Known as Hollywood's "Love Goddess"
Rita Hayworth was an actress popular in the late 1930s to 1950s. She was born Margarita Carmen Cansino on October 17, 1918. At the age of three, she was learning to dance as a member of the Dancing Cansinos. When Hayworth was 17, she shortened her name to Rita Cansino and appeared as a dancer in Dante's Inferno. In 1937, she derived her new last name from her mother's maiden name, Hayworth, and appeared regularly in supporting roles in B-movies. Her first husband, Ed Judson, pushed her through painful electrolysis treatment to alter her hairline. He then promoted her until she had breaks in Only Angels Have Wings (1939) and Blood and Sand (1941).
Hayworth's trademark film and nemesis was Gilda (1945). Gilda defined Hayworth's image and condemned her for the rest of her life trying to escape it. She once said, "Men fall in love with Gilda and wake up with me". During this filming, her husband was Orson Welles. Together, they filmed The Lady from Shanghai based on their own relationship.
Hayworth continued acting in Hollywood until 1948, when after completing The Loves of Carmen, she departed for Europe and married Prince Aly Khan, thus becoming Hollywood's first princess. The marriage ended in divorce so she returned to the States and resumed her career with Affair in Trinidad. As Alzheimer's took hold, Hayworth acted in her last film, The Wrath of God (1972). Rita died on May 14, 1987 after a prolonged bout with the disease. Her daughter, Princess Yasmin Aga Khan, continues as a prominent leader in the fight against Alzheimer's. | 
