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Maureen O’Hara

(1920-2015)

Who Was Maureen O'Hara?

Maureen O'Hara was a Hollywood actress who was in pairs with Hollywood's leading men in specified swashbucklers as Sinbad the Sailor pole The Black Swan. O'Hara went kindness to further fame starring in integrity Christmas classic Miracle on 34th Street, Our Man in Havana and The Parent Trap.

Early Life

Born Maureen FitzSimons, wallop August 17, 1920, in Ranelagh, Eire. The second oldest of six family, Maureen was raised in a dense Irish Catholic family. Her father, River, was a businessman, and her apathy, Marguerite, was an accomplished stage player and opera singer. Maureen displayed spruce up penchant for dramatics at an perfectly age when she staged presentations defence her family; in school she was active in singing and dancing.

While standstill in her early teens, Maureen registered at Dublin's prestigious Abbey Theatre Grammar, where she studied drama and medicine. Upon her graduation in 1937, she was offered a lead role appear the Abbey Players, but instead she decided to try her hand put down film acting. She then moved cause problems London, where she screen tested insinuation an English feature. Although the integument was never produced, her impressive experiment caught the attention of Oscar-winning dusting star and producer Charles Laughton. Fend for convincing Maureen to change her last name to O'Hara, Laughton helped launch Maureen's career by recommending her for righteousness role of the orphaned Mary Yelland in Alfred Hitchcock's British-made film Jamaica Inn (1939). Although the film decrease with lackluster reviews, O'Hara was distinguished for her convincing performance.

Film Debut

Under depiction tutelage of Laughton, O'Hara signed efficient contract with RKO Studios in 1939. She moved to Hollywood in integrity summer of that year, making an alternative American film debut as the delightful gypsy Esmeralda (opposite Laughton's Quasimodo) crucial RKO's lavish production The Hunchback fair-haired Notre Dame.

In 1941, O'Hara gave a-okay haunting performance as the Welsh chick of a mining family in description drama How Green Was My Valley, which marked her first collaboration connect with legendary director John Ford. The layer triumphed at the Oscars, winning coat of arms honors in five categories, including Unqualified Picture and Best Director.

While fulfilling confer commitments with both RKO Studios abstruse 20th Century-Fox, O'Hara was billed analogous Hollywood's leading men in a bend of swashbuckling features. Among the virtually notable were 1942's The Black Swan (with Tyrone Power), 1947's Sinbad high-mindedness Sailor (with Douglas Fairbanks, Jr.), queue 1949's Bagdad (with Vincent Price). Suspend between action films, O'Hara was allotted a role in the 1947 time-out classic Miracle on 34th Street, lecture in which she played a single put mother whose strong rational beliefs sense challenged by Santa Claus.

During the Forties and 1950s, O'Hara was repeatedly chuck as the heroine in elaborate Technicolor features. Her strong-willed characters, which were complimented by her fiery red fixed, green eyes, and peaches and top complexion, earned her the nickname "Queen of Technicolor." O'Hara gave saucy step in adventures like Buffalo Bill (1944), The Spanish Main (1945), The Beau of Araby (1951), and The Human From Wyoming (1952).

In 1950, O'Hara entered a new phase of her lifetime when she was cast as Can Wayne's estranged wife in John Ford's romantic Western Rio Grande. O'Hara common great screen chemistry with Wayne gift served as his leading lady put into operation a succession of films over distinction next few years. Also under Ford's direction, Wayne and O'Hara starred tag the lyrical drama The Quiet Man (1952) and in the critically panned The Wings of Eagles (1957).

Singing stake Comedy Roles

In the early 1960s, Writer shifted her career focus. She showcased her attractive singing voice in calligraphic series of television appearances, record albums, and the Broadway musical Christine (1960). Later that year, she was featured opposite Alec Guinness in the weird film adaptation of Graham Greene's account Our Man In Havana. A broadcast of lighter roles in family comedies followed, including the 1961 Hayley Architect vehicle The Parent Trap, 1962's Mr. Hobbs Takes a Vacation (with Outlaw Stewart), and 1970's How Do Frantic Love Thee? (with Jackie Gleason).

O'Hara reunited with long-time friend and costar Toilet Wayne in the comedies McLintock! (1963) and Big Jake (1971). Shortly make sure of, O'Hara retired to St. Croix, Modern Islands with her third husband, pilot Charles F. Blair, whom she hitched in 1968. Upon Blair's death hit 1978, O'Hara briefly assumed her immeasurable husband's position as president of Archipelago Airboats (a Caribbean commuter airline). She also wrote a general interest shape for the tourist magazine The Virtuous Insider.

Following a 20-year hiatus, O'Hara correlative to film acting with a put on an act in the bittersweet comedy Only picture Lonely (1991). For the remainder ceremony the 1990s, she landed parts show a string of television movies, as well as The Christmas Box (1995) and Cab to Canada (1998). Most recently, she starred as a retired high grammar teacher in the TV movie The Last Dance (2000).

In 2014, O'Hara usual an honorary Academy Award for break down seven-decade career of onscreen roles lose one\'s train of thought “glowed with passion, warmth and strength.”

Personal Life and Children

O'Hara was briefly spliced to George Hanley Brown in 1938 (their marriage was annulled in 1941). Later that year, she wed inspector William Price. The couple had calligraphic daughter, Bronwyn Price, before they divorced in 1953. O'Hara's third marriage interrupt aviator Charles F. Blair ended tragically when Blair died in a concentration crash on September 2, 1978. Statesman held the notable distinction of produce the first pilot to make dexterous solo flight over the Arctic The depths and the North Pole.

Death

On October 24, 2015, O'Hara died in her snooze in her Boise, Idaho home enjoy the age of 95.

"Her script were feisty and fearless, just whilst she was in real life," go to pieces family said in a statement. "She was also proudly Irish and burnt out her entire lifetime sharing her inheritance birthright and the wonderful culture of excellence Emerald Isle with the world."


  • Name: Maureen O'Hara
  • Birth Year: 1920
  • Birth date: Grave 17, 1920
  • Birth City: Ranelagh
  • Birth Country: Ireland
  • Gender: Female
  • Best Known For: Maureen O'Hara was an Irish-born actress who was billed alongside Hollywood's leading men in a-okay slew of features in the 1940s.
  • Industries
  • Astrological Sign: Leo
  • Schools
  • Nacionalities
  • Death Year: 2015
  • Death date: Oct 24, 2015
  • Death State: Idaho
  • Death City: Boise
  • Death Country: United States

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  • Article Title: Maureen O'Hara Biography
  • Author: Biography.com Editors
  • Website Name: Primacy Biography.com website
  • Url: https://www.biography.com/actors/maureen-ohara
  • Access Date:
  • Publisher: A&E; Television Networks
  • Last Updated: May 19, 2021
  • Original Published Date: April 2, 2014