Rita Hayworth & Marilyn Monroe Were Kindred Spirits, Followed Similar Paths In Life

Dec 19, 2021

Both Rita Hayworth and Marilyn Monroe captivated audiences on the silver screen, but they had more than just acting in common. Monroe and Hayworth were contemporaries in Hollywood and both women were lauded for their good looks. Sadly, this focus on their appearance meant that both women had to fight to be taken seriously as actresses.

Hayworth was coined as the “Love Goddess” and appeared in 61 films over a 37-year career. She was the top pin-up girl in the 1940s and graced the covers of magazines. Her most popular role was in the 1946 noir film, “Gilda.” Hayworth starred as the femme fatale opposite Glenn Ford and it was the star’s first major dramatic role. Hayworth is also remembered for the films, “Only Angels Have Wings,” “The Lady from Shanghai,” “Separate Tables” and “You Were Never Lovelier.”

Monroe was also a femme fatale in her own right. She was an actress, model and singer known as one of the most popular blonde bombshells of all time. Even though she was only a top-billed actress for 10 years, Monroe’s films grossed $200 million by the time of her passing at age 36.  One of her most successful films was “The Seven Year Itch,” which was made after Monroe returned from a brief suspension from the film studio for refusing to be in a movie. That same year she began her own film production company.

These actresses both had successful careers in Hollywood, but came from tumultuous childhoods, were married at young ages and faced the challenges of not being taken seriously as women in entertainment. Read on to learn more about Hayworth and Monroe’s lives and what they had in common.

The lovely Hayworth was born Margarita Carmen Cansino in Brooklyn, New York, in 1918. Her parents had big plans for her from a young age. Her mother wanted her to become an actress while her father was very serious about her continuing in his footsteps as a dancer. 

"From the time I was three and a half ... as soon as I could stand on my own feet, I was given dance lessons,"  Hayworth said. "I didn't like it very much ... but I didn't have the courage to tell my father, so I began taking the lessons. Rehearse, rehearse, rehearse, that was my girlhood."

When Hayworth was 12 she was forced to become her father’s dance partner professionally. Because she was too young to perform in bars and clubs in America, she was taken across the border to dance in Tijuana, Mexico. Due to her busy schedule performing, Hayworth never had the opportunity to finish high school. However, she did complete ninth grade at Hamilton High in Los Angeles, California. 

Winfield Sheehan, the head of the Fox Film Corporation, took notice of Hayworth while she was dancing at the Caliente Club and brought her in for a screen test. He was impressed with her on-screen personality and signed her to the studio on a short-term contract. This is how the star got her big break. 

When she was 17, Hayworth began dating 37-year-old Edward C. Judson and they were married a year later. Hayworth’s family did not approve, but it is rumored that she married young to get away from her father. She went on to get married five times in her life. 

Monroe was born Norma Jeane Mortenson on June 1, 1926, in Los Angeles, California. In her early years, she lived with her mother Gladys, until she was institutionalized at Metropolitan State Hospital for paranoid schizophrenia. 

This meant that Monroe became a ward of the state and lived with friends of her mother’s and foster families until she was married at age 16. It is said that part of the reason she decided to marry was that her foster parents were moving out of state and she would have been placed back in an orphanage.

Speaking about her early life, Monroe said: 

"Some of my foster families used to send me to the movies to get me out of the house and there I'd sit all day and way into the night. Up in front, there with the screen so big, a little kid all alone, and I loved it."

While working in a factory during World War II, Monroe was discovered by a photographer and offered a job as a model. Her success as a pin-up girl led her to a 6-month contract with 20th Century Fox as an actress. It was around this time that she began going by the name Marilyn Monroe. The star went on to appear in several films through the 1950s and 60s. 

Monroe was married three times before she passed away at the age of 36. Hayworth lived to be 68 and passed away from complications associated with Alzheimer's disease. Before her passing, Hayworth said of Monroe: 

“Marilyn wasn’t put on. Her femininity was real, and there are very few who are really women on screen – I like to think I was. But I never met Marilyn, so I don’t really know…”

What do you think of Hayworth and Monroe? Do you see the similarities in their histories? Let us know and feel free to send this along to your friends and families.