Maureen O'Hara

Maureen O'Hara (born Maureen FitzSimons 17 August 1920 - 24 October 2015) was an Irish actor and singer who made a name for herself in Hollywood throughout the 1940s to '60s. Her naturally redhead appearance was a draw for her strong and intelligent heroines in Westerns and adventure films. Charles Laughton, an actor who first saw her talent as a star, took her to Hollywood. On numerous occasions she also collaborated 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 wanted to become an actress from a very young age. She trained with the Rathmines Theatre Company from the age of 10, and then at the Abbey Theatre beginning at the age of 14. After the screen test, she was disqualified. However, Charles Laughton recognized her potential and offered her star in Alfred Hitchcock’s Jamaica Inn in 1939. RKO Pictures gave her a contract. She enjoyed an extensive, lucrative career and was known as "the Queen of Technicolor". In films such as How Green Was My Valley (1941), which was her first collaboration with the actor, The Black Swan with Tyrone Power (1942), The Spanish Main with Sinbad the Sailor (1947) and the Christmas classic Miracle on 34th Street (1947), with John Payne (and Natalie Wood), and Comanche Territory (1950), she was in. O'Hara played in Rio Grande (1950) as O'Hara with John Wayne, her most close friend. The Quiet Man (1952), The Wings of Eagles (57), and McLintock was followed by McLintock. (1963) and Big Jake (1971). Her chemistry was so strong with Wayne that many believed they were either married or in a relationship. O'Hara became more motherly as she aged, appearing in films such as The Deadly Companions (1961) as well as The Parent Trap(61) and The Rare Breed (1966). She retired from the industry in 1971 but returned twenty years later to make an appearance in a film with John Candy in Only the Lonely (1991).