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Maureen O'Hara was an Irish-born actress who was billed alongside Hollywood's leading men in a slew of features in the 1940s. In 1957, O'Hara marked the end of her collaboration with John Ford with The Wings of Eagles, which was based on the true story of an old friend of Ford's, Frank "Spig" Wead, a naval aviator who became a screenwriter in Hollywood. [101] The film garnered several awards, including an Academy Award nomination for Best Picture. [165], In December 1955, O'Hara negotiated a new five-picture contract with Columbia Pictures boss Harry Cohn, with $85,000 per picture. I took you out for lunch and I never forgot when I asked you why you wanted to be an actress. [104] The following year, O'Hara starred opposite Robert Young in the commercially successful comedy film, Sitting Pretty. Maureen O'Hara was a Hollywood actress who was paired with Hollywood's leading men in such swashbucklers as Sinbad the Sailor and The Black Swan. [9], O'Hara inherited her singing voice from her mother,[7] a former operatic contralto and successful women's clothier, who in her younger years was widely considered to have been one of Ireland's most beautiful women. Maureen O'Hara funeral recalls her 'fiery spirit' - The Irish Times [59] Both O'Hara and co-star Walter Pidgeon, who played the minister, were praised for their performances, with Variety writing that "Maureen O'Hara splendid as the object of his unrequited love, who marries the mine owner's son out of pique". [7], O'Hara was so keen on soccer that at one point, she pressed her father to found a women's team, and professed that Glenmalure Park, the home ground of Shamrock Rovers F.C., became "like a second home". To satisfy my own questions, I turned to Samara Bay, a Hollywood dialect coach who has worked with the likes of Gal Gadot and Penelope Cruz. We may earn commission from links on this page, but we only recommend products we back. [178] She found her Broadway failure to be a "major disappointment" and returned to Hollywood. "For years I wondered why John Ford grew to hate me so much. Catherine O'Hara will always have a special place in her heart for Schitt's Creek. O'Hara performed many of her own stunts in the film, including one scene where she falls backwards off a ladder into a trough. (1963), and Big Jake (1971). Jayden Thomas. [152][153], The following year she appeared in The Redhead from Wyoming, which she dismissed as "another western stinkeroo for Universal",[154] and appeared in another western with Jeff Chandler, War Arrow. The film was disagreeable to O'Hara because Payne dropped out and was replaced by George Montgomery, whom she found "positively loathsome". Catherine vs. Katherine, state by state, 1910 - Nancy's Baby Names The equipment is lighter now, and they work a bit faster, but I hardly felt like I'd been away". [24] Biographer Aubrey Malone stated of it: "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. [30] Though Jamaica Inn is generally seen by critics and the director himself as one of his weakest films,[31] O'Hara was praised, with one critic stating "the newcomer, Maureen O'Hara is charming to look at and distinct promise as an actress". She was married three times, and had one daughter, Bronwyn, with her second husband. She left SCTV again prior to its fifth season in 1982, but did return for occasional guest appearances though the show's end in 1984. [252][253] O'Hara proved her innocence by presenting a passport showing that she was in Spain shooting Fire Over Africa at the time. [169] O'Hara thought the film was so bad that neither she nor her family saw it, though she enjoyed working with John Forsythe.[170]. Maureen O'Hara cut off during her Oscar acceptance speech [17] In 1934, at the age of 15, she won the first Dramatic Prize of the national competition of the performing arts,[7] the Dublin Feis Award, for her performance as Portia in The Merchant of Venice. There are entire Reddit threads dedicated to her speech pattern, with one person writing, "I always thought that it was a [sic] upper class Canadian person pretending to be British." [7], In 1936, she became the youngest pupil to graduate from the Guildhall School of Music at the time, and the following year, she won the Dawn Beauty Competition, winning 50. [122] O'Hara declared that "from our very first scenes together, working with John Wayne was comfortable for me". Malone thought that she modeled her performance on Julie Andrews, "adopting a schoolmarmish voice and demeanor that ill befit her", and coming out with pious statements like "cleanliness is next to godliness". During 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 moved to Hollywood in the summer of that year, making her American film debut as the alluring gypsy Esmeralda (opposite Laughton's Quasimodo) in RKO's lavish production The Hunchback of Notre Dame. [109] It was a box office flop and at the time not well received criticallydirector Nicholas Ray himself was dissatisfied with it. O'Hara 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". [280] The same year, O'Hara released her autobiography 'Tis Herself, co-authored with Johnny Nicoletti and published by Simon & Schuster. Even the creators of the process claimed her as its best advertisement. [199], In late 1964, O'Hara went to Italy to shoot The Battle of the Villa Fiorita (1965) with Rossano Brazzi. [192] O'Hara was subsequently involved in a legal dispute with Walt Disney, backed by the Screen Actors Guild, over billing for the film. According to Bay, Americans mostly make a short O sound like an open AH sound, for example saying the word "not" like "naht." But [she's] putting it together in this particular way, and with some musicality, like when she makes syllables really short and then other syllables really long." O'Hara gave saucy performances in adventures like Buffalo Bill (1944), The Spanish Main (1945), The Flame of Araby (1951), and The Redhead From Wyoming (1952). I couldn't understand what made him say and do so many terrible things to me. Her body is shown lying on the floor afterwards. Family tree of Maureen O'Hara - Geneastar Maureen displayed a penchant for dramatics at an early age when she staged presentations for her family; in school she was active in singing and dancing. [218] The Irish critic Philip Moloy thought the opposite, saying "It is not something that she would accept herself, but Maureen O'Hara's career probably suffered from its long-term association with John Ford. O'Hara's work as a writer on the show earned her an Emmy Award for outstanding writing and two Emmy Award nominations. The second oldest of six children, Maureen was raised in a close-knit Irish Catholic family. [35] Filming commenced in the San Fernando Valley, at a time when it was experiencing its hottest summer in its history. Malone notes that in the film O'Hara "shows her determination not to leave her sexuality at the birthing stool", commenting that she looks "deliciously fragrant in the splashy histrionics on view here, in RKO's first film in the three-color Technicolor process" [88] O'Hara became a naturalized citizen of the United States on 24 January 1946,[7] and held dual citizenship with the United States and her native Ireland. The Atlantic has explored how O'Hara's Moira "adopts an affectation that transforms monosyllabic and disyllabic words into something simultaneously lofty and ridiculous." [176] During this period away from film she took lessons in singing to improve her abilities. Catherine O'Hara - IMDb [10] Their affinity with the arts prompted O'Hara to refer to the family as the "Irish von Trapp family". [175], Though O'Hara was consciously moving away from adventure films, an ongoing court case against Confidential magazine in 1957 and 1958 and an operation for a slipped disk, after which she had to wear a full body brace for four months, effectively ruled out any further action films for her. Read all about Catherine O'Hara with TV Guide's exclusive biography including their list of awards, celeb facts and more at TV Guide. [203], In 1970, O'Hara starred opposite Jackie Gleason in How Do I Love Thee?.