Orson Welles
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Hayworth was born in Brooklyn, New York, in 1918 as Margarita Carmen Cansino, the oldest child of two dancers. Her father, Eduardo Cansino Sr., was from Castilleja de la Cuesta, a little town near Seville, Spain. Her mother, Volga Hayworth, was an American of Irish-English descent who had performed with the Ziegfeld Follies. The couple married in 1917. They also had two sons: Eduardo Jr. and Vernon. Her maternal uncle Vinton Hayworth was also an actor.
When the girl was nine years old, the family moved to Los Angeles, California, where the motion picture industry was rapidly growing. There, Eduardo taught dancing and directed dance scenes for various studios. She began her education at the Carthay School and later spent her first and only year of high school at Hamilton High. Throughout her school years, she continued family tradition by taking acting and dancing lessons.
At eleven, the girl found her first acting role in a school play, and by 1932, she had made her professional debut. She appeared in a stage prologue for the movie Back Street at Carthay Circle Theater. At this point, Eduardo Cansino decided that his attractive twelve-year-old daughter was ready for work. The perfect dance partner, she was introduced as Eduardo's wife when they danced at the Foreign Club in Tijuana, Mexico, for a year and a half, and then later on a gambling boat off California's coast. The "Dancing Cansinos" performed twenty times per week.
Rita Cansino, as she was called during this time, received her first big break when she was noticed dancing with her father in Agua Caliente, Mexico. Winfield R. Sheehan of the Fox Film Corporation hired the young woman, then sixteen, for a role in a movie starring Spencer Tracy entitled Dante's Inferno (1935). Though the film was not successful, Rita Cansino was given a year-long contract with Fox. During this year she held minor, ethnic roles in the motion pictures Charlie Chan in Egypt (1935), Under the Pampas Moon (1935), Paddy O'Day (1935), and Human Cargo (1936), in which she played Egyptian, Argentinean, Irish, and Russian dancers respectively. When her contract expired and was not renewed, the actress spent a year playing Mexican and Indian girls; she earned $100 for each role.
Rita Cansino took her mother's maiden name, added a "y" to ensure its proper pronunciation, and became Rita Hayworth. Magazines and newspapers captured the image of the new Rita, who won the favor of Harry Cohn and a seven-year contract with his Columbia Pictures.
After fourteen low-budget movies, Hayworth was finally given a leading role. She was hired by Howard W. Hawks to portray an unfaithful wife in Only Angels Have Wings (1939), which starred Cary Grant. Good reviews of her performance attracted attention: she was borrowed from Columbia by Warner Brothers Pictures for the film Strawberry Blonde (1941) with James Cagney, and in that same year, she made Blood and Sand (1941) with Fox. Hayworth began to shine.
Hayworth achieved celebrity status when she starred as Fred Astaire's dance partner in You'll Never Get Rich (1941) for Columbia. She appeared on the cover of Time and was dubbed "The Great American Love Goddess" by Winthrop Sargent in Life. In 1942, she made three hit movies: My Gal Sal, Tales of Manhattan and You Were Never Lovelier, with Fred Astaire.
Hayworth was earning more than $6,000 a week as Columbia's leading actress. After she starred in Cover Girl (1944) with Gene Kelly, Life presented a seductive photograph of the actress wearing black lace which, according to the New York Times, "became famous around the world as an American serviceman's pinup."
Hayworth's fame continued to grow after she made Tonight and Every Night (1945) and Gilda (1946). Of these films, critics contend that Gilda is the most memorable. A scene in which Hayworth sang "Put the Blame on Mame" and stripped off her long, black gloves scandalized conservative viewers. It was a testimony to her popularity that her 1947 film, Down to Earth, was included in a twentieth-century time capsule despite the fact that the film itself received some bad reviews.
Never comfortable with fame or the trappings of a celebrity life, Hayworth was absent from films during her marriage (1949–51) to Prince Aly Khan. Although several of her dramatic performances in films of the 1950s are among her most-praised - in particular Affair in Trinidad (1952), Salome (1953), Miss Sadie Thompson (1953), Pal Joey (1957), Separate Tables (1958), and They Came to Cordura (1959) - Hayworth grew increasingly frustrated with the acting profession. This frustration, coupled with another failed, stressful marriage (to singer Dick Haymes), caused her to become increasingly cynical and to display a sense of detachment from her work. Her film appearances became increasingly sporadic throughout the 1960s, and she appeared in her final film, The Wrath of God, in 1972.
Rumours of Hayworth’s erratic and drunken behaviour began to circulate during the late 1960s, and her attempt to launch a Broadway career in the early ’70s was stifled by her inability to remember lines. In truth, Hayworth was suffering from the early stages of Alzheimer disease, although she would not be officially diagnosed with the condition until 1980. The publicity surrounding Hayworth’s battle was a catalyst for increasing national awareness of the disease and for bringing about federal funding for Alzheimer research.
Hayworth's mind slowly began to deteriorate. When she died in her New York apartment on May 14, 1987, she did not even know her own family.
Popularly addressed as ‘The Love Goddess’, Rita Hayworth was one of the most glamorous actresses in the history of Hollywood. One of the greatest stars of her generation, Rita has appeared in over 61 films in her career spanning across a period of 37 years. Hayworth received a Golden Globe nomination for Best Actress – Motion Picture Drama for her performance in Circus World (1964).
Hayworth is perhaps best known for her performance in the 1946 film noir, Gilda, opposite Glenn Ford, in which she played the femme fatale in her first major dramatic role. Fred Astaire, with whom she made two films, called her his favorite dance partner. Her greatest success was in the Technicolor musical Cover Girl (1944), with Gene Kelly. She is listed as one of the top 25 female motion picture stars of all time in the American Film Institute's survey, AFI's 100 Years...100 Stars.
In 1960, she received a star on the ‘Walk of Fame’ at 1645 Vine Street.
Hayworth was a Roman Catholic whose marriage to Prince Aly Khan was deemed "illicit" by Pope John XXIII.
Hayworth once said she might convert to Islam, but did not. During the custody fight over their daughter, Princess Yasmin Aga Khan, born December 28, 1949, the prince said he wanted her to be raised as a Muslim; Hayworth wanted the child to be raised as a Christian. Hayworth rejected his offer of $1 million if she would rear Yasmin as a Muslim from age seven and allow her to go to Europe to visit with him for two or three months each year.
"Nothing will make me give up Yasmin's chance to live here in America among our precious freedoms and habits. While I respect the Muslim faith, and all other faiths, it is my earnest wish that my daughter be raised as a normal, healthy American girl in the Christian faith. There isn't any amount of money in the entire world for which it is worth sacrificing this child's privilege of living as a normal Christian girl here in the United States. There just isn't anything else in the world that can compare with her sacred chance to do that. And I'm going to give it to Yasmin regardless of what it costs."
Hayworth was a lifelong Democrat who was an active member of the Hollywood Democratic Committee and was active in the campaign of Franklin Delano Roosevelt during the 1944 presidential election.
Quotations:
"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."
"I have always felt that one of the secrets of real beauty is simplicity."
"Perhaps if we thought for a second of the classic, simple elegance of the Spanish lady it might help us to be "simply" ourselves."
"Movies were much better in the days when I was doing them."
"I'm an afternoon person."
"Nobody makes up my mind for me. They used to at Columbia."
"Just because I was married to Aly Khan, people think I'm rich. Well, I'm not. I never got a dime from Aly or from any of my husbands."
"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?"
"Men fell in love with Gilda, but they wake up with me."
She was a member of the Del Mar Thoroughbred Club.
Orson Welles noted Hayworth's problem with alcohol during their marriage, but he never believed that her problem was alcoholism.
Biographer Barbara Leaming wrote that Hayworth aged prematurely because of her addiction to alcohol and also because of the many stresses in her life. "Despite the artfully applied make-up and shoulder-length red hair, there was no concealing the ravages of drink and stress", she wrote of Hayworth's arrival in New York in May 1956 in order to begin work on Fire Down Below, her first film in three years. "Deep lines had crept around her eyes and mouth, and she appeared worn, exhausted—older than her thirty-eight years."
Alzheimer's disease had been largely forgotten by the medical community since its discovery in 1906. Medical historian Barron H. Lerner wrote that when 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... Unbeknownst to her, Hayworth helped to destigmatize a condition that can still embarrass victims and their families."
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 of New York City. Hayworth lived in an apartment at The San Remo on Central Park West adjoining that of her daughter, who arranged for her mother's care during her final years. When asked how her mother was doing, Yasmin replied, "She's still beautiful. But it's a shell."
Physical Characteristics:
Hayworth was a top glamour girl in the 1940s, a pin-up girl for military servicemen and a beauty icon for women. At 5 ft 6 in (1.68 m) and 120 lb (54 kg), she was tall enough to be a concern for dancing partners such as Fred Astaire. She reportedly changed her hair color eight times in eight movies.
In 1949, Hayworth's lips were voted best in the world by the Artists League of America.
Quotes from others about the person
"Rita Hayworth was one of our country's most beloved stars. Glamorous and talented, she gave us many wonderful moments … and delighted audiences from the time she was a young girl. [First Lady] Nancy and I are saddened by Rita's death. She was a friend whom we will miss. " - Ronald Reagan
Yasmin Aga Khan spoke of her mother's long struggle with alcohol:
"I remember as a child that she had a drinking problem. She had difficulty coping with the ups and downs of the business ...As a child, I thought, 'She has a drinking problem, and she's an alcoholic.' That was very clear, and I thought, 'Well, there's not much I can do. I can just, sort of, stand by and watch.' It's very difficult, seeing your mother, going through her emotional problems and drinking and then behaving in that manner ... Her condition became quite bad. It worsened and she did have an alcoholic breakdown and landed in the hospital."
Aly Khan and his family were heavily involved in horse racing, owning and racing horses. Hayworth had no interest in the sport, but became a member of the Del Mar Thoroughbred Club anyway. Her filly, Double Rose, won several races in France and finished second in the 1949 Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe.
Hayworth was married and divorced five times. She said, "Basically, I am a good, gentle person, but I am attracted to mean personalities."
In 1937, when Hayworth was 18, she married Edward Judson, an oilman turned promoter who was more than twice her age. They married in Las Vegas. He had played a major role in launching her acting career. A shrewd businessman, he was domineering and became her manager for months before he proposed. "He helped me with my career", Hayworth conceded after they divorced, "and helped himself to my money." She alleged that Judson compelled her to transfer a considerable amount of her property to him, and she promised to pay him $12,000 under threats that he would do her "great bodily harm".
She filed for divorce from him on February 24, 1942, with a complaint of cruelty. She noted to the press that his work took him to Oklahoma and Texas while she lived and worked in Hollywood. Judson was as old as her father, who was enraged by the marriage, which caused a rift between Hayworth and her parents until the divorce. Judson had failed to tell Hayworth before they married that he had previously been married twice. When she left him, she literally had no money; she asked her friend Hermes Pan if she could eat at his home.
Hayworth married Orson Welles on September 7, 1943, during the run of The Mercury Wonder Show. None of her colleagues knew about the planned wedding (before a judge) until she announced it the day before. For the civil ceremony, she wore a beige suit, a ruffled white blouse, and a veil. A few hours after they got married, they returned to work at the studio. They had a daughter, Rebecca, who was born on December 17, 1944, and died at the age of 59 on October 17, 2004. They struggled in their marriage, with Hayworth saying that Welles did not want to be tied down:
"During the entire period of our marriage, he showed no interest in establishing a home. When I suggested purchasing a home, he told me he didn't want the responsibility. Mr. Welles told me he never should have married in the first place; that it interfered with his freedom in his way of life."
Despite this, Hayworth called Welles the "great love of her life". On November 10, 1947, she was granted a divorce that became final the following year.
In 1948, Hayworth left her film career to marry Prince Aly Khan, a son of Sultan Mahommed Shah, Aga Khan III, the leader of the Ismaili sect of Shia Islam. They were married on May 27, 1949. Her bridal trousseau had been influenced by Dior's "New Look", launched in 1947.
In 1951, while still married to Hayworth, Khan was spotted dancing with the actress Joan Fontaine in the nightclub where he and Hayworth had met. Hayworth threatened to divorce him in Reno, Nevada. In early May, Hayworth moved to Nevada to establish legal residence to qualify for a divorce. She stayed at Lake Tahoe with their daughter, saying there was a threat the child would be kidnapped. Hayworth filed for divorce from Khan on September 2, 1951, on the grounds of "extreme cruelty, entirely mental in nature".
In January 1953 Hayworth was granted a divorce from Aly Khan on the grounds of extreme mental cruelty. Hayworth's daughter Yasmin played about the court while the case was being heard, finally climbing on to the Judge's lap.
When Hayworth and Dick Haymes first met, he was still married and his singing career was waning. When she showed up at the clubs, he got a larger audience. Haymes was desperate for money, because two of his former wives were taking legal action against him for unpaid child support. His financial problems were so bad, he could not return to California without being arrested. On July 7, 1954, his ex-wife Nora Eddington got a bench warrant for his arrest, because he owed her $3,800 in alimony. Less than a week earlier, his other ex-wife, Joanne Dru, also got a bench warrant because she said he owed $4,800 in support payments for their three children. Hayworth ended up paying most of Haymes's debts.
Haymes was born in Argentina, and did not have solid proof of American citizenship. Not long after he met Hayworth, U.S. officials initiated proceedings to have him deported to Argentina for being an illegal alien. He hoped Hayworth could influence the government and keep him in the United States. When she assumed responsibility for his citizenship, a bond was formed that led to marriage. The two were married on September 24, 1953, at the Sands Hotel, Las Vegas, and their wedding procession went through the casino.
From the start of their marriage, Haymes was deeply indebted to the Internal Revenue Service (IRS). When Hayworth took time off from attending his comeback performances in Philadelphia, the audiences sharply declined. Haymes's $5000 weekly salary was attached by the IRS to pay a $100,000 bill, and he was unable to pay his pianist. Haymes's ex-wives demanded money while Hayworth publicly bemoaned her own lack of alimony from Aly Khan. At one point, the couple was effectively imprisoned in a hotel room for 24 hours in Manhattan at the Hotel Madison as sheriff's deputies waited outside threatening to arrest Haymes for outstanding debts. At the same time, Hayworth was fighting a severe custody battle with Khan, during which she reported death threats against their children. While living in New York, Hayworth sent the children to live with their nanny in Westchester County. They were found and photographed by a reporter from Confidential magazine.
After a tumultuous two years together, Haymes struck Hayworth in the face in 1955 in public at the Cocoanut Grove nightclub in Los Angeles. Hayworth packed her bags, walked out, and never returned. The assault and crisis shook her, and her doctor ordered her to remain in bed for several days.
Hayworth was short of money after her marriage to Haymes. She had failed to gain child support from Aly Khan. She sued Orson Welles for back payment of child support which she claimed had never been paid. This effort was unsuccessful and added to her stress.
Hayworth began a relationship with film producer James Hill, whom she went on to marry on February 2, 1958. He put her in one of her last major films, Separate Tables. This film was popular and highly praised, although The Harvard Lampoon named her the worst actress of 1958 for her performance. On September 1, 1961, Hayworth filed for divorce, alleging extreme mental cruelty. Hill later wrote Rita Hayworth: A Memoir, in which he suggested that their marriage collapsed because he wanted Hayworth to continue making movies, while she wanted them both to retire from Hollywood.
(March 2, 1895 – December 24, 1968)
He was a Spanish-born American dancer and actor, and the father of actress Rita Hayworth.
(August 8, 1897 – January 25, 1945)
She was an American dancer and vaudevillian under the name Volga Hayworth. A popular showgirl on Broadway, she was the mother of actress Rita Hayworth, who used her mother's maiden name as her professional surname.
(May 21, 1922, New York City, New York, United States - March 23, 1974, Los Angeles, California, United States)
(October 13, 1919, New York, United States - March 11, 1974, Hollywood, Florida, United States)
(m. 1937–1942)
(May 6, 1915 – October 10, 1985)
He was an American actor, director, writer, and producer who worked in theatre, radio, and film.
(13 June 1911 – 12 May 1960)
He was a son of Sultan Mahommed Shah, Aga Khan III, the leader of the Nizārī Ismā'īlī Muslims, a sect of Shia Islam, and the father of Aga Khan IV.
(September 13, 1918 – March 28, 1980)
He was an Argentine actor and singer. He was one of the most popular male vocalists of the 1940s and early 1950s. He was the older brother of Bob Haymes, an actor, television host, and songwriter.
(August 1, 1916 – January 11, 2001)
He was American film producer in the 1950s and 1960s. He joined Hecht-Hill-Lancaster Productions as a producer with Harold Hecht and Burt Lancaster after working with them as co-screenwriter on His Majesty O'Keefe.
(b. December 28, 1949)
She is an American philanthropist known for raising public awareness of Alzheimer's disease.
(December 17, 1944, Santa Monica, California, United States - October 17, 2004, Tacoma, Washington, United States)
(December 10, 1909 – September 19, 1990)
He was an American dancer and choreographer, principally remembered as Fred Astaire's choreographic collaborator on the famous 1930s movie musicals starring Astaire and Ginger Rogers.
(May 10, 1899 – June 22, 1987)
He was an American dancer, singer, actor, choreographer and television presenter.
