O'Hara, Maureen
Maureen O'Hara (née Fitzsimons 1920 – 2015) was a singer and Hollywood actor.
Born in Ranelagh in Dublin Maureen O'Hara trained as an actor at the The Abbey Theatre before going to London, where she began her film career.
Moving to Hollywood, she was cast as Esmerelda in the first sound version of 'The Hunchback of Notre Dame' (1939). The success of that film saw her career take off, and she went on to star in over sixty Hollywood movies opposite household names such as Errol Flynn, Lucille Ball, Henry Fonda and Douglas Fairbanks Jr.
She also made five films with John Wayne. Probably their most famous appearance together is John Ford’s 1952 film 'The Quiet Man’ shot in Mayo and Galway which was based on a short story by Maurice Walsh.
Her third husband Captain Charles Blair was a pilot and head of a small airline. Moving to the Virgin Islands after their marriage, Maureen O'Hara stepped back from acting to publish a magazine called ‘The Virgin islander’. Following Charles Blair’s death in 1978 she managed the company for a time.
In 1990 she returned to acting, mainly in made-for-TV movies, and appeared as a contributor in documentary films relating to her career and her roles with John Wayne.
During the 1930s and 1940s Charles Blair flew sea planes in and out of Foynes Co. Limerick, and Maureen O’Hara became patron of the Foynes Flying Boats Museum when it opened in 1989.
Maureen O'Hara moved to Glengarriff in west Cork in 2005, to the holiday home she had bought with Charles Blair in 1970 and lived there until 2013 when she moved to Boise, Idaho to be closer to her family.
She was the recipient of many awards during her lifetime, including a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame (1960), an honorary degree from National University of Ireland Galway (1988) and a fellowship from the British Film Institute (1993) as well as a lifetime achievement award from the Irish Film and Television Academy in 2004. Maureen O’Hara received an honorary Academy Award in 2014 in the ‘Lifetime Achievement’ category in 2014.