Hayworth later recalled, 'From the time I was three and a half.

Antonio Cansino instructed Rita Hayworth's first dance lesson. He popularized the bolero, and his dancing school in Madrid was world-famous. Her paternal grandfather, Antonio Cansino, was renowned as a classical Spanish dancer. Margarita's father wanted her to become a professional dancer, while her mother hoped that she would become an actress. Her maternal uncle Vinton Hayworth was also an actor. Her mother, Volga Hayworth, was an American of Irish and English descent who had performed with the Ziegfeld Follies. Her father, Eduardo Cansino, was of Spanish Roma/ Gitano descent from Castilleja de la Cuesta, a little town near Seville, Spain. Hayworth was born as Margarita Carmen Cansino in Brooklyn, New York, the oldest child of two dancers.

The public disclosure and discussion of her illness drew attention to Alzheimer's, and helped to increase public and private funding for research into the disease. In 1980, Hayworth was diagnosed with early-onset Alzheimer's disease, which contributed to her death in 1987 at age 68. She is listed as one of the top 25 female motion picture stars of all time in the American Film Institute's survey, AFI's 100 Years.100 Stars. She also starred in the Technicolor musical Cover Girl (1944), with Gene Kelly. Fred Astaire, with whom she made two films, You'll Never Get Rich (1941) and You Were Never Lovelier (1942), once called her his favorite dance partner.

She is also known for her performances in Only Angels Have Wings (1939), The Strawberry Blonde (1941), Blood and Sand (1941), The Lady from Shanghai (1947), Pal Joey (1957), and Separate Tables (1958). Hayworth is perhaps best known for her performance in the 1946 film noir Gilda, opposite Glenn Ford, in which she played the femme fatale in her first major dramatic role. She was the top pin-up girl for GIs during World War II. The press coined the term 'The Love Goddess' to describe Hayworth after she had become the most glamorous screen idol of the 1940s. She achieved fame in the 1940s as one of the top stars of the Golden Age of Hollywood, and appeared in 61 films in total over 37 years. Rita Hayworth (born Margarita Carmen Cansino October 17, 1918 – May 14, 1987) was an American actress.

Broadway casino nyc 1940s latin music