Rita Moreno Sought Revenge on Marlon Brando by Dating Elvis Presley

Rita Moreno is returning to the silver screen for West Side Story nearly 60 years after her original star turn. Moreno won the Oscar for Best Supporting Actress for her portrayal of Anita in the original 1962 film, and she is also appearing in Steven Spielberg’s upcoming remake, this time as Valentina. The EGOT winner stopped by The View to promote the new film, and she also spilled the tea about an iconic love triangle that she found herself in back in the day.

Moreno dated Hollywood legend Marlon Brando for eight years, and the actor was unfaithful for much of it, so the One Day At A Time star found a way to get revenge. “I found lingerie in his house and, of course, I was heartbroken, and I went home in tears — really, I was naïve — and I was angry too, just furious. The next day, the phone rings, and I hear ‘Miss Marina?’ I said, ‘Uh, yeah?’” she explained. “‘This is Colonel Parker, my client is Elvis Presley, and Elvis spotted you at the 20th Century Fox commissary, and he liked what he saw.’”

“I said ‘Oh?’ and he said, ‘And he would like very much to meet you. Would you like to meet him?’” Moreno continued, adding, “And I thought of those panties, and I said, ‘Yes, I would!’” Moreno revealed that she “dated [Elvis] several times,” but they never really clicked. “He was sweet, but he was a country boy,” Moreno said. “So anyway, when [Brando] found out, it didn’t take long. He started to throw chairs. He was so angry. It was wonderful. And I just sat there as he threw chairs and carried on.”

Moreno’s tumultuous relationship with Brando, which included an abortion and a suicide attempt, was part of the documentary Rita Moreno: Just a Girl Who Decided to Go for It, which premiered at Sundance this year and is now streaming on Netflix. “He was the daddy that I couldn’t please. I didn’t know that, I wasn’t aware of that at all,” Moreno said in the film. “But he was the one I wanted to please, he was the one I wanted to be married to.” Moreno married Leonard Gordon in 1965 and they were together until his death in 2010. West Side Story hits theaters on Friday, Dec. 10.