Maureen O’Hara received an honorary Academy Award in November of 2014. She was only the second actress, after Myrna Loy, to receive an Academy Award for acting without having previously being nominated for a competitive Oscar.
This week on “Picture Perfect,” we remember the Irish-American actress, who died on October 24, at the age of 95. A striking redhead, she photographed particularly well, especially during the Technicolor era. Her fiery heroines stood toe-to-toe with Errol Flynn, Douglas Fairbanks Jr., John Garfield, Brian Keith, Tyrone Power, and especially John Wayne. We’ll honor her with selections from four of her classic films.
We’ll hear some of Alfred Newman’s music from “The Hunchback of Notre Dame” (1939). Charles Laughton played the hunchback Quasimodo and O’Hara played the Gypsy, Esmeralda. Laughton and O’Hara had previously teamed on the film “Jamaica Inn.” It was Laughton who had recognized O’Hara’s talent early on, and indeed gave her her screen name. Previously, she was known by her birth name, Maureen FitzSimons.
Newman also wrote the score to “How Green Was Our Valley” (1941), based on Richard Llewellyn’s novel about a family of Welsh miners. The cast also featured Walter Pidgeon, Donald Crisp, and a very young Roddy McDowall. The film was nominated for ten Academy Awards. It won five of those, including Best Picture and Best Director, for John Ford. The Best Picture win remains controversial, in that one of the other contenders for the honor was “Citizen Kane,” often held to be the greatest film of all time!
“The Quiet Man” was a dream project for Ford. The film is chock full of Irish character actors and Ford regulars, including Barry Fitzgerald, Victor McLaglen, Mildred Natwick, and Ward Bond. However, to get the film made at Republic Pictures, Ford first had to agree to make a profitable western. He had already directed two films about the United States Cavalry, “Fort Apache,” in 1948, and “She Wore a Yellow Ribbon,” in 1949. He opted to round off what became something of a trilogy with “Rio Grande” (1950).
No one involved really wanted to make the film, but everyone went along with it, and even seemed to actually have a lot of fun. “Rio Grande” is now regarded as one of Ford’s masterpieces. O’Hara and John Wayne play an estranged husband and wife in the first of their five screen pairings. The music is by Victor Young.
It was Republic Pictures studio head Herbert Yates who demanded “Rio Grande” up front, to help pay for Ford’s “folly” about an Irish-American who returns home to the village of his youth. In the event, “The Quiet Man” (1952) went on to become the studio’s highest ever grossing movie – and it remains a St. Patrick’s Day favorite.
O’Hara’s role as the fiery Mary Kate Danaher became one of her most defining. Again the music was by Victor Young. According to her family, O’Hara listened to music from “The Quiet Man” during her final hours.
I hope you’ll join me, as we salute Maureen O’Hara, this evening at 6 ET, with a repeat Saturday morning at 6; or that you’ll enjoy it later as a webcast at wwfm.org.