Rita hayworth biography photos
•
Margarita Carmen Cansino was born in Brooklyn on October 17, 1918. The world would come to worship her as the sex symbol Rita Hayworth, star of movies like Gilda, You Were Never Lovelier, and Separate Tables. But as Barbara Leaming writes in her heartbreaking 1989 biography If This Was Happiness, what happened to her as the child Margarita would scar Hayworth forever.
A magnificent dancer and underhållare, Hayworth lit up when performing. “She learned steps faster than anyone I’d ever known,” her costar Fred Astaire said, according to Leaming. “I’d show her a routine before lunch. She’d be back right after middag and have it down to perfection. She apparently figured it out in her mind while she was eating.” Yet once the work was done, costar James Cagney remembered, she’d simply “go back to her chair and sit there and not communicate”—a possible indication of the trauma that lay beneath her glitzy persona.
Married five times, Hayworth would have affairs with Howard Hughes
•
Rita Hayworth
(1918-1987)
Who Was Rita Hayworth?
American film bombshell Rita Hayworth originally trained as a dancer, but she hit stardom as an actress with her appearance in The Strawberry Blonde (1941). She is best known for her performance in Charles Vidor's Gilda (1946). Her career ended with Ralph Nelson's The Wrath of God (1972). Hayworth died of Alzheimer's disease on May 14, 1987.
Early Years
Hayworth was born Margarita Carmen Cansino on October 17, 1918, in New York City. She changed her last name to Hayworth early on in her acting career on the advice of her first husband and manager, Edward Judson.
Hayworth hailed from show business stock. Her father, the Spanish-born Eduardo Cansino, was a dancer, and her mother, Volga, had been a Ziegfeld Follies girl. Soon after their daughter was born, they shortened her name to Rita Cansino. By the time Hayworth was 12, she was dancing professionally.
Still a young girl, Hayworth moved with her family to Los Angeles
•
34 of Rita Hayworth’s Most Iconic Style Moments
Ruffles and Curls
Hayworth sported voluminous curls and a statement-making ruffled dress while posing with a perfume bottle in the early 1940s.
A Shimmering Shot
The actor held a pensive pose in a shimmery, long-sleeved gown with a plunging neckline.
Advertisement - Continue Reading Below
Work of Art
Here, the Hollywood star pulled out all the stops in a structural floor-length cape and high-waisted skirt with a crisp collared top.
A Sultry Smoke Session
Hayworth looked oh-so-mysterious dressed in a strapless black gown while smoking a cigarette in a publicity portrait.
Advertisement - Continue Reading Below
Sequined Snowflakes
The actor wore a show-stopping marigold-colored chiffon dress with a matching veil for a portrait session in the 1940s. The striking two-piece set featured embroidered sequins in the shape of snowflakes.
Flashing a Smile
Hayworth flashed a smile ea