Rita Moreno is the very definition of a living legend. A Broadway star since 13 and a film star since 18, the 94-year-old has packed multiple careers and lifetimes into an eight-decade resume. For some generations, she’s known as the iconic Anita in the West Side Story film, and for others, she’s known as a star of The Electric Company television series. In the past decade, she’s starred in the Netflix sitcom One Day at a Time and the films 80 for Brady and Fast X.
Moreno—one of the few performers to win an Emmy, a Grammy, an Oscar and a Tony (aka EGOT)—has broken stereotypes by being the first Latina actress to win an Oscar, and pushed back against typecasting in Hollywood. She also has been outspoken about domestic abuse and suicide since surviving a toxic relationship with Marlon Brando.
You can hear stories about Moreno’s life—told with plenty of laughter and charm—on Thursday, Nov. 5, at the McCallum Theatre. CBS Sunday Morning correspondent Mo Rocca will lead the conversation.
This will be the second time that Moreno and Rocca have paired up for an event.
“It was a thought of mine,” Moreno said during a recent interview. “We are so good together. He’s a charming man. He’s very, very smart, and we’ve done it once now onstage, and it’s been a huge success, so I can’t wait to do it in Palm Springs.”
Why was Rocca the perfect choice to lead a conversation focusing on Moreno’s life?
“Oh, it’s so obvious,” Moreno said. “He’s very smart. He has a lot of knowledge about a lot of things, which always is impressive, and he has a delicious sense of humor. He’s cute as hell. If he weren’t gay, I’d go after him, but since he is, I love him anyway.”
The event at the McCallum will focus more on conversation, rather being a question-and-answer session.
“It’s not planned at all,” she said. “My talks have never been planned. I never know what’s going to be asked of me … There’s nothing to rehearse. You just begin a conversation, and you go from there.”
Moreno will revisit the highest highs and the lowest lows from a lifetime in the limelight.
“There are little moments that we both express that are extremely sad, but that’s important,” she said. “That’s what I always did on my own—tell sad stories—and then there’s always Marlon Brando and Elvis Presley to bring it up, and the audience just loves that.”
Despite the harrowing experiences and heartache, Moreno said remembers her time with Brando somewhat fondly. But one story she loves telling from her time with Brando involves revenge: After finding out he was cheating, Moreno went out with Presley.
“I went with Marlon for years, and I also dated Elvis, so I have great stories to tell about that,” she said.
While age can cause some memory issues, Moreno said she remembers her big life moments with “alacrity.”
“I don’t forget any of my stories or things that have happened to me,” she said. “What I don’t remember is names, and it makes me crazy, and not just names, but labels. … Things like that suddenly leave me, and it’s so frustrating, but other than that, I’m good.”
Moreno takes her memory issues in stride, she said.
“I’ll be telling a story, and I say, ‘Oh, damn, what’s that person’s name?’” she said. “Then we go into one of these conversations of, ‘Do you remember the guy who married so and so?’ And then we go into this whole history of somebody who has nothing to do with the story, which is really kind of hilarious.”
Moreno also finds the positives in dealing with memory issues onstage.
“It happens, but it’s rare, and I have a great sense of humor about it,” she said. “I have an older audience, so it makes the audience feel really comfortable in saying to themselves, ‘Well, shit! If she can do that, I can do that, and it’s not a terrible thing to forget names,’ or whatever it is that bothers them.”
Moreno said she’s happy to still be entertaining audiences after 80-plus years.
“I’m doing exactly what I would love to be doing, in terms of if we want to call that a job,” she said. “Life is good. I’m very, very lucky. I’m going to be 95 on Dec. 11. Don’t fuck around with me.”
Mo Rocca has been a regular correspondent for CBS Sunday Morning since 2012. After hundreds of interviews with A-list stars and years of researching presidential history, he called Rita Moreno a “dream interview subject.”
“Her life has been so eventful, so dramatic, and she has a great sense of humor about her life, even the low points of it,” Rocca said during a recent phone interview. “I think she has a great sense of the romance of life, and so it makes for a real ride talking with her and telling her story, and I think she appreciates the sweep of her own life—but she’s not overly self-serious, which is nice. Like any great conversation with a friend, it can be funny one moment, and serious, even grave, the next moment, and then it’s funny again.”
Rocca said he appreciates Moreno’s thick skin and openness to discussing the difficult, but important, parts of her life.
“You can’t offend her, and that’s a convenient thing, because you don’t have to tread lightly, and she doesn’t come with prepackaged answers,” he said. “Like any good interview subject, she’s really thinking about the question and how to answer it honestly and in the moment. She’s also just lived. For somebody who’s about to turn 95, she’s packed in even more life than most near centenarians have, so there are so many layers.”
While Rocca has interviewed and chatted with Moreno before, he said he’s still blown away by her resilience.
“There are so many different points in her life when she could have taken the exit ramp and gotten off what I call the Rita Moreno Turnpike,” he shared. “I think if her life were a highway, there are so many different exits that she could have taken, so many different service areas, rest stops, and just kind of called it a day. But she’s always gotten back on the highway, and that’s what’s kind of interesting.”
It’s Moreno’s dedication, Rocca said, that has kept her in the public eye for so long.
“It’s that quality that Louis B. Mayer noticed when she was just a teenager and called her the Latin Elizabeth Taylor,” he said. “It’s those qualities that put her on Broadway when she was 13. It’s those qualities that had her headlining a reboot of One Day at a Time when she was in her late 80s. That aliveness, that spark in her eye—that’s the very reason she keeps coming back, and she’s not interested in retiring.”
Rocca said he only sees that spark in the most special of entertainers.
“I wish I were more articulate about it, but when you interview a lot of people, you notice who has it, and who doesn’t,” Rocca said. “It’s almost like little lights behind the eyeball, and it’s a twinkle, and she has that, so I think she’s going to keep doing some version of the Rita show for as long as she can.”
Rocca said the McCallum event will dive into the important parts of Moreno’s story—including stories that haven’t been shared yet.
“Her story has been told a lot for a good reason, and it’s kind of my job to surprise her in front of the audience, and I fully intend to do that,” he said. “What’s great is that she’s completely game for it. If I ask her something out of the blue—frankly, something that might even embarrass her—she’s not going to be ticked off afterward. She’s going to be happy. I think she relishes that kind of challenge, unlike a lot of people who have very big reputations and big histories.”
“It’s kind of amazing that one of her big comebacks was when she was in her 60s with Oz on HBO. She’s had an entire other chapter in her career that began when most people are retiring.”
Mo rocca, on rita moreno
Being an actress from Puerto Rico in the Golden Age of Hollywood meant Moreno faced racism, scrutiny and typecasting. Rocca explained how Moreno made the most of her situation.
“She got to Hollywood in the ’50s, and she talked about how she had to develop something called the universal ethnic accent, because she was just sort of being plopped into all these roles that were non-white roles, whether it was somebody from Asia in The King and I, or an American Indian or an actual Puerto Rican,” he said. “She was sort of this all-purpose ethnic, and she developed this. She has a sense of humor about that, whereas a lot of people, understandably, wouldn’t have a sense of humor about that.”
Rocca said he’s blown away by Moreno’s range, especially on the children’s sketch-comedy show The Electric Company.
“When you go back and look at those clips, it’s kind of amazing,” he said. “It’s a high-octane variety show that was also educating children, and all the characters she had to do are kind of extraordinary. There’s a reason she’s the third-ever EGOT. She just has such agility as a performer.”
Why is 2026 the perfect time to hear more about Moreno’s story?
“The population is aging; the country is aging; and there are so many different obstacles she’s faced,” Rocca said. “She came as a migrant with a single mother, so she’s the opposite of a nepo baby, and then she became a star during the studio system, as one of the very few Latino actors or actresses to become a star.”
Moreno has also battled ageism—but again, she’s made the most of it.
“It’s kind of amazing that one of her big comebacks was when she was in her 60s with Oz on HBO,” Rocca said. “She’s had an entire other chapter in her career that began when most people are retiring. … The other things she faced are things that only certain segments of the population can understand, but … anyone over the age of 60 can be inspired by what she’s managed to do.”
Rocca promised that “In Conversation With … Rita Moreno” will be an emotional, hilarious and meaningful evening.
“Hers is not simply a showbiz story. Her story is universal,” Rocca said.
“In Conversation With … Rita Moreno,” featuring Mo Rocca, takes place at 7 p.m., Thursday, Nov. 5, at the McCallum Theatre, at 73000 Fred Waring Drive, in Palm Desert. Remaining tickets start at $95. For tickets and more information, call 760-340-2787, or visit www.mccallumtheatre.org.
