Rita Hayworth

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Lore & Background

Hayworth was born as Margarita Carmen Cansino in Manhattan, New York, the eldest of three children born to dancer parents. Her Spanish-born father was from Castilleja de la Cuesta, a town near Seville, Spain. Her mother, Volga Hayworth, was an American of Irish and English descent who had performed with the Ziegfeld Follies. Hayworth later recalled, "From the time I was three and a half... as soon as I could stand on my own feet, I was given dance lessons." Her paternal grandfather, Antonio Cansino, a renowned classical Spanish dancer who popularized the bolero, instructed her in her first dance lesson. She attended dance classes every day for a few years in a Carnegie Hall complex, taught by her uncle Angel Cansino. Before her fifth birthday she was one of the Four Cansinos featured in the Broadway production of The Greenwich Village Follies. In 1927, her father took the family to Hollywood, where he established his own dance studio. In 1931, Eduardo Cansino partnered with his 12-year-old daughter to form an act called the Dancing Cansinos. Since under California law she was too young to work in nightclubs and bars, her father took her across the border to Tijuana, Mexico. Because she was working, Hayworth never graduated from high school, but she completed the ninth grade at Hamilton High in Los Angeles. Hayworth later told Orson Welles that her father began to sexually abuse her when they were touring together as the Dancing Cansinos. Her biographer, Barbara Leaming, wrote that her mother may have been the only person to know of the abuse; she slept in the same bed as her daughter to try to protect her. Leaming wrote that the abuse contributed to Hayworth's difficulty in relationships as an adult.

Reader's Guide

Rita Hayworth's significance lies in her status as a defining star of Hollywood's Golden Age, embodying glamour and sensuality in the 1940s. As 'The Love Goddess,' she was a top pin-up for American soldiers during World War II, second only to Betty Grable. Her filmography includes iconic performances in Gilda (1946), where she played the femme fatale in her first major dramatic role, and musicals with Fred Astaire and Gene Kelly. Fred Astaire, with whom she made You'll Never Get Rich (1941) and You Were Never Lovelier (1942), once called her his favorite dance partner. Astaire commented that "Rita danced with trained perfection and individuality." She also starred in the Technicolor musical Cover Girl (1944) with Gene Kelly. She is listed as one of the top 25 female motion picture stars of all time in the American Film Institute's survey AFI's 100 Years...100 Stars, and received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 1645 Vine Street in 1960. In 1980, Hayworth was diagnosed with early-onset Alzheimer's disease, which contributed to her death in 1987 at age 68. The public disclosure and discussion of her illness drew attention to Alzheimer's and helped increase public and private funding for research into the disease.

Did You Know?

• The press coined the term 'The Love Goddess' to describe Hayworth after she became the most glamorous screen idol of the 1940s.
• She was the second top pin-up girl for GIs during World War II, after Betty Grable.
• Fred Astaire once called Hayworth his favorite dance partner, noting her 'trained perfection and individuality.'
• Hayworth was diagnosed with early-onset Alzheimer's disease in 1980, and her public disclosure helped increase funding for research.
• She never graduated from high school, completing only the ninth grade at Hamilton High in Los Angeles.