Rita Moreno looks back on her fling with Elvis Presley: "He liked what he saw"

7 March 2024, 13:24

"When I first saw you with your smile so tender, my heart was captured, my soul surrendered."

The swooning lyrics from 1960 hit 'It's Now Or Never' was one of the biggest-selling physical hits of all time, and showcased that Elvis Presley had one of the smoothest singing voices in the history of popular music.

Off the stage - which is to be expected from one of the most iconic and beloved stars of the 20th century - he was just as suave.

At least he was at first glance according to the enduring Puerto Rican actress Rita Moreno, who dated Presley in the past.

In a new interview with People, Moreno has opened up on how she and Elvis crossed paths and how he provided her with a welcome distraction from her true lover.

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Before Elvis came calling, Rita was in an on-off relationship with Marlon Brando for nearly a decade.

But the pioneering actor wasn't the most faithful of partners, and was frequently bedding other women despite keeping Moreno around.

"Elvis Presley is another whole story," the 92-year-old revealed. "I was going with Marlon at the time. He wasn't necessarily going with me, but I was going with him. You know what I mean?"

"I found one day some lady's lingerie in his house and I went home weeping and crying and so hurt and furious and I thought, 'I never want to see him again'."

"But I knew I didn't mean that. I was really just absolutely crushed. Not only crushed but I was his slave. I just adored and worshipped him is more like it," she added.

Coincidentally, the very next day after she figured out Marlon was philandering, she received an unexpected phone call from Colonel Tom Parker, who managed Presley.

"Turns out Elvis saw you with the commissary of the 20th Century Fox," she says, talking with a southern accent, recalling what he told her. "He liked what he saw and he would like very much to meet you. Would you like to meet him?"

Taking a breath to pause, she glanced around the room she was in. "I saw the underwear and I said yes."

Several years ago, the Oscar winner and EGOT opened up about the scenario too on The View, when she was asked about her relationship with Brando amid his "constant" infidelity.

Moreno confessed she "dated [Elvis] several times" but it dissolved as she found him "sweet but boring".

"He was sweet, but he was a country boy. 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 said, mimicking how unfazed she was at Brando's outburst by crossing her arms and looking at her nails during the interview.

The pair met on the set of the Napoleon biopic Désirée, when she was just 22, before her star turn in West Side Story.

One of the last remaining living actresses from the Golden Age Of Hollywood, Moreno's life, career, and tumultuous relationship with Brando were detailed in the documentary Rita Moreno: Just a Girl Who Decided to Go for It.