Rita Moreno has been selected to receive the SAG-AFTRA’s Life Achievement Award for next year’s 2014 SAG Awards it was announced today. Moreno, 81 will be the 50th recipient of the award designed to recognize career achievements. This award is given annually to an actor who exemplifies the “finest ideals of the acting profession”.
Moreno has the distinction of being one of an elite group of only eleven actors who have received all four of the industries’ top awards (and the only Latina to have done so): An Oscar for West Side Story for Best Supporting Actress for her role as Anita in the 1961 movie version of West Side Story. She’s also won two Emmys, a Tony, and a Grammy. Additionally she has been honored the Presidential Medal of Freedom and the National Medal of the Arts. Moreno has also been honored by countless Latino organizations for her representation of Latinos in the arts at the highest level. In 1995 she was immortalized with her star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
“She is an extraordinarily versatile, talented and generous actor whose career is notable for its courageous choices and for the breadth, depth and quality of her many demanding and commanding roles,” said Ken Howard, SAG-AFTRA Co-President. “She is a magnificent actor, and I am honored to join all SAG-AFTRA members in recognizing the incomparable Rita Moreno.”
Fran Drescher, Rita Moreno, Robert Walden
Ms. Moreno continues to work and currently stars as the mother to Fran Drescher’s character on TV Land’s Happily Divorced, on the TVLand Network.
Roberta Reardon, SAG-AFTRA Co-President added her high regards to Ms. Moreno’s selection, “No one is more deserving of this honor than the fabulous and accomplished Rita Moreno, an iconic talent whose excellent work includes hit movies, highly-rated television series, landmark public television programs and award-winning recordings. She is emblematic of the broad reach and diverse coverage of our new, merged union. She is an inspiration in every effort, but never more so than with her civil rights activism, promoting equality and diversity while ushering in a more representative depiction of the American scene on screen.”
The 20th Annual SAG Awards will be broadcast live on TNT and TBS on January 18, 2014.
Comments