Rita Hayworth

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Actress

1972 The Wrath of God

1971 The Naked Zoo

1970 Road to Salina

1968 The Bastard

1967 L'avventuriero

1966 The Poppy Is Also a Flower

1965 The Money Trap

1964 Circus World

1962 The Happy Thieves

1959 The Story on Page One

1959 They Came to Cordura

1958 Separate Tables

1957 Pal Joey

1957 Fire Down Below

1953 Miss Sadie Thompson

1953 Salome

1952 Affair in Trinidad

1948 The Loves of Carmen

1947 The Lady from Shanghai

1947 Down to Earth

1946 Gilda

1945 Tonight and Every Night

1944 Cover Girl

1942 You Were Never Lovelier

1942 Tales of Manhattan

1942 My Gal Sal

1941 You'll Never Get Rich

1941 Blood and Sand

1941 Affectionately Yours

1941 The Strawberry Blonde

1940 Angels Over Broadway

1940 The Lady in Question

1940 Susan and God

1940 Blondie on a Budget

1940 Music in My Heart

1939 Only Angels Have Wings

1939 The Lone Wolf Spy Hunt

1939 Homicide Bureau

1938 The Renegade Ranger

1938 Juvenile Court

1938 Convicted

1938 There's Always a Woman (uncredited)

1938 Across the Border

1938 Who Killed Gail Preston?

1937 The Shadow

1937 Paid to Dance

1937 Life Begins with Love (uncredited)

1937 The Game That Kills

1937 Girls Can Play

1937 Criminals of the Air

1937 Trouble in Texas

1937 Hit the Saddle

1937 Old Louisiana

1936 Rebellion

1936 Meet Nero Wolfe

1936 Dancing Pirate (uncredited)

1936 Human Cargo

1935 Professional Soldier (uncredited)

1935 Paddy O'Day

1935 Hi, Gaucho! (uncredited)

1935 Piernas de seda(uncredited)

1935 Dante's Inferno

1935 Charlie Chan in Egypt

1935 Under the Pampas Moon

1934 Cruz Diablo (uncredited)

1926 La fiesta (short)

Producer

1962 The Happy Thieves (producer)

1953 Salome (producer - uncredited)

1952 Affair in Trinidad (producer - uncredited)

1948 The Loves of Carmen (producer - uncredited)

Appearances

1976 The Russell Harty Show (TV series)

1973 V.I.P.-Schaukel (TV series documentary)

1973 This Is Your Life (TV series)

1971 Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In (TV series)

1971 The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson (TV series)

1971 The Merv Griffin Show (TV series)

1971 The Carol Burnett Show (TV series)

1969 First Tuesday (TV series)

1964 The 36th Annual Academy Awards (TV special)

1962 Lykke og krone (documentary)

1954 Screen Snapshots Series 33, No. 10: Hollywood Grows Up (documentary short)

1953 The Ed Sullivan Show (TV series)

1952 Champagne Safari (documentary)

1943 Show-Business at War (documentary short)(uncredited)

1941 Meet the Stars #6: Stars at Play (documentary short)

1940 Meet the Stars #1: Chinese Garden Festival (documentary short)

1940 Screen Snapshots Series 19, No. 9: Sports in Hollywood (documentary short)

1940 Screen Snapshots Series 19, No 6: Hollywood Recreations (documentary short)

1939 Screen Snapshots Series 18, No. 8 (documentary short)

Golden Globes

1965 Nominated Golden Globe Best Motion Picture Actress - Drama for: Circus World (1964).

Walk of Fame

Won Star on the Walk of Fame Motion Picture At 1645 Vine Street.

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Trained as a dancer in the family tradition, Rita Hayworth was performing onstage from the age of eight. She worked for a time in "exotic" roles under the name "Rita Cansino" - as an Egyptian in Charlie Chan in Egypt (1935) - often using her dance skills to brighten up tatty little movies. With her Spanish name anglicized, she rose to B leads (The Shadow, 1937; Who Killed Gail Preston?, 1938) before being reinvented by Columbia Pictures boss Harry Cohn as a glamour star. She endured electrolysis to raise her hairline, dyed her naturally black hair red, and emerged as the 1940s premier epitome of airbrushed gorgeousness.

Hayworth's first solid roles in major movies found her as the beautiful girl who the hero is initially more interested in than the heroine he eventually winds up with: losing Cary Grant to Jean Arthur in Only Angels Have Wings (1939) and James Cagney to Olivia de Havilland in The Strawberry Blonde (1941). Cohn built her up effectively as a leading lady in jolly, entertaining musicals: You'll Never Get Rich (1941) with Fred Astaire, who actually had to sweat a little to keep up with her on the dance floor; My Gal Sal (1942), one of several movies in which she is voluptuous in "gay nineties" fashions; and Cover Girl (1944), where she is well-matched with Gene Kelly. But her greatest screen moment came in Gilda (1946).

Hayworth's career was never quite the same after Gilda. Her marriage to Orson Welles was already over when she cropped her trademark hair and had it dyed blonde - to Cohn's horror - to play a dangerous woman in Welles's twisted The Lady from Shanghai (1947). A brief career break ensued, as Hayworth left Hollywood for life as a princess in Europe. Her marriage to Prince Aly Khan lasted less than four years, however, and soon she was back in cinemas with some "great temptress" roles (Miss Sadie Thompson, 1953). She took a fetching, mature role in Pal Joey (1957), queening it over her successor as Columbia Pictures's leading lady, Kim Novak. In the 1960s, Alzheimer's disease began to take hold, and Hayworth made only a few minor films after that. The disease finally killed her in 1987.

Being Gilda

"Every man I have known has fallen in love with Gilda and awakened with me." Rita Hayworth's defining screen moment came in Charles Vidor's Gilda (1946), a moirish triangle melodrama in which she plays one of cinema's most iconic women. Gilda sings ("Put the Blame on Mame") and bring down the house in a striptease that involves little more than peeling off her elbow-length gloves. This scene was seductive enough to induce some protest from moviecensors, and it made Gilda a cultural icon. But the character was hard to live up to; as Hayworth sighed, "No one can be Gilda twenty-four hours a day."

Every man I have ever known has fallen in love with Gilda and awakened with me.

I think all women have a certain elegance about them which is destroyed when they take off their clothes.

Every actor, every director, everybody needs an Oscar. You have to have that little statue in Hollywood, or else you're nothing!

Some legends say the Margarita cocktail was named for her when she was dancing under her real name in a Tijuana, Mexico nightclub.

She appeared 5 times on the cover of "Life" Magazine.

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).

Salary

Old Louisiana (1937) $200

Rebellion (1936) $200