Maureen O'Hara

Maureen FitzSimons (17 August 1920 until 24 October 2015) was an Irish singer, actress and actor who rose to fame in Hollywood from the 1940s to the 1960s. She was a natural redhead and was famous for her work as a shrewd and empathetic heroine. She often appeared in Westerns or in adventure films. Her star potential was first acknowledged by actor Charles Laughton, who brought her to Hollywood; and many times, she worked alongside director John Ford and longtime friend John Wayne. O'Hara was raised in Dublin, Ireland by a Catholic family. She aspired to be an actress at a young age. From the age 10 she was trained by the Rathmines Theatre Company and the Abbey Theatre. She received a screen-test and was found to be unsatisfactory, but Charles Laughton saw potential, and offered her the opportunity to be a co-star in Alfred Hitchcock's Jamaica Inn in 1939. RKO Pictures offered her a contract. She was also transferred to Hollywood that year to perform alongside Laughton in The Hunchback of Notre Dame. She would go on to have a long, successful career, and was dubbed "the Queen of Technicolor". In films like How Green Was My Valley (1941), which was her first collaboration The Black Swan with Tyrone Power (1942), The Spanish Main with Sinbad the Sailor (1947) and the Christmas classic Miracle on 34th Street (1947) in which she was joined by John Payne (and Natalie Wood), and Comanche Territory (1950), she appeared. O'Hara directed her first film together with John Wayne, the actor who she is closely involved in Rio Grande (1950). The Quiet Man (1952) The Wings of Eagles(57), McLintock were the subsequent films. (1963) and Big Jake (2001). Wayne was so strong in her relationship with O'Hara, that many believed they were married. In the 1960s, O'Hara increasingly took on more motherly roles as she grew older. She appeared in films like The Deadly Companions (1961), The Parent Trap (1961), and The Rare Breed (1966). O'Hara retired from the industry in 1971. She returned to the industry twenty years later and appeared in John Candy (1991).