“I come from a very strict family, and I can”
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikipedia
- #quote
Figure timeline
Maureen O'Hara
Maureen O'Hara was an Irish and American actress and singer who became successful in Hollywood from the 1940s through to the 1960s. She was a natural redhead who was known for playing passionate but sensible heroines, often in Westerns and adventure films. She worked with director John Ford and long-time friend John Wayne on numerous projects.
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
entertainment · Irish and American actress and singer (1920–2015) · writer · autobiographer · singer · stage actor · film actor · television actor · actor · musician · also Maureen O'Hara, Maureen FitzSimons Blair, O'Hara
Born 17 August 1920 · Died 24 October 2015 · Q229276
59 published statements · 0 followers
See & hear
Photos & media
14 photos
Media from Wikimedia Commons, hotlinked at the source under its own licence — see each file for author and terms.
Live now
In the news
Pulling headlines from trusted outlets — this usually takes a few seconds
Checking the wires…
Feed scan
These are live links, not archived citations — they only join the timeline once a collect run verifies and archives them.
Live pulse
Recent highlights
Most recent outstanding titles, awards, and quotes
- Quote
- Quote
2026· 6 entries
“Twenty years is a long time, but it was surprising how little changed. The equipment is lighter now, and they work a bit faster, but I hardly felt like I”
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikipedia
- #quote
“never had a temperamental fit in my life”
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikipedia
- #quote
“terrible film. The script was awful, and the director couldn”
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikipedia
- #quote
“I have been mother to almost forty children in movies, but I always had a special place in my heart for little Natalie. She always called me Mamma Maureen and I called her Natasha ... when Natalie and I shot the scenes in Macy”
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikipedia
- #quote
“I owe my whole career to Mr. Pommer”
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikipedia
- #quote
2020· 1 entry
Was ranked number one on The Irish Times list of Ireland's greatest film actors
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikipedia
- #event
2015· 2 entries
Died 2015-10-24.
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikidata
- #death
“There is nothing worse than having your personal problems become somebody else's entertainment.”
- #wikiquote
- #saying
- #undated
- #lang:en
- #lang:it
- #multi-edition
2014· 2 entries
Awarded Academy Honorary Award (2014).
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikidata
- #award
- #achievement
The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences selected O'Hara to receive the Academy Honorary Award, which was presented at the annual Governor's Awards in November that year
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikipedia
- #event
2012· 1 entry
O'Hara received the Freedom of the Town of Kells, County Meath, Ireland, her father's home, and a sculpture in her honour was unveiled
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikipedia
- #event
2011· 1 entry
O'Hara was formally inducted into the Irish America Hall of Fame at an event in New Ross, County Wexford
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikipedia
- #event
2009· 2 entries
Awarded Great Immigrants Award (2009).
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikidata
- #award
- #achievement
The Guardian named her one of the best actors never to have received an Academy Award nomination
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikipedia
- #event
2007· 1 entry
Penned the foreword to the biography of her friend and film co-star, the late actress Anna Lee
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikipedia
- #event
2006· 1 entry
O'Hara attended the Grand Reopening and Expansion of the Flying Boats Museum in Foynes, County Limerick as a patron of the museum
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikipedia
- #event
2005· 1 entry
With festivities held at the Plaza Hotel in New York
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikipedia
- #event
2004· 1 entry
Was honored with a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Irish Film and Television Academy in her native Dublin
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikipedia
- #event
1996· 1 entry
It topped a poll of the greatest films in the Irish Times
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikipedia
- #event
1993· 1 entry
Was inducted into the Western Performers Hall of Fame at the National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikipedia
- #event
1991· 2 entries
To star opposite John Candy in the romantic comedy drama Only the Lonely
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikipedia
- #event
To receive an Honorary Oscar without having previously been nominated for an Oscar in a competitive category
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikipedia
- #event
1988· 1 entry
Was awarded an honorary degree by the National University of Ireland, Galway
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikipedia
- #event
1985· 1 entry
Was awarded the Career Achievement Award from the American Cinema Foundation
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikipedia
- #event
1984· 1 entry
In the memory of her husband, Charles Blair
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikipedia
- #event
1982· 1 entry
Was the first person to receive the American Ireland Fund Lifetime Achievement Award in Los Angeles
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikipedia
- #event
1981· 1 entry
Which by this time was chartering 120 flights a day with a fleet of 27 planes
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikipedia
- #event
1980· 1 entry
To USA Today to spend more time with her daughter and grandson Conor (born 1970)
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikipedia
- #event
1978· 2 entries
In a Grumman Goose belonging to his airline that he was piloting from Saint Croix to St
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikipedia
- #event
O'Hara was diagnosed with cancer of the uterus, which was treated surgically
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikipedia
- #event
1976· 1 entry
Blair had bought O'Hara a travel magazine, the Virgin Islander, which she began to edit from their home for 4 years in Saint Croix
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikipedia
- #event
1972· 1 entry
Professed to strongly disapprove of the way Hollywood was going, "making dirty pictures", and she wanted no part of it
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikipedia
- #event
1971· 1 entry
But returned 20 years later to appear with John Candy in Only the Lonely (1991)
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikipedia
- #event
1970· 1 entry
O'Hara starred opposite Jackie Gleason in How Do I Love Thee
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikipedia
- #event
1961· 1 entry
O'Hara portrayed Kit Tilden in the western The Deadly Companions, Sam Peckinpah's feature-film debut
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikipedia
- #event
1960· 1 entry
O'Hara starred on Broadway in the musical Christine which ran for 12 performances
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikipedia
- #event
1959· 1 entry
O'Hara returned to film, starring as a secretary who is sent from London to Havana to assist a British secret agent (Alec Guinness) in the commercially successful Our Man in Havana
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikipedia
- #event
1957· 3 entries
And 1958 and an operation for a slipped disk, after which she had to wear a full body brace for four months, effectively ruled out any further action films for her
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikipedia
- #event
“from our very first scenes together, working with John Wayne was comfortable for me”
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikipedia
- #quote
O'Hara marked the end of her collaboration with John Ford with The Wings of Eagles, which was based on the true story of an old friend of Ford's, Frank "Spig" Wead, a naval aviator who became a screenwriter in Hollywood
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikipedia
- #event
1955· 2 entries
O'Hara made her fourth picture with Ford, The Long Gray Line, which she considered being "by far the most difficult" due to declining relations with Ford
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikipedia
- #event
Ford insulted O'Hara and her brother Charles when he remarked to Charles: "if that whore sister of yours can pull herself away from that Mexican long enough to do a little publicity for us, the film might have a chance a
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikipedia
- #event
1954· 1 entry
O'Hara starred in Malaga, also known as Fire over Africa, which was shot on location in Spain
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikipedia
- #event
1953· 1 entry
To a smaller property at 10677 Somma Way in Bel Air, amid frequent visits to Mexico City, where she and Parra were very well-known celebrities
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikipedia
- #event
1952· 2 entries
O'Hara starred opposite John Wayne again in Ford's romantic comedy drama, The Quiet Man
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikipedia
- #event
O'Hara played Claire, the daughter of the musketeer, Athos, in At Sword's Point, which according to her showed the "new Maureen O'Hara"
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikipedia
- #event
1951· 1 entry
“saved me from the darkness of an abusive marriage and brought me back into the warm light of life again. Leaving him was one of the most painful things I have ever had to do.”
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikipedia
- #quote
1949· 1 entry
O'Hara played what she described as a "frustrated talent manager who shoots her star client in a jealous rage" opposite Melvyn Douglas in A Woman's Secret
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikipedia
- #event
1948· 1 entry
Stated that she wouldn't be photographed in a bathing suit "Because I don't think I looked like Lana Turner in a bathing suit, frankly
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikipedia
- #event
1947· 1 entry
O'Hara starred opposite Douglas Fairbanks Jr
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikipedia
- #event
1945· 1 entry
O'Hara starred opposite Paul Henreid in The Spanish Main as feisty noblewoman Contessa Francesca, the daughter of a Mexican viceroy
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikipedia
- #event
1944· 1 entry
O'Hara was cast opposite Joel McCrea in William A
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikipedia
- #event
1941· 2 entries
Many of the better actors became involved in the war effort and O'Hara struggled to find good co-stars
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikipedia
- #event
“knew it was going to be a stinker; terrible script, bad director, preposterous plot, forgettable music”
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikipedia
- #quote
1939· 1 entry
At the age of 18, O'Hara secretly married Englishman George H
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikipedia
- #event
1936· 1 entry
Became the youngest pupil to graduate from the Guildhall School of Music at the time, and the following year, she won the Dawn Beauty Competition, winning £50
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikipedia
- #event
1935· 1 entry
At the age of 15, she won the first Dramatic Prize of the national competition of the performing arts, the Dublin Feis Award, for her performance as Portia in The Merchant of Venice
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikipedia
- #event
1920· 1 entry
Born 1920-08-17.
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikidata
- #birth