Rita Hayworth

Margarita Carmen Cansino, known to the world as Rita Hayworth, was born on October 17, 1918, in New York City and died on May 14, 1987, at age 68. She worked as an actress, dancer, and pin-up girl, rising to fame in the 1940s as a major star of Hollywood’s Golden Age. Over 38 years, she appeared in 61 films. Journalists called her “The Love Goddess” because she became the era’s most glamorous screen idol. During World War II, she ranked as the second most popular pin-up among American soldiers, behind Betty Grable.

Hayworth is best remembered for her role in the 1946 film noir *Gilda*, opposite Glenn Ford, where she played a femme fatale in her first major dramatic part. Other notable films include *Only Angels Have Wings* (1939), *The Strawberry Blonde* (1941), *Blood and Sand* (1941), *The Lady from Shanghai* (1947), *Pal Joey* (1957), and *Separate Tables* (1958). Fred Astaire, who danced with her in *You’ll Never Get Rich* (1941) and *You Were Never Lovelier* (1942), called her his favorite dance partner. She also starred in the Technicolor musical *Cover Girl* (1944) with Gene Kelly. The American Film Institute ranked her among the top 25 female movie stars of all time in its survey *AFI’s 100 Years…100 Stars*. In 1960, she received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 1645 Vine Street.

In 1980, Hayworth was diagnosed with early-onset Alzheimer’s disease, which led to her death seven years later. The public discussion of her illness raised awareness about Alzheimer’s and helped boost funding for research.

Hayworth was the eldest of three children born to dancer parents in Manhattan. Friends speculated she was Romani, but this was never confirmed, and she called herself “just another dirty-faced Mexican kid.” Academic articles describe her as “Latin” and “Spanish-Irish American.” Her father, Eduardo Cansino, was born in Castilleja de la Cuesta, near Seville, Spain. Her mother, Volga Hayworth, was an American of Irish and English descent who had performed with the Ziegfeld Follies. They married in 1917 and also had two sons. Her maternal uncle, Vinton Hayworth, was an actor.

Eduardo wanted his daughter to become a professional dancer; her mother hoped she would act. Her paternal grandfather, Antonio Cansino, was a celebrated classical Spanish dancer who popularized the bolero and ran a world-famous dance school in Madrid. He gave her her first dance lesson. Hayworth later said, “From the time I was three and a half… as soon as I could stand on my own feet, I was given dance lessons.” She added, “I didn’t like it very much… but I didn’t have the courage to tell my father, so I began taking the lessons. Rehearse, rehearse, rehearse, that was my girlhood.”

She took daily dance classes for several years at a Carnegie Hall complex, taught by her uncle Angel Cansino. Before turning five, she was one of the Four Cansinos in the Broadway show *The Greenwich Village Follies* at the Winter Garden Theatre. In 1926, at age eight, she appeared in the Warner Bros. short film *La Fiesta*. In 1927, her father moved the family to Hollywood, believing dancing could succeed in movies. He opened his own dance studio, teaching stars like James Cagney and Jean Harlow.

In 1931, Eduardo partnered with his 12-year-old daughter to form the Dancing Cansinos. Her hair was dyed from brown to black to give her a more mature, “Latin” look. Because California law barred her from working in nightclubs and bars, her father took her across the border to Tijuana, Mexico, a popular tourist spot for Angelenos. She never graduated high school, completing only the ninth grade at Hamilton High in Los Angeles.

Hayworth later told Orson Welles that her father sexually abused her during their touring years. Biographer Barbara Leaming wrote that her mother may have been the only one aware of the abuse and slept in the same bed to protect her. Leaming suggested this trauma contributed to Hayworth’s adult relationship difficulties.

At 16, Hayworth took a small role in the film *Cruz Diablo* (1934), followed by another in *In Caliente* (1935) with Dolores del Río. She danced with her father at clubs like the Foreign and the Caliente. Winfield Sheehan, head of Fox Film Corporation, spotted her at the Caliente Club and arranged a screen test a week later. Impressed, he signed her to a six-month contract under the name Rita Cansino, her first of two name changes.

At Fox, she was billed as Rita Cansino and played unremarkable roles, often as an exotic foreigner. In late 1934, at 16, she danced in Spencer Tracy’s *Dante’s Inferno* (1935) and was put under contract in February 1935. Her first speaking role was as an Argentinian girl in *Under the Pampas Moon* (1935). She played an Egyptian girl in *Charlie Chan in Egypt* (1935) and a Russian dancer in *Paddy O’Day* (1935). Sheehan groomed her for the lead in the 1936 Technicolor film *Ramona*, hoping to make her Fox’s new Dolores del Río. By the end of her six-month contract, Fox had merged into 20th Century Fox, with Darryl F. Zanuck as executive producer. Sheehan’s interest was dismissed.