Maureen O’Hara, spirited movie star, dies at 95

In her final feature film “Only the Lonely” (1991), the actress played the mother to funnyman John Candy.

When a journalist asked her in 2004 how she remained so attractive, she explained: “I was Irish”.

Yesterday, she was remembered with fondness in Cong, Co Mayo, where she shot the John Ford film “The Quiet Man” with John Wayne in 1951. “But don’t think I’m not acting when I’m up there”.

O’Hara was born as Maureen FitzSimons on August 17, 1920, in Ranelagh, Ireland, on the outskirts of Dublin. When word reached London, she was offered a screen test, and a friend convinced her reluctant parents to allow it. O’Hara, who appeared in such classic films as “The Quiet Man” and How Green Was My Valley”, has died.

Fifteen years later, she married General Charles F. Blair, an Air Force aviator who operated Antilles Air Boats, a small Caribbean airline.

She was a favourite of legendary filmmaker John Ford, who cast her in five of his films, including The Quiet Man in 1952, alongside Wayne. Never nominated for an Oscar, although she received an honorary Academy Award a year ago, O’Hara nonetheless starred in a few of the best-known and beloved movies of Hollywood’s Golden Age.

In 1946, she became a naturalised citizen of the United States.

Maureen’s family also referenced her patriotism in their statement, encouraging her fans to visit Maureen’s native Ireland. She channelled that through TV rather than films. In the 1950s and 1960s, she was a guest on musical variety shows with Perry Como, Andy Williams, Betty Grable and others. They had a daughter and divorced in 1953.

From 1953 until 1967 O’Hara had a relationship with Enrique Parra, a Mexican politician.

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. In 1957, a gossip magazine called “Confidential” reported that she was spotted indulging in a steamy “necking session” with a mystery South American man in the back row of a Hollywood cinema.

She produced her stamped passport to prove that she was overseas at the time, and she was awarded $5,000 in damages.

For her contributions to the film industry, O’Hara has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. She wrote her autobiography named ‘Tis Herself which was published in the year 2004.