This year marks ten years since the passing of this cinematic great who also held the titles of businesswoman and editor in her credentials.
Ivor Casey looks at the life and career of this extraordinary lady, one of the greatest Irish actresses who ever graced the silver screen.

 

If there is one Irish actress who is indicative of the tremendous heights an Irish talent can reach in terms of cinematic presence, beauty, grace and total stardom it was Dublin born actress Maureen O’Hara.
With her tremendous ability to captivate, thrill and lure her audiences with her incredible charisma O’Hara shone bright, taking Hollywood by storm in her over fifty year film career.

From appearing in such classics as How Green Was My Valley (1941), Miracle On 34th Street (1947) and The Quiet Man (1952), Maureen personified the charming and often feisty leading lady.

Maureen O’Hara was born Maureen FitzSimons on 17th August 1920 to Marguerite Lilburn and Charles FitzSimons. Maureen was the second born of six children and was raised on Beechwood Avenue in Ranelagh in Dublin. She was first educated at the John Street West Girls’ Primary School in the Liberties in Dublin which was followed by her secondary education at the Sisters of Charity in Milltown.

Her father managed a clothing company and owned a share of Shamrock Rovers Football Club, while her mother designed clothes and worked as a singer and actress. This creative environment no doubt influenced Maureen’s path as she enrolled as a child in the Ena Mary Burke School of Elocution and Drama and the Rathmines Theatre Company.

Maureen trained in singing, drama and dance and also entered the Dawn Beauty Competition which she won and she soon received work on radio plays with Radio Éireann, which became her first professional performances.

In her teenage years Maureen joined the Abbey Theatre and was involved in building sets as well as performing on stage with small walk-on parts, occasionally receiving the opportunity to deliver a few scripted lines. It was while engaging at the Abbey that Maureen was noticed by American entertainer Harry Richman, who suggested she do a screen test for the famous Elstree Film Studios in London.

Following up on the encouragement, O’Hara travelled to the UK with her mother but the studio adorned her with too much makeup and unsuitable clothing for the test, resulting in it being seen as far from favourable.

Maureen immediately longed to get back home. Nonetheless, upon viewing the test, renowned British actor Charles Laughton was impressed enough to help her and Maureen landed a seven year contract with his new co-owned film company, Mayflower Pictures.

On the suggestion of Laughton, Maureen reluctantly changed her surname from FitzSimons to O’Hara as her screen name to keep it shorter for posters.

She began her film career playing the part of a secretary in her début movie, Kicking The Moon Around (1938) which was the only time she kept her family name. This was soon followed by the movie My Irish Molly (1938), a musical, co-starring Irish actress Marie O’Neill, about a young orphan who runs away from her nasty guardian to stay with her aunt.

Continue reading in this week’s Ireland’s Own