Rita Hayworth was one of the most famous sex symbols of Hollywood’s Golden Age,
with her appearance being so iconic that it was even plastered on the side of an atomic bomb!
After being forced into dancing by her abusive father and then coerced into a career in
entertainment by her first husband, Rita became one of the most lusted-after actresses of her day
thanks to her appearances in such films as Gilda and Pal Joey. Throughout all of Rita’s successes,
there was always a dark undercurrent of dependency and mental instability
that prevented her from finding peace until the very end.
Join Facts Verse as we explore the real woman behind Rita Hayworth (her tragic secret).
Rita Hayworth was born on October 17, 1918, in Brooklyn. At the time of her birth, her name
was Margarita Cansino, and her name would remain as such until the start of her Hollywood career.
Rita’s father was a dancer, and he chose Rita to join in his career with him at a young age.
While her siblings were playing games, Rita was performing with her father professionally.
Rita would later confess to second husband Orson Welles that her father had been sexually abusive
towards her. Rita wanted to escape from the grasps of her father, so she ran into the arms
of the first man that offered marriage to her. She married a car salesman by the name of Ed Judson
at the age of only 18. He was nearly 40, and he didn’t love Rita so much as see potential in her.
Apparently, it was Ed’s desire to make his new wife a star. According to Rita, her first husband
considered her to be more of an investment than a spouse. Ed can be largely credited with coming
up with Rita’s Hollywood image, alongside Columbia Pictures’ studio head, Harry Cohn.
Numerous alterations were made to Rita’s appearance, and her name was also changed
from Margarita Cansino to her more famous stage name. Given that Rita didn’t have
very many pleasant memories with the name, she didn’t much mind. Physical alterations made to
Rita included such minute things as dying her hair red, as well as more invasive procedures such as
electrolysis to alter her hairline. These changes were made to make Rita appear more American.
Rita Hayworth and first husband, Ed Judson, married in 1937.
Ed then began taking Rita all around Hollywood in the hopes of making her a star.
Apparently, Rita’s first husband would coerce her into having sex with powerful men in the industry
so that she could get ahead. For this reason, Rita came to consider Ed to be more of a pimp
than a husband. Rita had come into the marriage with love in her heart,
while Ed was simply looking to make a quick buck off of her good looks.
Rita was incredibly shy during her early days in Hollywood, though her first husband still forced
her to make the rounds and do publicity in order to be seen. Ed Junson found an
unlikely ally in studio head Harry Cohn, and they conspired together to alter the burgeoning star’s
appearance. The actress subsequently signed with Columbia Pictures, and it was only a short time
before she was a star! Once she became a star at Columbia Pictures, Harry Cohn apparently
expected that Rita was going to perform sexual favors for him. When Rita refused, it initiated
a feud between her and the studio head that lasted until her final days with the studio.
Rita Hayworth worked for Columbia Pictures for two decades, over which time Harry Cohn
made her life a living hell because she refused to hook up with him. Throughout
her time with the studio, Rita and Harry would fight over numerous things,
including contracts, approval for scripts, and the actress's own personal life. Her final film with
Columbia Pictures was Pal Joey, which was released in 1957. Finally, Rita was free from Harry’s grip!
By the time Rita Hayworth had broken free from Harry Cohn and Columbia Pictures,
she had already been divorced from first husband Ed Junson for well over a decade.
Rita divorced Ed Junson in 1942, the same year that she met her second husband. Up until
Rita’s death, she claimed that her second husband was the great love of her life.
Her second husband was Orson Welles. If you’re enjoying this video so far,
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After divorcing first husband Ed Junson in 1942, Rita Hayworth married Orson Welles
in 1943. According to Rita, Orson was the great love of her life. The couple was incredibly happy
during the early days of their marriage, though it would end up falling apart for a variety of
reasons. Firstly, there was the fact that the two simply didn’t have very much in common. Rita was
the much flashier of the two, while Orson was more of a reserved intellectual. Rita tried her
best to immerse herself in the world of her new husband and was madly in love with him. However,
Orson soon seemingly fell out of love with his new wife. When Orson began becoming more
elusive in the relationship, Rita found solace in substance abuse and alcohol dependency.
When Rita took to the bottle, it only made Orson Welles become that much more distant.
Orson apparently began to despise Rita for her need to be loved by him
and despised her even more for her subsequent substance abuse.
By the end of their relationship, Rita may have considered the director to be her great love,
but he considered her to be a nuisance. It seems that Rita tried her hardest to mold herself in the
image of who she thought Orson wanted her to be, while all he really wanted her to be was herself.
Although Rita Hayworth added fuel to the fire of her and Orson Welles’ dying marriage with
her substance abuse, Orson Welles wasn’t without his own faults. Instead of working on his marriage
with Rita, Orson could be found fraternizing with mistress Gloria Vanderbilt in New York
City’s social scene. The two fell in love while Rita was pregnant with Orson’s child. Another
woman that Orson was involved with during the time that he was married to Rita was Judy Garland.
Besides Gloria Vanderbilt and Judy Garland, Orson also had a penchant for soliciting sex workers.
Before his death, Orson Welles recalled how he was repulsed by Rita Hayworth’s reaction
when she found out that her visage had been plastered on the side of an atomic bomb.
Instead of finding humor in the situation, like her husband did, she was so angered that she
began to actively plot to go campaign to congress to have the image removed.
Harry Cohn had something to say about Rita’s outrage, saying that she needed to keep
it to herself because the American audience would find it unpatriotic.
After divorcing second husband Orson Welles in 1947, Rita Hayworth went on to marry
third husband Aly Khan two years later, in 1949. Aly was a Pakistani diplomat,
and their marriage lasted until 1953. During the years that she was married to Aly, Rita succumbed
further and further to drink. Rita had started out as a shy and innocent young
woman that let others push her around. She developed a much bolder personality as she
got older and became better about sticking up for herself, but she could also be incredibly
defensive and lash out when it wasn’t called for. Her alcoholism made this behavior worse.
Following her divorce from Aly Khan in 1953, Rita went on to marry two other men over the
course of the decade. The first was fourth husband Dick Haymes, while the second was fifth husband
James Hill. After Rita and James Hill divorced in 1961, Rita never remarried. By that point,
the actress was a much different person than the star that Hollywood had come to love,
with much of the darkness of her past having damaged her past the point of no return.
She spent her last two marriages in a disassociated state,
and arguably never recovered from this state after her fifth divorce.
By the 1980s, Rita had begun acting considerably different. Most around her contributed this change
in behavior to her alcoholism, and they were shocked when the actress was diagnosed with
Alzheimer’s disease at the beginning of the decade. Rita was diagnosed with the disease
in 1980 and ended up passing away in 1987. During the final years of her life, Rita
lived in an apartment adjoining her daughter’s. There, her daughter cared for her needs as she
increasingly succumbed to her failing health. Old friends like Orson Welles would also drop
in, with the Citizen Kane icon having long since forgiven her for her more dependent tendencies.
There were other men that Rita Hayworth was involved with during her time. She had an
on-and-off romantic relationship with Glenn Ford,
whom she starred with in the 1946 motion picture Gilda. Along with Orson Welles, Glenn Ford was
one of the old friends that could be found visiting the actress during her final days.
Another star that Rita Hayworth was romantically tied to during her career was Kirk Douglas. Rita
reportedly hooked up with Kirk Douglas while still married to third husband Aly Khan.
Although Rita Hayworth was one of the most celebrated sex symbols of Hollywood’s Golden Age,
she lived a life of tragedy and confusion that saw her rarely happy. Now it’s time to hear from you:
did you know that Rita Hayworth considered Citizen Kane filmmaker Orson Welles to be the
love of her life and that she was forced into dancing by her abusive father when she was just
a teenager? As always, like this video to show your support, subscribe, and hit the notification
bell if you’d like to be among the first to know when more Facts Verse videos are on their way!