Rita Hayworth Poster


Jump to: Overview (5)  | Mini Bio (1)  | Spouse (5)  | Trade Mark (3)  | Trivia (115)  | Personal Quotes (44)  | Salary (7)

Overview (5)

Born in Brooklyn, New York City, New York, USA
Died in New York City, New York, USA  (Alzheimer's disease)
Birth NameMargarita Carmen Cansino
Nickname The Love Goddess
Height 5' 6" (1.68 m)

Mini Bio (1)

Rita Hayworth was born Margarita Carmen Cansino on October 17, 1918, in Brooklyn, New York, into a family of dancers. Her father, Eduardo Cansino Reina, was a dancer as was his father before him. He emigrated from Spain in 1913. Rita's American mother, Volga Margaret (Hayworth), who was of mostly Irish descent, met Eduardo in 1916 and were married the following year. Rita, herself, studied as a dancer in order to follow in her family's footsteps. She joined her family on stage when she was eight years old when her family was filmed in a movie called La Fiesta (1926). It was her first film appearance, albeit an uncredited one. Sotted by Fox studio head Winfield R. Sheehan, she signed her first studio contract, and make her film debut at age sixteen, in Dante's Inferno (1935), followed by Cruz Diablo (1934). She continued to play small bit parts in several films under the name of "Rita Cansino". She was Fox dropped her after five small roles, but expert, exploitative promotion by her first husband Edward Judson soon brought Rita a new contract at Columbia Pictures, where studio head Harry Cohn changed her surname to Hayworth and approved raising her hairline by electrolysis. She played the second female lead, Judy McPherson, in Only Angels Have Wings (1939). After thirteen minor roles, Columbia lent her to Warner Bros. for her first big success, The Strawberry Blonde (1941); her splendid dancing with Fred Astaire in You'll Never Get Rich (1941) made her a star. This was the film that exuded the warmth and seductive vitality that was to make her famous. Her natural, raw beauty was showcased later that year in Blood and Sand (1941), filmed in Technicolor.

Rita was probably the second most popular actress after Betty Grable. In You'll Never Get Rich (1941) with Fred Astaire, was probably the film that moviegoers felt close to Rita. Her dancing, for which she had studied all her life, was astounding. After the hit Gilda (1946) (her dancing had made the film and it had made her), her career was on the skids. Although she was still making movies, they never approached her earlier success. The drought began between The Lady from Shanghai (1947) and Champagne Safari (1954). Then after Salome (1953), she was not seen again until Pal Joey (1957). Part of the reasons for the downward spiral was television, but also Rita had been replaced by a new star at Columbia, Kim Novak.

Rita, herself, said, "Men fell in love with Gilda, but they wake up with me". In person, Rita was shy, quiet and unassuming; only when the cameras rolled did she turn on the explosive sexual charisma that in Gilda (1946) made her a superstar. To Rita, though, domestic bliss was a more important, if elusive, goal, and in 1949 she interrupted her career for marriage - unfortunately an unhappy one almost from the start - to the playboy Prince Aly Khan. Her films after her divorce from Khan include perhaps her best straight acting performances, Miss Sadie Thompson (1953) and They Came to Cordura (1959).

After a few, rather forgettable films in the 1960s, her career was essentially over. Her final film was The Wrath of God (1972). Her career was really never the same after Gilda (1946). Perhaps Gene Ringgold said it best when he remarked, "Rita Hayworth is not an actress of great depth. She was a dancer, a glamorous personality, and a sex symbol. These qualities are such that they can carry her no further professionally." Perhaps he was right but Hayworth fans would vehemently disagree with him.

Beginning in 1960 (age 42), early onset of Alzheimer's disease (undiagnosed until 1980) limited Rita's ability. The last few roles in her 60-film career were increasingly small. With 20 years of symptoms, Rita was cared for by her daughter, Yasmin Khan, until Rita's death at age 68 on May 14, 1987, in New York City.

- IMDb Mini Biography By: Rod Crawford and Denny Jackson

Spouse (5)

James Hill (2 February 1958 - 7 September 1961) ( divorced)
Dick Haymes (24 September 1953 - 12 December 1955) ( divorced)
Prince Aly Khan (27 May 1949 - 26 January 1953) ( divorced) ( 1 child)
Orson Welles (7 September 1943 - 1 December 1948) ( divorced) ( 1 child)
Edward Charles Holmgren Judson (29 May 1937 - 22 May 1942) ( divorced)

Trade Mark (3)

Strawberry blonde hair
Voluptuous figure
Deep sultry voice

Trivia (115)

The annual Rita Hayworth charity gala, managed by daughter Princess Yasmin Khan, raised US$1.8 million in 1999 (US$2.76 million in 2018 dollars) alone for the Alzheimer's Association. Alzheimer's disease is an irreversible, progressive brain disorder that slowly destroys memory and thinking skills, and eventually the ability to carry out the simplest tasks. In most people with Alzheimer's, symptoms first appear in their mid-60s. Estimates vary, but experts suggest that more than 5.5 million Americans may have Alzheimer's.
She appeared in five movies with classic leading actor Glenn Ford: Affair in Trinidad (1952), The Lady in Question (1940), The Loves of Carmen (1948), The Money Trap (1965) and Gilda (1946).
Ranked #98 in Empire (UK) magazine's "The Top 100 Movie Stars of All Time" list. [October 1997]
Her dancer father, Eduardo Cansino, himself the son of a dancer, came to New York from Spain in 1913 with sister Elisa. He had Andalusian ancestry.
Mother, showgirl Volga Hayworth (sometimes spelled Haworth), met Eduardo on Broadway in 1916; they married 1917.
Her first (uncredited) appearance on film was with the dancing Cansino family in a Vitaphone short La Fiesta (1926).
She appeared four times on the cover of "Life" Magazine; 7/15/40, 8/11/41, 1/18/43 and 11/10/47.
The famous Bob Landry photo of Rita in "Life", 11 August 1941, p. 33, made her the number 2 soldier pin-up of World War II.
Her singing was dubbed by Nan Wynn (1941-1944), Martha Mears (1945), Anita Ellis (1946-1948), and Jo Ann Greer (1952-1957).
Her own singing voice is heard in the introductions to her songs (otherwise dubbed by Jo Ann Greer) in Pal Joey (1957).
Owned the production company "Hillworth Productions A.G." together with her fifth husband, James Hill.
She played the sister of Barbara Stanwyck in A Message to Garcia (1936), but after a test screening all her scenes were cut at the request of Darryl F. Zanuck.
The image of her face was glued onto an A-bomb which was dropped on the Bikini Atoll during a test in 1946.
Interred at Holy Cross Cemetery in Culver City, California, USA, in the Grotto section, L196, #6 (to the right of the main sidewalk, near the curb).
Chosen by Empire magazine as one of the "100 Sexiest Stars" in film history (#54). [1995]
Her mother's ancestry was Irish, with small amounts of English, Scots-Irish/Northern Irish, Scottish, Welsh, Cornish, Bohemian Czech, Dutch, and German.
In 1947, started her own production company, "Beckworth Corporation" (formed from syllables of her daughters name, Rebecca, and her own surname). It was dissolved in 1954 under advice from her fourth husband, Dick Haymes.
In the early 1940s, she replaced Jean Arthur as the top female star at Columbia Pictures. Coincidentally, the two stars share the same birthday (October 17).
Nephew: Richard Cansino.
It was James Hill, her fifth husband, who recognised her true talent as a comedienne. He tried to encourage her to do more comedy, but she felt that it was too late and instead began to resent him for pushing her into more work.
Knocked out two of Glenn Ford's teeth during their fight in Gilda (1946).
In 1946, an expedition into the wilderness of Canada's unexplored Headless Valley came across an abandoned trapper's shack. In it the expedition found three things: a candle, a can of beans, and a picture of Rita.
On May 27, 1949, she married Prince Aly Khan. Many people forget that Rita, not Grace Kelly, was the first movie star to become a princess.
She was the producers' first choice for Casablanca (1942), but they couldn't get her and were fortunate to settle for Ingrid Bergman.
The Maria Vargas character (played by Ava Gardner) in the 1954 Joseph L. Mankiewicz film The Barefoot Contessa (1954)) was based on her.
She was the first bombshell to appear on one of the posters in The Shawshank Redemption (1994). (The other two were Marilyn Monroe and Raquel Welch).
She was voted the 65th "Greatest Movie Star" of all time by Entertainment Weekly.
She was voted the 34th Greatest Movie Star of all time by Premiere Magazine.
Was named #19 Actress, The American Film Institutes 50 Greatest Screen Legends.
Is one of the many movie stars mentioned in Madonna's song "Vogue".
Was portrayed by Lynda Carter in Rita Hayworth: The Love Goddess (1983).
Subject of The White Stripes song "Take, Take, Take" from the album "Get Behind Me Satan".
Is portrayed by Veronica Watt in Hollywoodland (2006).
Along with James Cagney, is mentioned by name in the Tom Waits' song "Invitation to the Blues".
Publicist Henry Rogers, hired by Eddie Judson to promote his wife, said of him, "It seemed to me that Eddie would have sold his wife to the highest bidder if it would have advanced her career.".
Columbia Pictures chief Harry Cohn only began taking interest in Hayworth as star material after she began undergoing painful electrolysis treatments (at the urging of husband Eddie Judson), which drastically altered her hairline and appearance.
Under of the influence of second husband Orson Welles, Rita began to read classic literature. While pregnant in 1944, she was very impressed by Walter Scott's "Ivanhoe" and named her firstborn daughter Rebecca after the novel's heroine.
In Italy, all her films were dubbed by either Tina Lattanzi, most notably in Gilda (1946), and later in her career by Lydia Simoneschi.
Biography in: "The Scribner Encyclopedia of American Lives". Volume Two, 1986-1990, pages 399-400. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1999.
Cousin of Ginger Rogers and niece of actor Vinton Hayworth.
When she died, it was her former Paddy O'Day (1936) co-star Jane Withers who delivered the eulogy at her funeral.
One of the few actresses to have danced with both Fred Astaire and Gene Kelly in the movies, other actresses that have also done this includes Judy Garland, Cyd Charisse, Vera-Ellen, Debbie Reynolds and Leslie Caron.
According to the book "Debrett Goes to Hollywood" by Charles Kidd, Rita was descended on her mother's side from an Allyn Haworth, whose family was reputed to be descended from the town of Haworth in West Yorkshire. Haworth is also famous as the home of the Bronte sisters.
She was awarded a Star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 1645 Vine Street in Hollywood, California on February 8, 1960.
Former stepmother of Christopher Welles and Dick Haymes Jr..
Was good friends with Hermes Pan.
She was a lifelong liberal Democrat.
Both she and last husband, James Hill, died of complications from Alzheimer's disease.
Along with Veronica Lake, Julie London and Lauren Bacall, she was one of four inspirations that helped create the character Jessica Rabbit.
In the television series Franklin & Bash (2011), a large portrait of Hayworth in a silk negligee is frequently seen displayed in the law office where the main characters are employed.
She was referenced in the video game Medal of Honor: Rising Sun (2003).
Director Rouben Mamoulian said of her to "Vogue", "On the screen, if an actor can move, he needs little else for a successful career. Hayworth moved better than anyone else I have ever seen in film. The camera responded to her movement as it did to Garbo's intelligence and Chaplin's mime.".
A year after Blood and Sand (1941), Anthony Quinn announced that he and Hayworth would do a bullfight picture together, but it was never made.
Pregnant 26-year-old Rita Hayworth entered St. John's Hospital, in Santa Monica, California, on Friday, December 15, 1944. It had been selected because this hospital was known for the privacy it afforded celebrities. Two days later, she gave birth to her first child by Cesarean section, a healthy 7-pound (3.175 kilogram) girl who was named Rebecca Welles. The child's father was her second, and later ex-husband, Orson Welles, and the child's godfather was Frank Sinatra who was a good friend of the couple.
In December 1949, pregnant 31-year-old Rita Hayworth was living in Switzerland with her third husband, Aly Salomone Khan, When she was due to give birth, they planned to have a police escort to the Montchoisi Clinic in Lausanne but Rita went into labor at 3:00 AM on Wednesday, December 28th and Aly panicked and drove her to the clinic. Rita was in labor for seven hours and gave birth to a 5.5-pound (2.49-kilogram) girl who was named Yasmin Aga Khan Yasmin Khan.
Became the first public face for Alzheimer's. During the 1960s she began forgetting her lines. The people around her thought it was due to drinking. Looking back it is believed she was in the early stages of Alzheimer's.
Frequently worked with Charles Vidor. He directed her in The Lady in Question (1940), Cover Girl (1944), Gilda (1946) and The Loves of Carmen (1948).
In 1962, she left the leading role in the three-act Broadway stage comedy "Step on the Crack", after three weeks of rehearsal because she realized the play still needed a great deal of rewriting. The play opened in the Ethel Barrymore Theatre in New York City on October 17th and closed the next day after one performance.
In July 1972, she was scheduled to replace Lauren Bacall in the original Broadway musical "Applause" playing at the Palace Theatre in New York City. She changed her mind when she felt she would have insufficient rehearsal time before opening. Anne Baxter replaced her.
Alzheimer's disease had been largely forgotten by the medical community since its discovery in 1906. Medical historian Barron H. Lerner wrote that when Rita Hayworth's diagnosis was made public in 1981, she became "the first public face of Alzheimer's, helping to ensure that future patients did not go undiagnosed." In July 1981, Hayworth's health had deteriorated to the point that a judge in Los Angeles Superior Court ruled that she should be placed under the care of her daughter, Princess Yasmin Aga Khan. Her daughter took Rita back to New York City where she lived in the San Remo Apartments at 145-146 Central Park West in Manhattan. Until she became bedridden, Rita spent a good deal of time seated in an armchair, gazing straight ahead. As time went by, Rita was silent most of the time but occasionally, she would utter one or two, odd enigmatic sentences, e.g., one time she said "He used to do that. He told me how to do that" but nobody knew what it meant. In February 1987, she fell into a semi coma and died three months later on Thursday, May 14, 1987 at age 68. Rita's remains were flown to Los Angeles, California and a funeral Mass for her was held on Monday, May 18, 1987, at the Roman Catholic Church of the Good Shepherd located at 505 North Roxbury Drive in Beverly Hills. Pallbearers Glenn Ford, Ricardo Montalban, Cesar Romero, Tony Franciosa, Don Ameche, Hermes Pan and agent Budd Burton Moss, walked before the white lily- and tulip-draped wooden casket to the altar. Rita's daughters, Rebecca Welles and Yasmin Khan walked behind the coffin. Fred Astaire, who starred with Rita in two musicals, was absent and unable to take his place as a pallbearer due to ill health; he died 39 days after Rita's death. More than 500 mourners, including film greats, fans, relatives and friends, crowded into the church to hear Rita Hayworth eulogized as a "sweet, kind, gentle lady" who was actually shy away from the cameras. This recollection of Miss Hayworth, was given by Jane Withers, a child actress in the 1930s and a friend of Miss Hayworth. Internment was at Holy Cross Cemetery, located at 5835 West Slauson Avenue in Culver City. Rita's grave is immediately to the right (east) of the Grotto, beneath the white statue of a praying angel, grave #15. Her headstone includes her daughter's Yasmin Khan Princess Yasmin Aga Khan's sentiment: "To yesterday's companionship and tomorrow's reunion.".
Charlton Heston wrote about Rita Hayworth's brief marriage to James Hill. Heston and his wife Lydia joined the couple for dinner in a restaurant in Spain with the director George Marshall and Rex Harrison, Hayworth's co-star in "The Happy Thieves." Heston wrote in his memoir that the occasion "turned into the single most embarrassing evening of my life", describing how Hill heaped "obscene abuse" on Hayworth until she was "reduced to a helpless flood of tears, her face buried in her hands". Heston writes how they all sat stunned, witnesses to a "marital massacre" and though he was "strongly tempted to slug him" (Hill), he instead simply took his wife Lydia home when she stood up, almost in tears. Heston wrote, "I'm ashamed of walking away from Miss Hayworth's humiliation. I never saw her again.".
The Amnesiac character in David Lynch's Mulholland Drive decides to take her name after seeing it on a poster.
Rita Hayworth checked into Silver Hill Hospital in New Canaan, Connecticut, in April 1977 to treat her excessive drinking and improve her mental health. Her friend, Mac Krim, stated that she successfully continued to avoid alcohol after she came home, but based on her behavior caused by the Alzheimer's disease, people still often assumed she was drunk.
Rita Hayworth's cook, Dorothy Holmes, stated that "Rita Hayworth's best friend was Dinah Shore, the singer. I loved Dinah, because she had a lovely disposition. Dinah Shore would send a limousine over to Rita's house and she would be chauffeured to Dinah's personal racquet club or golf club, wherever Dinah would share a few friendly drinks.".
Monsignor Peter Healey, who delivered the funeral Mass for Rita Hayworth in 1987, noted that he had received calls from many people across the country who remembered Miss Hayworth's sweetness and graciousness. ''Rita, in her suffering, continued to bring beauty and love to the world,'' he said. He read a passage from ''The Prophet'' by Khalil Gibran in which Miss Hayworth had underlined the words ''I am in the heart of God.''.
Fred Astaire recalled how gifted and quick she was in learning the most advanced routines-often learning the steps in the morning, mulling over them during lunch, and after lunch performing the dance without a single mistake.
In October 1996, Kim Novak was interviewed by a reporter from The Washington Post newspaper. Co-starring with Rita Hayworth in the 1957 film "Pal Joey", Ms. Novak said she loved co-star Rita Hayworth, but not co-star Frank Sinatra, although he and Novak reputedly had an affair years earlier. She said, "I knew Rita Hayworth only enough to know that she was just a tender, sensitive, beautiful human being. A lovely person. Very gentle. She would never stand up for her rights." Commenting on Frank Sinatra, Ms. Novak said, "I felt he was not very fair to Rita Hayworth particularly. He wouldn't show up for dance rehearsals and let her have to go through it all, then he came in the last day and all our work had to be cut because he didn't want to do this or he didn't want to do that. That was so unfair and so unkind, so uncalled for." However, Sinatra insisted that Rita Hayworth get top billing. When someone asked why, Sinatra told newsmen, "To me, Hayworth is Columbia (Pictures). They may have made her a star, but she gave them class.".
Jane Withers said the 1935 film "'Paddy O'Day' is one of my favorite movies ... [When making 'Paddy O'Day'] I visited the 'Charlie Chan in Egypt' set next door to me. And on the set was a [16-year-old] beautiful girl who was dancing ballroom with her partner in a film. I was only eight but I felt so strongly about this girl - she was just dynamite. I asked to meet her, her name was Rita Cansino. She was painfully shy. She said 'I just love to dance and I'm just thrilled to be in the movies.' I said,'Have you ever acted?' and she said, 'Oh no, I've never acted, I'm a dancer.' I said, 'You don't need to learn acting, it just has to be in your heart.'" Just before filming started Jane held Rita's hand and prayed with her and that small kind gesture resulted in a lifelong friendship. Withers gave the eulogy at Hayworth's funeral in 1987 and she recalled during the eulogy that Rita Hayworth suffered from stage fright early in her career. Ms. Withers also said "she always had so much enthusiasm in her dancing that when I found out how shy she was, I was startled.
The choreographer Jack Cole said this of Rita Hayworth: "Rita was a lonely person, you always felt that about her. She'd sit around with the girls during rehearsals, but mostly by herself, not stand-offish, just lonely. But always a lady." He also said, that "She's a Spanish teenager really who's hardly ever grown up. Unless she got somebody around to say 'Don't do this! Don't do that/Eat! Don't eat/If you're bored go to bed, get plastered,' she's like a teenage girl who does whatever amuses her. I like Rita Hayworth, she's a very nice lady. One of the few nice ones in movies to work with.".
James Hill, in his 1983 book "Rita Hayworth: A Memoir," indicated that their marriage--her fifth and final, his only--fell apart because he forced Hayworth to continue making movies when she wanted both of them to retire from the Hollywood hubbub, enabling her to paint and him to write.
In 1977, Rita Hayworth accepted The National Screen Heritage Award at the Shoreham Hotel in Washington, D.C. Prior to the ceremony, Gene Kelly went to Rita's suite but nobody saw him come down.
By 1940, there were 3,800 stories and 12,000 pictures of Rita Hayworth in circulation.
During the 1944 Presidential campaign, Rita Hayworth was one of the nearly 50 Hollywood celebrities that endorsed President Franklin D. Roosevelt.
Claudia Cardinale and Rita Hayworth starred in the 1964 film "Circus World." Ms. Cardinale said: "During the shooting of "Circus World", I was in my trailer taking a break when Rita showed up in tears. She looked me in the eye and sobbed: 'Once upon a time, I was beautiful too.' She moved me so much that I started to cry too. She was magnificent! She had this nostalgic side to her that made her all the more charming.".
When "Gilda" premiered at the first ever Cannes Film Festival in 1946, everyone was buzzing about Rita Hayworth's striptease to "Put The Blame On Mame" wearing a strapless, black satin sheath dress with a long side slit and extra long gloves. Costume designer Jean Louis created the custom gown (which required a corset and custom harness) and helped cement the concept of a femme fatale.
In 1987, the Deauville (France) Festival of American Cinema paid tribute to Rita Hayworth, who had passed away a few months earlier, and was represented in Deauville by her daughter, the Princess Yasmin Aga Khan Yasmin Khan.
Rita Hayworth married Aly Khan on May 17, 1949 in a civil ceremony and May 28, 1949. The Khan family was heavily involved in horse racing, owning and racing horses. Hayworth had no interest in the sport but she became a member of the Del Mar Thoroughbred Club located in Del Mar, California. She bought a filly named Double Rose which won several races in France and finished second in the 1949 Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe in Longchamp Racecourse. Paris, France.
In 1977, Rita Hayworth went to England and later to Italy where she accepted The Rudolph Valentino Award in Bari. Margo Hammond wrote in "Variety" magazine, "After a dramatic entrance up the center aisle of the opera house amid flashing spotlights, strains of Richard Strauss's 'Thus Spake Zarathustra' and thunderous applause, a dazed Rita accepted the award telling the audience: 'This is the happiest moment of my life.' ".
The Cansino family moved from New York City to Los Angeles, California when Rita was nine years old. She attended the Carthay School in Los Angeles where she had parts in a few school plays and found her first acting role when she was 11-years-old in a stage prologue for the movie "Back Street" at the Carthay Circle Theater. She then spent one year at Alexander Hamilton High School before, in ninth grade, her schooling was halted when she became her father's dancing partner.
During World War II, Rita made a single USO tour in 1942 and managed to visit six military camps giving thousands of autographs before coming back from Texas, where she was reported to have nervous breakdown that was full fledged due to over enthusiasm. She also appeared on a number of radio shows with Bob Hope and Armed Forces Radio Service programs like "Command Performance" (at least five shows), "GI Journal" and "Mail Call." Rita also worked at the Hollywood Canteen which operated at 1451 Cahuenga Boulevard in Hollywood between October 3, 1942, and November 22, 1945, as a club offering food, dancing and entertainment for servicemen, usually on their way overseas. Even though the majority of visitors were U.S servicemen, the canteen was open to servicemen of allied countries as well as women in all branches of service. A serviceman's ticket for admission was his uniform, and everything at the canteen was free of charge. Rita was one of the most beautiful and regular volunteers who donated their services at the Hollywood Canteen by serving food and dancing with the servicemen. She also became active in collecting scrap metal, as well as promoting war bonds for the war effort. For Rita Hayworth, just like the other starlets in performing for the U.S. soldiers in different capacities, the task were at times overwhelming making them to be fatigued and break down.
In May 1951, Rita Hayworth moved to Glenbrook, Nevada on Lake Tahoe to establish legal residence so she could divorce Aly Khan. (Nevada law stated that you must have legal residence for a six month period.) While in Nevada, Rita took up golf and became a avid golfer for life and when she had time, she played at country clubs in California. She said, "I've played courses all over the world, including Japan. I ran into Bob Hope on the Irish and Scottish links, and in Spain, Skip Hathaway and I played a little bit.".
For her appearance in the 1941 film "The Strawberry Blonde," Rita Hayworth was paid $6,500 ($15,909.03 in 2018 dollars), at a weekly rate of $927.85 ($16,545.57 in 2018 dollars) for seven guaranteed weeks of work.
Fred Astaire and Rita Hayworth starred in the 1942 film "You Were Never Lovelier" and rehearsed the dance sequences in a nearby funeral parlor because there wasn't adequate room at Columbia Studios. In his biography, Astaire wrote, "Keeping the laughs going during the intervals was a part of the day's work and I always tried to think up some gag to play on Rita. In one instance I called out, 'Well-here we go-I'm beginning to like this place-it doesn't get me down any more, I'm used to it-ready, Rita?' Up jumped Rita at once and came to me to start our first step together. As I took hold of her two arms she let out one scream and backed away. I had just dipped both my hands and arms in a bucket of ice which we kept for soda bottles. That broke up rehearsals for a half hour or so.".
In October 1976, Rita accepted an invitation to appear on an Buenos Aires, Argentina TV station paying homage to her long career. At this time, there was political unrest in the county and the U.S. ambassador had cabled Washington advising the State Department that local terrorists would stage a "grenade attack" as Rita left her hotel. While in Buenos Aires, Rita was surrounded by security guards. Upon reaching the hotel from the airport, Rita opened the shades on a window and a bomb exploded in the park across the street. Several days later, an office building exploded about 10-feet (3.048-meters) from the car she was riding in. Fortunately she was not injured in either event.
In 1923, the Cansinos performed in the two act Broadway musical "The Greenwich Village Follies" at the Winter Garden Theatre, 1634 Broadway in New York City. The Cansinos consisted of Eduardo, his brother Angel, his wife Volga and his 5-year-old daughter Rita. The musical ran for 140 performances from September 20, 1923 to January 1924.
In the 1960s, Hayworth told the readers of Spanish-language magazine Cinemundo, "I loved the movies of Dolores Del Rio, and also Lupe Velez...I didn't fantasize that I would ever become a star like them, but I also didn't think I couldn't make it with the name I was born with.".
Each spring, the Turner Classic Movie (TCM) Classic Film Festival arrives in Hollywood. In the 2013 Festival, Kim Novak was interviewed by the late Robert Osborne. During the interview, Rita Hayworth's name came up in regard to the dance sequences in the 1957 film Pal Joey which featured Kim Novak and Rita. During a discussion of the dance sequences, Ms. Novak said that Rita "was a wonderful lady willing to do anything and everything." She went on to say that "I was so upset that I couldn't do everything but she took it in stride.".
In World War II, YANK magazine was published weekly by the U.S. Army for all branches of the U.S. military. The writers were enlisted men and they wrote stories about World War II and sketched cartoons poking fun at service life like G.I Joe and Sad Sack. As a "morale booster," one of the most popular parts of the magazine were photos of a pin-up girl usually clad in a bathing suit or some form of seductive attire. Rita Hayworth's picture appeared in the 7 July 1944 edition of the magazine.
Inducted into the Hair Fan's Hall of Fame in 2013.
Rita Hayworth appeared in nine films in 1937. She was billed as Rita Cansino in three of them and she was uncredited in one.
In 1989, Barbara Leaming published an autobiographical book entitled 'If This Was Happiness: A Biography of Rita Hayworth'. In the book, Leaming alleged that Hayworth was a victim of sexual abuse by her own father. Leaming asserts that Hayworth confided that secret to Orson Welles who said of his ex-wife, "If this was happiness, imagine what the rest of her life had been", which Leaming then took for the title of her book. Among other things, Leaming believes Hayworth's subsequent destructive marriages, love affairs, the long, drawn-out custody suit for Yasmin amid charges of child neglect-which, apparently, were true-and her battles with Columbia Pictures were in part precipitated by the feelings of betrayal and guilt that color the life of incest victims.
In December 1934, Rita was signed by the vice president of production of the Fox Film Corporation to perform in a "decidedly sensuous" dance number in the film "Dante's Inferno" staring Spencer Tracy and Claire Trevor. The signing was held in the Hotel Caliente where the Cansinos were performing and after the signing, Rita was summoned to a table where Louella Parson was seated. (Parsons was the first American movie columnist and a screenwriter and in later years became one of Rita's most faithful partisans.) Parsons recalled that "When she came to our table, she turned out to be painfully shy. She could not look at strangers when she spoke to them and her voice was so low it could hardly be heard. Hardly it seemed to me, the material of which a great star could be made." This film was still shooting when Rita went to work on "Under the Pampas Moon"; the film was finally released on August 23, 1935. "Hollywood Reporter," a print magazine focusing on the Hollywood motion picture industries said, "The others (actors) are standard excepting for a dance by Rita Cansico.....which is splendid, although it slows up the finale." Rita received US$500 (US$$9,198.47 in 2918 dollars) for one weeks work. In 1948, Spencer Tracy said: "Rita Hayworth's first film was 'Dante's Inferno', the last one I made at Fox Films under my old contract and one of the worst pictures ever made anywhere, anytime. The fact that she survived in films after that screen debut is testament enough that she deserves all the recognition she's getting now.".
Shooting of 16-year-old Rita's second film, "Under the Pampas Moon". started on February 25th, 1935 and the film was released in the U.S. on June 1st, 1935. Rita portrayed an Argentinian girl named Carmen and received tenth billing in this film.
Rita received fourth billing in the third film she appeared in, "Charlie Chan in Egypt". Shooting began on April 8th, 1935 and the film was released on June 21st, 1935. Rita played a slinking, native amah (a girl or woman employed by a family to clean, look after children, and perform other domestic tasks) with three lines. The best was "Yes, Effendi" and the longest was "Mistress will take medicine." The studio had given her this glorified walk-on to give her exposure and build up her confidence.
In the early 1930s (probably in 1934 when she was 14-years-old ), Rita's parents had deliberately emphasized her Latin appearance by dyeing her brown hair jet black, parting it in the middle and fastening it in a bun at the back.
In 1934, 15-year old Rita Cansico appeared as an extra in her first film, "Cruz Diable" (The Devil's Cross). Her appearance was by accident when, one afternoon, while playing with a group of young Mexican girls her own age, who were intently watching the film company at work on location, she was singled out, because she could perform a street dance outside the bullfighting arena, and paid a few pesos for her contribution. According to Rita, the director assumed that she was "just another dirty Mexican kid." This was natural because Rita's father had insisted that she dye her medium brown hair to a jet black and keep it well pomaded to add a slightly swarthy effect. This film was shot in Mexico and intended for Spanish-speaking countries and some theaters that showed Spanish-language films. The film was released in the U.S. in April 1935.
Only appeared in one film nominated for the Best Picture Oscar: Separate Tables (1958).
In the 1 June 1987 issue of People magazine, Rita's daughter Princess Yasmin Aga Khan Yasmin Khan discussed her mother's medical problems especially Alzheimer's. She wrote, "Looking back to when I was younger, I realize that Mother and I had some unpleasant experiences when she hadn't been drinking at all. Once, when I was 19, we were driving to dinner and she jumped the curve on Sunset Boulevard, and the car suddenly jolted up the incline and down again. It was frightening. Then there were times Mother would step out of an elevator and not know which way to go. You could see her panic because she was so confused and disoriented. Sometimes, when I would tell her about something that happened at school or something about my friends, she would look at me like I was a stranger and say something completely irrelevant. She also developed paranoid tendencies. She claimed to hear things in the Beverly Hills house and would insist someone was breaking and entering. No one could convince her that nothing was wrong, and she would call for the police.".
Rita's fourth husband, Dick Haymes, was known in Hollywood as "Mr. Evil.".
According to an article in Architectural Digest. "Orson Welles and Rita Hayworth divorced four years after their hurried yet ecstatic marriage in Santa Monica, California. She was uneducated and intensely insecure but a big star, breaking free from her ex-husband, Edward Judson, yet fiercely guarded by her studio, Columbia, and its boss, Harry Cohn. Welles was mercurial, unreliable, too much in love with himself to leave room for anyone else-and a natural loner and nomad. Despite their differences, they fell in love as helplessly as kids. And, for a year or so, they gave emphatic, physical proof of America's (and their own) naive dream, that a full-fledged genius and the loveliest girl in the world might be like filet mignon and ice cream-on the same plate. Yet this didn't last. He grew bored with her, and she got fed up with his egotism.".
In honor of her 100th birthday, she was honored as Turner Classic Movies Star of the Month in October 2018.
Short story writer W. Somerset Maugham wrote the story "Miss Thompson" in April 1921 and it was subsequently performed on Broadway and three films, two of them titled "Rain." Rita Hayworth was in the 1953 film titled "Miss Sadie Thompson" and Maugham reportedly said that Rita Hayworth was his favorite.
Originally the part of the film Ramona (1936) was going to go to Rita Hayworth (under her original name, Rita Cansino). But when Darryl F. Zanuck became the head of 20th Century, he said Hayworth was too young for the role, and he gave it to Loretta Young.
In August 1941, Rita Hayworth posed in a negligee with a black lace bodice and her photo was featured in an iconic Life magazine photo. The photo was taken by Bob Landry which made Hayworth one of the top two pin-up girls of the World War II years. However, Rita didn't feel shy. In an interview, she said: ""Why should I mind. I like having my picture taken and being a glamorous person. Sometimes when I find myself getting impatient, I always remember the time when I cried because nobody wanted to take my picture at the Trocadero." In 2002, the satin nightgown worn by Hayworth for the photo was sold for US$26,888 (US$37,669.80 in 2018 dollars).
Rita appeared in the film The Dancing Pirate (1936) in the group credited as the Royal Cansino Dancers that appeared in the beginning of the film.
In the 1920s, Rita and her family and a servant named Hattie Smith lived in an apartment at 480 Central Park West in Manhattan, New York City. By 1925, the family moved to 6420 35th Street in Queens, New York City. and in 1927, the family moved to Los Angeles, California and lived at 1463 Stearns Drive. Hayworth's alma mater, Hamilton High School, stands at 2955 S. Robertson Blvd. in Los Angeles. By 1940, Hayworth was living at 201 Veteran Ave. with her first husband Edward Judson in Los Angeles. When Rita, became an overnight star in the film Blood and Sand (1941), she moved to 453 Dalehurst Avenue, in a modest house in Brentwood, a neighborhood in the Westside of Los Angeles. Over the course of the decade, she met Orson Welles, married him in 1943, shared three homes with him in and around Brentwood. In March 1946 Rita officially separated from Orson and moved into a rented house in Brentwood with their daughter Rebecca and she divorced him in 1947. She then moved into a small brick-and-clapboard house of her own, again in Brentwood. In the 1950s, Rita lived in a house in Beverly Hills at 512 North Palm Drive. The Spanish-style house, measuring 4,426 square feet (411.19 square meters) which is located on a 0.27-acre (0.109 hectare) parcel, featured five-bedrooms along with five and a half baths, vintage ironwork, stained glass, a Juliet balcony, as well as a grand living room. However, Hayworth later sold her house for US$3.96 million dollars.
She has appeared in three films that have been selected for the National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically or aesthetically" significant: Only Angels Have Wings (1939), Gilda (1946) and The Lady from Shanghai (1947).
Rita (as Rita Cansino) appeared in the 1937 film Hit The Saddle, her 14th film. She was billed fourth after three cowhands. In the Weekly Variety review of the film, "Shan" wrote, "the girl (Rita Cansino) is highly deficient in terps and as an actress.".
George O'Brien, an important leading man during the silent era, was now the king of the RKO Westerns, and Oliver Drake, its principal screenwriter, dusted off the old script to make The Renegade Ranger (1938). The studio borrowed Columbia starlet Rita Hayworth, then still primarily typecast by her Spanish heritage, as Judith Alvarez, an incognito bandit queen. She is, in fact, something of a female Robin Hood of the Old West, fighting the corrupt government agents who have been cheating local ranchers out of their land (it would not be the last time Hayworth would play a woman who was not what she seemed). O'Brien is the Texas Ranger dispatched to apprehend her but ends up saving her life instead. The seasoned star was impressed with Hayworth's good nature and professional eagerness. O'Brien said that during filming, she frequently asked for advice on how to play a certain moment and never pretended to know more than she did or put on airs about "slumming" in a B western. "Rita carried herself beautifully," he later noted. "She walked and moved with such grace! Clich though it might be, she was poetry in motion." Reviewers noted the young actress's screen talents and riding skills, calling hers "one of the finest female sagebrush performances seen in a long while." It was clear, even at this early stage of her career and in such an inauspicious setting, that Hayworth would soon justify O'Brien's prediction that she was destined to go far in the movie business.
Rita Hayworth had second billing in the film The Renegade Ranger (1939). The Hollywood Reporter wrote "Rita Hayworth, the girl falsely accuse of murder, is a pretty eyeful who turns in an endearing performance." The Daily Variety wrote, "Rita Hayworth playing opposite George O'Brien turns in one of the finest femme sagebrush performance seen in a long while. Ideally cast, she displays both acting and riding skill.".
Rita took up painting while struggling with Alzheimer's disease, producing beautiful works of art (some which were featured in the 2009 documentary film I Remember Better When I Paint).

Personal Quotes (44)

[To writer Virginia Van Upp] Every man I have ever known has fallen in love with Gilda and awakened with me.
I haven't had everything from life. I've had too much.
[when asked what had held up her dress in Gilda (1946)] Two things.
[1974, when asked what she thought when she looks at herself after waking up in the morning] Darling, I don't wake up 'til the afternoon.
What surprises me in life are not the marriages that fail, but the marriages that succeed.
The fun of acting is to become someone else.
Basically, I am a good, gentle person, but I'm attracted to mean personalities.
No one can be Gilda 24 hours a day.
[early in her career about husband Eddie Judson] I owe everything to Ed. I could never have made the grade in Hollywood without him. I was just too backward. My whole career was his idea.
[on why she divorced Orson Welles] I can't take his genius any more.
I wanted to study singing, but Harry Cohn kept saying, "Who needs it?" and the studio wouldn't pay for it. They had me so intimidated that I couldn't have done it anyway. They always said, "Oh, no, we can't let you do it. There's no time for that; it has to be done right now!" I was under contract, and that was it.
I rode on horseback, though I was terrified of them. That was when I was doing westerns. They were something else again. And I did them because that was work, that was my job. So I don't start from the top.
I was certainly a well-trained dancer. I'm a good actress: I have depth. I have feeling. But they don't care. All they want is the image.
Who wouldn't prefer having breakfast in bed to getting up at the crack of dawn and having a cup of coffee in a studio makeup department?
I was never sick during The Lady from Shanghai (1947). Poor Orsie [Orson Welles] was the one who was sick; Harry Cohn made him sick.
I couldn't get used to the New York weather. On one occasion I was laid up for a week because I caught a severe cold rushing from the dance studio, still soaked with perspiration, back to the hotel for voice lessons.
I didn't like dancing very much, but I didn't have the courage to tell my father, so I began taking the lessons. Rehearse, rehearse, rehearse. That was my girlhood.
Orson Welles was trying something new with me on The Lady from Shanghai (1947) but Harry Cohn wanted The Image--The Image he was going to make me until I was 90.
All the action in the screenplay for Separate Tables (1958) took place in a seaside hotel in England, which was a mecca for tourists in the summer and a haven for the desperate and lonely in the winter.
[on her marriage to Edward Judson] I married him for love; he married me for an investment. My husband was always finding fault with me. He was extremely jealous and quarrelsome. I never had any fun. I was never permitted to make any decisions. From the first he told me I couldn't do anything for myself. My personality crawled deeper and deeper into a shell.
Sensitive, shy-- of course I was. The fun of acting is to become someone else.
I've always been so bored with the empty stuff I've had to play. But I've always been happiest when I've had a definite character slant to a role.
[on her marriage to James Hill] He would come in the door, go straight to his room and wouldn't even talk to me all night. He said I was not a nice woman in too loud a voice.
[on her divorce from Dick Haymes] I stood by him as long as he was in trouble, but I can't take it any more.
I've had a lot of unhappiness in my life--and a lot of happiness. Who doesn't? Maybe I've learned enough to be able to guide my daughters.
When I look back on my marriages, or the breakups, sure I know the pain I went through, but that's part of life and it has its own value.
Old age--that's when a woman takes vitamins A through G, and still looks like H.
Whatever you write about me, don't make it sad.
When you're in love, you are living, you matter.
Every actor. every director, everybody needs an Oscar. You have to have that little statue in Hollywood or else you are nothing.
I always thought that if I ever got good reviews I'd be happy. It's so empty. It's never what I wanted, ever. All I wanted was just what everyone else wants--to be loved.
Dancing in Tijuana when I was 13--that was my "summer camp". How else do you think I could keep up with Fred Astaire when I was 19?
Movies were much better in the days I was doing them.
Old age - that's when a woman takes Vitamins A through G, and still looks like H.

Salary (7)

Under the Pampas Moon (1935) $200 per week
Charlie Chan in Egypt (1935) $200 per week
Rebellion (1936) $200
Old Louisiana (1937) $200
You'll Never Get Rich (1941) $6,500 per week
Affair in Trinidad (1952) $252,000 plus 25% of the net profits
The Naked Zoo (1970) 50,000

See also

Other Works |  Publicity Listings |  Official Sites


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