O’HARA, Maureen

(1920– )

   Born Maureen Fitz Simons to a prominent family in Dublin, Ireland, Maureen O’Hara was a durable female star, notable for her stunning red hair. Dubbed “the Queen of Technicolor,” she was able to find quality film roles at every stage of her life due to her versatility and athleticism as an actor. She played Esmeralda in The Hunchback of Notre Dame(1939), opposite Charles Laughton, in her teens; Miracle on 34th Street (1947) in her twenties; The Parent Trap (1961) in her forties; and Only the Lonely (1991) in her seventies. O’Hara had a long career in Westerns and is often associated with John Wayne, a close friend off stage with whom she starred in five films, three of which were Westerns: Rio Grande (1950), McLintock! (1963), and Big Jake (1971). In Rio Grande she played Wayne’s estranged wife who has come out West to reclaim her son, one of the colonel’s new recruits sent to help fight Apaches. Tension is heavy between the former spouses, and O’Hara shows she is a woman capable of handling a man even on the frontier. Eventually, they discover why they used to love each other and are reconciled. Other Maureen O’Hara Westerns include Buffalo Bill (1944), Comanche Territory (1950), The Redhead from Wyoming (1953), War Arrow (1953), and The Rare Breed (1966).

   See also CAVALRY TRILOGY.