“If this was happiness, imagine what the rest of her life had been.” — Orson Welles


Barbara Leaming has written a biography both subtle and revealing, underpinning the more intimate affairs in Rita’s life with psychological understanding, displaying a tender sensitivity for her subject. Rita, a lovely woman/child whose formative years sadly shaped and haunted her journey through life, and Orson Welles, the L’enfant Terrible who was the love of her life, come alive as human beings in this biography. Welles was painfully honest with Leaming about his own flaws and shortcomings, and the terrible circumstance of Rita’s childhood years that, in the end, all but doomed any lasting happiness for the couple, and Rita herself. Because this bio has been out for over thirty years at this juncture, I won’t mark any of this review as a spoiler, but those not already familiar with the more heartbreaking aspects of Rita Hayworth’s story might want to stop reading here.

Leaming’s almost clinical approach to telling Rita’s story lays bare an unpleasant facet of family life that is all too often avoided by the public. Welles is to be commended for bringing it out into the open because he obviously did so out of tender affection for Rita that he still carried in his heart. Hardly the model husband — and not pretending he was — you can almost feel his frustration at his own shortcomings, and with Rita’s. Yes, more than any other human being, he knew why this truly sweet girl was so wrapped up in men, why she only felt secure when they loved her intimately, and grew restless and uncertain whenever they were not — quite literally — making love or at least making overtures of affection leading to intimacy. But knowing, and being able to handle all Rita’s damage were two markedly different things. Once Welles finally accepted it was never going to work, they remained tethered much too long, Welles' unfaithfulness only confirming Rita’s pathology.

Rita’s father, Eduardo Cansino, was a dancer and showman who believed the world revolved around him. His wife was an enabler of his belief, which certainly played a part in what happened to the shy Margarita, who only came alive during acts or dances, otherwise remaining quiet and withdrawn. A girl whose loveliness was beyond her tender years, at 12 her father needed a new dance partner, and since pretty Margarita appeared older than she was when dolled up in fine dance costumes, she filled that role with great success; no one realized just how young Margarita was, so never guessed just how inappropriate the dance choreography was. On the road, away from her mother and siblings, Eduardo began using Margarita to fill another role that would shape her in sad and heartbreaking ways for the rest of her life.

Eddie Judson, Aly Khan, Harry Cohn, David Niven, Dick Haymes and of course, Orson Welles are all here, floating through Rita’s life as she clings to one branch along the shore after another for sexual reassurance, conflating love with intimacy as this truly sweet-natured girl tried to stay above the waterline and not drown.

Other than the lovely Gail Russell, I can think of no other female less suited to Hollywood and stardom than Rita Hayworth. On some level, you get the impression that Rita either knew, or sensed this about herself. Perhaps she might have found happiness had she met a pump jockey or a carpenter or a car salesman who adored her, and spent all his time thanking Heaven for meeting her. But because the only outlet for expression Rita had ever known was before an audience — even if just in front of a camera — she was doomed; there were no pump jockeys or carpenters in that crowd, only singer/actors who were mean, abusive drunks, habitually philandering princes, crass and vengeful studio heads, and one genius who despite his many failings, actually loved her — to the best of his capacity.

Parts of this biography seem almost repetitive, because Rita was repetitive; making the same mistakes over and over so often that the reader just gets irritated with her…but then we remember who she really was, and why she was this way, and a sense of sadness enters our heart. To those readers who claim this isn’t a three dimensional portrait of Rita Hayworth, focussing too much on the psychological underpinnings, I would say it is those very underpinnings that make this biography so different and, in the end, poignantly sad. In the end, with her mind prematurely adrift from Alzheimers, it was a world long ago and far away that Rita often went. Perhaps the best part of the woman/child we knew as a sex goddess, a wartime pinup girl, and a film noir icon named Gilda, remained in the past long before the dementia, but that was the one thing the camera could never show… ( )

Perhaps, the most tragic thing I've ever read. I picked it up after hearing about it on You Must Remember This. Leaming does a great job of making even the never ending divorce proceedings that take up the last third of the book interesting. ( )

Barbara Leaming's biography of actress Rita Hayworth is well written, but utterly depressing.

Thrust into show business at 12 as her father's dancing partner, the young Margarita Cansino was placed in the role of family wage-earner, denied schooling, and dragged through various border-town dives in erotically-charged performances which eventually drew the attention of Hollywood.

Hayworth (the name was changed when she began acting) allegedly confessed years later to husband Orson Welles that her father sexually abused her during this period. Certainly the family history which can be confirmed, and Hayworth's own lifelong pattern of attracting partners (and husbands) who exploited and controlled her, are all textbook examples of adult behavior by a childhood sexual abuse survivor.

At any rate, the story then becomes a familiar, if dreary, one -- groomed for stardom, tagged "The Love Goddess" after an iconic cheesecake photo became wildly popular with WWII era GIs, Hayworth embarked on a series of disastrous affairs and marriages, most of which resulted with the man in her life taking control of her career, squandering her money, and -- frequently -- abusing her physically.

Ultimately, she was stricken with what is now known as Early-Onset Alzheimers, and died at 68 after decades of heartbreaking and often public decline. ( )