Irish-born actress Maureen O’Hara was one of the biggest stars in films of the 1940s and ’50s, an era who takes and hold own grown against the likes of John Wayne and John Ford. She made five films including the classic “The Quiet Man” with the Duke.
“I was the only leading lady big enough and tough enough for John Wayne,” she wrote in her 2004 memoir, “’Tis Herself.”
Even in her 40s she still got prime roles such as the still-beautiful, middle-aged ex-wife and mother with Disney’s 1961 “The Parent Trap” opposite Brian Keith and Hayley Mills, and continued on with such films as “Spencer’s Mountain” opposite Henry Fonda and more pairings with Wayne, including “McLintock!” and “Big Jake.”
O’Hara, 95, whose on-screen toughness extended to real life when she took on a powerful scandal magazine in the 1950s, died Saturday at her home in Boise, Idaho.
She died in her sleep of natural causes, said her longtime manager and the co-author of her memoir, Johnny Nicoletti. Family members were with her, Nicoletti said, and they played the music from her favorite film, “The Quiet Man.”
That film was directed by John Ford, a mighty force in his own right, who directed O’Hara in four other movies: “How Green Was My Valley,” “Rio Grande,” “Long Gray Line” and “Wings of Eagles.” O’Hara respected Ford, whom she called “Pappy.”
The actress married three times. First to George H. Brown (m. 1939–1941) and then to Will Price (m. 1941–1953). The last and the one which worked the best was to Charles F. Blair on March 12, 1968. He was a retired Air Force brigadier general and World War II hero, Blair had been the first pilot to fly solo over the North Pole.
Blair, whom O’Hara speculated in her book was working with the CIA to monitor Cuba, died Sept. 2, 1978, when the seaplane he was piloting plunged into the sea.
Maureen O’Hara’s final public appearance came almost a year ago at the Motion Picture Academy’s 2014 Governors Awards, where she received an honorary Oscar from Clint Eastwood and Liam Neeson.
