Maureen O'Hara (born Maureen FitzSimons ; August 17, 1920 - October 24, 2015) is an Irish-American actress and singer. O'Hara is a famous redheaded woman known for playing a very passionate but sensible female hero, often in western movies and adventures. On various occasions, he worked with director John Ford and old friend John Wayne. O'Hara is one of the last surviving stars of the Golden Age of Hollywood.
O'Hara was raised in a Catholic family and aspires to be an actress from a very young age. He has been training with the Rathmines Theater Company since the age of 10 and at the Abbey Theater since the age of 14. He was given a screen test, which was considered unsatisfactory, but Charles Laughton saw his potential and arranged for him to become a movie star with him. at Alfred Hitchcock's Jamaica Inn in 1939. He moved to Hollywood the same year to appear with him in the production of The Hunchback of Notre Dame and was contracted by RKO Photos. From there, he went on to enjoy a long and very successful career, and earned the nickname "Queen Technicolor".
She appeared in films such as How Green Was My Valley (1941) (her first collaboration with John Ford), The Black Swan with Tyrone Power (1942), The Spanish Main (1945), Sinbad the Sailor (1947), classic Christmas Miracle at 34th Street (1947) with John Payne and Natalie Wood and Territories Comanche (1950).
O'Hara made his first film with Wayne, the actor closest to him, with Rio Grande (1950). This was followed by The Quiet Man (1952), his most famous film, and The Wings of Eagles (1957), at which point his relationship with Ford worsened. Such is the strong chemistry with Wayne who many assume they are married or in a relationship. In 1960, O'Hara moved on to more maternal roles as he aged, appearing in films such as The Deadly Companions (1961), The Parent Trap (1961) and The Rare Breed (1966). He retired from industry in 1971 after starring Wayne for the last time at Big Jake, but returned 20 years later to perform with John Candy at Just The Lonely (1991).
In the late 1970s, O'Hara helped run the business of her third husband Charles F. Blair, Jr. on St. Croix in the Virgin Islands, and edited a magazine, but later sold it to spend more time at Glengariff in Ireland.. She married three times, and had one daughter, Bronwyn (1944-2016) to her second husband. His autobiography, 'Tis Herself , was published in 2004 and became New York Times Bestsellers. In November 2014, he presented the Honorary Academy Award with the words "For Maureen O'Hara, one of the brightest stars in Hollywood, whose inspirational show shines with passion, warmth and strength".
Video Maureen O'Hara
Early life and education
Born on August 17, 1920, O'Hara started life as Maureen FitzSimons at Beechwood Avenue in the Dublin suburb of Ranelagh. He stated that he was "born into the most extraordinary and eccentric family I might have expected". O'Hara is the second eldest of six brothers from Charles and Marguerite (nÃÆ' Â © e Lilburn) FitzSimons, and the only red-headed brother in the family. His father in the clothing business and bought into Shamrock Rovers Football Club, O'Hara team supported since childhood.
She inherited her singing voice from her mother, a former operatic contralto and a successful lady outfit that in her youth was widely regarded as one of Ireland's most beautiful ladies. O'Hara notes that whenever his mother leaves home, men will leave their homes just so they can catch a glimpse of the road. The O'Hara brothers are Peggy, the eldest, and younger Charles, Florrie, Margot, and Jimmy. Peggy dedicated her life to a religious order, becoming a Sister of Charity.
O'Hara gets the nickname "Baby Elephant" for being a fat baby. A tomboi, he enjoys fishing on the Dodder River, riding horses, swimming, and Gaelic football, and will play children's games and climb trees.
O'Hara was very interested in Gaelic football which at one point he pressed his father to establish a women's team, and stated that Glenmalure Park, Rovers' home ground became "like a second home". He enjoys fighting, and is trained in judo as a teenager. He later admitted that he showed jealousy over the boys in his youth and the freedom they had, and that they could steal the apple from the garden and get in trouble.
O'Hara first attended John Street West Girls' School near Thomas Street in Dublin's Liberties Area. She starts dancing at the age of 5, when a gypsy predicts that she will become rich and famous, and she will boast to her friends as they sit in her backyard that she will "become the world's most famous actress". Her enthusiastic family fully supports the idea. When he reads poems on stage at school at the age of six, O'Hara immediately feels interested in appearing in front of the audience. From that age he was trained in drama, music and dancing along with his siblings at Drama School and Elocution Ena Mary Burke in Dublin. Their affinity for art makes O'Hara refer to the family as "the Irish Von Trapp family".
At the age of 10, O'Hara joins the Rathmines Theater Company and begins work in amateur theater at night after his lesson. One of his earliest roles was Robin Hood in the Christmas pantomime. O'Hara's dream today is to become a stage actress. At the age of 12, O'Hara had reached a height of 5 feet 6 inches (1.68 m), and worried her mom for a while that she would be "the tallest girl" in Ireland because Maureen's father was 6 feet 4 inches (1.93 m). He expressed his relief when O'Hara grew only two inches longer.
At the age of 14, O'Hara joined the Abbey Theater. Though he was mentored by playwright Lennox Robinson, he found his time at the theater disappointing. In 1934, at the age of 15, he won the first Dramatic Prize of the national performing arts competition, Dublin Feis Award, for his performance as Portia at The Merchant of Venice. He trained as a shorthandist, worked for Crumlin Laundry before joining the Eveready Battery Company, where he worked as a typist and bookkeeper. He then put his skills to use when he typed the Quiet Man script for John Ford.
In 1936, he became the youngest student to graduate from the Guildhall School of Music at the time, and the following year he won the Dawn Beauty Competition, winning Ã, £ 50. When he fell in love with a young woman, O'Hara, like many actresses , becomes increasingly self-conscious, which affects him for a while. In one show, which his father watched from behind the theater, O'Hara "felt someone in front watching me, maybe critical.my arm feels like lead.I gave a foul show that night I grew up with the horrible feeling that I was being laughed at ".
Maps Maureen O'Hara
Movie careers
Early career (1937-40)
At the age of 17, O'Hara was offered her first major role at the Abbey Theater, but was distracted by the attention of actor-singer Harry Richman. Richman arranged with the Gresham Hotel manager in Dublin to meet him at the hotel while he was dining with his family. He proposed that he go to Elstree Studios for a screen test and become a film actress. O'Hara arrived in London shortly afterwards with his mother. During the screen test, the studio adorned it in a "golden dress with flapping arms like wings" and a thick makeup with an ornate hairstyle, which is considered far from satisfactory. O'Hara hates the audition, where he has to get in and pick up the phone. He remembered thinking to himself, "My God, take me back to Abbey". Charles Laughton then saw the test and, despite the makeup and the costumes overloaded, was interested, paying particular attention to his large, expressive eyes. After seeking approval from his business partner Erich Pommer, they manage to meet O'Hara through a talent agency run by Connie Chapman and Vere Barker. Laughton was impressed with O'Hara, mainly because he was less nervous and a refusal to read the quote on his untreated request, where he said: "I'm so sorry but not at all". He was offered an initial seven-year contract with their new company, Mayflower Pictures. Although his family was surprised to be given such a young contract, they accepted him, and O'Hara traveled across Ireland in celebration before arriving back in London to begin his film career. O'Hara later stated that "I owe my entire career to Mr. Pommer".
O'Hara made his screen debut on Walter Forde Kicking the Moon Around (1938), though he did not consider it part of his filmography. Richman had introduced him to Forde at Elstree Studios, but since he did not play a role in the film in a crucial role, he agreed to provide a line in it as an aid to Richman to help with his screen test. Laughton arranges for him to appear in the low-budget music My Irish Molly (1938), the only film he made with his real name, Maureen FitzSimons. In the film he plays a woman named EilÃÆ' Â © en O'Shea who saved an orphan girl named Molly. Biography Aubrey Malone states it: "One can argue that O'Hara never looks as attractive as he did in Little Miss Molly, even if he's not 'Maureen O'Hara', does not wear makeup, and there is no Hollywood glamor, but even though (or because of that?), he is very beautiful, his accent is thick, which is probably why he does not mention much of his film. is the set and character ". Malone added that while many were "deaf", it was "a throwback movie that O'Hara scholars would have seen if only to see early evidence of his natural instincts for dramatic interpretation of time and scenes".
The main role of O'Hara's first film was Mary Yellen at Jamaica Inn (1939), directed by Alfred Hitchcock and starring Laughton. O'Hara describes the innkeeper's nephew, an orphan who lives with his aunt and uncle in the Cornish shop, a heroine whom he describes as "torn between his family's love and his love for an undercover lawyer." Laughton insisted that he changed his name to shorter "O'Mara" or "O'Hara", and he finally decided the last one after expressing an insult to both. When he says, "I like Maureen Fitzsimons and I want to keep it," Laughton replied, "All right, you are Maureen O'Hara." (O'Hara would later say that "no one will get [FitzSimons] straight.") O'Hara notes that Laughton always wants his own daughter, and treats him that way, and he later declares that Laughton's death in 1962 is like losing parents. He works well under Hitchcock, claiming to "never experience the strange feeling of detachment with Hitchcock that many other actors feel while working with him." In contrast, Laughton was involved in a fierce battle with Hitchcock throughout the production and hated many of Hitchcock's ideas, including changing the villainous nature of the novel. Although Jamaica Inn is generally viewed by critics and directors as one of his weakest films, O'Hara is praised, with one critic claiming "newcomer Maureen O'Hara is interesting to see and different promises as an actress ". Watching the movie is an eyeopener for O'Hara and a change of self-perception, for always seeing himself as a tomboy and realizing that on the screen he is a very beautiful woman to others. When he returns to Ireland shortly after the movie is over, he realizes that life will never be the same again, and he is injured when he tries to have pleasant conversations with some local girls and they reject him, given he is very arrogant.
Laughton was delighted with O'Hara's performance at Jamaica Inn that he was thrown against him in the Hunchback of Notre Dame (1939) for RKO in Hollywood. He rode RMS Queen Mary with her and her mother to New York, and then traveled by train to Hollywood. O'Hara's agent, Lew Wasserman, arranged a pay rise of $ 80 a week to $ 700 a week. As RKO's new face, he garnered a lot of attention from the Hollywood press and the community before the movie was released, something that made him uncomfortable because he felt that he was seen as a "novelty" and "people made a fuss over me, because of something I have not do, something they think I might do ". O'Hara describes Esmeralda, a jailed gypsy dancer and then sentenced to death by the Paris authorities. Director William Dieterle initially expressed concern that O'Hara was too high and did not like his wavy hair, asking him to take a shower in the shower to straighten it. The filming began in San Fernando Valley, at a time when the city experienced the hottest summer in its history. O'Hara describes it as a "physically demanding photo shoot", due to heavy makeup and costume requirements, and reminds that he is gasping at Laughton as Quasimodo, remarking, "My God, Charles. Is that really you?". O'Hara insists on doing his own stunts from scratch, and for a scene where the hangman puts a string around his neck, no safety net is used. The film was a commercial success, taking $ 3 million at the box office. O'Hara is generally praised for his performance although some critics think that Laughton stole the show. One of the critics thought that was the power of the film, writes: "The contrast between Laughton as a sad hunch and O'Hara as a gypsy, fresh-faced, gentle, caring girl is the most inspired Hollywood team."
After the completion of The Hunchback of Notre Dame, World War II began, and Laughton, realizing his company could no longer shoot in London, sold O'Hara's contract to RKO. O'Hara later stated that this "broke my heart, I felt completely abandoned in a strange and distant place". He was later featured in John Farrow's (1940), a remake of the 1932 movie George Cukor. O'Hara describes the Sydney Fairchild, played by Katharine Hepburn in the original film, in a movie that she considers to have a "mediocre scenario". The production was problematic after Farrow reportedly made a "suggestive comment" to him and began to follow him at home, and once he realized that O'Hara was not interested in him sexually, he started to bully him on the spot. O'Hara eagerly struck him in the jaw of a day, which ended the persecution. O'Hara's appearance was criticized by reviewers, with critics from The New York Sun writing that he "lacks the intensity and despair he must have, he also has little humor". He then found the role of a ballerina candidate who appeared with a dance troupe at Dance, Girl, Dance (1940). He regarded the film as a physically demanding film, and felt intimidated by Lucille Ball during the production period because he was a former girl of Ziegfeld and Goldwyn and a great dancer. Both remain friends for many years after the movie is over. Critic Molly Haskell thinks that O'Hara "is a bit out of depth at the vaudeville house, not a high art temple". Hollywood's Success (1941-43)
O'Hara began in 1941 by appearing in They Met in Argentina , RKO's answer to the Down Argentine Way (1940). O'Hara later stated that he "knew it would be a stinker, a bad script, a bad director, an unreasonable plot, forgotten music". He is increasingly frustrated with the direction of his current career. Ida Zeitlin writes that O'Hara has "reached a level of despair in which he is almost ready to surrender, to break his contract, to collapse against a wall of ignorant stones and howl like a wolf baby". He begged his agent for a role, however small, in the upcoming John Ford film How Green Was My Valley (1941), in 20th Century Fox, a film about the close and hardworking Welsh mining family. staying in the heart of the South Wales Valley in the 19th century. The film, which won the Academy Award for Best Picture, started an artistic collaboration with Ford that will cover 20 years and five widescreen movies.
His immense role as Angharad, given without a full-screen test, defeated Katharine Hepburn and Gene Tierney, proved to be a breakthrough role. That was made possible by the change of his contract with RKO, in which Fox bought the rights to show O'Hara in one film each year. Ford developed a nickname for him, "Rosebud", and both developed a long but volatile friendship, with O'Hara frequenting Ford and his wife Mary on a social visit and spending time on his Araner cruise ship. Nevertheless, Ford is an unpredictable character with streaks, and in one instance he presses O'Hara in the jaw for some unknown reason, and he just takes it from him because he wants to show him that he can take a punch like a human. Production How Green Was My Valley was originally intended to be shot in the Rhondda Valley itself, but because the war was to be filmed in San Fernando Valley, the $ 1.25 million set that took 150 builders six months to complete.
O'Hara recalled that Ford would allow him extensive improvisation during filming, but he was very boss, commenting that "no one dared to get out of line, which gave the players a sense of security". O'Hara became good friends with Anna Lee during the filming that she later named her daughter Bronwyn after Lee's character. The film was praised by critics, and nominated for 10 Academy Awards, winning three, including Best Picture. Both O'Hara and co-star Walter Pidgeon, praised for their performances, with Variety writing that "Maureen O'Hara is beautiful as the object of her unrequited love, marrying a mine-owned son out from pique ".
The film historian Joseph McBride considers O'Hara's most powerful and emotional appearance he has seen since Katharine Hepburn in Mary of Scotland (1936). O'Hara stated that his favorite scene in the film took place outside the church after his character married, remarking, "I walked down the stairs to the train waiting down, the wind captured the veil and comforted me perfectly, circling my entire face, then he floated on top of my head and pointing to the sky, that's amazing. "
Malone notes that when the United States entered World War II in 1942, many qualified actors were involved in the war effort and O'Hara struggled to find a good co-star. She points out that she is increasingly starring in adventure pictures, allowing her to develop her acting and keep her profile high in Hollywood. O'Hara then intends to appear before Tyrone Power in Son of Fury: The Story of Benjamin Blake, but was admitted to hospital in early 1942, where he had appendicitis and two ovarian cysts removed at Reno Hospital. Producer Zanuck mocked the operation, thinking it was a reason to take a break. He left it as "perhaps a fragment left over from abortion", which deeply offended him, becoming a devout Catholic.
O'Hara starred in the image of the Technicolor war, To the Shores of Tripoli , his first Technicolor image and the first on screen partnership with John Payne, where he described navy nurse Lieutenant Mary Carter. Although the film is quite commercially successful, being a benchmark for the "picture of service" of that era, O'Hara later commented that he "can not understand why his image quality (Bruce Humberstone) never fits into their impressive box-office receipts". Malone wrote that "no one in the film seems to have lived a life, the emotions of the character, like their uniforms, look too slim."
O'Hara next plays an unusual role as a cowardly socialite who joins the army as a cook at Henry Hathaway Ten Gentlemen of West Point (1942), who tells the fictional account of the first class of the United States Military Academy at the beginning of the 19th century. The movie was not fun for O'Hara because Payne came out and was replaced by George Montgomery, whom he found "very disgusting". Montgomery attempted to make a pass on him during production, extending his kiss with him after the director shouted "cut". Later that year, O'Hara starred in Tyrone Power, Laird Cregar and Anthony Quinn in the swashbuckler of Henry King The Black Swan . O'Hara remembers that it is "all you want in a fancy pirate image: an incredible ship with a thunder gun, a mighty hero battling criminals... fighting swords, great costumes...". He had the pleasure of working with Power, renowned for his "evil sense of humor". O'Hara grew very concerned about a scene in the picture where he was dumped into panties by Power, and sent a warning letter back to Ireland in advance. She refuses to take her wedding ring in a scene that results in a screen adjustment to look like a dinner ring. Although the film is praised by critics and seen as one of the most exciting adventure films of the time, critics from The New York Times thought O'Hara's character has no depth, commenting that "Maureen O'Hara is brunette and beautiful - all of which need it ".
O'Hara plays Henry Fonda's love interest in the 1943 Immortal Sergeant war image. O'Hara noted that Fonda was studying for his service entrance exam at the time and had heads in books between the times, and that 20th Century Fox published one of the last love scenes among them in the movie as Fonda's last kiss kiss before entering the war. He further described a European school teacher across from George Sanders and Charles Laughton, in their last film together, in Jean Renoir's This Land is mine for RKO. At the end of the court case in the film, during a warm speech by Laughton, O'Hara is shown teary on the screen for a long time. Malone thinks his performance is effective, both crying and smiling, though Renoir has considered excessive in the movie and confusing the audience as a result. Later, he played a role in Richard Wallace's The Fallen Sparrow beyond John Garfield, whom he described as "my shortest man, a loud Communist and a true lover". However Malone notes that although they succeed, Garfield does not rate him as an actress. He considers this Land is mine and The Fallen Sparrow has become two important images in O'Hara's career, "adding to the growing prestige in the film industry", helping him "crawl out of melodrama gimcrack movie adventure ".
Queen of Technicolor (1944-49)
Alhough O'Hara is known as the "Queen of Technicolor", he admits to not liking the process because it requires a special camera and intense light that burns his eyes and gives him a klieg eye. He believes that the term negatively affects his career, as most people view him solely as a beauty that looks good in movies, rather than as a talented actress. In 1944 O'Hara was thrown opposite Joel McCrea in William A. Wellman's western biography of Buffalo Bill. Although O'Hara did not think that McCrea was rude enough to be part of William F. "Buffalo Bill" Cody, and according to Malone gave him "a little to do", it did well at the box office. Contrary to O'Hara's opinion, Variety greatly applauds this film, describes it as "super-west and often lost tear," and thinks that McCrea is convincing in part and that O 'Hara's own appearance "satisfies".
In 1945, O'Hara starred opposite Paul Henreid on The Spanish Main as an ardent lady Contessa Francesca, the daughter of a young Mexican king. O'Hara described it as "one of my more decorative roles", because his character is one of the most aggressive among the men on board, and during the film his face was doused with a chimney. O'Hara barely won a role when another actress mistakenly told RKO executive Joe Nolan that he was "as big as a horse" after giving birth to a princess in 1944. Around this time "an actress named Kathryn" also wrongly accused O 'Hara of making sexual progress toward him in the elevator, which he believes is the way for the actress to get attention early in his career. During the production of The Spanish Main , O'Hara was visited by John Ford, who was initially rejected for his shabby dressed, but later confessed to telling him about the project that will be The Quiet Man 1952). Malone notes that in the movie O'Hara "shows his determination not to abandon his sexuality on the birthday", commented that he looked "very fragrant in the histrionic scene," in the first RKO film in a three-color Technicolor process "O'Hara became a citizen the naturalized United States of America on January 24, 1946, and held dual citizenship with the US and his home country, Ireland.
That same year, she plays an actress with a fatal heart condition in Walter Lang's Sentimental Journey. Commercially successful production, O'Hara describes it as a "tear-streak tamer that reduces my agents and the heaviest brass on Fox becomes disbanded when they see it". Critically it was poorly received, and then declared by Harvard as the worst movie of all time. One of the critics attacked O'Hara by saying "just one more of a valuable Hollywood teenage product that in everyday life would benefit from good hiding", while Bosley Crowther ruled out the film as "a mix of stale situations, maudlin dialogue and very bad acting. ". In musical Gregory Ratoff Do You Love Me , O'Hara describes a dean of a renowned music school that transforms itself into a desirable and sophisticated woman in a big city. He commented that it was "one of the worst photos I've ever made". It frustrates him because he can not use his talent well, not even sing in it.
O'Hara was offered a role in The Razor's Edge (1946), who went to Tierney, the John Wayne movie Tycoon (1947), which went to Laraine Day, and Bob Hope < i> The Paleface , who went to Jane Russell. He rejected the role in The Paleface while he was undergoing a turbulent period in his personal life and "did not think I would be able to laugh every day and have fun". He then deeply regretted changing it and confessing that he had made a "big mistake". In 1947, O'Hara starred in Douglas Fairbanks Jr.. as Shireen in the adventure film Sinbad the Sailor . O'Hara plays a glamorous adventure that helps Sinbad (Fairbanks) discover the hidden treasures of Alexander the Great. He found the scenario to be "ridiculous", but stated that it made a "money pot for RKO - action-adventure almost always happens". Malone writes: "O'Hara looks beautiful and wears some of the most amazing costumes of his career - different in almost every scene - but his dialogue is empty.He emits the potential at the beginning of the scene, where the air of slyness that is rather ruthless seems to promise him to be something more than just window dressing ", but thinks the movie" really has no drama ". Critics of The New York Times thought that O'Hara's overdeveloped costume made him watch the "tiring" experience.
After acting as Bostone's love interest from Cornel Wilde at Humberstone's The Homestretch (1947), O'Hara has been increasingly frustrated with Hollywood and taking a substantial break to return to his native Ireland, where people thought he was not looks good, after losing a lot of weight. While there he received a call from 20th Century Fox to portray the role of Doris Walker, Susan Walker's mother (played by young Natalie Wood) in the Christmas movie, Miracle on 34th Street (1947). It became a timeless classic Christmas, with a traditional television network that aired every Thanksgiving Day on NBC. At Natalie Wood, O'Hara said: "I have been the mother of nearly forty children in the movie, but I always have a special place in my heart for little Natalie She always calls me Mamma Maureen and I call her Natasha... when Natalie and I'm shooting a scene at Macy's, we have to do it at night because the store is full of people doing their Christmas shopping in the daytime Natalie likes this because that means she's allowed to stay up. I'm really enjoying the moment with Natalie. like walking past a quiet and closed shop and seeing all the kids' toys and shoes, the day she died I cried unashamedly The film garnered several awards, including an Academy Award nomination for Best Picture.
In O'Hara's last film in 1947, he played the Creole woman across from Rex Harrison at John M. Stahl's The Foxes of Harrow; the film was made in Pre-Civil War New Orleans. TCM states that O'Hara has "provoked" to star in Forever Amber (1947), Fox's great historical romance at the time, but believes that because of the contract clause, none of the owners of his combined contract, Fox and RKO, will accept him appearing in the "main star vehicle" at the time. During the production O'Hara and Harrison were very displeased with each other from the beginning, and he found him to be "rude, vulgar, and arrogant". Harrison thinks he does not like it just because he's British. He reportedly burp in his face during the dance and accuse him of anti-Semitism, married to a Jewish woman (Lilli Palmer) at the time, which he firmly denies. Variety , while acknowledging its length, thinks that O'Hara and Harrison bring their dramatic scene with "surprising skills". The following year, O'Hara starred in Robert Young in a commercially successful comedy, Sitting Pretty . Bosley Crowther of The New York Times praised O'Hara and Young as husband and wife, commenting that they are "very smart", acting with "annoying annoyance, alternating with good despair".
In 1949, O'Hara played what he described as "a frustrated talent manager who shot his star client in a jealous anger" in the presence of Melvyn Douglas in A Woman's Secret. He only agreed to appear in production to fulfill one-draw-per-year contract obligations to RKO. It was a box office failure and at that time was not received critically well - director Nicholas Ray himself was dissatisfied with it. She subsequently has a role as a rich widow who falls in love with an alcohol artist (Dana Andrews) in Victorian melodrama The Forbidden Street , who was shot at Shepperton Studios in London. O'Hara felt that his performance was bad and admitted that he did not have a heart on the film. After a poorly received comedy Father Was a Fullback , dismissed by Picturegoer magazine as "an unhappy mix of Freud and football", she starred in her first film with Universal Pictures, escaping adventure , Bagdad , depicts Princess Marjan. The film was taken at a location in the Alabama Hills of Lone Pine, California. O'Hara noted that the film earned a large sum of money for Universal, and its success led to Universal's purchase into its RKO contract. Malone writes that he sings, dances, fights, and loves in the story of derring-do that ticks all the boxes necessary for a fancy history lesson, "adding that" when it comes to dexterity in action, O'Hara is nonpareil ".
Working with John Ford, western and adventure movies ( 1950-57)
At western Technicolor 1950, Comanche Region , O'Hara plays an unusual role as the main character of Katie Howards, the owner of a fiery sedan who dresses, behaves and fights like a man, with her hair tied back. He "mastered the American bullwhip" during filming, in a role that Crowther believes "more important than the sunset" in that he "handles his duties with great pleasure that the rest of the players, even Indians, are really weak." He received his first bill over fellow Macdonald Carey star. O'Hara later appeared as Countess D'Arneau against John Payne in Tripoli, directed by O'Hara's second husband, William Houston Price. He was next cast by John Ford to the west of Rio Grande, the final installment of the cavalry trilogy. This is the first of five films 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 were directed by Ford. O'Hara stated that "from our first scene together, working with John Wayne was convenient for me". His attachment to Wayne is so strong that over the years many people assume that they are married, and newspapers sometimes publish sensational stories from people who claim to be their love children. In April 1951, he received a call from Universal Pictures that he served as a Tunisian princess named Tanya in the swashbuckler movie Flame of Araby (1951). O'Hara "belittles" the movie and everything he holds, but has no choice but to make a movie or postpone. At that moment, he was getting tired of the role he was offering and wanted to do a deeper role than he had done so far.
In 1952, O'Hara played Claire, the musketeer's daughter, Athos at At Point Sword, , which he said showed "the new Maureen O'Hara". The film was actually created in 1949 but was not released until 1952. This role was the most physically demanding of his career, performing his own actions and training in the art of fencing for six weeks under the owner of Belgian birthmark Fred Cavens. He dislikes director Lewis Allen and producer Howard Hughes, who he thinks is "cold as ice". Critics of The New York Times appreciate O'Hara's swordsmanship in the film, stating that he "grunts like a Fury, accusing his opponents of being stabbing a needle." O'Hara next plays cowgirl from Australia, Australian immigrant, Dell McGuire, in the Lewis Milestone drama Kangaroo (1952), which was tuned during the dry season of 1900. Kangaroos is famous for the first Technicolor films taken in locations in Australia, mostly taken in the desert near Port Augusta. Although O'Hara did not like production, he found the Australians very friendly. The Australian government offered him a plot of land during production to be permanently owned but he refused it for political reasons only to later find that there were significant oil reserves on the ground.
In 1952, O'Hara starred in John Wayne again in the romantic comedy of Ford, The Quiet Man. Shot in a location in Cong, County Mayo, Ireland, O'Hara quoted the film to be "his personal favorite of all the pictures I made." This is one of the most I'm proud of, and I tend to be very protective of it. " "I love Mary Kate Danaher, I love hell and fire inside her." Malone notes that he rarely appears in an interview without mentioning this fact. O'Hara was confused by Ford's tough treatment of Wayne during production and kept doing the same. Although Ford generally treats it very well, on one occasion when recording a cart scene where the wind in his eyes made it difficult to see, Ford shouted "Open your fucking eye" and O'Hara flipped, responding with "What would bald-headed slobber like you know about the hair hit his eyes ".
The Quiet Man is a critical and commercial success, generating $ 3.8 million domestically in its first year of launch with a budget of $ 1.75 million. Film critic James Berardinelli called O'Hara "a perfect match for Wayne" and that "he never allowed him to steal a scene without a fight, and sometimes take one from himself," while film critic and sports writer Danny Peary praised their chemistry , "showing off strength" through "love, vulnerability and tenderness". According to Harry Carey Jr., who notes that O'Hara has a strong view of Wayne in all the movies they make together, the director of Ford feels uncomfortable with the romantic scenes in the film and refuses to take the scene until the last day.. The film was nominated for six Academy Awards including Best Picture, though O'Hara was destroyed even for not being nominated for the award. Film director Martin Scorsese called The Quiet Man one of the greatest movies of all time, and in 1996 the film gained polls from the biggest films in the Irish Times.
O'Hara's last release in 1952 was Against All Flags across from Errol Flynn, marking the only collaboration with the actor. O'Hara, who knows Flynn's reputation as a basket's eye, is very careful during production. Although he "respects him professionally and loves him personally" he finds Flynn's alcoholism problem and comments that "if the director prohibits alcohol on set, then Errol will inject the oranges with liquor and eat them at rest". According to Steve Jacques, O'Hara defeated Flynn in a battle scene, much to be cut from the latest version to protect Flynn's heroic image. This film is a successful commercial venture. The following year he appeared on The Redhead of Wyoming , which he regarded as "another Western stinkeroo for Universal", and appeared in the other west with Jeff Chandler, War Arrow. O'Hara notes that "Jeff is a true lover, but acts with him like acting with a broomstick".
In 1954, O'Hara starred in Malaga , also known as Fire above Africa , which was shot in a location in Spain. O'Hara plays a character like Mata Hari, a secret agent who tries to find the leader of a smuggling ring in Tangiers. Malone compared the relationship in the film between O'Hara as Joanne and Macdonald Carey as Van Logan agents with Bogart and Bacall, with frequent oral arguments. The Monthly Film Bulletin wrote: "Maureen O'Hara looks very handsome on Technicolor but her expression is limited - mostly out of disgust when firing on a smuggler or pulling a knife from a dying person".
In 1955, O'Hara made his fourth photograph with Ford, The Long Gray Line, which he deemed "the most difficult" due to a downward relationship with John Ford. John Wayne was originally intended to star in, but due to the conflicting schedule O'Hara recommended Tyrone Power as a substitute. Malone notes that the Irish accent by O'Hara and Power is too much, and that there is a slight trace of Donegal accent in it. Film production marks the lowest point of O'Hara's relationship with Ford, and every day he will say hello to "Well, does he himself have a good nonsense this morning?". He'll ask the crew if he's in a good mood, and if that happens, he'll say "then we'll have a terrible day" and vice versa. He will provoke him by telling him to "move his chubby Irish ass". Their relationship deteriorated further when O'Hara reportedly saw him kiss an actor on set, and Ford knew that he thought he was a homosexual who was trapped. In The Magnificent Matador, O'Hara plays a rich, spoiled American who falls in love with a meditative, tormented, about-to-retire (Anthony Quinn) matriarch in Mexico. Ava Gardner, who is dating a real life matador, Luis Miguel DominguÃÆ'n, and Lana Turner is considered for O'Hara's part of Karen Harrison. The film was highlighted by critics. One of his most famous roles comes at the end of the year, playing Lady Godiva in Lady Godiva of Coventry. Contrary to what Universal claimed to the press, O'Hara was not naked in the movie, wearing "tight clothes and long underwear hidden by my long hair".
In December 1955, O'Hara negotiated a new five-image contract with Columbia Pictures boss Harry Cohn, with $ 85,000 per image.
The following year, he starred in a melodramatic mystery film made by Portuguese Lisbon for Republic Pictures. For the first time in his career he plays as a villain, and says that "Bette Davis is right - bitches are fun to play." In the film, the first Hollywood production to be shot in Portugal, he was caught in a love triangle with Ray Milland and Claude Rains, which Malone said attempted to "abandon one another" during the entire production. Later that year he made Everything But Truth for Universal, at a time in his career when he tried to distance himself from adventure movies. O'Hara thought the movie was so bad that neither he nor his family saw it, though he enjoyed working with John Forsythe.
In 1957, O'Hara marked the end of a collaboration with John Ford with The Wings of Eagles, based on the true story of an old Ford friend Frank "Spig" Wead, a naval aviator who was a screenwriter in Hollywood. Malone writes that "Wayne and O'Hara interact well in these early scenes, giving easy performances and showing strong chemistry, one can feel the friendship outside the screen in a small tone between them." Although not a huge commercial success, it fared better in the eyes of the critics. The relationship between O'Hara and Ford grew increasingly bitter, and that year he referred to it as a "greedy whore" to director Joseph McBride, who had shown an interest in casting him for The Rising of the Moon. O'Hara then referred to him as an "instant swindler" who would say the opposite of what he felt about his bitterness: "He wants to be born in Ireland and he wants to be an Irish rebel The fact that he does not" He left him very bitterly ".
Later career (1959-91)
Although O'Hara consciously moved away from adventure films, ongoing court cases against Secret magazine in 1957 and 1958 and surgery for the slipped disk, after which she had to wear full body clamps for four months , effectively ruling out further action films for him. During this period away from the film he took lessons in singing to improve his abilities. O'Hara has a soprano voice and describes the singing as his first love, which can be channeled on television. In the late 1950s and early 1960s, he was a guest on various music shows with Perry Como, Andy Williams, Betty Grable, and Tennessee Ernie Ford. In 1960, O'Hara starred Broadway in the musical Christine who ran for 12 shows. It was a troubled production, and the director, Jerome Chodorov, was very unhappy with it so he asked that his name be removed from the credit. He found his Broadway failure a "big disappointment" and returned to Hollywood. That year she released two recordings, Love Letter from Maureen O'Hara
In 1959, O'Hara returned to the film, starring as a secretary sent from London to Havana to investigate the activities of British secret agents (Alec Guinness) in the commercial success of Our Man in Havana. O'Hara defeated Lauren Bacall for the role because he was busy with other engagements. Although the film is critically acclaimed, Crowther of The New York Times feels that the characters of O'Hara and her daughter can be made "more funny and vibrant than they are". The following year, O'Hara appeared on the CBS television show, Mrs. Miniver, but although some critics approve of his performance, most thought that the remake was not on time and he could not match Greer Garson's performance in the 1942 Oscar-winning film.
In 1961, O'Hara described Kit Tilden in the west of The Deadly Companions, the debut feature film Sam Peckinpah. Playing against stereotypes as a strong and aggressive redhead, he plays a character susceptible to rape and violence from men. The plot involved him traveling across the Apache area with a former Sergeant (Keith) to bury his young son to be buried next to his father in the desert. Malone considers his character in the film "very undeveloped". While O'Hara admitted that Peckinpah then "achieved iconic status as a great western director", he thought he was "just horrible" and "one of the weirdest and most unfortunate people I've ever worked with". Later that year he starred in The Parent Trap , one of his most popular films, across from the young Hayley Mills. O'Hara praised Mills for the film's success, commenting that "he actually brought two different girls to live in the film" and wrote that "Sharon and Susan are so trustworthy that I sometimes forget myself and look for another. and I stand around the set ". Malone notes that this is a movie that he "made the transition from pretty girl to trendy mother", who received some of the best critical acclaim in his career. O'Hara later became involved in a legal dispute with Walt Disney, backed by the Screen Actors Guild, for the bill for the film. He never worked for Disney again.
The following year, O'Hara appeared before James Stewart at Mr. Hobbs Carrying Vacation , about a family vacation in a dilapidated house on the beach. She plays Peggy, Hobbes's token wife (Stewart), a very family-oriented and talkative character. Although both became friends, O'Hara admitted that he was unhappy with the dynamics between him and Stewart on screen, remarking that "every scene revolves around Jimmy Stewart.I have never been allowed to actually play a scene in a picture. which is extraordinary, but not generous ". With the success of The Parent Trap and Hobbs Carrying Vacation , O'Hara feels that her career has been given a new life. He was united with Henry Fonda after 20 years to appear on Spencer Mountain (1963), roughly based on a novel by Earl Hamner, Jr.. The film was shot at a location in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, classic 1953 west Shane was shot. O'Hara plays Olivia Spencer, the devout Christian wife of the Fonda atheist character, who during the movie sang a song of praise at the outer cemetery. Although Malone thinks he has given "a laudable performance", he thinks he has no chemistry with Fonda and notes that the film came at a difficult period in his life, with the destruction of his third marriage. It was received badly by the critics at the time but fared well at the box office. Then in 1963 he starred with John Wayne in the western comedy Technicolor Andrew V. McLaglen, McLintock! . O'Hara did a lot of his own action in the movie, including one scene where he fell backward from the stairs to the trough.
In late 1964, O'Hara went to Italy to shoot the Battle of Villa Fiorita (1965) with Rossano Brazzi. O'Hara plays a British woman who left her husband a diplomat in England for an Italian pianist (Brazzi). He had high hopes for a movie but soon realized that Brazzi was wrong. During the production O'Hara witnessed a nearby robbery at the nearest jewelry store in Milan. He was very frustrated with the finished film, which was a box office failure, that he was crying. O'Hara made his final photo with James Stewart the following year in the western comedy, The Rare Breed . Malone thinks that he exemplifies his performance with Julie Andrews, "adopting the sounds and behavior of schoolchildren that are inappropriate for him", and comes out with a pious statement like "cleanliness in addition to piety".
In 1970, O'Hara starred in Jackie Gleason on How Do I Love Thee? . During filming in the summer of 1969, O'Hara was involved in an accident set with Gleason when he stumbled on a Cyclone wire fence, falling heavily in his hand resting on it. He then needed orthopedic surgery to repair the injury. Although he was good friends with Gleason, O'Hara said that it was "a terrible movie, his writing was awful, and the director could not fix it." The film is less acceptable critically, with The Guardian calling it "the most mature film of the year/decade/era". In October of that year he made his final film with Wayne in Big Jake (1971), which took place in Durango, Mexico. Director Budd Boetticher plays O'Hara because he believes that he and Wayne have "head and shoulders" chemistry above the people of other leading actresses at the time. After Big Jake , O'Hara retired from the industry. In 1972 he admitted strongly disagreeing with the way Hollywood went, "making dirty pictures", and he did not want a part of it. That year he was asked to give a speech at the Award Life Award ceremony for John Ford, which was his last chance to see him before his death.
After 20 years of retirement from the film industry, O'Hara returned to the screen in 1991 to star in John Candy in the romantic comedy drama Just Lonely. She plays Rose Muldoon, an Irish mother who dominates a Chicago cop (Candy), who has an indifference to Sicily. The film reunites her with Anthony Quinn who plays her short love interest, Nick the Greek. O'Hara stated his return: "Twenty years is a long time, but it's surprising how little it changes, the equipment is lighter now, and they work a little faster, but I hardly feel like I'm leaving". She describes Candy as "one of my all-time favorite men", and was surprised by her talent, commenting that she was "a comedic genius but an actor with extraordinary dramatic talent" that reminded her so much of Charles. Laughton. In the years that followed, he continued to work, starring in several movies made for TV, including Christmas Box , Cab for Canada and The Last Dance, the last of his last films where he played a retired teacher who suffered a heart attack, was released on television in 2000.
Reception and character
Malone states that as "Ireland's first Hollywood superstar", O'Hara "paved the way for future generations of actresses who sought their own voice... With mahogany hair, his humble ways, and his ingenious path, he created prototype characters seems to define the country of origin and as defined by Ireland ". He noted that O'Hara was "loved for his naturalness" and his "lack of diva quality". He rejected the method of acting as a "tommyrot", believed that acting should act, and placed great emphasis on work ethics and timeliness. Insisting on doing his own stunts, O'Hara became very vulnerable to injury during his production that his colleagues said that he "should have been given Purple Heart". His closest rival in the 1950s was Rhonda Fleming, both of whom were equally prolific in western and action films.
John Ford reportedly once commented in a letter that O'Hara was the best actress in Hollywood, but he rarely praised him personally. Bertrand Tavernier, on the other hand, admits that O'Hara is one of the most hated actresses. Although he is quite proud of his own versatility as an actress, saying "I play every kind of role, I'm never tiny or cute so there's never anything about me going out of style", critics find fault with its reach. Malone writes that he "seems to be fighting in a comedic role but proving his courage in a film that calls him to take control of the situation or find courage in the face of adversity." A critic says that it takes a director like John Ford to bring out a good appearance from him. Irish critic Philip Moloy thinks otherwise, saying "This is not something he will accept alone, but the career of Maureen O'Hara may suffer from a long-term relationship with John Ford." John Ford's view of Ireland, and Irish things, tends to be broad, sentimental and sociologically distorted, and his character is often a cliche of representatives of their nationalities ". In the 1960s, O'Hara ventured into an adult player as he aged.
O'Hara has a reputation in Hollywood for superiors, and John Wayne once referred to him as "the greatest man I've ever met". Rick Kogan from The Chicago Tribune quotes him saying that he and Wayne share many similarities, and take "no nonsense from anyone". He befriends Zanuck and Harry Cohn, the boss of Columbia Pictures, famous for being "the most disgusting man in Hollywood", Film executives respecting the fact that he is brave and genuinely honest with them. O'Hara stated that he "never had a temperamental fit in my life", but admitted to walking the site in disgust at George Montgomery almost choking him to death with a kiss during the filming of the Ten Gentleman of West Point.
Teetotal and non-smokers, O'Hara rejects Hollywood party lifestyle, and is relatively moderate in her personal care. In a previous career, he refused to smoke and drink on the screen, and only then he relented to avoid getting out of work. O'Hara is considered polite in Hollywood. Malone writes that "his attitude toward sex is limited to purists sometimes, which is not as expected of the sex symbol". When asked why he would not pose for the scantily clad photographs O'Hara commented: "I come from a very strict family, and I can not do some things other actresses can do because my people in Dublin will think I turn out bad ", and in 1948 he stated that he would not be photographed in a swimsuit" Because I do not think I look like Lana Turner in a bathing suit, frankly O'Hara then commented that "I'm not polite but my training is very strict. "He believes that his clean and clean lifestyle is very influential in his career, he once said," I am a helpless victim of a whispering Hollywood campaign. Since I do not let producers and directors kiss me every morning or let them scratch me, they have spread around town that I am not a woman, that I am a cold marble statue "and" I will not throw myself on a casting couch, and I know it cost me. I will not play a whore. It's not me. "She ventured her annoyance for not being given a better role in an interview with The Los Angeles Times, saying" The producer saw a pretty face and thought: 'She must have gotten this far from her looks'. Then came a girl with a plain face and they thought, 'She must be a great actress, she is not beautiful'. So they gave her glamor treatment and the beautiful girl was abandoned. "O'Hara believes she missed some roles in some classic black and white films because she aesthetically fantastically envisaged Technicolor's production of her natural beauty that she was one of several actresses in Hollywood during his career not to undergo cosmetic surgery, although he has one crooked tooth that he refused to part with.
Personal life and death
In 1939, at the age of 19, O'Hara secretly married British man George H. Brown, film producer, production assistant and occasional scriptwriter, whom he met at the Jamaica Inn location. They married in St Paul's Church on Station Road, Harrow on June 13, just before he left for Hollywood; Brown remained in England when he was filming a movie with Paul Robeson. Brown announced that the couple maintained the marriage as an "absolute secret" and that they would have a complete wedding ceremony in October 1939, but O'Hara never returned. The wedding was canceled in 1941.
In December 1941, O'Hara married American film director William Houston Price (director of dialogue in The Hunchback of Notre Dame). She lost her virginity to Price on her wedding night and immediately regrets it, and remembers thinking to herself "What have I done now". Soon after her honeymoon she realized that Price was an alcoholic. The couple had one child, a daughter, Bronwyn Bridget Price (born June 30, 1944). O'Hara's marriage to Price continued to decline throughout the 1940s due to his alcohol abuse, and he often wanted to file for divorce but felt guilty for his Catholic beliefs. Price himself finally realized that his marriage had ended and filed for divorce in July 1951 on the basis of "incompatibility". O'Hara claims that he finally left the big house they shared at 1435 Stone Canyon Drive in Bel Air, Los Angeles on December 29, 1951, on their 10th wedding anniversary.
O'Hara has always denied having any affairs outside of marriage, but in his autobiography, frequent collaborator Anthony Quinn claimed to have fallen in love with him on the set of Sinbad the Sailor . He commented that he was "the dazzling, and the most understanding woman in the world" who "took out the Gaelic in him", half Irish. Quinn hinted that they had been involved in the affair, adding that "after a while we were both tired of the trick".
From 1953 to 1967, O'Hara had a relationship with Enrique Parra, a rich Mexican politician and banker. He met her at a restaurant during a trip to Mexico in 1951. O'Hara stated that Parra "saves me from the brutal darkness of marriage and brings me back into the light of a warm life again." Leaving her is one of the most painful things- things I've ever done. "As her relationship with Parra evolved, she began studying Spanish and even enrolled her daughter in a Mexican school. He moved in 1953 to a smaller property in 10677 Somma Way in Bel Air, amid frequent visits to Mexico City, where he and Parra were famous celebrities. He hired a detective to follow Parra in Mexico and found that he was completely honest about his relationship with his ex-wife and that he could trust him. John Ford disliked Parra very much, and it affected his relationship with Ford in the 1950s because he often interfered in his affairs and idolized his marriage to Price, became a devout Catholic like O'Hara. Price also kept harassing O'Hara for dating Parra and filing a case against him on June 20, 1955, searching for Bronwyn's custody and accusing him of immorality. O'Hara filed a counter-claim, accusing him with contempt for the court for refusing to pay $ 50 per month for child support and $ 7 per month allowance. During the publicity stage of The Long Gray Line in 1955, Ford insulted O'Hara and his brother Charles when he told Charles, "if your sister's sister can withdraw from Mexico long enough to do publicity small for us, this movie may have a chance to get a decent return ".
On July 9, 1957, O'Hara filed
Source of the article : Wikipedia
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