in the Berkeley Hills overlooking San Francisco Bay. They sold their house on Amalfi Drive in 1999. Gordon passed away in 2010.
While still in the Palisades, Moreno’s husband retired after decades as a physician. Then he went back to work in a new career as his wife’s manager. Their daughter, Fernanda, was with Moreno at Harvard for Thursday’s ceremony.
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar (7’2″) and Rita Moreno (5’2″) were among six receiving honorary degrees from Harvard on Thursday. In his newsletter Abdul-Jabbar said receiving his honorary Ph.D. “was a thrill, mainly because one of my favorite performers, Rita Moreno, also received one.”
Photo: Courtesy Kareem Abdul-Jabbar