Graceful and gracious, but also a fire ball who could match wits with any co-star (and trade punches too, when necessary), Maureen O'Hara may never have been nominated for an Oscar, but she remains Hollywood's most famous red-headed Irish import and one of the silver screen's most popular leading ladies.

After Charles Laughton chose her to play opposite him in Alfred Hitchcock's JAMAICA INN (1939), he brought her to the United States where the young O'Hara made her American film debut as Esmarelda opposite Laughton's Quasimodo in RKO's lavish production of THE HUNCHBACK OF NOTRE DAME (1939).

Memorable Quotations:

• "Maybe I should be psychoanalyzed." --as Lt. Mary Carter in TO THE SHORES OF TRIPOLI (1942).
• "I only know, if I never have another child, it will be a government project." --as Elizabeth Cooper in FATHER WAS A FULLBACK (1949).

The first of five films O'Hara made with director John Ford, HOW GREEN WAS MY VALLEY, (one of my favorite movies) was the only Best Picture in which she starred. Also starring Walter Pidgeon, Roddy McDowall, Sara Allgood and Donald Crisp, this film beat CITIZEN KANE among others to win the Academy Award for Best Picture of 1941, and overall, it took five of the ten Oscars for which it was nominated.

Go to the next page.
Page 1 | Page 2 | Page 3 | Page 4