Long-legged, with a striking face, beautiful complexion (particularly in Technicolor), and long auburn hair, Rita Hayworth was the sex goddess of the 1940s, bridging the gap between HARLOW and MONROE. Born Margarita Carmen Cansino, she was Ginger Rogers’s first cousin (their mothers were sisters), and it seems only fitting, therefore, that Rita Hayworth eventually had the opportunity to dance with FRED ASTAIRE.
Dancing came easily to Rita Hayworth, whose father was a dancer. The family talent proved to be her avenue into show business. Dancing at a popular Hollywood nightclub, the Agua Caliente, she was discovered by a scout from Fox. At first, Rita Hayworth was simply a chorus dancer in films such as her debut movie, Under the Pampas Moon (1935). But Fox had big plans for her and intended to give her the lead in a film called Ramona (1936). But when Fox merged with Twentieth Century, Rita Hayworth not only found herself bumped from Ramona but also was soon dropped from the new studio altogether.
After some “B” movie roles, she landed a contract at Columbia but still played in lesser films such as Criminals of the Air (1937) and Who Killed Gail Preston? (1938). Her big break came when she was tested by GEORGE CUKOR for the role of KATHARINE HEPBURN’s sister in Holiday (1938). Though the director did not cast her, he was impressed enough to use her in Susan and God (1940), a picture that brought her some serious attention by the press and the public.
It also didn’t hurt that pin-up pictures of the striking beauty were starting to have an impact as well. She started to receive lead roles in important movies, most notably in Strawberry Blonde (1941) and Blood and Sand (1941). The success of these films brought Rita Hayworth to the next, most glamorous phase of her career—and the most ironic.
Rita Hayworth became a musical star in You’ll Never Get Rich (1941) with Fred Astaire. The musicals My Gal Sal (1942), You Were Never Lovelier (1942) with Astaire, and Cover Girl (1944) with GENE KELLY followed. Rita Hayworth, who was a trained dancer, could not sing. In all her musicals, including her most famous, Gilda (1946), her songs were dubbed.
Meanwhile, Rita Hayworth’s personal life soon spilled over into her professional life. She was married five times, and her second husband, ORSON WELLES, made one of his best movies, The Lady from Shanghai (1948), with Rita Hayworth as the femme fatale. Though the movie is highly regarded today, at the time of its release it was a box-office failure. After her marriage to Welles ended, she tied the knot with one of the richest men in the world, Prince Aly Khan, causing her to turn her back on Hollywood for several years. When the marriage ended in 1951, though, she quickly returned. Unfortunately, her audience didn’t.
In the 1950s, her career was uneven. Pal Joey (1957) and Separate Tables (1958) are perhaps her best movies of that decade, but her films were no longer built around her. Rita Hayworth continued to act in the 1960s and into the 1970s, but her appeal had waned. Her last film appearance was in a minor featured role in The Wrath of God (1972). She suffered from Alzheimer’s disease for a very long time before her death in 1987.
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