Maureen O'Hara

Maureen FitzSimons, born 17 August 1920, and died on the 24th of October, 2015) was an Irish actress from Ireland. She was a popular actress in Hollywood from the 1940s to the 1960s. A natural redhead, she was famous for her work as a shrewd and empathetic heroine. Her roles were often in Westerns or in adventure films. Charles Laughton was the first to notice her star power and introduced her to Hollywood. She also worked many times alongside John Ford and John Wayne as a frequent friend and director. O'Hara was born in Dublin, Ireland and was raised Catholicly. She set out from at an early age to be an actor. O'Hara started her training at the Abbey Theatre as well as the Rathmines Theatre Company when she was just 10 years old. She was offered a screen test and was found to be unsatisfactory However, Charles Laughton saw potential, and arranged for her to be a co-star in Alfred Hitchcock's Jamaica Inn in 1939. She moved to Hollywood the same year to co-star with him in the film The Hunchback of Notre Dame which was then awarded the opportunity to sign a contract with RKO Pictures. She had a long, successful career, and was dubbed "the Queen of Technicolor". Her movies comprise How Green Was My Valley (1941) the first film with John Ford, The Black Swan (1942), The Spanish Main (1945), Sinbad the Sailor (47), the Christmas classic Miracle on 34th Street (1947) as well as Comanche Territory (1950). O'Hara appeared in Rio Grande (1950) as O'Hara and John Wayne, her most close friend. The film was followed by The Quiet Man (1952), The Wings of Eagles (1957), McLintock! (1963), Big Jake (1971). Her chemistry was so strong with Wayne that many assumed they were either married or engaged. In the 60s, O'Hara gradually took on more motherly roles as she got older, appearing in films like The Deadly Companions (1961), The Parent Trap (1961) as well as The Rare Breed (1966). O'Hara resigned from the film industry in 1971, only to return twenty years later to make an appearance alongside John Candy in Only the Lonely (1991).