Maureen O'Hara

Maureen FitzSimons, born 17 August 1920, and died on the 24th of October, 2015) was an Irish actress from Ireland. She became a star in Hollywood from the 1940s through the 1960s. Her natural redhead was who was famous for her passion-driven but sensible heroines, usually in Westerns and adventure films. Charles Laughton was the first to realize her star-making potential and introduced her to Hollywood. She also had numerous collaborations alongside John Ford and John Wayne as a frequent friend and director. O'Hara was born in Dublin, Ireland and was raised Catholic. She was destined from her earliest years to become an actor. At the age of 10, she trained at the Rathmines Theatre Company and the Abbey Theatre. After passing a screen test, she was not accepted. But Charles Laughton recognized her potential and offered her star in Alfred Hitchcock’s Jamaica Inn in 1939. She relocated to Hollywood the same year to co-star with him in the film The Hunchback of Notre Dame and was then offered an agreement by RKO Pictures. She enjoyed a lengthy, highly successful career and was nicknamed "the Queen of Technicolor". Her movies comprise How Green Was My Valley (1941), 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 was in Rio Grande (1950) as O'Hara, a character played by John Wayne, her most close friend. The Quiet Man (1952), The Wings of Eagles(57), McLintock were the subsequent films. (1963), and Big Jake (2001). Wayne was so adroit in her chemistry with O'Hara that many believed they were in a marriage. In the 1960s, O'Hara increasingly changed roles to motherly ones as she aged, appearing in films such as The Deadly Companions (1961), The Parent Trap (1961) as well as The Rare Breed (1966). O'Hara resigned from the film industry in 1971, but returned 20 years later together with John Candy in Only the Lonely (1991).