Maureen O'Hara, spirited movie star, dies at 95, Maureen O'Hara, the flame-haired Irish cine brilliant who appeared in abstract alignment from the austere "How Green Was My Valley" to the adorning "Miracle on 34th Street" and bantered unforgettably with John Wayne in several films has died. She was 95.
O'Hara died in her beddy-bye at her home in Boise, Idaho, said Johnny Nicoletti, her longtime manager.
"She anesthetized affably amidst by her admiring ancestors as they acclaimed her activity alert to music from her admired movie, 'The Quiet Man,'" said a account from her family.
"As an actress, Maureen O'Hara brought adamant backbone and abrupt acuteness to every role she played. Her characters were angry and fearless, just as she was in absolute life. She was aswell proudly Irish and spent her absolute lifetime administration her ancestry and the admirable ability of the Emerald Isle with the world," said a ancestors biography.
O'Hara came to Hollywood to brilliant in the 1939 "The Hunchback of Notre Dame" and went on to a continued career.
During her cine heyday, she became accepted as the Queen of Technicolor because of the camera's adulation activity with her active hair, anemic appearance and ablaze nature.
After her alpha in Hollywood with "Hunchback" and some accessory films at RKO, she was adopted by 20th Century Fox to play the admirable adolescent babe in the 1941 adventure of a coal-mining family, "How Green Was My Valley."
"How Green Was My Valley" went on to win 5 Oscars including best account and best administrator for John Ford, assault out Orson Welles and "Citizen Kane" a part of others. It was the aboriginal of several films she fabricated beneath the administration of Ford, whose cantankerous attributes seemed to cook in her presence.
The acceptance of "How Green Was My Valley" accepted O'Hara's cachet as a Hollywood star. RKO and Fox aggregate her contract, and her a lot of acknowledged films were fabricated at Fox.
They included "Miracle on 34th Street," the archetypal 1947 Christmas adventure in which O'Hara was little Natalie Wood's agnostic mother and a part of those charmed by Edmund Gwenn as a man who believed he was Santa Claus.
Other films included the apparel ball "The Foxes of Harrow" (Rex Harrison, 1947); the ball "Sitting Pretty" (Clifton Webb, 1948); and the sports ball "Father Was a Fullback" (Fred MacMurray, 1949).
Often she sailed the top seas in bright charlatan adventures such as "The Black Swan" with Tyrone Power, "The Spanish Main" with Paul Henreid, "Sinbad the Sailor" with Douglas Fairbanks Jr., and "Against All Flags" with Errol Flynn.
With Ford's "Rio Grande" in 1950, O'Hara became Wayne's admired arch lady. The a lot of acknowledged of their 5 films was 1952's "The Quiet Man," aswell directed by Ford, in which she akin Wayne draft for draft in a archetypal donnybrook.
With her Irish spunk, she could angle up to the asperous Duke, both on and off screen. She was appreciative if he remarked in an account that he adopted to plan with men — "except for Maureen O'Hara; she's a abundant guy."
"We met through Ford, and we hit it appropriate off," she remarked in 1991. "I adored him, and he admired me. But we were never sweethearts. Never, ever."
O'Hara's added movies with Wayne were "The Wings of Eagles" (1957), "McClintock!" (1963) and "Big Jake" (1971).
After her flat affairs ended, she remained busy. She played the mother of twins, both played by Hayley Mills, who cabal to accumulate their afar parents in the 1961 Disney ball "The Parent Trap."
She was aswell in "Spencer's Mountain" with Henry Fonda (1963), a forerunner to TV's "The Waltons"; and a Western, "The Rare Breed," with James Stewart (1966).
In 1968, she affiliated her third husband, Brig. Gen. Charles Blair. After "Big Jake," she abdicate movies to reside with him in the Virgin Islands, area he operated an airline. He died in a even blast in 1978 and she took over administration of the airline afore eventually affairs it.
"Being affiliated to Charlie Blair and traveling all over the apple with him, accept me, was abundant for any woman," she said in a 1995 Associated Press interview. "It was the best time of my life."
She alternate to movies in 1991 for a role that writer-director Chris Columbus had accounting abnormally for her, as John Candy's angry mother in a affected drama, "Only the Lonely." It was not a box-office success.
Over the afterward decade, she did three TV movies: "The Christmas Box," based on a acknowledged book, a abiding anniversary attraction; "Cab to Canada," a alley picture; and "The Last Dance."
While authoritative "The Christmas Box" in 1995, she accepted that roles for anyone her age (75) were scarce: "The earlier a man gets, the adolescent the locations that he plays. The earlier a woman gets, you've got to acquisition locations that are believable. Since I'm not a breakable character, it's not that easy."
Maureen FitzSimons was built-in in 1920 abreast Dublin, Ireland. Her mother was a acclaimed opera singer, and her ancestor endemic a cord of soccer teams. Through her father, she abstruse to adulation sports; through her mother, she and her 5 ancestors were apparent to the theater.
"My aboriginal appetite was to be the No. 1 extra in the world," she recalled in 1999. "And if the accomplished apple angled at my feet, I would retire in celebrity and never do annihilation again."
Maureen was accepted to the training affairs at Dublin's acclaimed Abbey Theater, area she was a cost student. If chat of the admirable Irish boyhood accomplished London, she was offered a awning test, and a acquaintance assertive her afraid parents to acquiesce it.
Maureen advised the analysis a failure, but it led to a few baby roles in English films. The abundant amateur Charles Laughton, who was bearing and starring in films fabricated in England, saw the analysis and was absorbed by her dancing eyes. At 17 she co-starred adverse him in a charlatan yarn, "Jamaica Inn," directed by Alfred Hitchcock. Laughton gave her a added acquiescent name: O'Hara.
With the aggression of Apple War II, filmmaking around apoplectic in England. Laughton confused to RKO in Hollywood and starred as Quasimodo in "The Hunchback of Notre Dame," with O'Hara as the admirable gypsy girl, Esmeralda.
Her aboriginal bedmate was administrator George Hanley Brown, whom she met while authoritative "Jamaica Inn." If she confused to Hollywood, he remained in England and the alliance was annulled.
In 1941, she affiliated a tall, handsome director, Will Price, and they had a daughter, Bronwyn, in 1944.
"The alliance was a abhorrent mistake, and we afar in 1952," she said. She remained bachelor until the marriage to Blair in 1968.
O'Hara's career was threatened by a bogus aspersion in 1957, if Confidential annual claimed she and a lover affianced in "the hottest appearance in town" in a aback row in Hollywood's Grauman's Chinese Theater.
But at the time, she told AP, "I was authoritative a cine in Spain, and I had the authorization to prove it." She testified adjoin the annual in a bent aspersion balloon and brought a accusation that was acclimatized out of court. The annual eventually went out of business.
On the screen, O'Hara consistently played strong, adamant women. In a 1991 interview, she was asked if she was the aforementioned woman she appeared in movies.
"I do like to get my own way," she said. "But don't anticipate I'm not acting if I'm up there. And don't anticipate I consistently get my own way. There accept been crushing disappointments. But if that happens, I say, 'Find addition acropolis to climb.'"
She is survived by her daughter, Bronwyn FitzSimons of Glengarriff, Ireland; her grandson, Conor FitzSimons of Boise and two great-grandchildren.
O'Hara died in her beddy-bye at her home in Boise, Idaho, said Johnny Nicoletti, her longtime manager."She anesthetized affably amidst by her admiring ancestors as they acclaimed her activity alert to music from her admired movie, 'The Quiet Man,'" said a account from her family.
"As an actress, Maureen O'Hara brought adamant backbone and abrupt acuteness to every role she played. Her characters were angry and fearless, just as she was in absolute life. She was aswell proudly Irish and spent her absolute lifetime administration her ancestry and the admirable ability of the Emerald Isle with the world," said a ancestors biography.
O'Hara came to Hollywood to brilliant in the 1939 "The Hunchback of Notre Dame" and went on to a continued career.
During her cine heyday, she became accepted as the Queen of Technicolor because of the camera's adulation activity with her active hair, anemic appearance and ablaze nature.
After her alpha in Hollywood with "Hunchback" and some accessory films at RKO, she was adopted by 20th Century Fox to play the admirable adolescent babe in the 1941 adventure of a coal-mining family, "How Green Was My Valley."
"How Green Was My Valley" went on to win 5 Oscars including best account and best administrator for John Ford, assault out Orson Welles and "Citizen Kane" a part of others. It was the aboriginal of several films she fabricated beneath the administration of Ford, whose cantankerous attributes seemed to cook in her presence.
The acceptance of "How Green Was My Valley" accepted O'Hara's cachet as a Hollywood star. RKO and Fox aggregate her contract, and her a lot of acknowledged films were fabricated at Fox.
They included "Miracle on 34th Street," the archetypal 1947 Christmas adventure in which O'Hara was little Natalie Wood's agnostic mother and a part of those charmed by Edmund Gwenn as a man who believed he was Santa Claus.
Other films included the apparel ball "The Foxes of Harrow" (Rex Harrison, 1947); the ball "Sitting Pretty" (Clifton Webb, 1948); and the sports ball "Father Was a Fullback" (Fred MacMurray, 1949).
Often she sailed the top seas in bright charlatan adventures such as "The Black Swan" with Tyrone Power, "The Spanish Main" with Paul Henreid, "Sinbad the Sailor" with Douglas Fairbanks Jr., and "Against All Flags" with Errol Flynn.
With Ford's "Rio Grande" in 1950, O'Hara became Wayne's admired arch lady. The a lot of acknowledged of their 5 films was 1952's "The Quiet Man," aswell directed by Ford, in which she akin Wayne draft for draft in a archetypal donnybrook.
With her Irish spunk, she could angle up to the asperous Duke, both on and off screen. She was appreciative if he remarked in an account that he adopted to plan with men — "except for Maureen O'Hara; she's a abundant guy."
"We met through Ford, and we hit it appropriate off," she remarked in 1991. "I adored him, and he admired me. But we were never sweethearts. Never, ever."
O'Hara's added movies with Wayne were "The Wings of Eagles" (1957), "McClintock!" (1963) and "Big Jake" (1971).
After her flat affairs ended, she remained busy. She played the mother of twins, both played by Hayley Mills, who cabal to accumulate their afar parents in the 1961 Disney ball "The Parent Trap."
She was aswell in "Spencer's Mountain" with Henry Fonda (1963), a forerunner to TV's "The Waltons"; and a Western, "The Rare Breed," with James Stewart (1966).
In 1968, she affiliated her third husband, Brig. Gen. Charles Blair. After "Big Jake," she abdicate movies to reside with him in the Virgin Islands, area he operated an airline. He died in a even blast in 1978 and she took over administration of the airline afore eventually affairs it.
"Being affiliated to Charlie Blair and traveling all over the apple with him, accept me, was abundant for any woman," she said in a 1995 Associated Press interview. "It was the best time of my life."
She alternate to movies in 1991 for a role that writer-director Chris Columbus had accounting abnormally for her, as John Candy's angry mother in a affected drama, "Only the Lonely." It was not a box-office success.
Over the afterward decade, she did three TV movies: "The Christmas Box," based on a acknowledged book, a abiding anniversary attraction; "Cab to Canada," a alley picture; and "The Last Dance."
While authoritative "The Christmas Box" in 1995, she accepted that roles for anyone her age (75) were scarce: "The earlier a man gets, the adolescent the locations that he plays. The earlier a woman gets, you've got to acquisition locations that are believable. Since I'm not a breakable character, it's not that easy."
Maureen FitzSimons was built-in in 1920 abreast Dublin, Ireland. Her mother was a acclaimed opera singer, and her ancestor endemic a cord of soccer teams. Through her father, she abstruse to adulation sports; through her mother, she and her 5 ancestors were apparent to the theater.
"My aboriginal appetite was to be the No. 1 extra in the world," she recalled in 1999. "And if the accomplished apple angled at my feet, I would retire in celebrity and never do annihilation again."
Maureen was accepted to the training affairs at Dublin's acclaimed Abbey Theater, area she was a cost student. If chat of the admirable Irish boyhood accomplished London, she was offered a awning test, and a acquaintance assertive her afraid parents to acquiesce it.
Maureen advised the analysis a failure, but it led to a few baby roles in English films. The abundant amateur Charles Laughton, who was bearing and starring in films fabricated in England, saw the analysis and was absorbed by her dancing eyes. At 17 she co-starred adverse him in a charlatan yarn, "Jamaica Inn," directed by Alfred Hitchcock. Laughton gave her a added acquiescent name: O'Hara.
With the aggression of Apple War II, filmmaking around apoplectic in England. Laughton confused to RKO in Hollywood and starred as Quasimodo in "The Hunchback of Notre Dame," with O'Hara as the admirable gypsy girl, Esmeralda.
Her aboriginal bedmate was administrator George Hanley Brown, whom she met while authoritative "Jamaica Inn." If she confused to Hollywood, he remained in England and the alliance was annulled.
In 1941, she affiliated a tall, handsome director, Will Price, and they had a daughter, Bronwyn, in 1944.
"The alliance was a abhorrent mistake, and we afar in 1952," she said. She remained bachelor until the marriage to Blair in 1968.
O'Hara's career was threatened by a bogus aspersion in 1957, if Confidential annual claimed she and a lover affianced in "the hottest appearance in town" in a aback row in Hollywood's Grauman's Chinese Theater.
But at the time, she told AP, "I was authoritative a cine in Spain, and I had the authorization to prove it." She testified adjoin the annual in a bent aspersion balloon and brought a accusation that was acclimatized out of court. The annual eventually went out of business.
On the screen, O'Hara consistently played strong, adamant women. In a 1991 interview, she was asked if she was the aforementioned woman she appeared in movies.
"I do like to get my own way," she said. "But don't anticipate I'm not acting if I'm up there. And don't anticipate I consistently get my own way. There accept been crushing disappointments. But if that happens, I say, 'Find addition acropolis to climb.'"
She is survived by her daughter, Bronwyn FitzSimons of Glengarriff, Ireland; her grandson, Conor FitzSimons of Boise and two great-grandchildren.
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