#1946 RITA HAYWORTH FILM PROFESSIONAL#

Because the film was a big box-office success, Hayworth’s popularity rose and she immediately became one of Hollywood’s hottest actresses. While on loan to Warner Bros., Hayworth appeared as the second female lead in The Strawberry Blonde (Raoul Walsh, 1941), opposite James Cagney. Cohn began to see Hayworth as his first and official new star. With this film’s box-office success, fan mail for Hayworth began pouring into Columbia’s publicity department. In 1939, Cohn pressured director Howard Hawks to use Hayworth for a small but important role as a man-trap in the aviation drama Only Angels Have Wings (1939), opposite Cary Grant. At the urging of husband Eddie Judson, she changed her hair colour to dark red and had electrolysis to raise her hairline and broaden the appearance of her forehead. Rita Cansino became Rita Hayworth when she adopted her mother’s maiden name, to the consternation of her father. Cohn argued that Hayworth’s image was too Mediterranean, which reduced her opportunities to being cast in ‘exotic’ roles that were fewer in number. Columbia Studio head Harry Cohn signed her to a seven-year contract and tried her out in small roles. Judson, who became her first husband in 1937, got her freelance work in several small-studio films and a part in the Columbia Pictures feature Meet Nero Wolfe (Herbert J. Feeling that Hayworth had screen potential, salesman and promoter Edward C. Zanuck did not renew Hayworth’s contract. Zanuck serving as the executive producer. By the end of her six-month contract, Fox had merged into 20th Century Fox, with Darryl F.

She had her first speaking role as an Argentinian girl in the romantic Western Under the Pampas Moon (James Tinling, 1935). During her time at Fox, Rita appeared in unremarkable roles, often cast as the exotic foreigner. Impressed by her screen persona, Sheehan signed her for a short-term six-month contract at Fox, under the name Rita Cansino, the first of two name changes for her film career. Winfield Sheehan, the head of the Fox Film Corporation, saw her dancing at the Caliente Club and quickly arranged for Hayworth to do a screen test a week later. She danced with her father in such nightspots as the Foreign and the Caliente clubs. Margarita took a bit part in the Mexican film Cruz Diablo (Fernando de Fuentes, 1934) at age 16, which led to another in the Hollywood production In Caliente (Lloyd Bacon, 1935) with the Mexican actress, Dolores del Río. In 1931 Eduardo Cansino partnered with his 12-year-old but mature-looking daughter to form an act called the Dancing Cansinos. He established his own dance studio, where he taught such stars as James Cagney and Jean Harlow. He believed that dancing could be featured in the movies and that his family could be part of it. In 1927, her father took the family to Hollywood. In 1926 at the age of eight, she was featured with the dancing Cansino family in the Vitaphone short La Fiesta (1926). She performed publicly from the age of six.

#1946 RITA HAYWORTH FILM PROFESSIONAL#

Margarita’s father wanted her to become a professional dancer, while her mother hoped she would become an actress. Margarita had two brothers, Eduardo Cansino, Jr. She was the oldest child of two dancers, Eduardo Cansino, Sr., from Castilleja de la Cuesta, a little town near Seville, Spain, and Volga Hayworth, an American of Irish-English descent who had performed with the Ziegfeld Follies. Rita Hayworth was born in Brooklyn, New York in 1918 as Margarita Carmen Cansino. Later in her career she also appeared in European films. Her beauty catapulted her to international stardom and she is best known for her sexy performance in the Film Noir Gilda (1946). Sultry Rita Hayworth (1918-1987) was an American dancer and actress was one of the top pin-up girl for GIs during World War II. Publicity still for Gilda (Charles Vidor, 1946). Spanish postcard by Archivo Bermejo, Barcelona, no.

1946 rita hayworth film