Rita Hayworth (born Margarita Carmen Cansino), daughter of Eduardo Cansino and Volga Haworth Cansino, was born Brooklyn, NY, 17 October 1918. The daughter of a Spanish-born dancer and his partner, Hayworth became a professional dancer with her father's nightclub act at the age of 12 and appeared as Rita Cansino in several films beginning in 1935. She was billed as her father’s wife rather than his daughter and, during those years, she endured her father’s repeated sexual abuse.

She escaped her plight by marriage to a man 22 years older than she. On the advice of her first husband, Edward Judson (who became her manager; they were married 1937 - 1943), she changed her name and dyed her hair auburn, cultivating a sophisticated glamour that first registered in Only Angels Have Wings (1939), Strawberry Blonde (1941), and Blood and Sand (1941). The musicals You'll Never Get Rich (1941) and You Were Never Lovelier (1942), both with Fred Astaire (who said in his memoirs that she was his favorite partner and “danced with trained perfection and individuality”), and Cover Girl (1944), with Gene Kelly, made her a star and a favorite pinup girl of American servicemen.

The sexual allure of Hayworth's performance rose to its peak in Gilda (1946), which caused censorship issues because of the so-called striptease in which she was filmed singing "Put the Blame on Mame" (the dubbed voice was not hers). Rita was called "The Great American Love Goddess" and was featured on the cover of Time magazine in 1941. In that same year a photo of her in Life magazine became the most-requested G. I. pinup selling more than five million copies. In a reference to her status as a bombshell, Rita’s likeness was placed on the first atomic bomb to be tested after World War II at Bikini Atoll.

Her later films included The Lady from Shanghai (1948), directed by her second husband, Orson Welles (to whom she was married 1943 – 1948 and had a daughter, Rebecca), as well as Affair in Trinidad (1952), Salome (1953), Miss Sadie Thompson (1953), Pal Joey (1957), Separate Tables (1958), The Money Trap (1966), and The Wrath of God (1972).

Rita was in the south of France in 1948 when she was invited to a party she did not want to attend given by Elsa Maxwell in Cannes. She dressed all in white and arrived late and, from the moment Prince Aly Khan saw her, he was smitten although both were still married. His sexual appetite was voracious but selfish (Alastair Forbes said of him, “Aly's idea of premature ejaculation was about the same as Father Christmas's - i.e. one should only come once a year.”). Rita announced she was leaving films and married in France (she was visibly pregnant at the time) on 27 May 1949 (as his second wife) Prince Aly Aga Khan, born Turin, Italy, 13 June 1911, died France, 12 May 1960, son of Prince Sultan Mohammed, Aga Khan III, leader of the world’s Shia Ismaili Muslims, and his second wife, Theresa Magliano, an Italian ballet dancer. Through his father, Aly Khan was a direct descendant of the prophet Mohammed by his daughter, Fatima.

They had one child, Princess Yasmina Aga Khan, who was born 28 Dec 1949 in Lausanne, Switzerland. Aly Khan was expected to succeed his father despite his well-known tastes for fast cars and beautiful women. But when his father, the Aga Khan, died in 1957, his will designated Aly Khan’s eldest son, Karim, then a student at Harvard, to succeed him. Aly Khan was then named as head of Pakistan’s delegation to the United Nations despite criticism of his not being Pakistani.

Aly Khan was killed in an automobile accident 12 May 1960 in suburban Suresnes, France, when the Lancia he was driving was hit by an oncoming car as he was driving to the home of his half-brother, Prince Sadruddin, near the Saint-Cloud golfcourse. A former French model, known as Bettina, was seated next to him and was slightly injured. Aly Khan’s chauffeur, who was seated in the rear seat while his employer drove, escaped with minor injuries.

Rita’s marriage to Aly Khan failed in 1951 and they divorced in 1953. She returned from Europe to the States and resumed her film career, leaving the screen again during her marriage to singer Dick Haymes from 1953 – 1955. Her final marriage, to director James Hill, was from 1958 to 1961. She once said, “Men go to bed with Gilda but they wake up with me.”

For some 15 years before her death, Hayworth suffered from Alzheimer's disease. Her daughter, Princess Yasmin Aga Khan, assumed all responsibility for her mother and made public the fact that she was suffering from the disease – the first time many people were made aware of its ravages. Rita Hayworth died at her daughter’s apartment in Manhattan on 14 May 1987 and was buried in Holy Cross Cemetery in Culver City, CA. Since 1985, the Rita Hayworth Galas, chaired by her daughter, Princess Yasmin Aga Khan, have raised more than $44 million. One hundred percent of those funds go toward research and support programs for Alzheimer’s disease. Actor Joseph Cotton said of Hayworth, “"No matter how bad the film, when Rita danced it was like watching one of nature's wonders in motion."