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Maureen O'Hara


Birth name: Maureen FitzSimons
Birth: 17 August 1920
Died: 24 October 2015
Nationality: Ireland
Maureen O'Hara

Career / Biography

Maureen O'Hara was a red haired, beautiful and talented Irish actress and singer who was popular in the 1940's and 1950's. Charles Laughton saw her screen test and signed her to appear in Afred Hitchcock's Jamaica Inn which was not a great film. This led to her having the starring role in Hunchback Of Notre Dame. She signed with RKO, moved to Hollywood and appeared in several low budget films. Then in 1941 she appeared in the John Ford directed How Green Was My Valley which won 5 Oscars. This moved her up as star and RKO cast her in bigger budget films including several swashbuckling films like the Black Swan, an entertaining pirate film. The combination of red hair, green eyes and pale skin was visually stunning in Technicolor and she became known as the Technicolor Queen. She was good in the visually impressive Sinbad The Sailor, although not the best film overall. She then featured in the Christmas classic Miracle On 34th Street. The strength of her performance is the ambivalence of her as the mother of the young daughter. She worked with John Wayne in 4 films including Rio Grande again directed by John Ford. O'Hara and Wayne has great respect for each other and worked together in The Quiet Man again directed by John Ford. She said it was one of her favourite films and was partly filmed in Ireland. Her following films were not particularly memorable, until Our Man In Havana in 1959. This was a different style of film and showed her comic timing. At this point in her career she developed her singing career on records and on the stage. Her light comedy skills were shown in Disney’s The Parent Trap. She did less films in the 1960s, but had a final pairing with John Wayne in 1971 in Big Jake. After this she stepped away from acting but returned in 1991 for Only The Lonely. She was awarded an honorary Oscar in 2015, being one of only 2 people to receive this without being nominated for an Oscar, but it does reflect that she really never got the recognition that her acting talents really deserved.

Films

Christmas Box (1995)
Only The Lonely (1991)
Big Jake (1971)
McLintock (1963)
Parent Trap (1961)
Deadly Companions (1961)
Our Man In Havana (1959)
Lady Godiva of Coventry (1955)
The Quiet Man (1952)
Sons Of The Musketeers (1951)
Rio Grande (1950)
The Forbidden Street (1949)
A Woman's Secret (1949)
Sitting Pretty (1948)
Miracle on 34th Street (1947)
Sinbad The Sailor (1947)
Spanish Main (1945)
The Black Swan (1942)
How Green Was My Valley (1941)
Dance Girl Dance (1940)
Hunchback Of Notre Dame (1939)
Jamaica Inn (1939)

Oscars

Honorary Award (2015)
Maureen O'HaraMaureen O'HaraMaureen O'HaraMaureen O'Hara