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Rita Hayworth (born Margarita Carmen Cansino on October 17, 1918 – May 14, 1987), was an American actress of Spanish and Irish descent who reached fame during the 1940s as the era's leading sex symbol. She was sometimes called "The Love Goddess" or "The Great American Love Goddess," and was celebrated as an expert dancer and great beauty.
Early careerRita Hayworth was born Margarita Carmen Cansino, the daughter of Eduardo Cansino (Sr.) and Volga Haworth (sic) in Brooklyn, New York. She was trained as a dancer from childhood, and was on stage by the age of six as a member of The Cansinos, a famous family of Roma Gitano Spanish dancers working in vaudeville. At age sixteen Rita attracted the attention of film producers as part of "The Dancing Cansinos" and was signed by Fox Studios in 1935. After her option was not renewed by Fox, Rita freelanced at minor film studios before signing with Columbia Pictures in 1937.
While on loan to Fox Studios for Rouben Mamoulian's Blood and Sand (1941) starring Tyrone Power, Rita achieved stardom with her sizzling performance as the amoral and seductive Doña Sol des Muire. This Technicolor film forever branded her as one of Hollywood's most beautiful redheads. Ironically, Carole Landis was the original choice for the role but was replaced by Rita Hayworth prior to filming because she refused to dye her blonde hair red. Fox then borrowed Rita from Columbia and dyed her raven hair auburn which soon became Hayworth's best remembered feature. Her stardom was solidified when she made the cover of Time Magazine as Fred Astaire's new dancing partner in You'll Never Get Rich (1941). Super StardomImage:Ritahayworth1.jpg Rita Hayworth Pinup from WWII The "love goddess" image was cemented with Bob Landry's 1941 Life magazine photograph of her (kneeling on a bed in a silk and lace nightgown), which caused a sensation and became (at over five million copies) one of the most requested wartime pinups. During World War II she ranked with Betty Grable, Dorothy Lamour, Hedy Lamarr, and Lana Turner as the pinup girls most popular with servicemen. Rita would also become Columbia's biggest star of the 1940s, under the watchful eye of studio chief Harry Cohn, who recognized her value. After she made Tales of Manhattan (1942) at Twentieth Century Fox opposite Charles Boyer, Cohn would not allow Hayworth to be loaned out to other studios. Hayworth's well-known films include the musicals that made her famous: You'll Never Get Rich (1941) and You Were Never Lovelier (1942) (both with Fred Astaire, who wrote in his autobiography that Rita "danced with trained perfection and individuality"), My Gal Sal (1942) with Victor Mature, and her best known musical, Cover Girl (1944) with Gene Kelly. Although her singing voice was dubbed in her movies, Rita was one of Hollywood's best dancers, imbued with power, precision, tremendous enthusiasm, and an unearthly grace. Cohn continued to effectively showcase Hayworth's talents in Technicolor films: Tonight and Every Night (1945) with Lee Bowman, and Down to Earth (1947), with Larry Parks. Her erotic appeal was most notable in Gilda (1946), a black-and-white film noir directed by Charles Vidor, which encountered some difficulty with censors. This role — in which Hayworth in black satin performed a legendary one-glove striptease — made her into a cultural icon as the ultimate femme fatale. Alluding to her bombshell status, in 1946 her likeness was placed on the first nuclear bomb to be tested after World War II at Bikini Atoll in the Marshall Islands, as part of Operation Crossroads. Image:Ritahayworth4.jpg Rita Hayworth as Gilda
Hayworth gave one of her most acclaimed performances in Orson Welles' The Lady from Shanghai (1948), though it failed at the box office. The failure was in part attributed to the fact that director/co-star Welles had Hayworth's famous red locks cut off and the rest dyed blonde for her role. This was done without Harry Cohn's knowledge or approval who was furious over the change. Her next film, The Loves of Carmen (1948) with Glenn Ford, was the first film co-produced by Columbia and Rita's own production company, The Beckworth Corporation (named for her daughter Rebecca). It was Columbia's biggest moneymaker for that year. She received a percentage of the profits from this and all of her subsequent films until 1955, when Hayworth dissolved Beckworth to pay off debts she owed to Columbia. Marriage to Prince Aly Khan, and later careerRita left her film career in 1948 to marry Prince Aly Khan, the heir to the Aga Khan III, leader of Shia Ismaili Muslims. The couple moved to Europe, causing a media frenzy. Joseph L. Mankiewicz, in writing and directing 1954's The Barefoot Contessa, was said to have based his title character, Maria Vargas (played on film by Ava Gardner), on Hayworth's life and her marriage to Khan. After the marriage collapsed in 1951, Hayworth returned to America with great fanfare to film a string of hit films: Affair in Trinidad (1952) with favorite costar Glenn Ford, Salome (1953) with Charles Laughton and Stewart Granger, and Miss Sadie Thompson (1953) with Jose Ferrer and Aldo Ray, for which her performance won critical acclaim. Then she was off the big screen for another four years, due mainly to a tumultuous marriage to singer Dick Haymes. In 1957, after making Fire Down Below with Robert Mitchum and Jack Lemmon, and her last musical Pal Joey with Frank Sinatra and Kim Novak, Rita finally left Columbia. She got good reviews for her acting in such films as Separate Tables (1958) with Burt Lancaster and The Story on Page One (1960) with Anthony Franciosa, and continued working throughout the 1960s. Hayworth made her last film, The Wrath of God , in 1972. Personal lifeRita Hayworth liked horses and Thoroughbred horse racing, and became a member of the Del Mar Thoroughbred Club. Her husband Prince Aly Kahn and his family were heavily involved in horse racing and Hayworth's filly Double Rose won several races in France and notably finished second in the 1949 Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe. [1] Naturally shy and reclusive, Hayworth was the antithesis of the characters she played. She once complained "Men go to bed with Gilda, but they wake up with me". She was close to her frequent co-star and next-door neighbour Glenn Ford. According to Barbara Leaming's biography on Hayworth, If This Was Happiness, her relationships with men were often difficult due to the physical, sexual and emotional abuse she endured from her father at a young age. These revelations were made during interviews with Orson Welles in later years. She confided in him about the incest in particular, as well as several beatings. At one point in the biography Welles recalls that when Cansino tried to visit he would always have to throw him out. "He was a terrible man," Welles recalls. "And she really hated him. She couldn't deal with him at all." However, the fact that Rita remained close to her father, and even hired him as choreographer for her film "The Loves of Carmen", would seem to contradict this. Hayworth was married five times: first to Edward C. Judson (1937-1943), followed by actor-director Orson Welles (1943-1948, one daughter Rebecca Welles), to Prince Aly Khan (1949-1953, one daughter Princess Yasmin Aga Khan), then to actor-singer Dick Haymes (1953-1955), and finally to director James Hill (1958-1961). She also had a nephew named Richard Cansino, who is a voice actor in anime and video games; he has done most of his work under the name "Richard Hayworth". Final yearsImage:Rita Hayworth (1977).jpg Rita Hayworth in 1977. Following her death from Alzheimer's in 1987 at age 68, she was interred in the Holy Cross Cemetery in Culver City, California; location: Grotto, Lot 196, Grave 6 (right of main sidewalk, near the curb). Her marker includes the inscription "To yesterday's companionship and tomorrow's reunion." One of the major fundraisers for the Alzheimer's Association is the annual Rita Hayworth Gala, which is held in New York City and Chicago. Hayworth’s daughter, Princess Yasmin Aga Khan, has been the hostess for these events, which since 1985 have raised more than $42 million for the Association. [1] Continued Recognition
Miscellaneous facts
FilmographyImage:Ritahayworth3.jpg Original poster from Gilda As Rita Cansino
As Rita Hayworth
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