This Article is From Oct 25, 2015

Miracle on 34th Street Actress Maureen O'Hara Dies at 95

Miracle on 34th Street Actress Maureen O'Hara Dies at 95

Maureen O'Hara in a still from Miracle on 34th Street.

Dublin: Maureen O'Hara, the star of How Green Was My Valley and Miracle on 34th Street, who was one of Ireland's most successful actors, has died at 95, her family and the Irish president said on October 24.

Maureen, an iconic figure in Hollywood's Golden Age of the 1940s and 1950s was once considered one of the world's most beautiful women. She played a string of feisty women opposite John Wayne, including in The Quiet Man.

In her memoir, Maureen recalled Mr Wayne saying: "I've had many friends, and I prefer the company of men, except for Maureen O'Hara. She is a great guy."

Her family said that the star, who had dual US-Irish citizenship and featured in more than 60 films, died at home in Boise, Idaho.

"It is with a sad heart that we share the news that Maureen O'Hara passed away today in her sleep of natural causes," they said in a statement cited by The Irish Times newspaper.

"Maureen was our loving mother, grandmother, great-grandmother and friend. She passed peacefully surrounded by her loving family as they celebrated her life listening to music from her favourite movie, The Quiet Man," they said.

"Her characters were feisty and fearless, just as she was in real life. She was also proudly Irish and spent her entire lifetime sharing her heritage and the wonderful culture of the Emerald Isle with the world," they added.

Ireland's President Michael Higgins spoke of his "great sadness" at the news in a statement.

"She will be remembered as an outstanding and versatile actress, whose work especially in films, will endure for many years to come," he said.

Irish Arts Minister Heather Humphreys added: "Maureen O'Hara left Ireland to carve a successful life in America but in the hearts and minds of every Irish person, Maureen was the quintessential Irish success story."

"I've always been a tough Irish lass," Maureen told the Daily Telegraph newspaper in a 2004 interview.

"I proved there was a bloody good actress in me. It wasn't just my face. I gave bloody good performances," she added.

Queen of Technicolour

Known as "the queen of Technicolour" due to her red hair and green eyes, Maureen was born in Ranelagh, south Dublin, in 1920.

According to her autobiography Tis Herself, she started acting opposite her own shadow, aged five.

Still in her teens, she was brought to Hollywood in 1939 by legendary actor Charles Laughton and her first film was The Hunchback of Notre Dame, in which she played Esmerelda to his Quasimodo.

In 1941, she drew critical acclaim in Oscar-winning Welsh family saga How Green Was My Valley, directed by John Ford.

And by 1947, she was appearing as mother of the young Natalie Wood in Miracle on 34th Street.

Later movies included The Parent Trap in 1961 but in the 1970s, she retired from acting to run an airline with her third husband aviator Charles Blair. After he died, she became the first woman in US history to head a scheduled commercial airline.

Maureen was awarded an honorary Oscar in 2014.

US studio 20th Century Fox remembered the actress as the one "who made generations of us believe."

American actress Jessica Chastain, mostly recently seen in the blockbuster The Martian, bid farewell to the screen legend with a tweet. She wrote: "RIP Maureen O' Hara. From one tough redhead broad to another. Thankful for the light you shared."

According to US media reports, she will be buried at Arlington National Cemetery just outside Washington, alongside her husband, who was a US Navy pilot.
 
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