Orson Welles & Rita Hayworth

Director and actor Orson Welles had seen Hayworth's pinup spreads long before he ever met her, and like most people he assumed the real woman would be just like her femme fatale image.

But the truth surprised him; instead of a seductress, the real Hayworth was a timid young actress still trying to find her place.He welcomed her into his circle of friends, often pretending to read her mind so she would have to correct him and get her talking.

The pair fell fast, and by 1943 had decided to marry. They tied the knot on September 7, 1943, while Hayworth was on a lunch break from her film Cover Girl.There would be no honeymoon – Hayworth said she had to "get back to the studio" – but for a time they would be one of the happiest pairs in Hollywood.Both eager to escape the spotlight, Hayworth and Welles moved to a mansion and planned their escape from the pressures of Hollywood.He would go into politics, and she would do anything other than the acting career she'd been pushed into.

Eager to please her intelligent, accomplished new husband, Hayworth did everything in her power to be the perfect partner.She would read his books, support his political goals, carry his child."I really wanted to be everything Orson wanted of me," said Rita.

Sadly, it wouldn't be enough. According to Hayworth, Welles wasn't ready for married life and all it entailed.During the entire period of our marriage, he showed no interest in establishing a home. When I suggested purchasing a home, he told me he didn't want the responsibility," she said.

"Mr. Welles told me he never should have married in the first place; that it interfered with his freedom in his way of life."

When Hayworth was pregnant with their daughter Rebecca, who was born in 1944, Welles became entangled with some actresses.For her part, Hayworth began to drink, becoming more volatile until she filed for a divorce which was granted in 1947.

After Hayworth died in 1987, following complications associated with her Alzheimer's, Welles was widely regarded as the greatest love of her life."You know the only happiness I've ever had in my life has been with you.''Welles was overwhelmed with guilt about how badly he had treated her and with sadness at the perspective this gave him on her life. 'If this was happiness,' he would later say of their marriage, 'imagine what the rest of her life had been."Though her life had been a sad and complicated one, Welles saying "all her life was pain", he remembered her only in the best terms.

Movie they made together: The Lady from Shanghai (1947)