Rita Hayworth
Rita Hayworth (
October 17,
1918 –
May 14,
1987), was an
American actress of
Spanish and
English 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.
She was born
Margarita Carmen Cansino, the daughter of
Eduardo Cansino (Sr.) and Volga Haworth in
Brooklyn, New York. The Cansinos, of
Roma ancestry native to
Spain, were a famous family of Spanish dancers working in
vaudeville. Hayworth was trained as a dancer from childhood, and was on stage by the age of twelve.
First attracting the attention of film producers as part of the dance team "The Dancing Cansinos," Hayworth was signed first by Fox Studios in 1935, then freelanced for several years before signing with
Columbia Pictures. After a name change from Rita Cansino to Rita Hayworth, and painful
electrolysis to raise her hairline, Rita made a splash as part of the ensemble cast in
Howard Hawks'
Only Angels Have Wings (1939).
The Strawberry Blonde with
James Cagney followed in 1941. Finally her sizzling "other woman" part in
Rouben Mamoulian's
Blood and Sand (1941) with
Tyrone Power solidified her new-found stardom.
Hayworth's fame as a beautiful
redhead arose from this
Technicolor film. The "love goddess" image was cemented with Bob Landry's
Life Magazine photograph of her (kneeling on a bed in a nightgown), which caused a sensation and became (at 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 soon become Columbia's biggest star of the 1940s, under the watchful eye of studio chief
Harry Cohn.
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),
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, and 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
film noir directed by
Charles Vidor, which encountered some difficulty with censors. This role — in which Hayworth performed a legendary one-glove striptease — made her into a cultural icon as the ultimate
femme fatale. Other films include
The Lady from Shanghai (
1948) with husband
Orson Welles,
The Loves of Carmen (
1948) with
Gilda costar
Glenn Ford,
Salome (1953) with
Stewart Granger, and the
1953 remake of
Miss Sadie Thompson. Rita left her film career in 1948 to marry
Prince Aly Khan, but after the marriage collapsed she returned with great fanfare in 1951 to film
Affair in Trinidad (1952) with favorite costar
Glenn Ford. In 1957, after making
Fire Down Below with
Robert Mitchum and
Jack Lemmon, and
Pal Joey with
Frank Sinatra and
Kim Novak, Rita finally left Columbia. She continued working throughout the 1960s, and made her last film in 1972.
Naturally shy and reclusive, Hayworth was the antithesis of the characters she played. She once complained that all the men she knew fell in love with Gilda, but woke up with Rita. 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."
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.
After about 1960, Hayworth suffered from extremely early onset of
Alzheimer's disease, which was not diagnosed until 1980; she continued to act in films until the early 1970s and made a well-publicized appearance on
The Carol Burnett Show near the end of her career.
Lynda Carter starred in a 1983 biopic of her life. She lived in an apartment at
the San Remo in
New York City.
Following her death from Alzheimer's in 1987 at age 68, she was interred in the
Holy Cross Cemetery in
Culver City, California.
*In the world famous comic book/strip
The Phantom, the mother of the 21st Phantom, Maude Thorne McPatrick, is drawn to resemble Rita Hayworth. In one story, she even worked as Hayworth's stunt double in a movie.
* Hayworth's natural hair color was dark brown.
*As a small child in 1920, Rita and her family lived at 480 Central Park West in
New York, NY. By 1930, the family had moved to 1463 Stearns Dr. in
Los Angeles, CA.
*A poster of Rita Hayworth was used as a plot device in
Stephen King's short story,
Rita Hayworth and Shawshank Redemption and later in the movie based on the story which starred
Morgan Freeman and
Tim Robbins,
The Shawshank Redemption.
*Rita Hayworth placed 19th on the
American Film Institute's list of the 25 greatest female movie stars of all time in 1999.
*In 2005, the
White Stripes wrote a song titled "Take, Take, Take" on their album
Get Behind Me Satan which humorously describes a man meeting Hayworth in a bar and pestering her for an autograph and a picture. She is also briefly mentioned in the song "White Moon" from the same album.
*Famously mentioned in
Madonna's song "Vogue", in which she is described as giving "good face".
*In
Salvador Plascencia's
The People of Paper, Rita Hayworth is a sad, disenfranchised character. In the novel, she was made infamous for having sex with a lettuce picker.
*Quote by actor
Joseph Cotten: "No matter how bad the film, when Rita danced it was like watching one of nature's wonders in motion."
*Rita was the first dancer to partner with both
Fred Astaire and
Gene Kelly on film - others being
Judy Garland,
Cyd Charisse,
Vera Ellen, and
Leslie Caron.
*
Fred Astaire in his autobiography says Rita "danced with trained perfection and individuality."
*Although now considered one of her best performances, 1948's
The Lady from Shanghai failed at the box office in part because writer-director-costar-husband
Orson Welles had Hayworth cut off her signature red locks and dyed the rest blonde for the role.
*Rita performed one of her best remembered dance routines, the
samba from 1945's
Tonight and Every Night while pregnant with her first child Rebecca Welles.
*Rita's favorite leading man was
Glenn Ford. Her favorite films, however, were the ones she made with
Astaire and
Kelly.
*Famous films Rita missed out on making:
Laura (1944),
Dead Reckoning (1947), with
Humphrey Bogart,
Samson and Delilah (1949),
Born Yesterday (1950), and
From Here to Eternity (1953).
*Alluding to Rita's
bombshell status, in 1946 her likeness was placed on the first nuclear bomb to be tested in the
Marshall Islands, part of
Operation Crossroads.
*Rita had her own production company, The Beckworth Corporation (named in part for her daughter Rebecca) from 1948 to 1955. Each of her films during this period were co-produced by Beckworth and Columbia. Hayworth received a percentage of the profits from these films. Eventually Hayworth dissolved Beckworth to pay off debts she owed to Columbia.
*
Joseph L. Mankiewicz, in writing and directing 1954's
The Barefoot Contessa , was said to haved based his title character Maria Vargas (played on film by
Ava Gardner) on Rita's life and her marriage to
Prince Aly Khan.
*Maud Thorne McPatrick, mother of hero Kit Walker in
Lee Falk's famous comic
The Phantom, is drawn to look like Hayworth.
Anna Case in La Fiesta (1926) (short subject)
Cruz Diablo (1934)
(The Devil's Cross)In Caliente (1935) (scenes deleted)
Under the Pampas Moon (1935)
Charlie Chan in Egypt (1935)
Dante's Inferno (1935)
Legs of Silk (1935)
Paddy O'Day (1935)
Professional Soldier (1935)
Human Cargo (1936)
Dancing Pirate (1936)
Meet Nero Wolfe (1936)
Rebellion (1936)
Old Louisiana (1937)
Hit the Saddle (1937)
Trouble in Texas (1937)
Criminals of the Air (1937)
Girls Can Play (1937)
The Game That Kills (1937)
Life Begins with Love (1937)
Paid to Dance (1937)
The Shadow (1937)
Who Killed Gail Preston? (1938)
Special Inspector (1938)
There's Always a Woman (1938)
Convicted (1938)
Juvenile Court (1938)
The Renegade Ranger (1938)
Homicide Bureau (1939)
The Lone Wolf Spy Hunt (1939)
Only Angels Have Wings (1939)
Music in My Heart (1940)
Blondie on a Budget (1940)
Screen Snapshots Series 19, No. 6 (1940) (short subject)
Susan and God (1940)
The Lady in Question (1940)
Angels Over Broadway (1940)
The Strawberry Blonde (1941)
Affectionately Yours (1941)
Blood and Sand (1941)
You'll Never Get Rich (1941)
My Gal Sal (1942)
Tales of Manhattan (1942)
You Were Never Lovelier (1942)
Show Business at War (1943) (short subject)
Cover Girl (1944)
Tonight and Every Night (1945)
Gilda (1946)
Down to Earth (1947)
The Lady from Shanghai (1948)
The Loves of Carmen (1948) (also producer)
Champagne Safari (1952) (documentary)
Affair in Trinidad (1952) (also producer)
Salome (1953) (also producer)
Miss Sadie Thompson (1953) (also producer)
Screen Snapshots: Hollywood Grows Up (1954) (short subject)
Fire Down Below (1957)
Pal Joey (1957)
Separate Tables (1958)
They Came to Cordura (1959)
The Story on Page One (1959)
The Happy Thieves (1962) (also producer)
Lykke og krone (1962) (documentary)
Circus World (1964)
The Money Trap (1965)
The Poppy Is Also a Flower (1966)
L'Avventuriero (1967)
(The Rover)I Bastardi (1968)
(The Cats)The Naked Zoo (1971)
Road to Salina (1971)
The Wrath of God (1972)
*
Ringgold, Gene.
The Films of Rita Hayworth (1974).
*
Kobal, John.
Rita Hayworth The Time, the Place, the Woman (1977).IBSN 0-393-07526-5.
*
Morella, Joe and Epstein, Edward Z. Rita The Life of Rita Hayworth (1983).IBSN 0-385-29265-1.
*
Rita Hayworth Biography. A very thorough text, with dozens of photos.
*
Classic Movies (1939 - 1969):Rita Hayworth*
Rita Hayworth Photos*
Rita Hayworth at Classic Actresses*
Find-A-Grave profile for Rita Hayworth*
Rita HAYWORTH : Biographie, filmographie, galerie etc.
