Maureen O'Hara

Maureen FitzSimons, born 17 August 1920, and died on the 24th of October, 2015) was an Irish actress. She became a star in Hollywood in the 1940s and into the 1960s. She was a natural redhead and was famous for her passionate but sensible heroines, often in Westerns and adventure films. Charles Laughton, an actor who first noticed her star-making potential, brought her to Hollywood. On numerous occasions, she also worked with John Ford, longtime friend John Wayne and John Ford. O'Hara was born and raised in Dublin, Ireland, in an Irish Catholic family. She was aspired to become an actor from an early age. O'Hara began her studies in the Abbey Theatre and the Rathmines Theatre Company when she was 10. After passing a screen test, she was disqualified. However, Charles Laughton recognized her potential and offered to have her as a star in Alfred Hitchcock's Jamaica Inn in 1939. RKO Pictures gave her a contract. From there, she went on to have a long and very successful career and acquired the nickname "the Queen of Technicolor". Her movies comprise How Green Was My Valley (1941) which was her first collaboration with John Ford, The Black Swan (1942), The Spanish Main (1945), Sinbad the Sailor (47) The Christmas classic Miracle on 34th Street (1947), and Comanche Territory (1950). O'Hara appeared in Rio Grande (1950) as O'Hara along with John Wayne, her most close friend. The following films followed: The Quiet Man (1952), The Wings of Eagles (1957), McLintock! (1963), and Big Jake (2001). A lot of people believed that Wayne and O'Hara were in a relationship or married because of their rapport. In the 1960s, O'Hara more and more turned to more motherly roles as she got older, appearing in films such as The Deadly Companions (1961), The Parent Trap (1961) as well as The Rare Breed (1966). In 1971, she resigned from the film industry. But she returned twenty years later to appear with John Candy in Only the Lonely (1991).