The annual Rita Hayworth charity gala, managed by daughter Princess Yasmin Khan, raised $1.8 million in 1999 alone for the Alzheimer's Assn.
She appeared in 5 movies with classic leading actor, Glenn Ford, best known for their romantic pairing in the classic hit Gilda (1946).
Ranked #98 in Empire (UK) magazine's "The Top 100 Movie Stars of All Time" list. [October 1997]
Some legends say the Margarita cocktail was named for her when she was dancing under her real name in a Tijuana, Mexico nightclub.
Daughter of Eduardo Cansino.
Her dancer father, Eduardo Cansino, himself the son of a dancer, came to New York from Spain in 1913 with sister Elisa.
Mother, showgirl Volga Hayworth (sometimes spelled Haworth), met Eduardo on Broadway in 1916; they married 1917.
Her first (uncredited) appearance on film was with the dancing Cansino family in a Vitaphone short Anna Case in La Fiesta (1926) (aka "La Fiesta").
She appeared 5 times on the cover of "Life" Magazine.
The famous Bob Landry photo of Rita in "Life", 11 August 1941, p. 33, made her the number 2 soldier pin-up of World War II.
Her singing was dubbed by Nan Wynn (1941-44), Martha Mears (1945), Anita Ellis (1946-48), and Jo Ann Greer (1952-57).
Her own singing voice is heard in the introductions to her songs (otherwise dubbed by Jo Ann Greer) in Pal Joey (1957).
Daughters: Rebecca Welles, born 17 December 1945; Yasmin Khan, born 28 December 1949.
Owned the production company "Hillworth Productions A.G." together with her fifth husband, James Hill.
She played the sister of Barbara Stanwyck in A Message to Garcia (1936), but after a test screening all her scenes were cut at the request of Darryl F. Zanuck.
Her face was glued onto an A-bomb which was dropped on the Bikini Atol during a test in 1946.
Interred at Holy Cross Cemetery, Culver City, California, USA, in the Grotto section, L196, #6 (to the right of the main sidewalk, near the curb).
Chosen by Empire magazine as one of the "100 Sexiest Stars" in film history (#54). [1995]
Through her father she is descended from the Spanish Jews.
Through her mother she is part Irish and part English.
In 1947 started her own production company, "Beckworth Corporation" (formed from syllables of her daughters name, Rebecca, and her own surname). It was dissolved in 1954 under advice from her fourth husband, Dick Haymes.
In the early 1940s she replaced Jean Arthur as the top female star at Columbia Picture. Coincidentally, the two stars share the same birthday (October 17).
The famous red hair was not her natural colour (which was black). When she was signed, studio heads decided that her hairline was too low on her forehead, and she underwent years of painful electrolysis to make it higher.
Niece of actor Vinton Haworth.
Measurements: 36 1/2C-24-36 (at peak of WWII pin-up fame), 35-25-35 (in 1953 at 120 lbs.) (Source: Celebrity Sleuth magazine).
Nephew: Richard Cansino.
It was James Hill, her fifth husband, who recognised her true talent as a comedienne. He tried to encourage her to do more comedy, but she felt that it was too late and instead began to resent him for pushing her into more work.
Knocked out two of Glenn Ford's teeth during their fight in Gilda (1946).
In 1946, an expedition into the wilderness of Canada's unexplored Headless Valley came across an abandoned trapper's shack. In it the expedition found three things: a candle, a can of beans and a picture of Rita.
On May 27, 1949, she married Prince Aly Khan. Many people forget that Rita, not Grace Kelly, was the first movie star to become a princess.
She was the producers' first choice for Casablanca (1942), but they couldn't get her and were fortunate to settle for Ingrid Bergman.
The Maria Vargas character (played by Ava Gardner) in the 1954 Joseph L. Mankiewicz film The Barefoot Contessa (1954)) was based on her.
She was the first bombshell to appear on one of the posters in The Shawshank Redemption (1994). (The other two were Marilyn Monroe and Raquel Welch).
She was voted the 65th "Greatest Movie Star" of all time by Entertainment Weekly.
She was voted the 34th Greatest Movie Star of all time by Premiere Magazine.
Was named #19 Actress, The American Film Institutes 50 Greatest Screen Legends
Is one of the many movie stars mentioned in Madonna's song "Vogue"
The definitive femme fatale of the 1940s, Rita Hayworth was the Brooklyn-born daughter of Spanish dancer Eduardo Cansino and Ziegfeld Follies showgirl Volga Haworth. Rita Hayworth joined the family dancing act in her early teens and made a few '30s films under her real name, Margarita Cansino, and with her real hair color (black), including Charlie Chan in Egypt (1935) and Meet Nero Wolfe (1936). Over the next few years -- at the urging of Columbia Studios and her first husband -- Rita Hayworth reshaped her hairline with electrolysis, dyed her hair auburn, and adopted the name Rita Hayworth. Following her performance in Only Angels Have Wings (1939), Rita Hayworth became a major leading lady to most of the big stars, including Tyrone Power, Fred Astaire, Charles Boyer, Gene Kelly, and her second and soon to be ex-husband Orson Welles in The Lady From Shanghai (1948).
Rita Hayworth then became involved in a tempestuous romance with married playboy Aly Khan, son of the Pakistani Muslim leader Aga Khan III, and they married in 1949. Following their divorce two years later, Rita Hayworth was married to singer Dick Haymes from 1953 to 1955, and then for three years to James Hill, the producer of her film Separate Tables (1958). Rita Hayworth's career had slowed down in the '50s and came to a virtual standstill in the '60s, when rumors of her supposed erratic and drunken behavior began to circulate. In reality, Rita Hayworth was suffering from the first symptoms of Alzheimer's disease. For years, Rita Hayworth would be cared for by her daughter Princess Yasmin Khan, and her death from the disease in 1987 gave it public attention that led to increased funding for medical research to find a cure.
