Maureen O’Hara

Maureen O’Hara was an Irish-born actress best known for her roles in the films How Green Was My Valley, the Christmas classic Miracle on 34th Street and The Quiet Man.

The red-haired, green-eyed, porcelain-skinned O’Hara was dubbed "The Queen of Technicolor" (by Dr. Herbert Kalmus, who invented the process) and typically played fiery, brash characters. She performed as the onscreen wife to John Wayne in five films: McLintock!, Big Jake, Rio Grande, The Quiet Man and The Wings of Eagles. The latter three were helmed by John Ford, a frequent director of O’Hara.

She got her start in acting in her teens when she was cast in the British musical comedy Kicking the Moon Around in 1938. The following year she landed her first noteworthy part in the Alfred Hitchcock film Jamaica Inn, starring Charles Laughton. She moved to Hollywood later that year and scored a key role in Laughton’s next film, The Hunchback of Notre Dame, in which she played Esmeralda opposite Laughton’s Quasimodo.

One of her best-known films would come early on in her career — 1941’s How Green Was My Valley, starring Walter Pidgeon. The film followed the coal-mining Morgan family in turn-of-the-twentieth-century Wales. It was nominated for 10 Oscars and won five, including best picture and best director for John ForO’Hara also appeared in the Technicolor films To the Shores of Tripoli, The Black Swan and The Spanish Main. Additionally, she was in Sinbad the Sailor with Douglas Fairbanks Jr., Disney’s 1961 original adaptation of The Parent Trap, Mr. Hobbs Takes a Vacation, with James Stewart, Spencer’s Mountain, with Henry Fonda, and Only the Lonely, in which she played John Candy’s mother.

She also had several television roles, including parts on the series The DuPont Show of the Month, Theatre ’62, The Garry Moore Show and Off to See the Wizard. Her television movies included Mrs. Miniver, A Cry of Angels, The Christmas Box, Cab to Canada, The Red Pony (with Fonda) and The Last Dance, her final credit. Additionally, she made guest appearances on Perry Como’s Kraft Music Hall, The Bob Hope Show, What’s My Line?, The Ed Sullivan Show, The Andy Williams Show, The Jackie Gleason Show and The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson.

Although she was never nominated for an Academy Award, O'Hara received an honorary Oscar in 2014. She was also a singer, and recorded two albums, Love Letters From Maureen O’Hara and Maureen O’Hara Sings Her Favorite Irish Songs.

O’Hara died October 24, 2015, in Boise, Idaho. She was 95.