Maureen O'Hara
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| Maureen O'Hara | |
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| Birth name | Maureen Fitzsimmons |
| Born | August 17, 1920 (age 86) Ranelagh, County Dublin, Ireland  |
| Spouse(s) | George H. Brown, Will Price, General Charles F. Blair |
Maureen O'Hara (born Maureen Fitzsimmons) on August 17, 1920 is an Irish film actress and singer.
Born to Charles Stewart Parnell Fitzsimmons (a Catholic) and Marguerita Lilburn (a Protestant) in Ranelagh, County Dublin, Ireland not long before partition, the famously red-headed beauty is noted for playing fiercely passionate heroines with a highly sensible attitude. She often worked with director John Ford and longtime friend John Wayne.
Her father was part owner of Ireland's leading football club Shamrock Rovers.
She is fluent in Irish and used this in her films The Long Gray Line, The Quiet Man, and Only the Lonely.
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[edit] Biography
[edit] Beginnings
She came from a theatrical family and began acting at the age of 14 with the Abbey Theatre in Dublin (Ireland's National Theatre). She attended the Ena Mary Burke School of Elocution. At the age of 17, after a brief marriage (which was later annulled) to the man who would become the father of British journalist Tina Brown. In 1941 she married an Englishman, Will Price, who fathered her only child, Bronwyn Price. He served during World War II, making Maureen a war wife. The marriage to Price, however, ultimately ended in divorce in 1953.
She was offered a screen test in London. Initially reluctant, she was persuaded to attend. Famed actor Charles Laughton attended the screen test. She performed poorly in the test and returned to Ireland. However, Charles Laughton believed she had "something". Laughton looked at the test again and, while he thought it was awful, he couldn't forget her eyes. He told his business partner Erich Pommer he was signing her, and sent him the test film. When Pommer saw the film, he was furious as he believed it was a poor choice. However, Pommer came around when he too found he couldn't forget her eyes. As a result, O'Hara was offered an initial seven-year contract. Her first major film was to be Alfred Hitchcock's Jamaica Inn (1939).
Also in 1939, she and Laughton went to the U.S. to appear in The Hunchback of Notre Dame. This film contains one of her most famous roles, playing Esmeralda alongside Laughton's Quasimodo.
Her mother was a trained opera singer and she herself aspired to a singing career. She sang briefly in How Green Was My Valley and again in The Quiet Man. She starred on Broadway in the musical Christine and released two successful recordings, Love Letters from Maureen O'Hara and Maureen O'Hara Sings her Favorite Irish Songs. Throughout the 1960s she was a sought after guest on musical variety shows appearing with Perry Como, Andy Williams, Betty Grable and Ernie Ford. In 1973, she appeared on Tennessee Ernie Ford's "Fabulous Fordies" TV special.
She is one of the most beloved of Hollywood's Golden Age icons, in the company of such screen luminaries as Marilyn Monroe, Judy Garland and Elizabeth Taylor. Many of her films are considered all-time classics and are traditionally shown on television during the holidays. Once named one of the world's most beautiful women, O'Hara's beautiful face and thick red hair blowing in the wind as she waves from a gate in the John Ford Academy Award winning film How Green Was My Valley will remain one of the most iconic images ever preserved on film.
[edit] Marriage, retirement and comeback
Maureen married her third husband, Charles Blair, in 1968. Blair was a pioneer of transatlantic aviation, a former Brigadier General of the US Air Force and a former Chief Pilot at Pan Am. A few years after her marriage to Blair, O'Hara for the most part retired from acting. According to O'Hara, one day she was with Blair and John Wayne when she was asked if she didn't think it was time for her to stop working and stay at home. Instead of getting into the argument she thought Blair and Wayne were expecting, she agreed that it was time to stop. Blair later died in 1978 when the engine of a Grumman Goose he was flying from St. Croix to St. Thomas exploded. Though completely devastated, Maureen, with memories of ten of the happiest years of her life, soldiered on. She was elected CEO and President of Antilles Airboats with the added distinction of being the first woman President of a scheduled airline in the USA. Later Maureen sold the airline with the permission of the shareholders.
O'Hara remained retired from acting until 1991, when she starred in the film Only the Lonely. In this role she played Rose Muldoon, the mother of Danny Muldoon, played by John Candy.
[edit] Achievements
For her contributions to the motion picture industry, Maureen O'Hara has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 7004 Hollywood Blvd. In 1993, she was inducted into the Western Performers Hall of Fame at the National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. In March 1999 Maureen was selected to be the Grand Marshal of the New York City St. Patrick's Day Parade after previously being de-selected because she was a divorcée.
In 2004 Maureen O'Hara released her autobiography Tis Herself, published by Simon & Schuster. In the same year she was also honored with the Lifetime Achievement Award by the Irish Film and Television Academy in her native Dublin, Ireland.
In 2006 Maureen O' Hara Blair attended the Grand Reopening and Expansion of the Flying Boats Museum in Foynes, Limerick, Ireland - as a patron of the Museum. A significant portion of the Museum is dedicated to her late Husband Charles Blair.
She lives in Glengarriff, County Cork, but had owned homes in California and the Virgin Islands, which she may still own.
[edit] Siblings
Maureen was one of six children, three of whom are now deceased. Surviving are Sister Margaret Mary, a nun, and Mrs. Margot Edwards. James, Florrie and Charles have passed on.
Charles B. FitzSimons (b. 8 May 1924 in Ranelagh, County Dublin - d. 14 February 2001 in Los Angeles, California from liver failure, aged 76) was an actor in Ireland before immigrating to the USA. He became a Hollywood film actor and later a supervising production executive before becoming a producer himself (see [1]). He also served as Executive Director of the Producers Guild for almost 20 years (1981-1999).
[edit] Filmography
- My Irish Molly (1938)
- Kicking the Moon Around (1938)
- Jamaica Inn (1939)
- The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1939)
- A Bill of Divorcement (1940)
- Dance, Girl, Dance (1940)
- They Met In Argentina (1941)
- How Green Was My Valley (1941)
- To the Shores of Tripoli (1942)
- Ten Gentlemen from West Point (1942)
- The Black Swan (1942)
- Immortal Sergeant (1943)
- This Land Is Mine (1943)
- The Fallen Sparrow (1943)
- Buffalo Bill (1944)
- The Spanish Main (1945)
- Sentimental Journey (1946)
- Do You Love Me (1946)
- Sinbad the Sailor (1947)
- The Homestretch (1947)
- Miracle on 34th Street (1947)
- The Foxes of Harrow (1947)
- Sitting Pretty (1948)
- A Woman's Secret (1949)
- The Forbidden Street (1949)
- Father Was a Fullback (1949)
- Bagdad (1949)
- Comanche Territory (1950)
- Tripoli (1950)
- Rio Grande (1950)
- Flame of Araby (1951)
- At Sword's Point (1952)
- Kangaroo (1952)
- The Quiet Man (1952)
- Against All Flags (1952)
- The Redhead from Wyoming (1953)
- War Arrow (1953)
- Malaga (1954)
- The Long Gray Line (1955)
- The Magnificent Matador (1955)
- Lady Godiva (1955)
- Lisbon (1956)
- Everything But the Truth (1956)
- The Wings of Eagles (1957)
- Our Man in Havana (1959)
- The Deadly Companions (1961)
- The Parent Trap (1961)
- Mr. Hobbs Takes a Vacation (1962)
- McLintock! (1963)
- Spencer's Mountain (1963)
- The Battle of the Villa Fiorita (1965)
- The Rare Breed (1966)
- How Do I Love Thee? (1970)
- Big Jake (1971)
- Only the Lonely (1991)
- A Century of Cinema (1994) (documentary)
[edit] Television Work
- Mrs Miniver (1960) CBS Television
- The Red Pony (1973)
- The Christmas Box (1995)
- Cab to Canada (1998)
- The Last Dance (2000)
[edit] Trivia
- In the DVD version of the film The Black Swan O'Hara's commentary can be heard along with film critic Rudy Behlmer. Many anecdotes are presented in the dialogue between the two.
- When Roddy McDowall's "This is your life" was aired, Maureen O'Hara was a guest on the show. She related a story about how Roddy McDowall had promised to marry her when he was 21. When it came time for his 21st party, Maureen came, and asked Roddy when they were leaving, and apparently he had forgotten. But by the time of the episode (early 90s) he must have remembered again because he got down on his knees, and proposed to Maureen there, and then. She said yes, but whether it was for real, or a joke remains to be disputed.
