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NY Times; LA Times

From ‘How Green Was My Valley to ‘Miracle on 34th Street’ to ‘The Quiet Man,’ She Was a Star in Every Sense of the Word. Maureen O’Hara Dies at 95

Oct 24, 2015  •  Post A Comment

“Maureen O’Hara, 95, the spirited Irish-born actress who played strong-willed, tempestuous beauties opposite all manner of adventurers in escapist movies of the 1940s and ’50s, died on Saturday at her home in Boise, Idaho,” reports The New York Times, adding, “Johnny Nicoletti, her longtime manager, confirmed her death.”

“Irish-born actress Maureen O’Hara was one of the biggest stars in films of the 1940s and ’50s, an era when it was common for leading ladies to be domineered by male heroes,” writes Myrna Oliver in the Los Angeles Times, continuing, “But not the fiery O’Hara. She more than held her own in her most heralded roles, even against as forceful a presence as John Wayne, with whom she made five films including the classic ‘The Quiet Man.’

“‘I was the only leading lady big enough and tough enough for John Wayne,’ she wrote in her 2004 memoir, ‘Tis Herself.”

Right from the start O’Hara worked with major directors. Her first film was “Jamaica Inn,” in 1939, directed by Alfred Hitchcock. Two years later she became a household name, when she gave one of a number of memorable co-starring performances in “How Green Was My Valley,” directed by John Ford with a screenplay by Phillip Dunne, and based on a best-seller by Richard Llewellyn. The movie won the Academy Award for Best Picture of the Year.

Though an excellent actress, O’Hara was never nominated for an Academy Award.

To read more about O’Hara, please click on the links, above, that go to the stories we cite in The New York Times and in the Los Angeles Times.

MaureenO'Hara1A memorable, heartbreaking scene between Maureen O’Hara and Walter Pidgeon in “How Green Was My Valley

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