Rita Moreno was bleeding for days after undergoing a secret, illegal abortion arranged by Marlon Brando when she realized that the doctor had not properly completed the procedure. The complications could have cost her life. Only months later, she would come close to losing her life again, this time after trying to end it herself.
At the time, Rita was one of Hollywood's brightest young stars, but behind the premieres, photographs, and growing fame, she was caught in a deeply painful relationship with Brando. It began in 1954, when Rita was just 22 and Brando was already one of Hollywood's biggest actors. She fell deeply in love with him, and their relationship continued for nearly eight years. During those years, he repeatedly cheated on her and married other women, yet Rita kept returning to him, hoping that somehow things would change.
When Rita became pregnant, part of her hoped the situation might finally make Brando choose her. Instead, according to Rita, he pressured her to have an abortion and arranged for a doctor through his friends. Abortion was illegal in most circumstances at the time, so this was not a normal clinic visit. Rita brought cash, and Brando paid the doctor $500. She was put under anesthesia and sent home believing the procedure was finished. But the bleeding continued for days. Her roommate eventually realized that something was wrong, and Rita later discovered that the doctor had only disturbed the pregnancy without properly completing the abortion. Brando took her to a hospital, where doctors had to finish the procedure. Rita later said she had not realized how close she had come to dying.
Even after everything that happened, she went back to Brando. As the years passed, she began to resent not only him but also herself for repeatedly returning to a man who continued to hurt her. She knew he was unfaithful and had even found another woman's lingerie in his home. At one point, she tried to make him jealous by accepting an invitation to meet Elvis Presley. Part of her hoped the meeting would provoke Brando, and it did. He became furious, and Rita enjoyed seeing his reaction. Yet even after that, she returned to him again. The same pattern kept repeating. Brando would cheat, Rita would leave, and eventually the two would get back together. Over time, she began to feel that she could no longer live with the person she had become inside that relationship.
One morning, while she was inside Brando's home, Rita tried to take her own life by swallowing pills before going to bed. Brando's assistant found her unconscious and rushed her to the hospital, where she survived. Rita later explained that she had not simply wanted her life to end. She wanted the version of herself who kept returning to a man who repeatedly hurt her to disappear. Surviving that experience finally helped her break away from the relationship. She left Brando and returned to therapy, beginning the difficult process of rebuilding her life.
Around the same time, *West Side Story* reached audiences, with Rita playing Anita, a role she had desperately wanted. Unlike the stereotypical Latina characters Hollywood had often offered her, Anita had pride, strength, and a voice of her own. Rita later said that Anita represented the kind of woman she herself wanted to become. In 1962, she won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for the role, becoming the first Latina performer to win an acting Oscar. The woman who had recently been found unconscious in Brando's home was now standing on one of Hollywood's biggest stages.
The Oscar was only the beginning. Rita went on to win an Emmy, followed by a second Emmy, a Grammy, and a Tony Award, becoming one of the rare performers to achieve EGOT status. Her career continued for more than seven decades, but behind those awards was a woman who had endured experiences that nearly destroyed her long before most of that recognition arrived.