Alex Carson
Rita Hayworth and Glen Ford met by shear happenstance before either was famous. But when they’re cast as trouble making lovers in the 1946 film Gilda, they fell madly, deeply in love and began a relationship that would endure more than 4 decades.
That iconic noir film earned Rita the well deserved nickname of ‘Hollywood’s Love Goddess‘. But Glenn, who had starred alongside Rita in the 1940 film The Lady in Question, referred to her endearingly as the love of his life.
Even though the two young and upcoming actors absolutely adored headteacher. They somehow never managed to make a traditional monogamous relationship work. They never walked down the aisle either because one or the other was always married to someone else.
But regardless of those details, their relationship was still something very special to the both of thhem and they managed to make it last for decades.
Rita was born Margarita Carmen Cansino in Brooklyn, New York. She married five times throughout her life. Most notably she was once married to Prince Ali Salman Aga Khan, Ssinger Dick Haymes. And the legendary filmmaker Orson Welles who found her to be so striking that he vowed to marry her before they even properly met.
Glenn, on the other hand, was born in Canada but his family moved to the states when he was very young. He grew up in Santa Monica, California. He married four times – most notably to dancer Elanor Powell and later to Soap opera actress Katryn Hays. Glenn was very much so a ladies man. And if you’re to take a look at a list of every famous woman that he had ever been involved with. It would look a lot like a who’s-who of Hollywood’s Golden Age.
He rumored to have hooked up with vixens like Judy Garland, Joan Crawford, Marilyn Monroe, Gene Tierney and apparently nearly a hundred others. He certainly got around, but no one in his life ever made him feel the same way that Rita did. She was always someone very special in his heart. No one could replace her. Join Facts Verse to learn more about the Rita Hayworth & Glenn Ford’s Tragic Affair Ended After 40 Years.
An Enduring Romance
Throughout his many affairs, flings, and hook-ups, Glenn’s love for Rita never ceased. And his undying adoration of her showed itself in a variety of eyebrow-raising ways. In 1960, he purchased the lot next to Rita’s Beverly hills home that she shared with her husband, esteemed screenwriter James Hill. Hayworth supposedly was the one that informed Glenn that the property was available. Perhaps she was trying to give him the hint that she was as well.
That’s where Glenn built his dream home. The very next day after he finished building thaht house and moved in, Rita filed for divorce. And just like that, the on-again-off-again couple were back in each others loving arms.
Glenn installed a little gate at the rear of his property so Rita could come over to his house whenever she wanted. They spent nearly waking hour of their rives with each other enjoying each others company and soaking in rays sitting by Glenn’s pool. Rita told reporters back in 1972 that Glenn was the best neighbor a woman could ever ask for.
It’s not surprising considering the emotional attachment that Glenn considered Gilda to be his favorite film that he ever starred in even though he appeared in dozens of flicks throughout his decades spanning acting career. It was the film that made him a star. He was also known for saying that anything film with Rita in it ranked high on his list of favorites. He was quoted in a 1990 documentary about Hayworth that he loved her very deeply at that time.
His feelings for the actress never faded even after she was diagnosed with early-onset Alzhheimer’s in 1981. Glenn helped out as much as he could when she was in the later stages of that crippling disease. When she fell victim to the disease in 1987. Glenn was among the pallbearers that laid her to rest at her funeral. Join Facts Verse to learn more about the Rita Hayworth & Glenn Ford’s Tragic Affair Ended After 40 Years.
He was always very protective of her. He considered her to be one of his closest allies. Losing her must have been one of the most hardest things that he ever had to deal with. But a part of her no doubt lived on in his heart and memories.
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And don’t you dare think about going anywhere so soon. Stick around to see how Rita Hayworth’s troubling childhood created problems that she would have to contend with for the remainder of her life.
Hayworth Harbored A lot Of Hidden Pain
Even in her younger years, Rita was a gifted dancer and entertainer. Heyworth lit up every time she was on stage or set. And she learned the ropes a lot quicker than most of her contemporaries. Her costar Fred Astaire once shared how he could show her a routine before lunch and she would have it down-pat after lunch. She had the uncanny ability of figuring such things out even while she was eating. But even though she was a highly talented performer. She showed some signs of dealing with a great deal of internalized trauma beneath her glitzy public persona.
Despite the fact that she was married five times and was romantically connected to figures like Howard Hughs, Kirk Douglas and David Niven, she found little comfort in her intimate relationships. She once famously said that men would go to bed with Gilda and wake up besides her.
Rita felt something deep down inside of her that she couldn’t reconcile with. She experienced a tremendous amount of loneliness, sadness and emptiness. Also, the wait of all of those emotions weighed her down, but the rest of the world remained oblivious to her struggles. To them she was a rich and powerful sex symbol, but Rita never saw herself like that.
She spent much of her life trying to run away from her problems. But as much as she tried to escape her inner turmoil, it always managed to catch up with her. Orson Welles summed up her life struggles rather succinctly when he said that all of Rita’s ‘life was pain’. Join Facts Verse to learn more about the Rita Hayworth & Glenn Ford’s Tragic Affair Ended After 40 Years.
A Lost Little Girl
Eduardo Cansino, Hayworth’s Spanish Father, had been a big star in the old vaudeville circuit performing alongside his sister in an act billed as the ‘Dancing Cansinos’. Rita, according to her school principle, was one of the kindest and most nurturing girls he ever met. But she struggled to perform at an academic level. While she always did the best that she could, that unfortunately wasn’t that good from a educator’s perspective.
In 1931, Eduardo decided to revive the Dancing Cansinos and invited his daughter to become his new dancing partner. Hayworth died her hair black to make her appear older and more Latin. And began performing at the floating casinos off the coast of Southern California.
Eduardo would drink and gamble away all of the Dancing Cansino’s earnings and would routinely send Rita out to catch a fish for dinner. If she ever dared return to her father without a fish in hand. He would beat her mercilessly – although he was always meticulously careful not to leave behind any bruises for the public to see. She was his money-maker and meal ticket after all.
But that wasn’t all of the torment that she had to endure as a child. Hayworth later opened up to Orson Welles and revealed that during this chapter of her life, her father sexually abused her.
Eventually her father moved the family to Chula Vista, a town near the Mexican border, so that Rita and him could dance for Hollywood bigwigs like Carl Laemmle Jr. and Joseph Schenk in the swanky nightclubs in Tijuana.
While her brothers enjoyed playing with the other kids in the neighborhood. Hayworth never partook in their games, instead preferring to sit alone on the front porch staring quietly off into the distance. It was clear that even at such a young age, she had a tremendous amount of pain within her that she didn’t know how to deal with in a healthy way.
Rita’s old neighbor Loretta Parkin along with the other neighboring children in her neighborhood used to peek into the Cansino’s living room to catch a peek of Margarita practicing her dance routine with her abusive father.
He would often yell at her and call her names when she wouldn’t follow his instructions to the tee, but Rita would never talk back to him. She would simply do the routine over and over again until he was satisfied. Join Facts Verse to learn more about the Rita Hayworth & Glenn Ford’s Tragic Affair Ended After 40 Years.
Parkin felt bad for Rita. She was just a little girl, but her father was treating her like an experienced adult performer. He robbed her of her life. She wasn’t allowed to go to school. She had no friends – no one to confide in. All she would ever do is sit. All day every day, she would sit silently on that porch until it was time once again to go to Tijuana. Her existence was just one big endless loop and there was very little reward in it for her. She definitely got the short end of the stick in that deal and her father sadly never had to answer for his countless indiscretions.
Glenn Also Had His Fair Share Of Problems
Although he was married several times, he never remained on good terms with any of his exes. He was a notorious womanizer had many affairs with stars like Eva Gabor, Maria Schell, and Geraldine Brooks just to name a few. In total he carried on affairs with 146 actresses.
Ford documented his many relationships by recording every phone conversation he had with his celebrity loves and high-profile friends. He collected tapes of conversations that he had with folks like Richard Nixon, Frank Sinatra, Cary Grant, John Wayne and Lucille Ball. Ford first had the recording system installed so that he could eavesdrop on his first wife Eleanor Powell fearing that she would discover his infidelity and endless trail of lies. She eventually did find out about is philandering and divorced hRim in 1959 on the grounds of adultery.
Glenn, like Rita struggled to find lasting love throughout his life. And eventually he turned to the bottle to soothe his troubled mind. He developed such a bad drinking problem that it almost killed him. Towards the end of his life, he couldn’t even walk on his own. He passed away in 2006 at the age of 90.
Well, that’s about all the time we’ve got for this video. Hopefully you’ve enjoyed taking this little journey with us through yesteryear.
Now’s your turn to let your voice be heard. Who was your favorite star from Hollywood’s Golden Age, Audrey Hepburn, Glen Ford, Bette Davis, or Rita Hayworth? Let us know in the comments section below. Join Facts Verse to learn more about the Rita Hayworth & Glenn Ford’s Tragic Affair Ended After 40 Years.
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