Hollywood Actress Maureen O’ Hara Dies At Age 95

Perhaps the best remembered of her colour films was director John Ford’s The Quiet Man (1952), the second of five movies in which O’Hara starred opposite John Wayne.

Her manager, Johnny Nicoletti, says Maureen O’Hara died in her sleep Saturday at her home in Boise, Idaho.

One of the world’s most attractive women of the 40s and 50s died overnight, Hollywood’s Maureen O’Hara, star of “Miracle on 34th Street” and many many other films. She also appeared opposite John Wayne in five different films, including The Quiet Man, The Wings of Eagles, and Big Jake.

Born in Ireland, O’Hara moved to the US after the outbreak of World War II, where her studio contract landed at RKO.

After the annulment to her 1939 marriage to countryman George H. Brown, she married twice. In 1941 she Wednesday dialogue coach Will Price, with whom she had a daughter, Bronwyn.

O’Hara was named Irish America magazine’s “Irish American of the Year” in 2005.

Taoiseach Enda Kenny described the late actress as one of the country’s best.

O’Hara was born Maureen FitzSimons in Ranelagh, a suburb of Dublin. One of her best performances was in the 1940 proto-feminist film “Dance Girl Dance”, directed by Dorothy Arzner and also starring Lucille Ball.

Maureen will be buried at the Arlington National Cemetery, next to her husband, US Navy pilot General Charles Blair who died in a plane crash in 1978. “Maureen will be remembered very fondly by all her fellow IFTA Academy Members, and will always hold a special place in our hearts”. She trained at the Abbey Theatre, Dublin and was spotted, after a London screen test by Charles Laughton. She was also awarded an honorary Oscar past year at the 2014 ceremonies.

Whether playing a rancher’s wife, a pirate queen, or a mother, her characters were strong-willed women – a characteristic she practiced in real life as well and attributed to her Irish roots.

Musing about what made her a star, OHara wrote: “I have always believed my most compelling quality to be my inner strength, something I am easily able to share with an audience. She became an American citizen shortly thereafter.

O’Hara was an inspiration to many modern movie stars, including Jessica Chastain who tweeted her tribute upon hearing the sad news. From there, O’Hara’s career exploded, with the actress appearing in 39 more films over the next 20 years. She will be buried, not in her native Ireland, but in Arlington National Cemetery near Washington, DC.