Maureen O'Hara

On 24th October, the world lost another of the last surviving stars from the Golden Age of Hollywood, Maureen O'Hara. She was long considered to be the world's most beautiful woman, and was one of Hollywood's biggest personalities.

With a prolific career spanning several decades, Maureen played many roles in her career, but the image I always have of her, is of a flaming haired beauty, with a fiery personality to match - both on and off the screen. She was an extraordinary actress, at a time when there were so many giants of the stage and screen.

Born Maureen FitzSimons on 17th August 1920, the second of six children, in a suburb of Dublin, her Irish roots were something that she was fiercely proud of throughout her life, and even when she became a naturalized American citizen in 1946, she still never relinquished her Irish citizenship.

When she turned 14, she was accepted into Dublin's Abbey theater. During her training there, she traveled with her mother to London's Elstree studios for a screen test, which was a disaster. However, with her creamy complexion, striking auburn hair, and haunting jade blue eyes, a brief extract from her scene attracted the attention of Charles Laughton. The film company signed her up, changed her surname to O'Hara, and from here she starred alongside Charles in her first major film role, Alfred Hitchcock's Jamaica Inn. 

Maureen made her John Ford debut, in the first of several films for the legendary director, as Angharad Morgan in his 1941 multiple Oscar winning drama, How Green Was My Valley, set in a Welsh mining village in the UK. It was Ford's last feature before America entered World War II.

Maureen was undoubtedly his favorite actress and he later directed four further films starring her alongside the 'Duke' John Wayne, who often toted her as being his favorite leading lady. Their friendship spanned a lifetime, and she was one of the last people to visit him before he passed away in 1979.

Although she was a famous actress during the period we affectionately refer to as the Golden Age of Radio, Maureen O'Hara wasn't a prominent star on radio. However, I was thrilled to discover that she did record several shows, which you can listen to on RUSC today. I've listed these below:-

The Whistler - Evening Stroll

Lux Radio Theater - Fallen Angel

Lux Radio Theater - Fallen Sparrow, The

Lux Radio Theater - Heaven Can Wait

Lux Radio Theater - Together Again

Family Theater - Gold Bug, The

Family Theater - Lost Mine Of The Padres, The

Suspense - White Rose Murders, The

There is also an NBC University Theater production of How Green Was My Valley, which although doesn't feature Maureen O'Hara, does star Academy Award winner Donald Crisp, who played the father in the original movie.

Happy listening my friends,