Old Hollywood Stars Who Were Forced to Live a Double Life

Before winning an Oscar for West Side Story, Rita Moreno spent years being cast as whatever “foreign” woman Hollywood needed. The Puerto Rican actress played characters described as Mexican, Native American, Polynesian, and Asian, often with the same dark makeup and invented accent.

Studios treated different cultures as interchangeable, repeatedly asking Moreno to perform a vague, broken-English voice she later mocked as her “universal ethnic accent.” Even Anita’s skin was darkened for West Side Story. Moreno eventually refused similar roles, but the typecasting had already limited her career.