Maureen O'Hara

Maureen FitzSimons (17 August 1920 - - 24 October 2015) was an Irish singer, actress and actor who achieved fame in Hollywood from the 1940s to the 1960s. Her natural redhead was and was famous for her passion-driven yet sensible heroines in Westerns and adventure films. Charles Laughton, an actor who first noticed her talent as a star, took her to Hollywood. In numerous instances she also worked with John Ford, longtime friend John Wayne and John Ford. O'Hara was born in Dublin, Ireland and was raised Catholically. She was destined from at an early age to be an actor. She began her training with the Rathmines Theatre Company from the age of 10 and at the Abbey Theatre beginning at 14 years old. She was offered a screen test that was rejected as unsatisfactory, but Charles Laughton saw potential, and set up for her to be a co-star in Alfred Hitchcock's Jamaica Inn in 1939. RKO Pictures gave her a contract. From her first film, she went on to have a lengthy and highly successful career, which earned her the moniker "the Queen of Technicolor". She was in films such 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) and the Christmas classic Miracle on 34th Street (1947) with John Payne and Natalie Wood and Comanche Territory (1950). O'Hara made her first film with John Wayne, the actor who is closely with, in Rio Grande (1950). The Quiet Man (1952) The Wings of Eagles(57), McLintock were the subsequent films. (1963), and Big Jake (1971). It was widely believed that Wayne and O'Hara had the same relationship or were married because of their connection. In the 1960s, O'Hara more and more changed roles to motherly ones as she got older, appearing in films like The Deadly Companions (1961), The Parent Trap (1961) and The Rare Breed (1966). O'Hara left the industry in 1971. She returned to the film industry 20 years later, appearing in John Candy (1991).