Maureen O'Hara

Maureen O'Hara (born Maureen FitzSimons; 17 August 1920 24 October 2015 -) was an Irish actress and singer, who was a star in Hollywood throughout the 1940s to '60s. Her natural redhead was and was well-known for her fiery but shrewd heroines, especially in Westerns and adventure films. Charles Laughton was the first to notice her star power and brought her to Hollywood. She also had numerous collaborations alongside John Ford and John Wayne as a frequent friend and director. O'Hara was born and raised in Dublin, Ireland, in a Catholic family. She aspired to be an actress from an early age. At the age of 10, she studied at the Rathmines Theatre Company and the Abbey Theatre. She was given a screen test, which was deemed unsatisfactory However, Charles Laughton saw potential, and arranged for her to co-star with him in Alfred Hitchcock's Jamaica Inn in 1939. RKO Pictures gave her a contract. She would go on to have an impressive, long-running career and was known as "the Queen of Technicolor". Her appearances in films include as How Green Was My Valley (1941) (her first collaboration with John Ford), The Black Swan with Tyrone Power (1942), The Spanish Main (1945), Sinbad the Sailor (1947), the Christmas classic Miracle on 34th Street (1947) with John Payne and Natalie Wood, and Comanche Territory (1950). O'Hara appeared in Rio Grande (1950) as O'Hara along with John Wayne, her most close friend. It was followed by The Quiet Man (1952), The Wings of Eagles (1957), McLintock! (1963) as well as Big Jake (1971). It was widely believed that Wayne and O'Hara had the same relationship or were married due to their intense connection. She became more motherly as she got older, appearing in films such as The Deadly Companions (1961), The Parent Trap(61) and The Rare Breed (1966). She left the industry in 1971, but returned 20 years later to appear in a film with John Candy in Only the Lonely (1991).