Rita Hayworth (October 17, 1918 – May 14, 1987) was an American film actress and dancer who attained fame during the 1940s not only as one of the era's top stars, but also as the era's greatest
sex symbol, most notably in
Gilda (1946). She appeared in 61 films over 37 years
[Gerald Faris, "A Screen Goddess and Hollywood Rebel Loses The Battle Against Disease," The Age, May 18, 1987. Accessed June 7, 2009.] and is listed as one of the
American Film Institute's
Greatest Stars of All Time.
Early career
Born
Margarita Carmen Cansino in
Brooklyn,
New York City, she was the daughter of
Spanish flamenco dancer
Eduardo Cansino, Sr. and
Ziegfeld girl Volga Hayworth who is of
Irish and
English descent. Her father wanted her to become a dancer while her mother hoped she'd become an actress.
[ "Rita Hayworth Delights Papa and Mama Cansino." Ellensburg Daily Record, July 13, 1944. Accessed June 7, 2009.] Her grandfather, Antonio Cansino, was the most renowned exponent in his day of Spain's classical dances; he made the
bolero famous. His dancing school in Madrid was world famous. He gave Hayworth her first instruction in dancing.
["Actress Rita Hayworth's Grandfather Dies at 89." Los Angeles Times. June 22, 1954.]
"I didn't like it very much," revealed Hayworth, "but I didn't have the courage to tell my father, so I began taking the lessons. Rehearse, rehearse, rehearse, that was my girlhood."
[Joe Morella and Edward Z. Epstein, "Rita: The Life of Rita Hayworth," New York: Dell, 1983, 16.]
"From the time I was three and a half," Hayworth said, ". . . as soon as I could stand on my own feet, I was given dance lessons." She attended dance classes every day for a few years in a Carnegie Hall complex under the instruction of her uncle Angel Cansino.
Though slightly overweight in her youth years and shy throughout her whole life, Hayworth loved to dance and she received lessons from her father,
Eduardo Cansino. Although domineering, Cansino was nevertheless a devoted and loving father.
By the age of eight, Cansino and his family had moved west to Hollywood, where he established his own dance studio. Famous Hollywood luminaries received specialized training from Cansino himself, including
James Cagney and
Jean Harlow. Hayworth was also among the number of students attending the school, extending her dancing abilites.
As Hayworth grew older, her father saw potential in her and dreamed of making her his partner in a team referred to as "The Dancing Cansinos". Since Hayworth was not of legal age to work in nightclubs and bars according to California state law, she and her father traveled across the border to the city of
Tijuana in
Mexico, a popular tourist spot for Los Angeles citizens in the early 1930s. Hayworth performed in such spots as the Foreign Club and the Caliente Club.
It was at the Caliente Club where Hayworth was first discovered by the head of the
Fox Film Corporation,
Winfield Sheehan. A week later, Hayworth was brought to Hollywood to make a screen test for Fox. Impressed by her screen persona, Sheehan signed Hayworth (who was now being referred to as "Rita Cansino") to a short-term six-month contract.
During her time at Fox, Hayworth appeared in five pictures, in which her roles were neither important nor memorable. By the end of her six-month contract, Fox had now merged into
Twentieth Century-Fox and
Darryl F. Zanuck was now credited as the executive producer. Taking little concern for Sheehan's interest in her, Zanuck decided not to renew her contract.
By this time, Hayworth was eighteen years old and she married businessman Edward C. Judson, who was twice her age. Feeling that Hayworth still had screen potential, despite just being dropped by Fox, Judson managed to get her the lead roles in several independent films and finally managed to arrange a screen test for her with
Columbia Pictures. Cohn soon signed her to a long-term contract and he slowly cast Hayworth in small roles in Columbia features.
However, Cohn argued that Hayworth's image was too much of a Latin style, which caused Hayworth to be cast into stereotypical Hispanic roles. She began to undergo a painful electrolysis to broaden her forehead and accentuate her widow's peak. When Hayworth returned to Columbia, she was a redhead and had changed her name to Rita Hayworth (Hayworth from her mother's maiden name).
Becoming a major star
Rita Hayworth had an awkward transition from teen nightclub dancer to major movie star. She was a dancer first and foremost; acting was an afterthought seen as a way to earn a living.
Gossip columnist Louella Parsons did not think Hayworth would be successful. She met Hayworth just when she was starting out, and saw her as a "painfully shy” girl who “couldn’t look strangers in the eye” and whose voice was so low it could hardly be heard.
In 1935, when Rita was 17 she was dropped from the movie Ramona and replaced by Loretta Young. "It was the worst disappointment of my life," Hayworth said. A few days later, the studio dropped her. She was devastated but did not give up.
In 1937, she appeared in five minor Columbia pictures and three minor independent movies.
In 1938, Hayworth appeared in five more Columbia B films.
In 1939, Cohn pressured director
Howard Hawks to use Rita for a small but important role as a mantrop in the aviation drama,
Only Angels Have Wings, in which she played opposite
Cary Grant and
Jean Arthur. A large box-office success, fan mail for Hayworth began pouring into Columbia's publicity department and Cohn began to see Hayworth as his first and official new star (the studio had never officially had large stars under contract, except for Jean Arthur, who was trying to break out of her Columbia contract).
Cohn began to build Rita up the following year, in features such as
Music in My Heart,
The Lady in Question, and
Angels Over Broadway. He even loaned Hayworth out to
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer to appear in
Susan and God, opposite
Joan Crawford.
On loan to
Warner Brothers, Hayworth appeared as the second female lead in
The Strawberry Blonde (1941), opposite
James Cagney and
Olivia de Havilland. A large box-office success, Hayworth's popularity rose and she immediately became one of Hollywood's hottest properties. So impressed was Warner Brothers that they tried to buy Hayworth's contract from Columbia, but Harry Cohn refused to release her.
Her success in that film lead to an even more important supporting role in
Blood and Sand (1941), opposite
Tyrone Power and
Linda Darnell, ironically by Fox, the studio that had dropped her six years before. In one of her most notable screen roles, Hayworth played the first of many screen sirens as the temptress Dona Sol des Muire. Another box-office smash, Hayworth received the highest of praises from critics.
Hayworth returned in trimuph to Columbia Pictures and was cast in the musical,
You'll Never Get Rich (1941), opposite
Fred Astaire in one of the highest-budgeted films Columbia had ever made. So successful was the picture that the following year, another Astaire-Hayworth picture was released
You Were Never Lovelier. In 1942, Hayworth also appeared in two other pictures,
Tales of Manhattan and
My Gal Sal.
It was during this period that Hayworth posed for a famous
pin-up in
Life Magazine, with showed her in a negligee perched seductively over her bed. When World War II broke out in December of 1941, Hayworth's image was admired by millions of servicemen, making her one of the top two pin-up girls of the war years, the other being creamy blonde
Betty Grable.
Rita Hayworth was called the "Love Goddess." (One biopic and one biography used the moniker in reference to her.) Despite being a sex symbol, she showed discretion. "Everybody else does nude scenes," Hayworth said, "but I don't. I never made nude movies. I didn't have to do that. I danced. I was provocative, I guess, in some things. But I was not completely exposed."
[Joe Morella and Edward Z. Epstein, "Rita: The Life of Rita Hayworth," New York: Dell, 1983, 234.]
The peak years at Columbia
[
Hayworth fsa 8b01035.jpg|right|thumb|150px|Hayworth in October 1941 in a pink and silver [[Lamé (fabric)|lamé] evening dress designed by
Howard Greer]].
By 1944, Rita Hayworth had reached the peak of her fame. That year, she made one of her best-known films, the Technicolor musical,
Cover Girl (1944), with
Gene Kelly. The film established her as Columbia's top star of the 1940s . Although her singing voice was dubbed in her films, Hayworth's exuberant and powerful dancing set her apart from the other top musical stars of the day, as she was equally adept in ballet, tap, ballroom, and Spanish routines.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
Charles Vidor's
black-and-white film noir Gilda (1946) with
Glenn Ford, 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
Pacific Ocean's
Marshall Islands) as part of
Operation Crossroads.
Hayworth performed one of her best-remembered dance routines, the
samba from
Tonight and Every Night (1945), while pregnant with her first child,
Rebecca Welles (daughter with
Orson Welles). Hayworth was also the first dancer to partner with both Astaire and Kelly on film — the others being
Judy Garland,
Cyd Charisse,
Vera-Ellen, and
Leslie Caron.
Hayworth gave one of her most-acclaimed performances in Welles's
The Lady from Shanghai (1948). Its failure at the box office was attributed in part to director/co-star Welles having had Hayworth's famous red locks cut off and the remainder of her hair dyed blonde for her role. This was done without Cohn's knowledge or approval and he was furious over the change. Her next film,
The Loves of Carmen (1948) again with Glenn Ford, was the first film co-produced by Columbia and Hayworth'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 her subsequent films until 1955 when she dissolved Beckworth to pay off debts she owed to Columbia.
Struggles with Columbia
Hayworth had a strained relationship with Columbia Pictures for many years. In 1943, she was suspended without pay for nine weeks because she refused to appear in
My Client Curley.["Screen News Here and in Hollywood," New York Times, Mar. 22, 1943.] (During this period in Hollywood actors did not get to choose their films as they do today; they also had salaries instead of a fixed amount per picture.) In 1945, Hayworth received notice of her suspension by her employers, Columbia Pictures, "on the day she entered the maternity hospital in Hollywood."
[Leonard Lyons, "The Lyons Den," Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, Jan. 23, 1945.]
In 1947, Rita Hayworth's new contract with Columbia provided a salary of US$250,000 plus 50% of film profits.
[Hedda Hopper, "Looking at Hollywood," AP, Oct. 22, 1947. Accessed June 4, 2009.] In 1951 Columbia alleged it had $800,000 invested in properties for her, including the film she walked out on when she left Hollywood and married Aly Khan. She was suspended again for failing to report for work, this time for
Affair in Trinidad. In 1952 she refused to report for work because "she objected to the script."
["Hayworth, Studio Agree Once Again," New York Times, Jan. 9, 1952.] In 1955, she sued to get out of a contract with the studio, asking for her $150,000 salary, alleging filming failed to start work when agreed.
["Rita Hayworth Files Suit to End Film Contract, Los Angeles Times, Apr. 9, 1955.]
"I was in Switzerland when they sent me the script for
Affair in Trinidad and I threw it across the room. But I did the picture, and
Pal Joey too. I came back to Columbia because I wanted to work and first, see, I had to finish that g-ddam contract, which is how Harry Cohn
owned me!"
[John Hallowell, "Rita Hayworth: Don't Put the Blame on Me, Boys," New York Times, Oct. 25, 1970.]
"Harry Cohn thought of me as one of the people he could exploit," alleged Hayworth, "and make a lot of money. And I did make a lot of money for him, but not much for me."
[Nancy Anderson, "Rita Hayworth Still Ranks as Beauty," Copley News Service, Feb. 11, 1972. Accessed June 2, 2009.]
Hayworth was still upset with Columbia and its head
Harry Cohn many years after her film career had ended and he was dead. "I used to have to punch a time clock at Columbia," lamented Hayworth. "Every day of my life. That's what it was like. I was under exclusive contract -- like they owned me... He felt that he owned me... I think he had my dressing room bugged... He was very possessive of me as a person -- he didn't want me to go out with anybody, have any friends. No one can live that way. So I fought him ... You want to know what I think of Harry Cohn? He was a monster."
[John Hallowell, "Rita: Hollywood Still Is Her Town But No One Knows She's There," St. Petersburg Times, June 23, 1968. Accessed June 4, 2009. [1]]
Another source of "gnawing resentment" for Hayworth was her studio's failure to train her to sing or even encourage her to learn how to sing.
[Kobal, John. 'Rita Hayworth: Portrait of a Love Goddess,' 1977, p. 103] She was dubbed. The public didn't know this closely guarded secret, and she ended up embarrassed because she was constantly asked by the troops to sing.
[Kobal, John. 'Rita Hayworth: Portrait of a Love Goddess,' 1977, p. 124]
"I wanted to study singing," Hayworth complained, "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."
[Kobal, John. 'Rita Hayworth: Portrait of a Love Goddess,' 1977, p. 104]
Although Cohn had a reputation as a hard taskmaster, he also had legitimate criticisms of Hayworth. He had invested heavily in her before she began a reckless affair with a married man (Aly Khan) even though it could have caused a backlash against her career and Columbia's success. Indeed a British newspaper called for a boycott of Hayworth's films. "Hollywood must be told," said The People, "its already tarnished reputation will sink to rock bottom if it restores this reckless woman to a place among its stars."
["Call For Boycott Of Rita Hayworth," AAP, Apr. 30, 1951]
Cohn himself expressed his frustration with Hayworth's relationships in an interview with Time magazine. "Hayworth might be worth ten million dollars today easily! She owned 25% of the profits with her own company and had hit after hit and she had to get married and had to get out of the business and took a suspension because she fell in love again! In five years, at two pictures a year, at 25%! Think of what she could have made! But she didn't make pictures! She took two or three suspensions! She got mixed up with different characters! Unpredictable!"
[Quoted in Rita Hayworth: Portrait of a Love Goddess by John Kobal, 1977, p. 163.]
Later career
After her marriage to Aly Khan collapsed in 1951, Hayworth returned to America with great fanfare to star in a string of hit films:
Affair in Trinidad (1952) with favorite co-star
Glenn Ford,
Salome (1953) with
Charles Laughton and
Stewart Granger, and
Miss Sadie Thompson (1953) with
José 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.
After making
Fire Down Below (1957) with
Robert Mitchum and
Jack Lemmon, and her last musical
Pal Joey (1957) with
Frank Sinatra and
Kim Novak, Hayworth finally left Columbia. She received good reviews for her acting in such films as
Separate Tables (1958) with
Burt Lancaster and
David Niven, and
The Story on Page One (1960) with
Anthony Franciosa, and continued working throughout the 1960s.
She continued to act in films until the early 1970s and made a well-publicized 1971
television appearance on
The Carol Burnett Show.
Her last film was
The Wrath of God (1972).
Physical appearance
[
trailer rita hayworth2.JPG|250px|thumb|Rita Hayworth and Glenn Ford in "[[Gilda]"]]
Rita Hayworth was a top
glamour girl in the 1940s. She was a
pin-up girl for military servicemen and a beauty icon for women.
At 5'6" (168
cm) and 120-lb (55
kgs)
[Jerry Mason. "Meet Rita Hayworth." The Spokesman-Review. January 3, 1942. Accessed June 5, 2009.] she was tall for women of her time and her height was a concern to her movie star dancing partners like
Fred Astaire.
Hayworth got her big motion picture break because she was willing to change her hair color whereas another actress was unwilling.
She changed her hair color eight times in eight movies.
[John Chapman, "Red Heads," Chicago Daily Tribune, May 25, 1941.]
Although she was never a fashion icon like
Jackie Kennedy, Hayworth had a unique beauty style.
From the time she became a celebrity until she died she had natural long nails. "I take care of my nails myself," she said. "I find my cuticle never tears and my nails don't break if I rub cream into them every night."
[Lydia Lane, "Rita Hayworth Cites Care of Hands, Feet, Hair as Important to Beauty," Los Angeles Times, Oct. 19, 1952.]
She was once the cover girl of "Nails magazine".
In
1940 she started a
manicure trend.
Hers were longer than previously worn, more oval than pointed, and fully covered with red polish. (Previously there was no polish covering the moon of the nail or the tip.)
In
1949 Hayworth's
lips were voted best in the world by the Artists League of America.
["Presenting: Ten Most Perfect Features in the World," AP, Feb 17, 1949. Accessed June 13, 2009.]
She had a modeling contract with
Max Factor to promote its Tru-Color
lipsticks and Pan-Stik
make-up.
Personal life
Naturally shy and reclusive, Hayworth was the antithesis of the characters she played. "I naturally am very shy," she said, "and I suffer from an inferiority complex."
[Louella O. Parsons, "Rita, Shy Off Set, Now Groomed for Vamp Role," St. Petersburg Times, May 25, 1941.[2] Accessed June 2, 2009.] She once complained, "Men fell in love with Gilda, but they wake up with me." With typical modesty she later remarked that the only films she could watch without laughing were the dance musicals she made with
Fred Astaire. "I guess the only jewels of my life," Hayworth said, "were the pictures I made with Fred Astaire."
[John Hallowell. "Rita Hayworth, "Don't Put the Blame on Me, Boys," New York Times, Oct. 25, 1970]
She was close to her frequent co-star and next-door neighbor
Glenn Ford. In an interview published in the New York Times, Hayworth denied she was involved with Ford.
Hayworth had two younger brothers: Vernon Cansino and
Eduardo Cansino, Jr. They were both soldiers in World War II. Vernon left the United States Army in 1946 with several medals, including the Purple Heart. He married Susan Vail, a dancer. Eduardo Cansino Jr. followed Hayworth into acting; he was also under contract with Columbia Pictures. In 1950 he made his screen debut in
Magic Carpet.
Elisa Cansino, her aunt, ran a dancing school in San Francisco. Her nephew
Richard Cansino, is a
voice actor in
anime and
video games; he has done most of his work under the name "Richard Hayworth."
Barbara Leaming claims in her book,
If This Was Happiness: A Biography of Rita Hayworth (1989), that as a child and teenager, Hayworth was a victim of physical and sexual abuse by her father.
Marriages
Hayworth had five marriages, which all ended in divorce, with each one lasting five years or less:
1) Edward Charles Judson (1937–1942);
2) Orson Welles (1943–1948, one daughter: Rebecca Welles);
3) Prince Aly Khan (1949–1953, one daughter: Princess Yasmin Aga Khan);
4) Dick Haymes (1953–1955); and,
5) James Hill (1958–1961).
"Basically, I am a good, gentle person," Hayworth once said, "but I am attracted to mean personalities."
["Chatter," People, July 15, 1974. Accessed June 6, 2009.]
1) Edward Charles Judson
In 1937 Hayworth was only 18 when she married Edward Judson, a domineering man more than twice her age. They eloped in Las Vegas. He was an oilman turned promoter who had played a major role in launching her acting career. He was a shrewd businessman 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 Judson compelled her to transfer considerable property to him and promise to pay him $12,000 under threats that he would do her "great bodily harm."
["Rita Hayworth Tells of Threats by Ex-Mate," Los Angeles Times, July 3, 1943, A16] She filed for divorce from him on February 24, 1942 with the complaint of cruelty. She also 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 neglected to inform Hayworth before they married that he had previously been married twice.
[John Kobal, Rita Hayworth, Berkley: 1983, p. 62.] When she finally walked out on him, she literally had no money. She asked her friend,
Hermes Pan, if she could eat at his home, because she didn't have any money to buy food.
2) Orson Welles
Rita Hayworth then rushed into a marriage with Orson Welles on September 7, 1943. None of her colleagues even knew about the planned marriage (before a judge) until she announced it the day before they got married. For the civil ceremony she wore a beige suit, 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. After marital struggles, and a final attempt at reconciliation, Hayworth said he told her he didn't want to be tied down by marriage.
"During the entire period of our marriage," she declared, "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."
["Rita Hayworth Wins Divorce From Orson Welles," AP, Nov. 10, 1947. Accessed June 6, 2009.]
[
and Every Night.JPG|left|thumb|Hayworth as Rosalind Bruce in [[Tonight and Every Night] (1945).]]
3) Prince Aly Khan
In 1948 she 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 was
Dior's
New Look — after seeing her wearing it, every woman began to wear the somewhat-controversial longer
hemline.
Joseph L. Mankiewicz, in writing and directing
The Barefoot Contessa (1954), was said to have based his title character, Maria Vargas (played on film by
Ava Gardner), on Hayworth's life and her marriage to Aly Khan.
In 1951, while still married to her, he was spotted dancing with
Joan Fontaine in the nightclub where they met. She responded by issuing him an ultimatum and threatening to divorce him in Reno, Nevada. In early May she moved to Nevada to establish legal residence to qualify for a divorce. She holed up in Lake Tahoe with her daughter despite a threat to kidnap her child. When she filed to divorce Khan on September 2, 1951, she did so on the grounds of "extreme cruelty, entirely mental in nature."
["Rita Hayworth Files Divorce Action in Reno," Los Angeles Times, Sept. 2, 1951.]
Hayworth once said she might become a Muslim like her husband. During the custody fight over their daughter Yasmin, Prince Khan said he wanted her raised as a Muslim; whereas Hayworth said she intended to raise her in the Christian faith.
[ "Prince Wants Yasmin Back," AP, Oct. 31, 1953. Accessed June 13, 2009.] In fact, Hayworth turned down a $1,000,000 offer if she'd raise Yasmin as a Muslim from age seven and allow her to go to Europe 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," declared Hayworth. "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."
["Rita Says No to Million," Sydney Morning Herald, Sept. 13, 1953. Accessed June 13, 2009. [3]]
The Hayworth-Khan custody battle for little Yasmin was one of the most public custody battles in the history of Hollywood. Hayworth feared that Princess Yasmin would be kidnapped by her father, taken to his foreign country, and she'd never see her daughter again. She didn't trust him. It was a very long and protracted legal process that played out publicly in the news. It included Hayworth and her lawyers doing extreme negotiations, Hayworth dragging her heels about agreeing to let Khan have temporary custody of Yasmin, requiring "insurance" money to discourage him from keeping her, then Hayworth changing her mind at the last minute, etc., and her fourth husband interfering with the entire process.
4) Dick Haymes
Dick Haymes, Rita Hayworth's fourth husband, caused her much grief. When they first met, he was still married and his singing career was waning, but when the Love Goddess showed up at the clubs, he got a larger audience. (Without her hardly anyone paid attention.) Haymes was desperate for money; he was a deadbeat dad and two of his former wives were after him for alimony. In fact his financial problems were so bad he could not even return to California without being arrested.
["Dick Haymes Faces Arrest Over Alimony," Los Angeles Times, Oct. 5, 1956] On July 7, 1954, his ex-wife Nora Haymes got a bench warrant for his arrest, because he owed her $3,800 in alimony. Less than a week prior, 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.
["Haymes Hears Sour Music," AP, July 7, 1954.]
Haymes was born in Argentina, and didn't have solid proof of American citizenship. The authorities initiated proceedings to have him deported back to Argentina for being an illegal alien not long after he met Hayworth. He hoped, however, she could influence the Government and keep him in the United States. She assumed responsibility for his citizenship and that formed a bond that led to marriage.
Dick Haymes, however, allegedly abused Hayworth verbally and physically. In fact, two years into their marriage, in 1955 Haymes struck her in the face in public at the Cocoanut Grove night club in Los Angeles. It was the final straw in their relationship. Hayworth packed her bags, walked out, and never returned.
The extreme event leading to Hayworth's separation shook her so badly she had a "severe emotional shock," according to her doctor, who ordered her to remain in bed for several days.
["Marriage Falls Down and So Does Rita," UP, Aug. 30, 1955.]
5) James Hill
On February 2, 1958, Hayworth married film producer James Hill, who put her in one of her last major films,
Separate Tables. On September 1, 1961, Hayworth filed for divorce from Hill, alleging extreme mental cruelty. He later wrote the book
Rita Hayworth: A Memoir in which he suggested their marriage collapsed because he wanted Hayworth to continue making movies while she wanted both of them to retire from the Hollywood scene.
But
Charlton Heston, in his book,
In the Arena, sheds some light on Hayworth's brief marriage to Hill. Heston had never met her when he and his wife Lydia joined Hayworth and Hill for dinner in a restaurant in Spain with director George Marshall and Rex Harrison, Hayworth's co-star in
The Happy Thieves. Heston, who was in Spain making
El Cid, writes on page 253 of his memoir (HarperCollins paperback version) that ‘it 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 herself. Heston ends by writing, ‘I’m ashamed of walking away from Miss Hayworth’s humiliation. I never saw her again.’
She never married again.
Health problems
[
Hayworth and Tyrone Power in Blood and Sand trailer.jpg|300px|thumb|Hayworth in [[Blood and Sand (1941 film)|Blood and Sand].]]
Hayworth struggled with alcohol throughout her life. "I remember as a child," said her daughter, Yasmin Aga Khan, "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."
[Pia Lindstrom, "Alzheimer's Fight in Her Mother's Name," New York Times, Feb. 23, 1997.[4] Accessed June 6, 2009.]
In 1972, aged 54, Hayworth no longer wanted to act, but she signed up for
The Wrath of God because she had money problems. The experience, however, exposed her bad health and worsening mental state. She couldn't remember her lines, so they had to film her scenes one line at a time. Extreme memory loss left her very nervous and resistant to doing at least one scene, which was then done by a double.
Even so, the following year Hayworth agreed to do one more movie,
Tales That Witness Madness (1973). Her health was even worse by that time, so she abandoned the movie set, and returned to America. She never returned to acting.
[Stephanie Thames, "The Wrath of God," TCM.com. Accessed June 14, 2009]
In March 1974, both her brothers died within a week of each other, saddening her greatly, and causing her to drink even more heavily than before.
In 1976 at London's Heathrow Airport, Hayworth was removed from a TWA flight during which she had an angry outburst while traveling with her
agent. "Miss Hayworth had been drinking when she boarded the plane," revealed a TWA flight attendant, "and had several free drinks during the flight." The event attracted much negative publicity; a disturbing photograph was published in newspapers showing her looking very disheveled, sad, lost, ill, and barely recognizable.
["Actress Helped from Jet," St. Petersburg Times, Jan. 21, 1976.]
Rita Hayworth's drinking problem confused her family, friends, colleagues—and even doctors—who were unable to immediately recognize
Alzheimer's disease. "For several years in the 1970s, she had been misdiagnosed as an alcoholic."
[" 'Love Goddess' Rita Hayworth is Dead at 68," AP, May 16, 1987.]
"It was the outbursts," said her daughter, "She'd fly into a rage. I can't tell you. I thought it was alcoholism-alcoholic dementia. We all thought that. The papers picked that up, of course. You can't imagine the relief just in getting a diagnosis. We had a name at last, Alzheimer's! Of course, that didn't really come until the last seven or eight years. She wasn't diagnosed as having Alzheimer's until 1980. There were two decades of hell before that."
[Paul Hendrickson, "Alzheimer's: A Daughter's Nightmare," Los Angeles Times, Apr. 11, 1989.]
In July 1981, Hayworth's health had worsened to the point where a judge in Los Angeles Superior Court ruled that because she was suffering from senile dementia, and no longer able to care for herself, she should be placed under the care of her daughter, Princess Yasmin Khan of New York City.
["Rita Hayworth Placed in Conservatorship," AP, Jul 23, 1981.]
She then lived in an apartment at
The San Remo on
Central Park West next to her daughter, who looked after her during her final years until she died.
Death
Rita Hayworth lapsed into a semicoma in February 1987. She died a few months later on May 14 at age 68 of Alzheimer's disease in her Manhattan apartment.
A funeral service for Hayworth was held at 10:00 a.m. on May 19, 1987 at the Church of the Good Shepherd in Beverly Hills, California. Pallbearers included actors
Ricardo Montalban,
Glenn Ford,
Don Ameche and choreographer
Hermes Pan.
She was interred in
Holy Cross Cemetery in
Culver City, California (location: Grotto, Lot 196, Grave 6 (right of main sidewalk, near the curb)). Her
headstone includes the inscription: "To yesterday's companionship and tomorrow's reunion."
"Rita Hayworth was one of our country's most beloved stars," said President
Ronald Reagan, who himself had been an actor at the same time as Hayworth, and coincidentally later also had
Alzheimer's disease. "Glamorous and talented, she gave us many wonderful moments on stage and screen and delighted audiences from the time she was a young girl. In her later years, Rita became known for her struggle with
Alzheimer's disease. Her courage and candor, and that of her family, were a great public service in bringing worldwide attention to a disease which we all hope will soon be cured. Nancy and I are saddened by Rita's death. She was a friend who we will miss. We extend our deep sympathy to her family."
[Krebs, Albin. "Rita Hayworth, Movie Legend, Dies", obituary, The New York Times, May 16, 1987. Accessed May 29, 2009.]
Awards
Hayworth appeared with
John Wayne in
Circus World (1964) (
U.K. title:
Magnificent Showman), for which she received a
Golden Globe Award nomination for
Best Actress - Motion Picture Drama, her only notable-award nod.
[[www.imdb.com/name/nm0000028/awards "Awards for]
Rita Hayworth"], The Internet Movie Database, undated. Accessed May 29, 2009.
In 1977, Hayworth was the recipient of the
National Screen Heritage Award.
Despite appearing in 61 films over 37 years,
including leading roles in successful, classic films like
Gilda, she never received an Academy Award nomination. Nevertheless, Rita Hayworth is listed as one of the
American Film Institute's
Greatest Stars of All Time.
Legacy
One of the major fund raisers for the
Alzheimer's Association is the annual
Rita Hayworth Galas, held in New York City and
Chicago,
Illinois. Hayworth's daughter, Princess Yasmin, has been the hostess for these events. Since 1985 they have raised more than
US$42 million for the Association.
Quotes
"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?"
"I always considered myself as a comedienne who could dance."
"After all, a girl is . . . well, a girl. It's nice to be told you're successful at it."
"We are all tied to our destiny and there is no way we can liberate ourselves."
"Sensitive, shy--of course I was. The fun of acting is to become someone else."
"Movies were much better in the days when I was doing them."
[John Hallowell, "Rita: Hollywood Still Is Her Town But No One Knows She's There," St. Petersburg Times, June 23, 1968. Accessed June 4, 2009.]
"If he could have ever been in love with anyone, I think Harry Cohn was secretly in love with me."
"Men fell in love with Gilda, but they wake up with me."
[Biographer John Kobal, in his book, 'Rita Hayworth: Portrait of a Love Goddess,' (1977, p. 205) attributes this quote as a comment made by Hayworth in frustration to her personal movie script writing consultant Virginia Van Up, who was involved with the movie 'Gilda.' The context of the criticism was about her relationship with Aly Khan before they got married. Khan had first become enamored with her after seeing 'Gilda,' writes Kobal.]
"I think all women have a certain elegance about them which is destroyed when they take off their clothes."
"I like having my picture taken and being a glamorous person. Sometimes when I find myself getting impatient, I just remember the times I cried my eyes out because nobody wanted to take my picture at the Trocadero."
"I'm an afternoon person."
"What surprises me in life are not the marriages that fail, but the marriages that succeed."
"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."
"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."
[James Bacon, "Rita Hayworth Taking Age in an Easy Stride," AP, Nov. 1, 1963.]
"Every actor, every director, everybody needs an Oscar. You have to have that little statue in Hollywood, or else you're nothing!"
"I did not have everything from life. I've had too much!"
"All I wanted was just what everybody else wants, you know, to be loved."
"When you're in love you're living, you matter."
"Whatever you write about me, don't make it sad."
Trivia
She was raised as a Roman Catholic.
["Princess Born to Rita After Pre-dawn Dash to Clinic," AP, Dec. 28, 1949. Accessed June 13, 2009.]
Hayworth's uncle married
Ginger Rogers' aunt.
Her satin nightgown from famous World War II publicity photos sold for $26,888.
[www.liveauctioneers.com/sothebys/item/192482]
Hayworth used to live in Brentwood, Los Angeles, California (during her first marriage). In the 1950s, she lived in a Spanish bungalow just off Santa Monica Blvd. at 512 N. Palm Drive in Beverly Hills, California (previously owned by
Jean Harlow).
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.
Although Hayworth did not like horses or
thoroughbred horse racing, she became a member of the
Del Mar Thoroughbred Club. Aly Khan 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.
[Staff writer, "Love's Long Shot", Time October 17, 1949. Accessed May 29, 2009.]
In 1962, when she was 42, her planned Broadway debut in
Step on a Crack was cancelled for health reasons.
["Rita Hayworth Replaced in Play," AP, Aug. 24, 1962.]
Some legends say the Margarita cocktail was named for her when she was dancing under her real name (Margarita Cansino) in a Tijuana, Mexico nightclub.
Lynda Carter starred in
Rita Hayworth: The Love Goddess (1983), a television
biographical film of her life.
She is one of the many movie stars mentioned in Madonna's song "Vogue".
She was named #19 Actress, The American Film Institutes 50 Greatest Screen Legends.
Rita Hayworth is mentioned in the
White Stripes song 'Take, Take, Take', and is referenced in their song 'White Moon'.
She is discussed in the porridge episode Rough Justice
Filmography
As Rita Cansino
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- Anna Case in La Fiesta (Short subject, 1926, Unconfirmed)
- Cruz Diablo aka The Devil's Cross (Uncredited, 1934)
- In Caliente (1935) (scenes deleted)
- Under the Pampas Moon (1935)
- Charlie Chan in Egypt (1935)
- Dante's Inferno (1935)
- Paddy O'Day (1935)
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- Human Cargo (1936)
- Meet Nero Wolfe (1936)
- Rebellion (1936)
- The Dancing Pirate (1936)
- Old Louisiana (1937)
- Hit the Saddle (1937)
- Trouble in Texas (1937)
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As Rita Hayworth
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