Maureen O'Hara (1920–2015) was an Irish singer and actress from Dublin, who worked primarily in American film and television. She was born into a close-knit and artistically talented family; her mother was a contralto vocalist, and her three sisters and two brothers were budding actors and musical performers. O'Hara received music and dance lessons at the Ena Burke School of Elocution and Drama, becoming a member of the Rathmines Theatre Company when she was 10 years old. While still a teenager, she won several Radio Éireann Players contests to perform with them. She also won the Dublin Feis Award, for her performance as Portia in The Merchant of Venice. O’Hara was a member of the Abbey Theatre School, and a graduate of the Guildhall School of Music.
O'Hara's entry into films was the result of her and her parents meeting actor Harry Richman, who offered her a one-line part in the British comedy film Kicking the Moon Around (1938). Within the next year she had made a screen test, following which, actor Charles Laughton cast her in the role of Esmeralda in the first sound version of The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1939) for RKO Pictures.(1939) Laughton and O'Hara would work together again in Jamaica Inn (1939) for the British-based Mayflower Pictures, and again at RKO for This Land Is Mine (1943).
Following Jamaica Inn, O'Hara's career floundered at RKO Pictures. Her agent Lew Wasserman got her the role of Angharad Morgan in the 20th Century Fox film adaptation of How Green Was My Valley (1941), directed by John Ford. The film won Academy Awards for Best Picture, Best Director, Best Black-and-White Cinematography, Best Black-and-White Art Direction, and Best Supporting Actor Donald Cook. The effect it had on O'Hara's career was to jumpstart her in a new direction.
From that point forward, O'Hara became an audience favorite, working with some of the most successful actors in the industry. She and John Payne co-starred in To the Shores of Tripoli (1942), Miracle on 34th Street (1947), Tripoli (1950) and Sentimental Journey (1958). Tyrone Power and she teamed up for The Black Swan (1942) and The Long Gray Line (1955). Anthony Quinn first appeared as a non-lead actor in her films The Black Swan (1942), Buffalo Bill (1944), Sinbad the Sailor (1947) and Against All Flags (1952). Quinn soon began to rise in his own career, and he and O'Hara were on equal co-star billing in The Magnificent Matador (1955). Her last film with him was Only the Lonely (1991). She also worked twice with Henry Fonda in Immortal Sergeant (1943) and Spencer's Mountain (1963). O'Hara and Brian Keith co-starred in The Deadly Companions (1961), and The Rare Breed (1966). Their film The Parent Trap (1961) grossed $29,650,385 () worldwide, more than any of her other films.
Her association with Ford ultimately led to her collaborations with John Wayne, the co-star who was most linked to her in the public's perception. Together they made Rio Grande (1950), The Quiet Man (1952), The Wings of Eagles (1957), McLintock! (1963) and Big Jake (1971). The Quiet Man was her personal favorite of her entire career, and one she often referred to as "lightning in a bottle". Both the public and Wayne's children saw an on-screen rapport between them that existed with no other co-stars for either of them. The two became so identified with each other that some of the public came to mistakenly believe she and Wayne were actually married in real life. In 1976, she was a participant in the Variety Clubs International All-Star Tribute to John Wayne. On May 21, 1979, O'Hara was summoned by United States Senator Barry Goldwater to speak before a congressional committee in advance of the Congressional Gold Medal being bestowed on Wayne, who was less than a month away from his death from cancer.
With the growing television market in the 1950s and 1960s, O'Hara appeared as a guest star on numerous shows, and received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame on February 8, 1960. O'Hara never won an Academy Award for any individual performance, and was not even nominated as such. She was finally given an Honorary Oscar in 2014, when she was 94 years old.
She attained US citizenship in 1946. O'Hara gradually left show business after her 1968 marriage to Charles F. Blair Jr., retired US Air Force brigadier general, former chief pilot at Pan Am and founder of the United States Virgin Islands airline Antilles Air Boats. They are buried together in Arlington National Cemetery.
Film
+ Maureen O'Hara filmographyTitleYearRoleNotes Kicking the Moon Around1938 SecretaryVogue Film Productions My Irish Molly1938 Eileen O'SheaJohn Argyle Productions Jamaica Inn1939 Mary YellenMayflower Pictures Corp. 1939 EsmeraldaRKO Pictures A Bill of Divorcement1940 Sydney FairfieldRKO Pictures Dance, Girl, Dance1940 Judy O'BrienRKO Pictures They Met in Argentina1941 Lolita O'SheaRKO Pictures How Green Was My Valley1941 Angharad 20th Century Fox To the Shores of Tripoli1942 Mary Carter 20th Century Fox Ten Gentlemen from West Point1942 Carolyn Bainbridge 20th Century Fox 1942 Lady Margaret Denby 20th Century Fox Immortal Sergeant1943 Valentine Lee 20th Century Fox This Land Is Mine1943 Louise MartinRKO Pictures 1943 Toni DonneRKO Pictures Buffalo Bill1944 Louisa Frederici Cody 20th Century Fox 1945 Contessa FrancescaRKO Pictures Sentimental Journey1946 Julie Beck / Weatherly 20th Century Fox Do You Love Me1946 Katherine "Kitten" Hilliard 20th Century Fox Sinbad the Sailor1947 ShireenRKO Pictures The Homestretch1947 Leslie Hale 20th Century Fox Miracle on 34th Street1947 Doris Walker 20th Century Fox 1947 Odalie "Lilli" D'Arceneaux 20th Century Fox Sitting Pretty1948 Tacey King 20th Century Fox A Woman's Secret1949 Marian WashburnRKO Pictures 1949 Adelaide "Addie" Culver 20th Century Fox Father Was a Fullback1949Elizabeth Cooper 20th Century Fox Bagdad1949 Princess MarjanUniversal Pictures Comanche Territory1950 Katie HowardUniversal Pictures Rio Grande1950 Mrs. Kathleen Yorke Argosy Pictures Tripoli1950 Countess D'ArneauPine-Thomas Productions Flame of Araby1951 Princess TanyaUniversal Pictures At Sword's Point1952 ClaireRKO Pictures Kangaroo1952 Dell McGuire 20th Century Fox 1952 Mary Kate DanaherRepublic Pictures Against All Flags1952 Prudence "Spitfire" StevensUniversal Pictures 1953 Kate MaxwellUniversal Pictures War Arrow1953 Elaine CorwinUniversal Pictures Malaga1954 Joanna Dane Alternative title: Fire Over AfricaFilm Locations Ltd. 1955 Mary O'Donnell Columbia Pictures The Magnificent Matador1955 Karen Harrison 20th Century Fox Lady Godiva of Coventry1955 Lady GodivaUniversal Pictures Lisbon1956 Sylvia MerrillRepublic Pictures Everything but the Truth1956Joan MadisonUniversal Pictures 1957 Min WeadMetro-Goldwyn-Mayer Our Man in Havana1959 Beatrice SevernKingsmead Productions 1961 Kit TildenCarousel Productions 1961 Margaret "Maggie" McKendrickWalt Disney Productions Mr. Hobbs Takes a Vacation1962 Peggy HobbsJerry Wald Productions Spencer's Mountain1963 Olivia Spencer Warner Bros. McLintock!1963 Katherine Gilhooley McLintock Batjac Productions 1965 Moira Warner Bros. 1966 Martha PriceUniversal Pictures How Do I Love Thee?1970 Elsie WaltzABC PicturesFreeman-Enders Big Jake1971 Martha McCandles Batjac Productions Only the Lonely1991 Rose Muldoon 20th Century Fox
Television
+ Television credits of Maureen O'HaraTitleYearRoleNotes DuPont Show of the Month1960 Lady Marguerite Blakeney The Scarlet Pimpernel on CBS Hallmark Hall of Fame 1963 Susanna Cibber "A Cry of Angels" The Red Pony 1973 Ruth Tiflin Television movie 1995 Mary Parkin Television movie Cab to Canada 1998 Katherine Eure Television movie 2000 Helen Parker Television movie
Bibliography
References
External links
Maureen O'Hara at UCLA Film & Television Archive