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| Maureen O'Hara |
Maureen O'Hara (born Maureen FitzSimons, 1920-2015) was an Irish actress and singer. The famously red-headed O'Hara was known for her beauty and playing fiercely passionate but sensible heroines, often in westerns and adventure films. She worked on numerous occasions with director John Ford and longtime friend John Wayne, and was one of the last surviving stars from the Golden Age of Hollywood.
O'Hara grew up in the Dublin suburb of Ranelagh to an eccentric devout Catholic family, and aspired to become an actress from a very young age. She trained with the Rathmines Theatre Company from the age of 10 and at the Abbey Theatre from the age of 14. She was given a screen test, which was deemed unsatisfactory, but Charles Laughton saw potential and arranged for her to co-star with him in Alfred Hitchcock's Jamaica Inn in 1939. She moved to Hollywood the same year to appear with him in the production of The Hunchback of Notre Dame, and was given a contract by RKO Pictures. From there, she went on to enjoy a long and highly successful career, and acquired the nickname The Queen of Technicolor, something which she detested, believing that people saw her only for her beauty rather than talent.
More information: Biography.com
Ireland's first Hollywood superstar, O'Hara paved the way for a future generation of actresses seeking their own voice. With her mahogany hair, her hoydenish ways, and her whip-smart delivery of lines, she created a character prototype that seemed to define her country of origin and much as Ireland defined her. He notes though that O'Hara was loved for her naturalness and her lack of a diva quality. She dismissed method acting as tommyrot, believing that acting should be acting, and placed great emphasis on work ethic and punctuality. Insisting on doing her own stunts, O'Hara became so prone to injuries during her productions that her colleagues remarked that she should have been awarded a Purple Heart. Her closest rival in the 1950s was Rhonda Fleming, the two both being prolific in westerns and action films.
In March 1999, O'Hara was selected to be Grand Marshal of New York City's St. Patrick's Day Parade. In 2004, she was honored with a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Irish Film and Television Academy in her native Dublin. The same year, O'Hara released her autobiography 'Tis Herself, co-authored with Johnny Nicoletti and published by Simon & Schuster. She wrote the foreword for the cookbook At Home in Ireland, and in 2007 she penned the foreword to the biography of her friend and film co-star, the late actress Anna Lee.
On 24 October 2015, Maureen O'Hara died in her sleep at her home in Boise, Idaho from natural causes. She was 95 years old. O'Hara was buried at Arlington National Cemetery in Virginia next to her late husband Charles Blair.
I was born into the most remarkable and eccentric family
I could possibly have hoped for.
Maureen O'Hara
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