Maureen O’Hara

The Contract That Erased a Surname

Maureen FitzSimons wasn't looking for fame in California. She preferred classical theater in Dublin and lyric singing. But Charles Laughton saw wild potential in her eyes and decided to take her to London to shoot Jamaica Inn in 1939.

Laughton changed her name because FitzSimons was too long for movie theater marquees. She reluctantly agreed to be called O’Hara after a brief business negotiation. That same year she traveled to the United States to play Esmeralda in The Hunchback of Notre Dame.

And Hollywood surrendered immediately.

She was nineteen years old and had a physical presence that intimidated the veterans on set. She was not an actress who waited for passive instructions. She understood light and camera positioning better than many cinematographers of the era.

Punches and Mud in Ireland

John Ford treated her with a harshness that would be unacceptable on any set today. During the shoot of The Quiet Man in 1952, she was made to walk through swamps and endure hurricane-force winds from industrial fans. She never asked for a stunt double.

Because O’Hara was the only woman able to hold her ground against John Wayne without backing down an inch. Their professional partnership was built on a physical camaraderie that jumped off the screen. In Rio Grande she rode horses recklessly without using stunt doubles.

They made five films together.

But her career was not limited to westerns or Irish rural dramas. Technicolor seemed designed exclusively to capture the red of her hair and the paleness of her skin. She earned salaries higher than many of her male co-stars during an era of outright pay inequality.

In 1947 she starred in Miracle on 34th Street. This Christmas movie was shot in New York during a real cold wave that froze the Fox cameras. That project gave her financial security that would allow her to choose her roles with unusual freedom within the studio system.

Airplanes and a Voluntary Retirement

In 1968, she married Charles Blair, an aviation pioneer who died in a plane crash ten years later. After the tragedy, she took over the airline Antilles Air Boats. She was the first woman in the United States to preside over an airline of that stature.

She didn't need the applause.

She returned to the big screen purely for personal pleasure in 1991 to work on Parenthood alongside John Candy. In 2014, the Academy presented her with an honorary Oscar in recognition of her technical and artistic work. She passed away on October 24, 2015, in her bed in Boise, Idaho, at the age of 95.