Liberty Lighthouse Journal: DOSSIER: MAUREEN O'HARA

“Being an Irishwoman means many things to me. An Irishwoman is strong and feisty. She has guts and stands up for what she believes in. She believes she is the best at whatever she does and proceeds through life with that knowledge. She can face any hazard that life throws her way and stay with it until she wins. She is loyal to her kinsmen and accepting of others. She's not above a sock in the jaw if you have it coming.”

BORN: August 17^th, 1920 in Ranelagh, County Dublin, Ireland.

DIED: October 24^th, 2015 in Boise, Idaho of natural causes.

BIRTH NAME: Maureen FitzSimons

HEIGHT: 5' 8”

Maureen O'Hara (FitzSimons) began life on Beechwood Avenue in the Dublin suburb of Ranelagh. She was the second-eldest of six children of Charles and Marguerite FitzSimons and the only red-head in the family. Charles FitzSimons was in the clothing business and into Shamrock Rovers Football Club, which Maureen supported since her childhood. Maureen was raised as a Catholic.

Maureen inherited her singing voice from her mother who was a former operatic contralto and women's clothier. Maureen also obtained her beauty from her mother.

Maureen was pudgy as an infant and grew to be a tomboy enjoying fishing in the River Dodder, riding horses, swimming, soccer and climbed trees with neighborhood boys.

She was interested in soccer and pressed her father to found a women's soccer team. She enjoyed fighting and trained in Judo as a teenager.

Maureen first attended the John Street Girls' School near Thomas Street in Dublin. She began dancing at the age of 5 and that was when a fortune teller predicted she would become rich and famous. Maureen would boast to her friends that she would become “the most famous actress in the world”. Later in life, she stated: “My whole life was foretold to me. An old Romany gypsy read my fortune".

Her family supported her notion. When she recited a poem on stage in school at age of six, she became attracted to performing in front of an audience.

When Maureen was ten years old, she joined the Rathmines Theatre Company and began working in amateur theatre in the evenings after her lessons. One of her roles was Robin Hood in a Christmas pantomime. At that time she dreamed of being a stage actress.

At age 14, Maureen joined the Abbey Theatre. At the age of 15 in 1934, she won the first Dramatic Prize of the national competition of the performing arts, the Dublin Feis Award for her performance in The Merchant of Venice. She trained as a shorthand typist and worked for Crumlin laundry before joining Eveready Battery Company working as a typist and bookkeeper. She would later use those skills by typing the script of The Quiet Man for John Ford.

In 1936, Maureen became the youngest pupil to graduate from the Guildhall School of Music and in 1937 she won the Dawn Beauty Competition winning £50.

Maureen was offered her first major role at Abbey Theatre at the age of 17, but was deterred by actor-singer, Harry Richman. He had arranged to meet Maureen at the hotel where she was dining with her family. He proposed that she go to Elstree Studios for a screen test to become a film actress. Shortly after, she arrived with her mother in London. Maureen detested the screen test because the studio adorned her with a gaudy dress, heavy makeup and ornate hair style when all she had to do was walk in and pick up a telephone. Later she would recall how she wished she was back at the Abbey. Later Charles Laughton saw the test, paying more attention to her “large and expressive eyes”, arranged a meeting with a talent agency with the approval of his business partner Erich Pommer.

Laughton was impressed with O'Hara when she refused to read an extract unprepared, saying: “I am very sorry but absolutely no”. She was offered an initial seven-year contract with Mayflower Pictures. Maureen's family was shocked that she was given a contract being so young, but they accepted, so O'Hara traveled across Ireland in celebration before arriving back in London to begin her film career. Maureen would later state: “I owe my whole career to Mr. Pommer”.

Maureen made her screen debut in Kicking the Moon Around (1938), but she never considered it part of her filmography. Laughton then arranged for her to appear in My Irish Molly (1938), the only film where she used her real name, Maureen FitzSimons, She portrayed a woman who rescues an orphan girl named Molly.

Biographer Aubrey Malone stated:

“One could argue that O'Hara never looked as enticing as she does in Little Miss Molly, even if she isn't 'Maureen O'Hara' quite yet. She wears no makeup, and there's no Hollywood glamour, but despite (or because of?) that, she is rapturously beautiful. Her accent is thick, which is perhaps why she didn't mention the film much. It also looks as if it were made in the 1920s rather than the 1930s, so primitive are the sets and characters”.

Maureen's first major film role was in Jamaica Inn (1939), directed by Alfred Hitchcock and co-starring Charles Laughton. She portrayed an innkeeper's niece, an orphan who goes to live with her aunt and uncle at a Cornish tavern. Laughton insisted that she change her name to “O'Mara” or “O'Hara”, she expressed contempt at both. When she said “I like Maureen FitzSimons and I want to keep it”, Laughton replied, “Very well, you're Maureen O'Hara”. Laughton had always wanted a daughter of his own, and treated her as such. Maureen would later state that Laughton's death in 1962 was like losing a parent.

Maureen worked well with Hitchcock and said: “I never experienced the strange feeling of detachment with Hitchcock that many other actors claimed to have felt while working with him.” Meanwhile, Laughton would engage in a battle with Hitchcock throughout the production, resenting Hitchcock's ideas. While Jamaica Inn received general negativity with critics, Maureen was praised with one critic stating “the newcomer, Maureen O'Hara is charming to look at and distinct promise as an actress”.

The film was a revelation to Maureen and changed her perception of herself, always seen as a tomboy, realizing that on screen she was a woman of beauty. When she returned to Ireland briefly after the film, it dawned on her that her life would never be the same. She was hurt when she attempted to make conversation to some local girls who rejected her and considered her to be arrogant.

Laughton was so pleased with Maureen's performance that she was cast opposite him in The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1939) for RKO in Hollywood. Maureen's agent arranged for a pay increase from $80 a week to $700 a week. She portrayed Esmeralda, a gypsy dancer who is imprisoned and later sentenced to death by the Parisian authorities. Filming commenced in San Fernando Valley during a hot summer. Maureen described it as a “physically demanding shoot”. She recalled about Laughton in makeup as Quasimodo, and remarked, “Good God, Charles. Is that really you?” Maureen insisted on doing her own stunts and for the scene where the hangman places a noose around her neck, no safety nets were used. The film was a success and took in $3 million at the box-office. Maureen was praised for her performance, but critics thought that Laughton stole the show. One critic wrote:

“The contrast between Laughton as the pathetic hunchback and O'Hara as the fresh-faced, tenderly solicitous gypsy girl is Hollywood teaming at its most inspired”.

After The Hunchback of Notre Dame was completed, World War II began. Laughton realized that his company could no longer film in London, so he sold O'Hara's contract to RKO. Maureen would later state that this “broke my heart, I felt completely abandoned in a strange and faraway place”. She was next featured in A Bill of Divorcement (1940), a remake of the George Cukor 1932 film. The production became difficult for Maureen after John Farrow, the director/producer made “suggestive comments” to her and began stalking her at home. When he realized she was not interested in him sexually, he began bullying her on set. One day, Maureen punched him in the jaw and that put an end to the mistreatment. Her performance was criticized and The New York Sun wrote that she “lacked the intensity and desperation it must have; nor does she seem to have a sparkle of humor”.

Maureen's next role was Dance, Girl, Dance (1940). She considered it to have been a physically demanding film and felt intimidated by Lucille Ball during production as she had been a former Ziegfeld and Goldwyn girl and a superior dancer. After the film the two became friends for many years.

Maureen & Anthony Quinn

In 1941, Maureen appeared in They Met in Argentina for RKO. She later stated that she “knew it was going to be a stinker, terrible script, bad director, preposterous plot, forgettable music”. Maureen became frustrated with her career and considered breaking her contract, but after pleading with her agent to a role in the John Ford film How Green Was My Valley (1941) at 20^th Century Fox, she began an artistic relationship with Ford that would last 20 years and five feature films. The film won the Academy Award for Best Picture. Ford allowed her to improvise during the filming, but was still the boss, Maureen stating that “nobody dared step out of line, which gave the performers a sense of security”. O'Hara became such good friends with Anna Lee during shooting that she later named her daughter Bronwyn after Lee's character. The film was nominated for 10 Academy Awards. Both Maureen and co-star Walter Pidgeon were lauded by the critics.

Ford developed a nickname for Maureen calling her “Rosebud”. O'Hara often visited Ford and his wife Mary in social visits and spent time aboard the Ford yacht Araner.

O'Hara stated that her favorite scene took place outside the church after her character gets married, remarking,

“I make my way down the steps to the carriage waiting below, the wind catches my veil and fans it out in a perfect circle all the way around my face. Then it floats straight up above my head and points to the heavens. It's breathtaking”.

Maureen increasingly starred in adventure films, which allowed her acting and kept her profile in Hollywood. World War II in 1941 caused the prominent actors to become involved in the war effort and several prime stars enlisted.

Maureen next was intending to co-star with Tyrone Power in Son of Fury: The Story of Benjamin Blake, but was hospitalized in 1942 when she had her appendix and two ovarian cysts removed at Reno Hospital. Zanuck the producer scoffed at her operation, upset that he had to replace Maureen with Gene Tierney, and cruelly stated that her operation was “probably a fragment left over from an abortion”, which deeply offended Maureen because she was a devout Catholic.
Next, Maureen starred in the war film, To the Shores of Tripoli, her first Technicolor picture and first on-screen partnership with John Payne, portraying a Navy nurse.

Maureen next played an unconventional socialite who joins the army as a cook in Ten Gentlemen from West Point (1942), a fictional story of the first class of the United States Military Academy in early 19^th century. The film became disagreeable to Maureen when Payne dropped out and was replaced by George Montgomery, whom she despised. During production, Montgomery had prolonged his kiss with her after director had yelled “cut”.

"Black Swan" with Tyrone Power

Later in 1942, Maureen starred opposite Tyrone Power, Laird Cregar and Anthony Quinn in the swashbuckler film The Black Swan. Henry King was the director. Maureen later recalled that it was “everything you could want in a lavish pirate picture: a magnificent ship with thundering cannons; a dashing hero battling menacing villains … sword fights; fabulous costumes ...”. She found it was exhilarating to work with Power, known for his “wicked sense of humor”. Maureen was concerned about one scene in the film where she is thrown overboard in her underwear by Power, so she sent a warning letter home to Ireland. She refused to take her wedding ring off in one scene, which required to make it look like a dinner ring.

In 1943, Maureen portrayed the love interest of Henry Fonda in the war picture Immortal Sergeant. She noted that Fonda was studying for his service entry exams. Her next film was a portrayal of a European school teacher opposite George Sanders and Charles Laughton in This Land is Mine for RKO. It would be the last film she did with Laughton.

Later she had a role in The Fallen Sparrow with John Garfield. She described Garfield as “my shortest leading man, an outspoken Communist and a real sweetheart”.

It was during this time, Maureen became known as the “Queen of Technicolor”, like Rhonda Fleming, but she stated she disliked the process because it required special cameras and intense lighting that burned her eyes, giving her klieg eye.

Anita Gates of The New York Times, wrote:

“Ms. O'Hara was called the Queen of Technicolor, because when that film process first came into use, nothing seemed to show off its splendor better than her rich red hair, bright green eyes and flawless peaches-and-cream complexion. One critic praised her in an otherwise negative review of the 1950 film 'Comanche Territory' with the sentiment 'Framed in Technicolor, Miss O'Hara somehow seems more significant than a setting sun.' Even the creators of the process claimed her as its best advertisement”.

In 1944, Maureen was cast opposite Joel McCrea in Buffalo Bill. The film did well at the box-office, but Maureen thought McCrea was not “rugged” enough for the part.

In 1945, Maureen starred opposite Paul Henreid in The Spanish Main as a feisty Contessa, daughter of a Mexican viceroy. She described it as “one of her more decorative roles”. During production of The Spanish Main, Maureen was visited by John Ford, to inform Maureen of his project film that would become the The Quiet Man (1952).

O'Hara became a naturalized citizen of the United States on January 24^th, 1946, and held dual citizenship with the United States and her native Ireland.

In 1945, Maureen portrayed an actress with a fatal heart condition in Sentimental Journey. It was a commercial success. Maureen described it as a “rip-your-heart-out tearjerker that reduced my agents and the toughest brass at Fox to mush when they saw it”. However, it was poorly received by critics and later declared by Harvard as the worst film of all time.

Next, O'Hara was cast in a musical, Do You Love Me, directed by Gregory Ratoff. Maureen later stated that it was “one of the worst pictures I ever made”. She was frustrated that she could not put her talents to good use and not sing in it.

"The Quiet Man"

Next, she was offered roles in The Razor's Edge (1946), which went to Tierney, John Wayne's film Tycoon (1947), which went to Laraine Day, and the Bob Hope film, The Paleface, that went to Jane Russell. Maureen turned down the role in The Paleface because she was going through a turbulent period in her personal life. Later she regretted turning it down and confessed she'd made a “terrible mistake”.

In 1947, O'Hara starred opposite Douglas Fairbanks Jr. in the adventure film Sinbad the Sailor.

"Miracle on 34th Street" with Natalie Wood

After her role in The Homestretch (1947), O'Hara had become frustrated with Hollywood and took a break to return to Ireland. While there, she received a call from 20^th Century Fox to portray the role of Doris Walker, mother of Susan Walker, portrayed by young Natalie Wood in the Christmas film, Miracle on 34^th Street (1947). It became a Christmas classic that is traditionally aired on network television every Thanksgiving Day on NBC. O'Hara said of Natalie Wood:

“I have been mother to almost forty children in movies, but I always had a special place in my heart for little Natalie. She always called me Mamma Maureen and I called her Natasha … when Natalie and I shot the scenes in Macy's, we had to them at night because the store was full of people doing their Christmas shopping during the day. Natalie loved this because it meant she was allowed to stay up late. I really enjoyed this time with Natalie. We loved to walk through the quiet, closed store and look at all the toys and girls' dresses and shoes. The day she died, I cried shamelessly”.

The film obtained several awards and an Academy Award nomination for Best Picture.

Maureen with Fred MacMurray

In Maureen's last film of 1947, she played a Creole woman opposite Rex Harrison in The Foxes of Harrow, set in pre-Civil War New Orleans. During production O'Hara and Harrison disliked each other from the beginning, she finding him “rude, vulgar, and arrogant”. Harrison thought she disliked him because he was British. He reportedly belched in her face during a dance scene and accused her of anti-Semitism because he was married to a Jewish woman (Lilli Palmer), which she strongly denied.

In 1948, O'Hara starred with Robert Young in the commercially successful comedy film, Sitting Pretty.

In 1949, Maureen starred opposite Melvyn Douglas in A Woman's Secret. She only appeared in the production to meet the one-picture-a-year contract obligation to RKO. It was a box-office flop, even the director Nicholas Ray was dissatisfied with it.

Maureen's next role was as a wealthy widow who falls in love with an alcoholic artist (Dana Andrews) in the Victorian melodrama The Forbidden Street, shot at Shepperton Studios in London.

After the poorly received comedy Father Was a Fullback, Maureen starred in her first film with Universal Pictures in Baghdad, as Princess Marjan. The film earned a tremendous amount of money for Universal and because of that, Universal bought Maureen's contract from RKO.

In the 1950 Western, Comanche Territory, O'Hara portrayed Katie Howards, leading character who is a saloon owner who dresses, behaves, and fights like a man, with hair tied back, bringing out her tomboy nature. During filming she masted the use of a bullwhip. She received first billing above co-star MacDonald Carey. O'Hara then appeared opposite John Payne in Tripoli, directed by Maureen's second husband, William Houston Price.

"Wings of Eagles"

O'Hara was next cast by John Ford in the Western Rio Grande, the final film of his cavalry trilogy. It was the first of five films to be made over 22 years with John Wayne, including The Quiet Man (1952), The Wings of Eagles (1957), McLintock (1963), and Big Jake (1971), the first three being directed by John Ford. Maureen's chemistry with Wayne was so powerful that over the years many assumed that they were married.

In 1951, Maureen received a call from Universal Pictures that she was cast as a Tunisian princess in the swashbuckler film, Flame of Araby. Maureen despised the film, but had no choice but to make the film or be suspended.

In 1952, O'Hara portrayed the daughter of the musketeer, Athos, in At Sword's Point. It was physically demanding because she did her own stunts and trained for six weeks in the art of fencing with fencing master Fred Cavens. The New York Times critic marveled at her swordsmanship in the film, stating that she was “snarling like a Fury, impales her opponents as though she were threading a needle”. Maureen disliked director Lewis Allen and producer Howard Hughes, stating that she thought they were “cold as ice”.

O'Hara next played an Irish-immigrant Australian cowgirl in Kangaroo (1952). It was the first Technicolor film to be shot in Australia. Maureen disliked the production, but liked the Australians. The Australian government offered her a plot of land during the production, but she turned it down for political reasons, only later to discover that oil reserves were on the land.

In 1952, O'Hara starred opposite John Wayne in Ford's romantic comedy-drama, The Quiet Man. It was shot on location in Cong, County Mayo, Ireland. O'Hara described the film as her “personal favorite of all the pictures I have made. It is the one I am most proud of, and I tend to be very protective of it I loved Mary Kate Danaher. I loved the hell and fire in her”. However, Maureen was upset with Ford's harsh treatment of Wayne during production and his constant ribbing. Ford generally treated her well, on one occasion when filming a cart scene in which the wind in her eyes made it difficult to see, Ford yelled, “Open your damn eyes” and O'Hara responded with “What would a bald-headed son of a bitch like you now about hair lashing across his eyeballs?”

"The Quiet Man"

The Quiet Man was both a critical and commercial success that grossed $3.8 million domestically in its first year of release against a budget of $1.75 million. The film was nominated for six Academy Awards including Best Picture, but O'Hara was devastated not to have been nominated for an award. Film director Martin Scorsese called The Quiet Man “one of the greatest movies of all time', and I agree with that assessment.

The last release of 1952, O'Hara starred opposite Errol Flynn in Against All Flags, her only collaboration with the actor. Maureen new of Flynn's reputation as a womanizer, so she kept close guard during production. She “respected him professionally and was quite fond of him personally”, but she found his alcoholism was a problem and said, “if the director prohibited alcohol on the set, then Errol would inject oranges with booze and eat them during breaks”. O'Hara was better at combat scenes than Flynn, so many of them has to be cut from the final version to protect Flynn's heroic image. The film was a commercial success.

In 1953, she appeared in The Redhead from Wyoming and appeared in another Western with Jeff Chandler in War Arrow. Maureen said that “Jeff was a real sweetheart, but acting with him was like acting with a broomstick”.

In 1954, O'Hara starred in Malaga, also known as Fire Over Africa, shot on location in Spain.

In 1955, O'Hara made her fourth picture with Ford in The Long Gray Line. She considered it to be one of the most difficult because of her declining relationship with John Ford. John Wayne had intended to co-star, but due to conflicting schedule, Tyrone Power replaced him. Ford would greet O'Hara each day with “Well, did Herself have a good shit this morning?”. He would ask the crew if she was in a good mood, and if she was, he would say “then we're going to have a horrible day”. He would provoke her to “move her fat Irish ass”. Their relationship deteriorated further when O'Hara reportedly saw him kissing an actor on set, which made her think he was a closet homosexual.

Later, Maureen would say of John Ford:

“For years I wondered why John Ford grew to hate me so much. I couldn't understand what made him say and do so many terrible things to me. I realize now that he didn't hate me at all. He loved me very much and even thought that he was in love with me”.

Maureen with mother, 1948

In The Magnificent Matador, she co-starred with Anthony Quinn. Ava Gardner who was dating a bullfighter, Luis Miguel Dominquin, and Lana Turner were considered for O'Hara's part. Later in 1955, Maureen played her best-known roles as Lady Godiva in Lady Godiva of Coventry. Contrary to what was said, O'Hara was not nude in the film, she wore a “full-length body leotard and underwear that was concealed by my long tresses”.

In December 1955, O'Hara negotiated a new contract with Columbia Pictures for $85,000 per picture.

In 1956, she starred in Lisbon for Republic Pictures. For the first time in her career she portrayed a villain, and remarked that “Bette Davis was right – bitches are fun to play”. Claude Rains and Ray Milland co-starred in the film.

Later in same year she made Everything But the Truth for Universal. While enjoying working with John Forsythe, O'Hara though the film was so bad that neither she nor her family saw it.

1957 marked the end of her collaboration with John Ford with The Wings of Eagles, based upon a true story of an old friend of Ford's, Frank “Spig” Wead, a naval aviator who became a screenwriter in Hollywood. While not a major success, the critics loved it.

Maureen with brothers, James & Charles, 1958

While no longer desiring adventure films, Maureen had an operation for a slipped disk in 1958. During this period, she took lessons in singing and participated in a court case against Confidential magazine. For four months she was in a full body brace. O'Hara had a soprano voice and described singing as her first love. In the early 1960s, 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 which ran for 12 performances. Jerome Chodorov, the director was so displeased with it that he requested that his name be removed from the credits. Disappointed, Maureen returned to Hollywood. That year, 1959, she released two recordings, Love Letters from Maureen O'Hara and Maureen O'Hara Sings her Favorite Irish Songs.

Maureen's next film was Our Man in Havana with Alec Guiness who portrays a secret agent.

In 1961, she portrayed Kit Tilden in the Western film The Deadly Companions. Later that year she starred in The Parent Trap, one of her most popular films, opposite Hayley Mills. O'Hara credits the success of the film to Mills, stating that “she really did two different girls to life in the movie” and wrote that “Sharon and Susan were so believable that I'd sometimes forget myself and look for the other one when Hayley and I were standing around the set”. Subsequently, O'Hara was involved with a legal dispute with Walt Disney, backed by the Screen Actors Guild, over billing for the film. She never worked for Disney again.

In 1962, O'Hara appeared opposite James Stewart in Mr. Hobbs Takes a Vacation. She played wife of Stewart. With the success of that film, O'Hara felt that her career had been given a new approach to life.

"McLintock!"

After 20 years, she united with Henry Fonda in Spencer's Mountain in 1963. The film was shot in Jackson Hole, Wyoming. Later in 1963, she starred with John Wayne in McLintock! O'Hara performed many of her own stunts, including the scene where she falls backwards off a ladder into a trough.

In 1964, O'Hara went to Italy to shoot The Battle of the Villa Fiorita, released in 1965, with Rossano Brazzi. She portrayed a British woman who leaves her diplomat husband in England for an Italian pianist. She had high expectations for the film until she realized that Brazzi was miscast. She was so frustrated with the finished film, which was a box-office flop, that she cried.

In 1965, O'Hara made her last picture with James Stewart in the Western The Rare Breed.

In 1970, she starred opposite Jackie Gleason in How Do I Love Thee?. During the filming in the summer of 1969, O'Hara was involved in an accident on set with Gleason when he tripped on a Cyclone wire fence, falling heavily on her hand which was resting on it. She later required orthopedic surgery to correct the injury. O'Hara detested the script, but got along well with Gleason. In October of 1970, she made her last film with Wayne in Big Jake (1971), shot in Durango, Mexico.

After Big Jake, O'Hara retired from the industry. In 1972, she revealed her strong disapproval of the way Hollywood was going, “making dirty pictures” and she wanted no part of it.

John Wayne would later say:

“There's only one woman who has been my friend over the years, and by that I mean a real friend, like a man would be. That woman is Maureen O'Hara. She's big, lusty, absolutely marvelous – definitely my kind of woman. She's a great guy. I've had many friends, and I prefer the company of men. Except for Maureen O'Hara”.

"Only the Lonely"

After a 20-year retirement from the film industry, O'Hara returned to the screen in 1991 to star opposite John Candy in the romantic comedy drama Only the Lonely. She played Rose Muldoon, the domineering mother of a Chicago cop (Candy), who has an indifference to Sicilians. The film reunited her with Anthony Quinn who plays her brief love interest, Nick the Greek. O'Hara stated: “Twenty years is a long time, but it was surprising how little changed. The equipment is lighter now, and they work a bit faster, but I hardly felt like I'd been away”. She described Candy as “one of my all-time favorite leading men”, and was surprised by the extent of his talent, remarking that he was a “comedic genius but an actor with an extraordinary dramatic talent” who very much reminded her of Charles Laughton.

In the following years, she continued to work, starring in several made-for-TV films, including The Christmas Box, Cab for Canada and The Last Dance, the later her last film released on television in 2000.

PERSONAL LIFE

O'Hara secretly married Englishman George H. Brown at the age of 19, a film producer and occasional scriptwriter whom she met on the set of Jamaica Inn. They married at St. Paul's Church in Station Road, Harrow on June 13^th, 1939. Brown stayed behind in England to shoot a film. Brown announced he and Maureen had kept the marriage a secret and they would have a full marriage ceremony in October of 1939, but Maureen never returned. The marriage was annulled in 1941.
In December 1941, O'Hara married American film director William Houston Price. She lost her virginity to Price on her wedding night and immediately regretted it, recalling: “What the hell have I done now”. Soon after the honeymoon, O'Hara realized Price was an alcoholic. The couple had one child, a daughter, Bronwyn Bridget Price, born on June 30^th 1944, Due to Price's alcohol abuse, her marriage steadily declined through the 1940s, and she often wanted to file for divorce, but her Catholic upbringing made her feel guilty. Price was the one who filed for divorce in July of 1951 on the grounds of “incompatibility”. Price left the house they shared in Bel Air, Los Angeles on their 10^th wedding anniversary.
From 1953 to 1967, O'Hara had a relationship with Enrique Parra, a wealthy Mexican politician and banker. She met him at a restaurant during a trip to Mexico in 1951. O'Hara stated that Parra “saved me from the darkness of an abusive marriage and brought me back into the warm light of life again. Leaving him was one of the most painful things I have ever had to do”. During her relationship with Parra, she learned Spanish and even enrolled her daughter in a Mexican school.
O'Hara married her third husband, Charles F. Blair Jr, 11 years older, on March 12^th 1968. Blair was a pioneer of transatlantic aviation and former brigadier general of the United States Air Force, a former chief pilot at Pan Am, and founder and head of the United States Virgin Islands airline Antilles Air Boats. A few years after her marriage to Blair, she retired from acting. Blair wanted her to retire form acting and help run his business. Blair died in 1978 while flying a Grumman Goose for his airline from Saint Croix to St. Thomas, crashing after an engine failure. Maureen was elected CEO and president of the airline.
In 1978, O'Hara was diagnosed with uterine cancer, which was removed with an operation. During this period, she was greatly affected by John Wayne's cancer and Wayne reportedly wept on the phone when she informed him that her own cancer had been diagnosed as cleared. O'Hara was instrumental in Wayne receiving a special medal (Congressional Gold Medal) shortly before his death in 1979. She argued before Congress that “John Wayne is not just an actor. John Wayne is the United States of America” and personally selected the portrait of him to go on it. After Wayne's death in June of 1979, Maureen fell into deep depression that took several years for her to recover.
In 1976, Blair bought O'Hara a travel magazine, the Virgin Islander, which she began to edit from their home for many years in Saint Croix. She sold it in 1980 to USA Today so she could spend more time with her daughter and grandson Conor who was born in 1970. O'Hara had prior experience with business in the 1940s when she ran a clothing store in Tarzana, Los Angeles, specializing in dresses for women. O'Hara spend increasingly more time in Glengarriff on the southwest coast of Ireland and established a golf tournament there in 1984 in memory of her husband.
A hurricane in 1989 destroyed her home in Saint Croix. While in New York, inquiring about the cost of rebuilding, she suffered six successive heart attacks and underwent an angioplasty. She moved permanently to Glengarriff after suffering a stroke in 2005.
In May of 2012, O'Hara's family contacted social workers regarding claims that she had short-term memory loss, and a victim of elder abuse. In September of 2012, O'Hara flew to the United States to move in with her grandson in Idaho. In her last years she suffered from Type 2 Diabetes and short-term memory loss.
In May of 2013, O'Hara made a public appearance at the John Wayne Birthday “Tribute to Maureen O'Hara” celebration in Winterset, Iowa.
On October 24^th 2015, Maureen O'Hara died in her sleep at her home in Boise, Idaho from natural causes. She was 95 years old. Her remains were buried at Arlington National Cemetery in Virginia next to her late husband Charles Blair.

TRIVIA

O'Hara had a reputation in Hollywood for bossiness. She and Wayne shared many similarities and took “no nonsense from anybody”. Film executives respected the fact that she was bold and completely honest towards them.
A teetotaler and non-smoker, she rejected the Hollywood party lifestyle. In her earlier career she refused to appear to smoke and drink on screen, and it was only later that she conceded to avoid being out of a job. She once said, “I'm a helpless victim of a Hollywood whispering campaign. Because I don't let the producer and director kiss me every morning or let them paw me they have spread around town that I am not a woman, that I am a cold piece of marble statuary. I wouldn't throw myself on the casting couch, and I know that cost me parts. I wasn't going to play the whore. That wasn't me”. Her natural beauty made her one of the few actresses in Hollywood to not undergo cosmetic surgery.
“Speaking as an actress, I wish all actors would be more like Duke Wayne. And speaking as a person, it would be nice if all people could be honest and as genuine as he is. This is a real man”.
In the film, The Quiet Man, her brother, Charles FitzSimons was cast as one of the locals.
“I have never lost my faith in God”.
“Above all else, deep in my soul, I'm a tough Irishwoman”.
“Comedy is difficult, especially slapstick. The trick is to have fun while you are performing it”.
“Working with Ty Power was exciting. In those days, he was the biggest romantic swashbuckler in the world. Murderously handsome! But what I loved most about Ty Power was his wicked sense of humor”.
There was much more to Maureen O'Hara then her dynamic beauty, She had a wonderful soprano voice and she could use her inherent athletic ability to perform physical feats that most actresses couldn't attempt – from fencing to fisticuffs.
In 1968, Maureen found a long-deserved happiness being married to Charles Blair. He looked upon her not as just a beautiful woman, but an intelligent business partner. It was the happiest ten years of her life. It was difficult for her when he died in a plane crash.
On St. Patrick's Day in 2004, she published her bestselling memoir, 'Tis Herself, co-authored with her longtime biographer and manager Johnny Nicoletti.
On November 4^th 2014, Maureen was honored by a long overdue Oscar for “Lifetime Achievement” at the annual Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Governors Awards.
On October 15^th, 2015, Maureen passed away quietly in her sleep, surrounded by her family listening to Irish music from her beloved film, The Quiet Man.
Maureen O'Hara has fans from all over the world of all ages, still to this day, who are devoted to her legacy of films and her persona as a strong, courageous and intelligent woman. She will always be fondly remembered by me.