Maureen O'Hara

Maureen FitzSimons, born 17 August 1920 and died 24 October 2015) was an Irish actress from Ireland. She became a star in Hollywood in the 1940s and into the 1960s. Her natural redhead was who was well-known for her fiery but sensible heroines, usually in Westerns and adventure films. Her talent for stardom was first acknowledged by actor Charles Laughton, who brought her to Hollywood and, many times she worked with director John Ford and longtime friend John Wayne. O'Hara was born in Dublin, Ireland and was raised Catholically. She had aspired since the age of 10 to become an actor. As a young girl, she trained at the Rathmines Theatre Company and the Abbey Theatre. After the screen test, she was turned down. But Charles Laughton recognized her potential and offered her as a star in Alfred Hitchcock's Jamaica Inn in 1939. RKO Pictures offered her a contract. The actress also moved to Hollywood the same year to play alongside the director in The Hunchback of Notre Dame. After that, she enjoyed a long and successful career. She was often referred to as "the Queen of Technicolor". Her movies comprise How Green Was My Valley (1941) and her first collaboration with John Ford, The Black Swan (1942), The Spanish Main (1945), Sinbad the Sailor (47) The Christmas classic Miracle on 34th Street (1947), and Comanche Territory (1950). O'Hara starred in Rio Grande (1950) as O'Hara and John Wayne, her most close friend. The following films followed: The Quiet Man (1952), The Wings of Eagles (1957), McLintock! (1963), Big Jake (1971). Wayne was so good in her chemistry with O'Hara that some believed they were in a marriage. In the 1960s, she took on more motherly roles as she got older, appearing in films such as The Deadly Companions (1961), The Parent Trap (1961) as well as The Rare Breed (1966). She resigned from the business in 1971, but returned 20 years later alongside John Candy in Only the Lonely (1991).