Besides Known As

Margarita Cansino, Margarita Carmen Cansino, Rita Cansino, Princess Aly Khan

Nascency Place

Brooklyn, New York, USA

Born

October 17, 1918

Died

May xiv, 1987

Crusade of Death

Alzheimer's Affliction

Where Hollywood glamour was concerned, one affair was undeniable - in that location never was a woman like Rita Hayworth. The ultimate Hollywood bombshell of the wartime 1940's, titian-haired Hayworth left a mark on the silvery screen that would brand her a movie icon for generations to follow. Growing upwards in show business, Hayworth began her career as a Castilian dancer, a considerable talent that later...

Family & Companions

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Edward Judson

Husband

Manager. Eloped with 18-year-old Hayworth on May 23, 1937; divorced on May 22, 1942; acted as Hayworth's manager-agent in the early days of her moving picture career.

Orson Welles

Husband

Manager, thespian. Married on September 27, 1943; separated in 1948 only before shooting of "The Lady From Shanghai"; divorced in 1948; male parent of Rebecca.

Aly Khan

Husband

Married on May 27, 1949; separated in 1951 over his infidelities; divorced in January 1953; father of Princess Yasmin Aga Khan.

Dick Haymes

Husband

Actor, vocalist. Married on September 24, 1953; divorced in 1955.

"Rita Hayworth: A Photographic Retrospective"

Caren Roberts-Frenzel, Harry N. Abrams, Inc. (2002)

"If This Was Happiness"

Barbara Leaming (1989)

Her parents appeared in vaudeville on the aforementioned bill as a immature Fred Astaire (and so teamed with his sis Adele).

Hayworth's singing voice in her films was dubbed, most often by Nan Wynn.

Biography

Where Hollywood glamour was concerned, ane matter was undeniable - in that location never was a woman like Rita Hayworth. The ultimate Hollywood bombshell of the wartime 1940's, titian-haired Hayworth left a mark on the silver screen that would make her a movie icon for generations to follow. Growing upwards in show business, Hayworth began her career as a Spanish dancer, a considerable talent that afterwards set up her apart from other leading ladies. It was Hayworth'due south sultry roles, still, that made her a star. As the femme fatale star of "Gilda" (1946), Hayworth almost famously raised pulses with merely the flip of her hair and the tedious, seductive removal of a unmarried black satin glove. With her signature wavy, auburn pilus and charismatic smile, the sexy actress speedily became a popular pin-up girl during WWII - her likeness was even painted on the side of the atomic bomb tested at Bikini Atoll. Though she was know as the Love Goddess, the very shy Hayworth struggled in her own personal life, claiming famously that "men would autumn in dearest with Gilda simply awaken with me." Merely with a talent and beauty like none other, Hayworth captured the hearts of moviegoers as one of Hollywood's greatest motion-picture show goddesses.

Born Margarita Carmen Cansino on October. 17, 1918 in Brooklyn, NY to parents Eduardo Cansino, a Spanish dancer and vaudeville performer, and Volga Hayworth, a dancer of Irish descent who performed in the Ziegfeld Follies, Hayworth grew up in New York surrounded by the glitzy globe of showbiz. Raised as a dancer from an early age, Hayworth was performing on stage with her family past the age of 6 and, as a child, appeared alongside her parents in the 1926 short films, "La Fiesta" and "Anna Example with the Dancing Cansinos." Moving w to Hollywood when Hayworth was 8, the Cansinos opened a dance school near the corner of Sunset and Vine and Eduardo found work as a choreographer for Hollywood films. Joining her parents' stage deed, the Dancing Cansinos, at the age of thirteen, Hayworth performed with the Spanish dancing troupe in numerous productions, including shows across the border in Mexico and on gambling boats parked off the shore. Beneath the surface of the Cansino'south show business organization family, however, there were dark secrets playing out. Every bit a teenager, Hayworth oftentimes appeared in public as her father'southward dance partner. Reports after surfaced that Hayworth had been subject area to sexual and physical abuse by her father throughout her babyhood - information divulged by Hayworth's 2nd hubby, Orson Welles, during interviews for a Hayworth book. It was this expose by her father which would ultimately set in stone Hayworth's inability to find love with a man who truly loved her; instead, moving often from one controlling tyrant to the side by side.

Despite any personal troubles, information technology was Hayworth's vibrant dancing that would before long catch the eye of Fox studio executives. Offered a contract at the age of 16, Hayworth made her feature film debut under the proper name Rita Cansino equally a dancer in the Pull a fast one on motion picture, "Dante's Inferno" (1935), which her father too choreographed. As the dark, ethnic-looking Rita Cansino, she went on to appear in a number of forgettable films including, "Under the Pampas Moon" (1935) and "Human Cargo" (1936).

Perhaps in some effort to escape from her father'southward stifling clutches, Hayworth eloped at the age of xviii, marrying the much older - and just as controlling - Texas oil-homo, Edward Judson in 1937. Interim equally Hayworth'south manager, Judson took over where Eduardo had left off and began to groom Hayworth for stardom. When his immature wife's contract with Fox was non renewed, Judson negotiated a new contract for her with Columbia Pictures in 1937. While under contract with the then 2d tier studio, Hayworth began to become through a transformation from unproblematic Spanish dancer to scenic Hollywood beauty. Now credited as Rita Hayworth, a decision made past Columbia studio head Harry Cohn, Hayworth went through a painful electrolysis procedure in lodge to raise her hairline and agreed to stylists turning her raven-blackness hair to a natural brunette hue. Appearing in her first Columbia moving-picture show, "Criminals of the Air" (1937), she went on to appear in 12 more B-films for the studio over the next two years. By 1939, she had paid enough dues that she was given a showy role in the high profile Howard Hawks film, "Merely Angels Take Wings" (1939), starring Cary Grant.

As her appeal grew and Columbia execs smelled a possible star on their easily, Hayworth was cast being in more significant roles, starring alongside Glenn Ford for the kickoff of many times in Charles Vidor's "The Lady in Question" (1940) and alongside James Cagney in the Warner Brothers movie, "The Strawberry Blonde" (1941) - the first motion picture in which a brunette Hayworth sported her trademark auburn locks. Considering "The Strawberry Blonde" was shot in black and white, no one took discover of the change, but they did after the release of her side by side motion-picture show - the Technicolor gamble, "Claret and Sand" (1941), co-starring Tyrone Power and Linda Darnell. Playing the hot-blooded temptress Dona Sol, Hayworth literally sizzled onscreen, playing mock-bull-and-matador with the philandering Powers - a human so dazzled by her charms, audiences understood why he would leave his good wife (Darnell). The function was defining for Hayworth, who moved to A-list immediately. Having loaned out Hayworth to Fox for the "Claret," Columbia snatched their girl back and held on tight.

Wanting to make their newest star all the buzz, they put her dorsum in her element - motion-picture show musicals - and non just with anyone; with the master dancer, Fred Astaire as co-star. Hayworth's considerable dancing skills took middle stage in "Y'all'll Never Get Rich" (1941). With the success of this picture, Hayworth quickly became the hottest commodity in Hollywood, landing on the comprehend of Time magazine, which declared her Astaire's new leading lady. Privately, the dance icon would after confess that Hayworth was his favorite dancing partner - regardless of the Ginger Rogers legend. Fresh off the success of "Rich," she was cast in her first starring role in "My Gal Sal" (1942), went on to star alongside Ginger Rogers, in "Tales of Manhattan" (1942), and re-team with Astaire in "You Were Never Lovelier" (1942). At this same fourth dimension, WWII had cleaved out, leaving alone GIs to plaster pictures of Hayworth and her fellow pivot-upwards queens, Lana Turner, Veronica Lake and Betty Grable on any available surface - from their B-17 cockpits to their bunker walls. In fact, Hayworth reclining on a bed in a satin and lace negligee became the second most popular pin-upwardly pic, backside only Betty Grable'southward iconic over-the-shoulder white swimsuit shot.

With her starting time spousal relationship ending in divorce, Hayworth began to appointment hot-shot "Citizen Kane" (1941) director and actor, Orson Welles. Afterwards a brusk courtship, the Hollywood pair wed in September of 1943 while Hayworth was on hiatus from work. The post-obit year Hayworth gave birth to her first child, Rebecca Welles. Returning to the screen soon after, Hayworth starred contrary Gene Kelly in "Cover Girl" (1944) - another wartime Technicolor musical - and went on to star in "Tonight and Every Night" (1945).

Re-teaming with favorite co-star Ford one time again in 1946, Hayworth took on the role for which she would exist most remembered - the femme fatale with a penchant for sexy double entendres and driving her men crazy with desire, Gilda. Starring in Charles Vidor's "Gilda" (1946), Hayworth lit up the screen as the sultry nightclub singer, capturing moviegoers with the starting time coy toss of her wavy red hair. Featuring the sexy song and trip the light fantastic toe sequence "Put the Blame on Mame," "Gilda" became a silver screen fable, cementing Hayworth's condition as the ultimate Hollywood bombshell.

At the top of her game, Hayworth went on to star opposite husband Welles as possible murderess Elsa Bannister in the noir picture, "The Lady from Shanghai" (1948). Prior to filming, Welles had ordered Hayworth's famous locks cut off and dyed platinum blonde - a move which infuriated Cohn. The studio head knew Hayworth's hair was her beauty calling bill of fare. Though Hayworth's performance was applauded, the movie received mixed reviews and some attributed its box role failure to Hayworth's new expect. The film besides marked a shift in Hayworth's personal life; though she and Welles shared an on-screen chemistry in "Shanghai" - which Welles also directed - they had already separated in existent life. Hayworth filed for divorced shortly later the movie was shot.

After growing her pilus out again by studio orders, Hayworth went on to star in the vivid Technicolor film, "The Loves of Carmen" (1948), a loose adaptation of Georges Bizet'southward opera. Co-produced past Hayworth'southward own Beckworth Corporation, the extra took on the function of producer, hiring her male parent to assistance choreograph the film's dance sequences. Audiences expecting the sizzle of "Gilda" were sadly disappointed. Unnerved by her recent moving-picture show failure, Hayworth took fourth dimension off from Hollywood to travel overseas and go away from it all. While in Europe, Hayworth met the charming playboy, Prince Aly Khan. After a very public courtship, Hayworth remarried for the third time - making her the get-go official Hollywood star-turned-real-life-princess, despite the Grace Kelly fable. The newlyweds settled in Europe, where Hayworth gave birth to her second girl, Princess Yasmin Aga Khan, in 1949. Unfortunately, no thing how much she loved her husband, the regal lifestyle did not suit the very shy and private Hayworth. Disappointed, the actress returned to the U.S. afterwards her dissever from Khan in 1951 (subsequently a brief reconciliation they officially divorced in 1953).

Unfortunately, by the time she returned to Hollywood, her time had passed. Starring in her fourth film with Glenn Ford, Hayworth portrayed a sexy nightclub singer in the thriller, "Affair in Trinidad" (1952) - a critical bomb and more "Gilda" rehash. She followed this up with a scantily clad function in the Roman-set up "Salome" (1953) and as the title part in the S Pacific-set up musical, "Miss Sadie Thompson" (1953), which was originally released in 3D. Hayworth disappeared from the Hollywood screen for some other 3 years in 1953 after some other short-lived marriage, this time to Argentinean vocalizer Dick Haymes.

Starring equally a woman who comes between sailors Robert Mitchum and Jack Lemmon, Hayworth returned to the screen in "Fire Downwardly Below" (1957). Filming what would exist her concluding musical - as well as her terminal picture under contract with Columbia - Hayworth starred in "Pal Joey" (1957) opposite Frank Sinatra and Kim Novak. Knowing the studio was grooming Novak as her heir-apparent, Hayworth quietly left the studio she had put on the map and tried to observe semblance of happiness in her real life. Unfortunately, similar many sex symbols both before and after, true honey was ever elusive. She tried her manus at spousal relationship for the fifth and final time, marrying producer James Loma in 1958. Actively working during the wedlock in order to support them both, Hayworth teamed upwardly with Hill on the Oscar-nominated "Carve up Tables" (1958) and "The Happy Thieves" (1962), though the pair later split subsequently only 3 years. Hayworth went on to earn a Golden Globe nomination for her performance opposite John Wayne in "Circus World" (1964).

Though Hayworth appeared in a handful of films during the 1960'southward, her starring roles were long behind her. Suffering from early onset Alzheimer's illness - though not officially diagnosed until 1980 - Hayworth fabricated her final film, "The Wrath of God," in 1972. She had problems remember lines and concentrating for many years. Retiring to a secluded life away from Hollywood, Hayworth remained in the company of her youngest daughter, Yasmin, while battling her - at that time - largely misunderstood illness. Succumbing to Alzheimer's at historic period 68, Hayworth died on May xiv, 1987.

Life Events

1926

Moving picture debut dancing with her parents in the shorts, "La Fiesta" and "Anna Instance with the Dancing Cansinos"

1934

Acted in the Spanish-language characteristic "Cruz Diablo"

1935

Put under contract by Fob

1935

Appeared in "Nether the Pampas Moon" and "Dante'south Inferno", both for Play a trick on

1936

Kickoff garnered attending for pocket-size role as a dancer in "Cargo"

1937

Signed with Columbia; in B pictures until Howard Hawks cast her in "Only Angels Have Wings" (1939)

1940

First of five films with Glenn Ford, "The Lady in Question", directed past Charles Vidor

1941

Appeared for first time with red hair in "The Strawberry Blonde" (filmed in black-and-white)

1941

Career farther boosted by appearances in two musical reverse Fred Astaire, "You'll Never Get Rich" and "You Were Never Lovelier"

1942

Had lead in "My Gal Sal"

1946

Starred in the title role of her best-remembered motion-picture show, "Gilda"; Ford co-starred and Vidor directed; singing voice dubbed past Anita Ellis

1948

Directed by then estranged husband Orson Welles in "The Lady From Shanghai";

1948

Third film with Ford and Vidor, "The Loves of Carmen"

1958

Co-starred with Burt Lancaster in "Separate Tables", produced by then-husband James Loma

1959

Played a dissolute Mexican woman in "They Came to Corduba" opposite Gary Cooper

1960

Essayed an adulterous wife on trial for murdering her husband in "The Story on Folio One"

1962

Was miscast contrary Male monarch Harrison in the comedy "The Happy Thieves"

1966

Fifth motion-picture show with Glenn Ford, "The Money Trap"

1966

Made sole venture into Television receiver movies, co-starring in "The Poppy Is Also a Flower" (ABC), had brief theatrical run in NYC after Television set airing

1972

Final motion picture, "The Wrath of God", co-starring Robert Mitchum

Family

Eduardo Cansino

Male parent

Dancer. Formed vaudeville human action with married woman.

Volga Haworth

Mother

Dancer. Appeared in the "Ziegfeld Follies" and formed vaudeville act with husband.

Vinton Haworth

Uncle

Role player.

Ginger Rogers

Cousin

Actor, dancer, singer. Popular film star of the 1930s, 40s and 50s who later returned to the musical comedy phase where she beginning enjoyed success; won Oscar as Best Actress of 1940 for "Kitty Foyle"; starred in a segment of the anthology film "Tales of Manhattan" (1942), but a different one from the 1 which highlighted Hayworth.

Rebecca Welles

Daughter

Born on Dec 17, 1944 in California; father, Orson Welles.

Yasmin Aga Khan

Girl

Born on December 28, 1949 in Lausanne, Switzerland; father, Aly Khan.

Companions

Edward Judson

Hubby

Manager. Eloped with xviii-twelvemonth-old Hayworth on May 23, 1937; divorced on May 22, 1942; acted as Hayworth's manager-agent in the early days of her moving-picture show career.

Orson Welles

Husband

Director, actor. Married on September 27, 1943; separated in 1948 but before shooting of "The Lady From Shanghai"; divorced in 1948; begetter of Rebecca.

Aly Khan

Married man

Married on May 27, 1949; separated in 1951 over his infidelities; divorced in Jan 1953; begetter of Princess Yasmin Aga Khan.

Dick Haymes

Married man

Actor, vocaliser. Married on September 24, 1953; divorced in 1955.

James Hill

Husband

Producer. Married in 1958; divorced in 1961.

Gary Merrill

Companion

Actor. Had four-twelvemonth human relationship.

Bibliography

"Rita Hayworth: A Photographic Retrospective"

Caren Roberts-Frenzel, Harry North. Abrams, Inc. (2002)

"If This Was Happiness"

Barbara Leaming (1989)

Notes

Her parents appeared in vaudeville on the same bill every bit a young Fred Astaire (so teamed with his sis Adele).

Hayworth'south singing phonation in her films was dubbed, most ofttimes past Nan Wynn.

"Every man I knew had fallen in love with Gilda and awakened with me." --Rita Hayworth, quoted in "Halliwell'south Filmgoer's Companion", 9th ed., 1988)

"A girl is ... a girl. It's dainty to exist told you lot're successful at information technology." --Rita Hayworth, quoted in Halliwell

"I've never really thought of myself as a sex symbol--more as a comedienne who could dance." --Rita Hayworth, quoted in Halliwell.