Rita Moreno has had a long, legendary career in Hollywood and an equally stoic history of dating both Elvis and Marlon Brando, but the EGOT winner had a relationship that spanned most of her career – her marriage to Leonard Gordon.
The couple met on a blind date in the mid-60s and were married in 1965. They welcomed a daughter, Fernanda Luisa Gordon, and were married for 45 years until Gordon’s death in 2010.
Although their decades of marriage seem happy from the outside, West Side Story star opened up about her late husband and the ups and downs they’ve faced in the years since his death.
in the documentary Rita Moreno: A Girl Who Decided To Go For ItMoreno shared that Gordon is often a “checker” and hides some facts about his marriage to keep up with appearances. “[After he died] ‘It’s over,’ I thought. “I don’t have to answer anyone anymore,” he said. he said in the movie America Today.
Moreno has said he has no interest in remarrying since his death, even once telling PEOPLE that he would rather “eat glass” than walk down the aisle.
“I come from a time when you have to obey the man in the family,” she added about her marriage. “For a long time I didn’t know how to write checks … it’s a quiet deal that people make all too often.”
These days, however, Moreno is happier than ever. “I’m still active and working,” he told PEOPLE in June 2021. “I worry a lot less now and stress because I’m so grateful. I stop and smell the roses.”
Read on for everything there is to know about Leonard Gordon, the late wife of award-winning actress Rita Moreno.
He was born in New York and worked as a doctor.
Gordon was born in March 1920 in New York. He worked as a cardiologist and internist before retiring from medicine to become Moreno’s manager. He continued this role until his death in 2010.
Gordon and Moreno met on a blind date
The prospective couple met on a blind date in 1964, while Moreno performed in a short-lived Broadway show. The Sign in Sidney Brustein’s Window. They got married a year later in 1965.
She and Moreno had a child
Gordon and Moreno gave birth to their daughter, Fernanda Luisa Gordon, in 1967. Fernanda was one of the main reasons Moreno decided to continue the marriage; She didn’t want to split her family. “The thought of managing him without his father was cursed to me,” she said later. Show Fair from that logic.
Fernanda has two sons, Cameron and Justin. “They’re my heart and soul. It’s family that keeps me alive and happy,” Moreno told PEOPLE. Daughter and grandchildren in 2021. “Regret is a waste of time. With so much beauty, love, and humor in this world, it’s really obscene to spend your precious time on them, especially as you get older.”
Moreno thought Gordon was in control.
In the decades since her death, the actress has been much more open about her feelings for her late husband. “The day I wanted to start growing up was the day my marriage really turned into torture for me. And for him too,” she said. New Yorker in 2021. “My husband was a great man, not just a good husband. He was controlling.”
Moreno added that he would never share these feelings in a documentary while Gordon was alive. “I would never talk about him without his permission. I couldn’t do that,” Moreno said in a post-premiere Q&A session. America Today. “And it’s entirely possible and probable that he said, ‘What? Are you crazy? No, you can’t.’ In a way, it was really important to me to have the freedom to do that because we’ve had an extraordinary and successful shenanigan for so many years.”
Moreno says Gordon is a “great person” despite his feelings.
Moreno described Gordon as “great” after reflecting on her marriage in her documentary, but realized she would rather be single. “It’s just that our marriage didn’t work out. I didn’t realize how desperately I needed to be alone.” 80 for Brady He made a statement to reporters at the premiere of the documentary. “I didn’t really understand how I punished myself by not being alone.”
Although she considered Brando the “love of her life”, she also called him “the love of her life”. [her] life.”
Moreno was with him until the end of his life.
Although the star was not always happy in her marriage, she was with her husband, whose health deteriorated. “I was with him until the end, including a month at the hospital where I lay in the crib and was with him 24/7,” he said in an interview with in 2021. Guard. “This is what you do when you love and respect someone.”
When Gordon died in June 2010, Moreno felt “liberated” and ready for a new chapter. “I stood up, cut a lock of her hair that I still had – my beautiful silver hair – and stood in the doorway and looked at her as I was leaving,” she said. “He was so small and delicate and white that I was like, ‘How did that little old man make me so unhappy? Where did he get this strength?’ I thought. It was a mystery to me.”