Rita Hayworth

Born Margarita Carmen Cansino on October 17, 1918, she danced her way into Hollywood and became one of the Golden Age's top stars across 61 films over 38 years. The breakthrough came with Gilda in 1946, a film noir opposite Glenn Ford where she played the femme fatale and cemented the image the press had already named. She moved through Only Angels Have Wings, Blood and Sand, two musicals with Astaire - You'll Never Get Rich and You Were Never Lovelier - and Cover Girl with Gene Kelly, then later Pal Joey and Separate Tables. In 1980 she was diagnosed with early-onset Alzheimer's disease. She died May 14, 1987, at 68, and the public discussion of her illness opened floodgates of attention and funding for a disease few had named aloud.