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'''Maureen O'Hara''' (born '''Maureen FitzSimons''' on [[August 17]] [[1920]] in [[Ranelagh]], [[County Dublin]], [[Irish Republic|Ireland]]) is an [[Irish people|Irish]] film [[actor|actress]] and [[singer]])<ref>Dublin Journeys in America by John Flynn & Jerry Kelleher p. 148-149</ref> |
'''Maureen O'Hara''' (born '''Maureen FitzSimons''' on [[August 17]] [[1920]] in [[Ranelagh]], [[County Dublin]], [[Irish Republic|Ireland]]) is an [[Irish people|Irish]] film [[actor|actress]] and [[singer]])<ref>Dublin Journeys in America by John Flynn & Jerry Kelleher p. 148-149</ref>. |
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Born to Charles Stewart Parnell FitzSimons (a [[Catholic]]) and Marguerita Lilburn (a [[Protestant]]) in [[Ranelagh]], [[County Dublin]], [[Ireland]] not long before partition, the famously [[red hair|red-headed]] O'Hara has been noted for playing fiercely passionate heroines with a highly sensible attitude. She often worked with director [[John Ford]] and longtime friend [[John Wayne]]. |
Born to Charles Stewart Parnell FitzSimons (a [[Catholic]]) and Marguerita Lilburn (a [[Protestant]]) in [[Ranelagh]], [[County Dublin]], [[Ireland]] not long before partition, the famously [[red hair|red-headed]] O'Hara has been noted for playing fiercely passionate heroines with a highly sensible attitude. She often worked with director [[John Ford]] and longtime friend [[John Wayne]]. |
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Revision as of 21:35, 15 August 2008
Maureen O'Hara | |
|---|---|
 in the trailer for The Black Swan | |
| Born | Maureen FitzSimons |
| Years active | 1938 – 2000 |
| Spouse(s) | George H. Brown (1939-1941) Will Price (1941-1953) Charles F. Blair (1968-1978) |
| Children | Bronwyn FitzSimons (b.1944) |
Maureen O'Hara (born Maureen FitzSimons on August 17 1920 in Ranelagh, County Dublin, Ireland) is an Irish film actress and singer)[1].
Born to Charles Stewart Parnell FitzSimons (a Catholic) and Marguerita Lilburn (a Protestant) in Ranelagh, County Dublin, Ireland not long before partition, the famously red-headed O'Hara has been 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 Irish 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.
Biography
Beginnings
Maureen FitzSimons came from a theatrical family. At the age of 14, she auditioned for and was accepted into the prestigious Abbey Theatre in Dublin. Originally, her personal goal was to become an opera singer, as Maureen's mother was an accomplished operatic contralto who later became a successful woman's clothier. Despite Maureen's theatrical success, her mother and father were extremely practical and insisted that she enroll in secretarial and bookkeeping classes in case her stage career didn't materialize. This led Maureen to become a trained stenographer and bookkeeper as well as actress and singer. Her secretarial skills were put to good use much later in her film career when taking dictation for the script of "The Quiet Man" from director John Ford.
Maureen also attended the Ena Mary Burke School of Elocution in Dublin and following her acceptance to the performing arts school at the Abbey Theater, she was offered a screen test in London. The test proved to be a huge disappointment for Maureen. The studio adorned her in a "gold lamé dress with flapping sleeves like wings" and heavy make-up with an ornate hair style. Reportedly, her thoughts concerning the incident were, "If this is the movies, I want nothing to do with them!" In short, the screen test was deemed to be far from satisfactory. However, famed actor Charles Laughton later saw the test and despite the overdone makeup and costume was intrigued, paying particular notice to her large and expressive eyes.
Laughton believed the young woman had "something special" and subsequently mentioned her to his business partner Erich Pommer. Pommer saw the film, and agreed wholeheartedly with Laughton. As a result, O'Hara was offered an initial seven-year contract with their new company Mayflower Pictures. Her first major film was Jamaica Inn (1939), directed by Alfred Hitchcock.
Laughton was so pleased with her performance in Jamaica Inn, that he cast O'Hara in the role of Esmeralda opposite him in The Hunchback of Notre Dame, which was to be filmed at RKO Studios in Hollywood that same year. Just hours before boarding the Queen Mary to sail to America, a young man from the studio, George Brown, convinced her to marry him. O'Hara's mother and Laughton found out about it, and she was whisked away from the altar to the boat. The marriage was never consummated and later annulled.
After successful completion of Hunchback, World War II began, and Laughton, realizing their studio could no longer film in London, sold her contract to RKO. That studio cast her in low-budget films until she was rescued by famed director John Ford, who cast her as Angharad in How Green Was My Valley.
In 1946, she became a naturalized citizen of the United States.
In addition to her acting skills, Maureen O'Hara had a soprano voice and described singing as her first love. Unfortunately, the studio heads never capitalized on her musical talent, as she was already big box office in other genres of film. However, she was able to channel her love of singing through television. In the late '50s and early '60s she was a guest on musical variety shows with Perry Como, Andy Williams, Betty Grable and Tennessee Ernie Ford. In 1960, she starred on Broadway in the musical Christine and later released two successful recordings, Love Letters from Maureen O'Hara and Maureen O'Hara Sings her Favorite Irish Songs.
One of her most popular film roles came along in 1961 in The Parent Trap, with young co-star Hayley Mills.
An icon of Hollywood's Golden Age, at the height of her career O'Hara was considered one of the world's most beautiful women. She is often remembered for her on-screen chemistry with the legendary John Wayne. They made five films together - Rio Grande, The Quiet Man, The Wings of Eagles, McLintock! and Big Jake. A clip of Maureen O'Hara's radiant face and thick red hair, blowing in the wind as she waves from a gate in John Ford's Academy Award-winning How Green Was My Valley, remains one of the most classic images preserved on film, and is often featured as a clip in montages and promotions.
Marriage, retirement and comeback
In 1939, at the age of 19, O'Hara secretly married George H. Brown, a film producer, production assistant and occasional scriptwriter[2] whose best known works include the first of Margaret Rutherford's 1960s 'Miss Marple' mysteries, Murder She Said. At the insistence of O'Hara's parents, the marriage was annulled in 1941. O'Hara was then married to director Will Price later in 1941, but the union ended in 1953, reportedly as a result of his alcohol abuse. She married her third husband, Charles F. Blair Jr, 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 in the company of Blair and John Wayne when she was asked if she thought it was time for her to stop working and stay at home. Instead of getting into the argument Blair and Wayne were expecting, she agreed that it was time to quit. Blair died in 1978 when the engine of a Grumman Goose he was flying from St. Croix to St. Thomas exploded. Though completely devastated, O'Hara, 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 she sold the airline with the permission of the shareholders.
O'Hara remained retired from acting until 1990, when she starred in the film Only the Lonely. In this role she played Rose Muldoon, the mother of policeman Danny Muldoon, played by John Candy.
In the DVD of the film The Black Swan, O'Hara's commentary can be heard along with film critic Rudy Behlmer.
Achievements
She was named Irish America Magazine's "Woman of the Year" in 2005, with festivities held at the Plaza Hotel in New York.
She was given the Heritage Award by the Ireland-American Fund in 1991.
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. She was also awarded the Golden Boot Award.
She wrote the foreword for the cookbook "At Home in Ireland." In March 1999, O'Hara was selected to be Grand Marshal of the New York City St. Patrick's Day Parade In 2007 she wrote the forward for the Biography of her dear friend, actress Anna Lee.
In 2004, the actress released her autobiography 'Tis Herself, published by Simon & Schuster. In the same year she was honored with a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Irish Film and Television Academy in her native Dublin.
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.
O'Hara dedicated her late husband's seaplane (Sikorsky VS-44A) "The Queen of the Skies" into the New England Air Museum. The restoration of the plane took 8 years and time was donated by former pilots and mechanics in honor of Charles Blair.
Now officially retired, she divides her time between homes in Glengarriff, County Cork, Arizona and the Virgin Islands.
Siblings
Maureen was one of six children. Her siblings James, Florrie and Charles B. Fitzsimons are deceased. Surviving are Sister Margaret Mary, a nun, and Mrs. Margot Edwards.
Filmography
Television work
- Mrs Miniver (1960) CBS Television
- The Red Pony (1973)
- The Christmas Box (1995)
- Cab to Canada (1998)
- The Last Dance (2000)
Documentary
- A Century of Cinema (1994)
References
- ^ Dublin Journeys in America by John Flynn & Jerry Kelleher p. 148-149
- ^ Obituary: George H. Brown | Independent, The (London) | Find Articles at BNET
- The Hoops by Paul Doolan and Robert Goggins (ISBN 0-7171-2121-6)
External links
- Maureen O'Hara at IMDb
- Maureen O'Hara at the TCM Movie Database
- Profile @ Turner Classic Movies
- Maureen O'Hara magazine
- Irish America - Queen of Technicolor (subscription required)
- Foynes Airboat Museum Maureen O'Hara tribute
- The Amazing Fitzsimons Family
- Photographs of Maureen O'Hara
- Maureen O'Hara in Lux Radio Theater: Miracle on 34th Street (1948) (Downloadable mp3 and streaming audio)