Maureen O'Hara

Maureen FitzSimons, born 17 August 1920, died on the 24th of October, 2015), was an Irish actress. She was a popular actress in Hollywood during the 1940s until the 1960s. She was a natural redhead and was well-known for her fiery but sensible heroines, usually in Westerns and adventure films. Charles Laughton, an actor who was the first to see her star-making potential, brought her to Hollywood. In numerous instances she also worked alongside John Ford, longtime friend John Wayne and John Ford. O'Hara was raised in Dublin, Ireland by a Catholic family and wanted to be an actor from a young age. At the age of 10, she was trained by the Rathmines Theatre Company and the Abbey Theatre. She was given a screen test, which was deemed unsatisfactory but Charles Laughton saw potential, and set up for her to play alongside him in Alfred Hitchcock's Jamaica Inn in 1939. RKO Pictures gave her a contract. From her first film, she went on to enjoy a long and extremely successful career which earned her the moniker "the Queen of Technicolor". In films like How Green Was My Valley (1941) and 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) in which she was joined by John Payne (and Natalie Wood), and Comanche Territory (1950), she was in. O'Hara made her first film alongside John Wayne, the actor with whom she is most closely involved, in Rio Grande (1950). The film was followed by The Quiet Man (1952), The Wings of Eagles (1957), McLintock! (1963), Big Jake (1971). It was evident how well she bonded with Wayne that many believed they were engaged. O'Hara began taking on more mommy roles in the 1960s , as she grew older. She was in films like The Deadly Companions (1961), The Parent Trap (611) and The Rare Breed (1966). She left the industry in 1971, but returned twenty years later to make an appearance with John Candy in Only the Lonely (1991).