Hayworth, Rita

Rita Hayworth (1918-87, age 68). An American actor, dancer, and pin-up girl of Italian and Irish ancestry. She achieved fame in the 1940s as one of the top stars of the Golden Age of Hollywood, and appeared in 61 films in total over 37 years.

Hayworth was a top glamour girl in the 1940s, a pin-up girl for military servicemen and a beauty icon for women. At 5ft 6in (1.68 m) and 120 b (54 kg), she was tall enough to be a concern for dancing partners such as Fred Astaire. She reportedly changed her hair color eight times in eight movies.

Hayworth said her father began to sexually abuse her as a child when they were touring together. Her biographer wrote that her mother may have been the only person to know; she slept in the same bed as her daughter to try to protect her. This abuse as a young girl may have contributed to her difficulty in relationships as an adult.

Hayworth was a lifelong Democrat who was an active member of the Hollywood Democratic Committee and was active in the campaign of Franklin Delano Roosevelt during the 1944 presidential election. In 1968, Hayworth was part of a Hollywood committee that endorsed Robert F. Kennedy‘s presidential campaign.

In 1941, Hayworth said she was the antithesis of the characters she played: “I naturally am very shy … and I suffer from an inferiority complex.” She said, “Basically, I am a good, gentle person, but I am attracted to mean personalities.”

Hayworth had a series of marriages and divorces:

1. Edward C. Judson. When Hayworth was 18, she married Edward C. Judson, an oilman turned promoter who was more than twice her age. They married in Las Vegas. They soon divorced, and she alleged Judson compelled her to transfer a considerable amount of her property to him, and she promised to pay him $12,000 under threats that he would do her “great bodily harm.” Judson was as old as her father, who was enraged by the marriage, which caused a rift between Hayworth and her parents until the divorce. Judson had failed to tell Hayworth before they married that he had previously been married twice. 
   
2. Orson Welles. Hayworth married Orson Welles in 1943 and they divorced in 1947.
   
3. Prince Aly Khan. In 1948, Hayworth left her film career to marry Prince Aly Khan, a son of Sultan Mohammed Shah, Aga Khan III, the leader of the Ismaili community of Shia Islam. They were married in 1949. Aly Khan and his family were heavily involved in horse racing, owning and racing horses. Hayworth had no interest in the sport. Hayworth filed for divorce from Khan in 1951, on the grounds of “extreme cruelty, entirely mental in nature.” Hayworth was a Roman Catholic whose marriage to Prince Aly Khan was deemed “illicit” by Pope Pius XII.
   
4. Dick Haymes. Married at the Sands Hotel in Las Vegas, 1953. Hayworth ended up paying most of Haymes’s debts. Haymes was born in Argentina and did not have solid proof of American citizenship. Not long after he met Hayworth, U.S. officials initiated proceedings to have him deported to Argentina for being an illegal alien. He hoped Hayworth could influence the government and keep him in the United States. When she assumed responsibility for his citizenship, a bond was formed that led to marriage. After a tumultuous two years together, Haymes struck Hayworth in the face in 1955 in public at the Coconut Grove nightclub in Los Angeles. Hayworth packed her bags, walked out, and never returned. The assault and crisis shook her, and her doctor ordered her to remain in bed for several days.
   
5. James Hill. Hayworth married Hill in Santa Monica, California in 1958. Three years later she filed for divorce, alleging extreme mental cruelty.

In 1974, both of her brothers died within a week of each other, which caused her great sadness and led to heavy drinking. In 1976, at London’s Heathrow Airport, Hayworth was removed from a TWA flight after having an angry outburst while traveling with her agent. The event attracted much negative publicity; an unflattering photograph was published in newspapers the next day. Hayworth’s alcoholism hid symptoms of what was eventually understood to be Alzheimer’s disease.

Born in Brooklyn, she died in Manhattan, New York City.