Chita Rivera, veteran musical comedy star, actress and dancer extraordinaire, has died at 91. She had a remarkable career and an unusually long one. I saw Chita perform live but once, long after her prime in a West End production of “The Kiss of the Spider Woman,” a not-so-great and over-hyped musical. Rivera had major roles in the hit Broadway productions of ”West Side Story,” “Bye Bye Birdie” and “Chicago,” among others. The Times obituary is full of information, though it skirts over what I recall as being a particularly cruel career blow, when Rivera was passed over for the role of Anita in the film version of “West Side Story” for Rita Moreno, even though Rivera had won a Tony for her performance in the role on stage. It also doesn’t mention an unusual altruistic act by Rivera when she was co-starring with Dick Van Dyke and Paul Lynde in the 1960 musical, “Bye Bye Birdie.”

Rivera played Dick’s Hispanic girlfriend “Rosie.” (Again, when they cast the film version, Van Dyke and Lynde got to reprise their Broadway roles but Chita was replaced, this time by a non-Hispanic, non-singing, non-dancing Janet Leigh in a ridiculous wig and brownish make-up). As the show was originally written, it was Rosie who was supposed to sing the number “Put on a Happy Face,” a song destined to be one of the most popular from the show, along with “I’ve Got a Lot of Living to Do” and “Whats’ the Matter With Kids Today?” According to all the sources I can find, Rivera, on her own, decided that Dick Van Dyke should sing the song, and told the producers and director her sentiments. The song was given to Van Dyke, and his rendition of it contributed to his rave reviews and his eventual Tony for his performance.

Last year I heard Rivera being interviewed on the Sirius-XM Broadway Channel. The host asked about that episode, saying that it seemed very unusual to him, since in his experience performers will fight for solos in musicals like scorpions in a bottle. I can’t remember the dancer’s exact words, but her point was that giving the song to Dick Van Dyke was in everyone’s best interests. She said that it was obviously a great song and she would have loved to do it, but “Look at his face! It was obvious that the song was made for him.” She went on to opine that people made too much out of her selfless gesture, because anyone in her position should have behaved the same way. Van Dyke’s accolades in “Birdie” led directly to TV’s “Dick Van Dyke Show,” and the rest is history.

But most performers in her position wouldn’t act the same way.

Brava, Chita!