Classic Actresses: February 2009

Born:17 October 1918, Brooklyn, New York, USA
Death:14 May 1987, New York, New York, USA (Alzheimer's disease)
Real Name:Margarita Carmen Cansino
Nickname:The Love Goddess
Spouse
James Hill (2 February 1958 - September 1961) (divorced)
Dick Haymes (24 September 1953 - 12 December 1955) (divorced)
Prince Aly Khan (27 May 1949 - 26 January 1953) (divorced) 1 child
Orson Welles (7 September 1943 - 1 December 1948) (divorced) 1 child
Edward C. Judson (29 May 1937 - 22 May 1942) (divorced)
Facts:
-Her father, Eduardo was a dancer as was his father before him. He immigrated from Spain in 1913. Rita's mother met Eduardo in 1916 and were married the following year. Rita, herself, was trained as a dancer in order to follow in her family's footsteps.
-At age 12, mature-looking Rita joined Eduardo's stage act, in which she was spotted three years later by Fox studio head Winfield R. Sheehan, leading to her first studio contract and film debut at age 16 in Dante's Inferno (1935).
-Fox dropped her after five small roles, but expert, exploitative promotion by first husband Edward Judson soon brought Rita a new contract at Columbia Pictures, where studio head Harry Cohn changed her name to Hayworth and approved raising her hairline by electrolysis.
-She continued to play small bit parts in several films under the name of "Rita Cansino" until she played the second female lead in Only Angels Have Wings (1939) when she played "Judy McPherson". By this time, she was at Columbia where she was getting top billing but it was the Warner Brothers film The Strawberry Blonde (1941) that seemed to set her apart from the rest of what she had previously done, her splendid dancing with Fred Astaire in You'll Never Get Rich (1941) made her a star.
-She was probably the second most popular actress after Betty Grable. In You'll Never Get Rich (1941) with Fred Astaire, in 1941, was probably the film that moviegoers felt close to Rita. Her dancing, for which she had trained all her life, was astounding.
-In person Rita was shy, quiet and unassuming; only when the cameras rolled did she turn on the explosive sexual charisma that in Gilda (1946) made her a superstar.
-After the hit Gilda (1946), her career was on the skids. Although she was still making movies, they never approached her earlier work. The drought began between The Lady from Shanghai (1947) and Champagne Safari (1952).
To Rita, though, domestic bliss was a more important, if elusive, goal, and in 1949 she interrupted her career for marriage--unfortunately an unhappy one almost from the start--to playboy Prince Aly Khan.
-Then after Salome (1953), she was not seen again until Pal Joey (1957). Part of the reasons for the downward spiral was television, but also Rita had been replaced by the new star at Columbia, Kim Novak.
-From 1960 (age 42), early onset of Alzheimer's disease (undiagnosed until 1980) limited Rita's powers; the last few roles in her 60-film career were increasingly small.
-Gene Ringgold said it best when he remarked, "Rita Hayworth is not an actress of great depth. She was a dancer, a glamorous personality and a sex symbol. These qualities are such that they can carry her no further professionally". Perhaps he was right but Hayworth fans would vehemently disagree with him. Rita, herself, said, "Every man I have known has fallen in love with Gilda and wakened with me". By 1980, Rita was wracked with Alzheimer's Disease. It ravaged her so, that she finally died on May 14, 1987 in New York City. She was 68.
-Almost helpless by 1981, Rita was cared for by daughter Yasmin Khan until her death at age 68.
-The annual Rita Hayworth charity gala, managed by daughter Princess Yasmin Khan, raised $1.8 million in 1999 alone for the Alzheimer's Assn.
-On May 27, 1949, she married Prince Aly Khan. Many people forget that Rita, not Grace Kelly, was the first movie star to become a princess.
-She was the producers' first choice for Casablanca (1942), but they couldn't get her and were fortunate to settle for Ingrid Bergman.
-She was voted the 65th "Greatest Movie Star" of all time by Entertainment Weekly.
-She was voted the 34th Greatest Movie Star of all time by Premiere Magazine.
-Was named #19 Actress, The American Film Institutes 50 Greatest Screen Legends
-Under of the influence of second husband Orson Welles, Rita began to read classic literature. While pregnant in 1944, she was very impressed by Sir Walter Scott's "Ivanhoe" and named her firstborn daughter Rebecca after the novel's heroine.
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Rita hayworth in "Gilda"

Gilda Trailer

Tribute Rita Hayworth

Filmography

The Wrath of God (1972) .... Señora De La Plata
The Naked Zoo (1971) .... Mrs. Golden
Road to Salina (1970) .... Mara
Bastardi, I (1968) .... Martha
Avventuriero, L' (1967) .... Aunt Caterina
Poppies Are Also Flowers (1966) .... Monique Markos
The Money Trap (1965) .... Rosalie Kelly
Circus World (1964) .... Lili Alfredo
The Happy Thieves (1962) .... Eve Lewis
The Story on Page One (1959) .... Josephine Brown
They Came to Cordura (1959) .... Adelaide Geary
Separate Tables (1958) .... Ann Shankland
Pal Joey (1957) .... Vera Simpson
Fire Down Below (1957) .... Irena
Miss Sadie Thompson (1953) .... Sadie Thompson
Salome (1953) .... Princess Salome
Affair in Trinidad (1952) .... Chris Emery
The Loves of Carmen (1948) .... Carmen
The Lady from Shanghai (1947) .... Elsa Bannister
Down to Earth (1947) .... Terpsichore/Kitty Pendleton
Gilda (1946) .... Gilda Mundson Farrell
Tonight and Every Night (1945) .... Rosalind Bruce
Cover Girl (1944) .... Rusty Parker nicknamed
You Were Never Lovelier (1942) .... Maria Acuña
Tales of Manhattan (1942) .... Ethel Halloway
My Gal Sal (1942) .... Sally Elliott
You'll Never Get Rich (1941) .... Sheila Winthrop
Blood and Sand (1941) .... Doña Sol des Muire
Affectionately Yours (1941) .... Irene Malcolm
The Strawberry Blonde (1941) .... Virginia Brush
Angels Over Broadway (1940) .... Nina Barone
The Lady in Question (1940) .... Natalie Roguin
Susan and God (1940) .... Leonora Stubbs
Blondie on a Budget (1940) .... Joan Forrester
Music in My Heart (1940) .... Patricia O'Malley
Only Angels Have Wings (1939) .... Judith 'Judy' MacPherson
The Lone Wolf Spy Hunt (1939) .... Karen
Homicide Bureau (1939) .... J.G. Bliss
The Renegade Ranger (1938) .... Judith Alvarez
Juvenile Court (1938) .... Marcia Adams
Convicted (1938) .... Jerry Wheeler
Special Inspector (1938) .... Patricia Lane
Who Killed Gail Preston? (1938) .... Gail Preston
The Shadow (1937) .... Mary Gillespie
Paid to Dance (1937) .... Betty Morgan
The Game That Kills (1937) .... Betty Holland
Girls Can Play (1937) .... Sue Collins
Criminals of the Air (1937) .... Rita Owens
Trouble in Texas (1937) (as Rita Cansino) .... Carmen Serano
Hit the Saddle (1937) (as Rita Cansino) .... Rita
Old Louisiana (1937) (as Rita Cansino) .... Angela Gonzales
... aka Louisiana Gal (USA: reissue title)
Rebellion (1936) (as Rita Cansino) .... Paula Castillo
Meet Nero Wolfe (1936) (as Rita Cansino) .... Maria Maringola
Dancing Pirate (1936) (as Royal Cansino Dancers) .... Specialty Dancer
Human Cargo (1936) (as Rita Cansino) .... Carmen Zoro
Paddy O'Day (1935) (as Rita Cansino) .... Tamara Petrovitch
Dante's Inferno (1935) (as Rita Cansino) .... Dancer
Charlie Chan in Egypt (1935) (as Rita Cansino) .... Nayda
Under the Pampas Moon (1935) (as Rita Cansino) .... Carmen

Walpaper-Rita Hayworth

Photos

Biography

Born:30 September 1921, Helensburgh, Scotland, UK
Death:16 October 2007, Suffolk, England, UK (complications from Parkinson's disease)
Real Name:Deborah Jane Kerr-Trimmer
Nickname:The English Rose
Spouse:
Peter Viertel (23 July 1960 - 16 October 2007) (her death)
Anthony C. Bartley (28 November 1945 - 1959) (divorced) 2 children
Facts:
-Born Deborah Jane Kerr-Trimmer in Scotland in 1921, she was the daughter of a soldier who had been gassed in World War I. A shy, insecure child, she found an outlet for expressing her feelings in acting.
Kerr was educated at the independent Northumberland House School in the Clifton area of Bristol in England (the school was demolished in 1937, when Kerr was only 16 years old), and at Rossholme School in Weston-super-Mare.
-Kerr originally trained as a ballet dancer, first appearing on stage at Sadler's Wells in 1938. After changing careers, she soon found success as an actress. Her first acting teacher was her aunt, Phyllis Smale, who ran the Hicks-Smale Drama School in Bristol
-She first performed at the Open Air Theatre in Regent's Park, London. She subsequently performed with the Oxford Repertory Company 1939-40. Her first appearance on the West End stage was as Ellie Dunn in "Heartbreak House" at the Cambridge Theatre in 1943.
-Her aunt, a radio star, got her some stage work when she was a teenager, and British film producer Gabriel Pascal noticed and cast her in his film of George Bernard Shaw's Major Barbara (1941) and Love on the Dole (1941).
-It was her role as a troubled nun in Black Narcissus in 1947 which brought her to the attention of Hollywood producers. The film was a hit in the US as well as the UK, and Kerr won the New York Film Critics' Award as Actress of the Year. In Hollywood, her British accent and manners led to a succession of roles portraying a refined, reserved, and proper English lady. Nevertheless, Kerr frequently used any opportunity to discard her cool exterior.
-She quickly became a star of the British cinema, with roles such as the three women in The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp (1943) and the nun in Black Narcissus (1947). In 1947, she came to MGM, where she repeated her success in films like The Hucksters (1947), Edward, My Son (1949) and Quo Vadis (1951).
-Kerr's first marriage was to Royal Air Force Squadron Leader Anthony Bartley on 29 November 1945. They had two daughters, Melanie Jane (born 27 December 1947) and Francesca Ann (born 20 December 1951), who married the actor John Shrapnel. The Kerr-Bartley marriage was troubled, owing to Bartley's jealousy of his wife's fame and financial success, and because her career often took her away from home. Kerr and Bartley divorced in 1959.
-After a while, however, she tired of playing prim-and-proper English ladies, so she made the most of the role of the adulteress who romps on the beach with Burt Lancaster in From Here to Eternity (1953). The film was a success, and Kerr received her second Oscar nomination for the film.
-Joan Crawford was originally meant to play her role in From Here to Eternity (1953), but when she insisted on shooting the film with her own cameraman, the studio balked. They decided to take a chance and cast Ms. Kerr, who then was struggling with her ladylike stereotype, to play the adulterous military wife who has an affair with Burt Lancaster. The casting worked and Ms. Kerr's career thereafter enjoyed a new, sexier versatility.
-Was romantically involved with Burt Lancaster while filming From Here to Eternity (1953).
-Kerr also departed from typecasting with a performance that brought out her sensuality, as Karen Holmes, the embittered military wife in From Here to Eternity (1953), for which she received an Oscar nomination for Best Actress. The American Film Institute acknowledged the iconic status of the scene from that film in which she and Burt Lancaster make love on a Hawaii beach amidst the crashing waves. The organisation ranked it twentieth in its list of the 100 most romantic films of all time.
-That same year, she played one of her best-remembered screen roles, "Mrs. Anna" in The King and I (1956). More success followed in Heaven Knows, Mr. Allison (1957), An Affair to Remember (1957), Separate Tables (1958), The Sundowners (1960), The Innocents (1961) and The Night of the Iguana (1964).
-Her second marriage was to author Peter Viertel on 23 July 1960. In marrying Viertel, she acquired a stepdaughter, Christine Viertel. Although she long resided in Klosters, Switzerland and Marbella, Spain, she moved back to Britain to be closer to her own children as her health began to deteriorate. Her husband, however, continued to live in Marbella.
-Then, in 1968, she suddenly quit movies, appalled by the explicit sex and violence of the day. After some stage and TV work in the 1970s and 1980s and swan song performances in The Assam Garden (1985) and Hold the Dream (1986) (TV), she retired from acting altogether.
-Deborah Kerr holds the record of the most Oscar nominations (six) without a win, but that was made up for in 1994, when she was given a Honorary Oscar for her screen achievements.
-Lived in Switzerland and Spain after retiring from acting, but returned to England to be with her family when her Parkinson's disease worsened.
-Deborah Kerr, her husband Peter Viertel and her biographer Eric Braun all died within the space of five weeks in the fall of 2007. All were aged 86.
-Deborah Kerr was nominated six times for the Academy Award for Best Actress: Edward, My Son (1949), From Here to Eternity (1953), The King and I (1956), Heaven Knows, Mr. Allison (1957), Separate Tables (1958) and The Sundowners (1960).
-She was also nominated four times for the BAFTA Award for Best British Actress: The End of the Affair (1955), Tea and Sympathy (1956), The Sundowners (1961) and The Chalk Garden (1964).
-She received one Emmy Award nomination in 1985 for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Limited Series or a Special for A Woman of Substance. She was also nominated for the Golden Globe Award for Best Actress – Motion Picture Drama for Edward, My Son (1949), Heaven Knows, Mr. Allison (1957) and Separate Tables (1958).

Media

Theatrical Trailer - The Innocents

From Here To Eternity - Kiss scene on the beach

Quo Vadis Theatrical Trailer

The Prisoner of Zenda trailer

Movie Legends - Deborah Kerr

Photos in films