Rita Hayworth

Background

Rita Hayworth was a phenomenal dancer, and her breathtaking performances set her apart from other actresses of her day. She was born in Brooklyn, New York, as Margarita Carmen Cansino, the oldest child of two dancers. Her mother, Volga Hayworth was an American with Irish and English ancestry who had played in the “Ziegfeld Follies,” and her father, Eduardo Cansino was of Romani heritage. Hayworth began taking dancing lessons at a very young age at the Carnegie Hall in New York, where her uncle, Angel Cansino, instructed her. At age six, she finally delivered her first dancing performance.

Winfield Sheehan, the president of the Fox Film Corporation, took note of her at the Caliente Club. She organized for her to do a screen test since she was so impressed with her performance, and she later signed a contract with the Fox Corporation. With her captivating dancing performances in movies like “Tonight and Every Night,” “Down to Earth,” and “Cover Girl,” she pleased and thrilled the American people throughout the grievous era of World War II.

Hayworth, one of the most famous actors of her generation, appeared in over 61 films throughout the course of her 37-year career. She married Prince Aly Khan and gave up her Hollywood career shortly after becoming one of the industry’s first princesses. Despite having a daughter together, the couple did not have a happy marriage and it ended in divorce in 1953. Hayworth battled with alcoholism all of her life, and in the early 1970s, her health started to decline. She died of Alzheimer’s disease at the age of 68 and was laid to rest in the Holy Cross Cemetery in California.