Film actress, born into a show business family in New York City, USA. Her nightclub appearances as a Spanish dancer led to a succession of small roles in B-pictures. Blossoming into an international beauty after dyeing her hair red, she partnered both Fred Astaire and Gene Kelly in musicals of the 1940s, and found her best-known lead in Gilda (1946). A pin-up of US servicemen, her Hollywood career was effectively closed by a scandal involving her romance with Aly Khan (1949), whom she later married. During the 1960s she appeared in character parts, often in Europe, including The Money Trap (1966) and The Wrath of God (1972). Married five times, she suffered from Alzheimer's disease for several years prior to her death.

Hayworth was trained as a dancer from childhood, and was on stage by the age of six.

Attracting the attention of film producers as part of the dance team "The Dancing Cansinos," Hayworth was signed first by Fox Studios in 1935, at the age of sixteen. After a name change from Rita Cansino to Rita Hayworth, two more years of working in B movies, and painful electrolysis to raise her hairline, Hollywood and the public began to take notice.

Hayworth's fame as a beautiful redhead arose from this Technicolor film. After she made Tales of Manhattan (1942) opposite Charles Boyer, Cohn would not allow Hayworth to be loaned out to other studios.

Hayworth's well-known films include the musicals that made her famous: You'll Never Get Rich (1941) and You Were Never Lovelier (1942) (both with Fred Astaire, who wrote in his autobiography that Rita "danced with trained perfection and individuality"), My Gal Sal (1942) with Victor Mature, and her best known musical, Cover Girl (1944) with Gene Kelly. 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.

Hayworth gave one of her best peformances in the Orson Welles classic The Lady from Shanghai (1948), which failed at the box office in part because director/co-star Welles had Hayworth's famous red locks cut off and the rest dyed blonde for her role. Her next film, The Loves of Carmen (1948) with Glenn Ford was the first film co-produced by Columbia and Rita's own production company, The Beckworth Corporation (named for her daughter Rebecca). She received a percentage of the profits from this and all of her subsequent films until 1955, when Hayworth dissolved Beckworth to pay off debts she owed to Columbia.

Rita left her film career in 1948 to marry Prince Aly Khan and move to Europe, which caused a media frenzy, but after the marriage collapsed in 1951 she returned to America with great fanfare to film a string of hit films: Affair in Trinidad (1952) with favorite costar Glenn Ford, Salome (1953) with Charles Laughton and Stewart Granger, and Miss Sadie Thompson (1953) with Jose Ferrer and Aldo Ray, for which her perfomance won critical acclaim. She got good reviews for her acting in such films as Separate Tables (1958) with Burt Lancaster and The Story on Page One (1960) with Anthony Franciosa, and continued working throughout the 1960s. Hayworth made her last film, The Wrath of God , in 1972.

Personal life

Naturally shy and reclusive, Hayworth was the antithesis of the characters she played.

According to Barbara Leaming's biography on Hayworth, If This Was Happiness, her relationships with men were often difficult due to the physical, sexual and emotional abuse she endured from her father at a young age.

Hayworth was married five times: first to Edward C.

Final years

After about 1960, Hayworth suffered from extremely early onset of Alzheimer's disease, which was not diagnosed until 1980; she continued to act in films until the early 1970s and made a well-publicized appearance on The Carol Burnett Show near the end of her career.

One of the major fundraisers for the Alzheimer's Association is the annual Rita Hayworth Gala which are held in New York City and Chicago.

Trivia

In the world famous comic book/strip The Phantom, the mother of the 21st Phantom, Maude Thorne McPatrick, is drawn to resemble Rita Hayworth. In one story, she even worked as Hayworth's stunt double in a movie. A poster of Rita Hayworth was used as a plot device in Stephen King's short story, Rita Hayworth and Shawshank Redemption and later in the movie based on the story which starred Morgan Freeman and Tim Robbins. Rita Hayworth placed 19th on the American Film Institute's list of the 25 greatest female movie stars of all time in 1999. In 2005, the White Stripes wrote a song titled "Take, Take, Take" on their album Get Behind Me Satan which humorously describes a man meeting Hayworth in a bar and pestering her for an autograph and a picture. In Salvador Plascencia's The People of Paper, Rita Hayworth is a sad, disenfranchised character. Quote by actor Joseph Cotten: "No matter how bad the film, when Rita danced it was like watching one of nature's wonders in motion." Rita was the first dancer to partner with both Fred Astaire and Gene Kelly on film - others being Judy Garland, Cyd Charisse, Vera Ellen, and Leslie Caron. Famous films Rita missed out on making: Laura (1944), Dead Reckoning (1947), with Humphrey Bogart, Samson and Delilah (1949), Born Yesterday (1950), and From Here to Eternity (1953). Mankiewicz, in writing and directing 1954's The Barefoot Contessa , was said to haved based his title character, Maria Vargas (played on film by Ava Gardner), on Rita's life and her marriage to Prince Aly Khan.

Filmography

Anna Case in La Fiesta (1926) (short subject) Cruz Diablo (1934) (The Devil's Cross) In Caliente (1935) (scenes deleted) Under the Pampas Moon (1935) Charlie Chan in Egypt (1935) Dante's Inferno (1935) Legs of Silk (1935) Paddy O'Day (1935) Professional Soldier (1935) Human Cargo (1936) Dancing Pirate (1936) Meet Nero Wolfe (1936) Rebellion (1936) Old Louisiana (1937) Hit the Saddle (1937) Trouble in Texas (1937) Criminals of the Air (1937) Girls Can Play (1937) The Game That Kills (1937) Life Begins with Love (1937) Paid to Dance (1937) The Shadow (1937) Who Killed Gail Preston? (1938) Special Inspector (1938) There's Always a Woman (1938) Convicted (1938) Juvenile Court (1938) The Renegade Ranger (1938) Homicide Bureau (1939) The Lone Wolf Spy Hunt (1939) Only Angels Have Wings (1939) Music in My Heart (1940) Blondie on a Budget (1940) Screen Snapshots Series 19, No. 6 (1940) (short subject) Susan and God (1940) The Lady in Question (1940) Angels Over Broadway (1940) The Strawberry Blonde (1941) Affectionately Yours (1941) Blood and Sand (1941) You'll Never Get Rich (1941) My Gal Sal (1942) Tales of Manhattan (1942) You Were Never Lovelier (1942) Show Business at War (1943) (short subject) Cover Girl (1944) Tonight and Every Night (1945) Gilda (1946) Down to Earth (1947) The Lady from Shanghai (1948) The Loves of Carmen (1948) (also producer) Champagne Safari (1952) (documentary) Affair in Trinidad (1952) (also producer) Salome (1953) (also producer) Miss Sadie Thompson (1953) (also producer) Screen Snapshots: Hollywood Grows Up (1954) (short subject) Fire Down Below (1957) Pal Joey (1957) Separate Tables (1958) They Came to Cordura (1959) The Story on Page One (1959) The Happy Thieves (1962) (also producer) Lykke og krone (1962) (documentary) Circus World (1964) The Money Trap (1965) The Poppy Is Also a Flower (1966) L'Avventuriero (1967) (The Rover) I Bastardi (1968) (The Cats) The Naked Zoo (1971) Road to Salina (1971) The Wrath of God (1972)