Rita Hayworth's Real Name: Margarita Carmen Cansino

Quick answer: Rita Hayworth's documented original name is Margarita Carmen Cansino. Encyclopaedia Britannica lists that form as also known as, and Encyclopedia.com says she was born Margarita Carmen Cansino on October 17, 1918 (Britannica; Encyclopedia.com).

Real name and early life

She became famous as Rita Hayworth, a name Encyclopedia.com also records as a variation, Rita Cansino, early in her career. Britannica says she was born October 17, 1918, in Brooklyn, New York, the daughter of Spanish-born dancer Eduardo Cansino and Volga Hayworth, and that as a child she performed in her parents' nightclub act. Encyclopedia.com likewise names Eduardo Cansino and Volga (Haworth) Cansino as her parents and places the birth on that date in New York City, later specifying Brooklyn. Encyclopedia.com says she attended high school in Los Angeles only through the ninth grade. While still a teenager, Britannica says, she caught a Hollywood producer's attention and began appearing in films in the mid-1930s.

Career highlights

Britannica traces her rise through musicals with Fred Astaire, You'll Never Get Rich (1941) and You Were Never Lovelier (1942), and with Gene Kelly in Cover Girl (1944), a film it says helped establish both Hayworth and Kelly among the top stars of the day. She became a favorite pinup of American servicemen during the Second World War. The definitive Hayworth film, Britannica says, is Gilda (1946), opposite Glenn Ford, followed by The Lady from Shanghai (1947), written, directed, and produced by Orson Welles. Encyclopedia.com also lists those titles, along with Tonight and Every Night (1945), Down to Earth (1947), The Loves of Carmen (1948), Affair in Trinidad (1952), Miss Sadie Thompson (1953), and Pal Joey (1957). Britannica records that later memory problems were, in truth, the early stages of Alzheimer disease, officially diagnosed in 1980; Encyclopedia.com dates her being "stricken" to 1981, a year that differs from Britannica's diagnosis date. The publicity, Britannica says, was a catalyst for increasing national awareness of the disease and for federal funding of Alzheimer research.

Death

Both sources record that she died on May 14, 1987, in New York City. Encyclopedia.com says she had lived under the care of her daughter Princess Yasmin Aga Khan.

Name notes for searchers

Margarita Carmen Cansino is the documented original name; the professional name is Rita Hayworth. Early credits also used Rita Cansino. Searchers looking for the star of Gilda or Cover Girl are usually aiming at the same person.