Nickname:	Rita Hayworth / Rita Cansino / Rita / The Love Goddess
Known for:	Gilda / Pal Joey / The Lady from Shanghai
Birth name:	Margarita Carmen Cansino
Birthday:	17 October 1918, Brooklyn, New York, USA
Height:	5' 6" (1.68 m)
Available Photos	123
Wallpapers	7

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: Affair in Trinidad, The Lady in Question, The Loves of Carmen, The Money Trap and Gilda. 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. 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 (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. Daughters: Rebecca Welles (17 December 1944 to 17 October 2004) and 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, but after a test screening all her scenes were cut at the request of Darryl F. Zanuck. The image of her face was glued onto an A-bomb which was dropped on the Bikini Atoll 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 color (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: 36.5-C-24-36 (at peak of WW-II 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. 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, 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) was based on her. She was the first bombshell to appear on one of the posters in The Shawshank Redemption. (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" Was portrayed by Lynda Carter in Rita Hayworth: The Love Goddess Subject of The White Stripes Song "Take, Take, Take" from the album Get Behind Me Satan. Is portrayed by Veronica Watt in Hollywoodland Along with James Cagney, is mentioned by name in Tom Waits' song "Invitation To The Blues." Publicist Henry Rogers, hired by Eddie Judson to promote his wife, said of him, "It seemed to me that Eddie would have sold his wife to the highest bidder if it would have advanced her career.". Studio chief Harry Cohn only began taking interest in Hayworth as star material after she began undergoing painful electrolysis treatments (at the urging of husband Eddie Judson), which drastically altered her hairline and appearance. Under of the influence of second husband Orson Welles, Rita began to read classic literature. While pregnant in 1944, she was very impressed by Sir Walter Scott's "Ivanhoe," and named her firstborn daughter Rebecca after the novel's heroine. In Italy, all her films were dubbed by either Tina Lattanzi, most notably in Gilda, and later in her career by Lidia Simoneschi. Biography in: "The Scribner Encyclopedia of American Lives". Volume Two, 1986-1990, pages 399-400. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1999. Cousin of Ginger Rogers.

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