1937–1940: Early career At the age of 17, O'Hara was offered her first major role at the Abbey Theatre but was distracted by the attentions of actor-singer
Harry Richman. Richman arranged with the manager of the
Gresham Hotel in Dublin to meet her at the hotel while she was dining with her family. He proposed that she go to Elstree Studios for a
screen test and become a film actress. O'Hara arrived in London shortly afterwards with her mother. During the screen test, the studio adorned her in a "gold lamé dress with flapping sleeves like wings" and heavy makeup with an ornate hair style, which was deemed to be far from satisfactory. O'Hara detested the audition, during which she had to walk in and pick up a telephone. She recalled thinking to herself, "My God, get me back to the Abbey".
Charles Laughton later saw the test and, despite the overdone makeup and costume, was intrigued, paying particular notice to her large and expressive eyes. O'Hara later stated that "I owe my whole career to Mr. Pommer". O'Hara portrayed the innkeeper's niece, an orphan who goes to live with her aunt and uncle at a Cornish tavern, a heroine which she describes as "torn between the love of her family and her love for a lawman in disguise". Laughton insisted that she change her name to the shorter "O'Mara" or "O'Hara", and she eventually decided on the latter after expressing contempt at both. When she said "I like Maureen FitzSimons and I want to keep it", Laughton replied with, "Very well, you're Maureen O'Hara." (O'Hara would later say that "nobody would ever get [FitzSimons] straight.") O'Hara noted that Laughton had always wanted a daughter of his own, and treated her as such, and she later stated that Laughton's death in 1962 was like losing a parent. She worked well under Hitchcock, professing to have "never experienced the strange feeling of detachment with Hitchcock that many other actors claimed to have felt while working with him." On the contrary, Laughton was engaged in a bitter battle with Hitchcock throughout the production and resented many of Hitchcock's ideas, including changing the nature of the villain from the novel. Though
Jamaica Inn is generally seen by critics and the director himself as one of his weakest films, O'Hara was praised, with one critic stating "the newcomer, Maureen O'Hara is charming to look at and distinct promise as an actress". Seeing the film was an eyeopener for O'Hara and change in self-perception, having always seen herself as a tomboy and realizing that on screen she was a woman of great beauty to others. When she returned to Ireland briefly after the film was completed it dawned on her that life would never be the same again, and she was hurt when she attempted to make pleasant conversation to some local girls and they rejected her advances, considering her to be very arrogant. '' (1939) Laughton was so pleased with O'Hara's performance in
Jamaica Inn that she was cast opposite him in
The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1939) for
RKO in Hollywood. She boarded the
RMS Queen Mary with him and her mother to New York, and then traveled by train to Hollywood. O'Hara's agent,
Lew Wasserman, arranged for a pay increase from $80 a week to $700 a week. As the new face of RKO, she garnered much attention from the Hollywood press and society before the film was even released, something that made her uncomfortable, as she felt that she was being viewed as a "novelty" and "people were making a fuss over me because of something I hadn't yet done, something they just thought I
might do". O'Hara portrayed
Esmeralda, a gypsy dancer who is imprisoned and later sentenced to death by the Parisian authorities. Director
William Dieterle initially showed concern that O'Hara was too tall and disliked her wavy hair, asking for her to step under a shower to straighten it out. Filming commenced in the
San Fernando Valley, at a time when it was experiencing its hottest summer in its history. O'Hara described it as a "physically demanding shoot", due to the heavy makeup and costume requirements, and recalls that she gasped at Laughton in makeup as Quasimodo, remarking, "Good God, Charles. Is that really you?" O'Hara insisted on doing her own stunts from the outset, and for the scene in which the hangman places a noose around her neck, no safety nets were used. The film was a commercial success, taking $3 million at the box office. O'Hara was generally praised for her performance though some critics thought that Laughton stole the show. One critic thought that was the strength of the film, writing: "The contrast between Laughton as the pathetic hunchback and O'Hara as the fresh-faced, tenderly solicitous gypsy girl is Hollywood teaming at its most inspired". After the completion of
The Hunchback of Notre Dame,
World War II began, and Laughton, realizing his company could no longer film in London, sold O'Hara's contract to RKO. O'Hara later professed that this "broke my heart, I felt completely abandoned in a strange and faraway place". She next featured in
John Farrow's
A Bill of Divorcement (1940), a remake of
George Cukor's
1932 film. O'Hara portrayed Sydney Fairchild, who was played by
Katharine Hepburn in the original, in a film which she considered to have had a "screenplay [which] was mediocre at best". The production became difficult for O'Hara after Farrow reportedly made "suggestive comments" to her and began stalking her at home; once he realized that O'Hara was not interested in him sexually, he began bullying her on set. O'Hara punched him in the jaw one day, which put an end to the mistreatment. O'Hara's performance was criticized by reviewers, with the critic from
The New York Sun writing that she "lacked the intensity and desperation it must have; nor does she seem to have a sparkle of humor". She next found a role as an aspiring ballerina who performs with a dance troupe in
Dance, Girl, Dance (1940). She considered it to have been a physically demanding film, and felt intimidated by
Lucille Ball during the production as she had been a former
Ziegfeld and
Goldwyn girl and was a superior dancer. The two remained friends for many years after the film was completed.
1941–1943: Hollywood breakthrough '' (1941) O'Hara began 1941 by appearing in
They Met in Argentina, RKO's answer to
Down Argentine Way (1940). O'Hara later declared that she "knew it was going to be a stinker; terrible script, bad director, preposterous plot, forgettable music". She grew increasingly frustrated with the direction of her career at this time.
Ida Zeitlin wrote that O'Hara had "reached a pitch of despair where she was about ready to throw in the towel, to break her contract, to collapse against the stone wall of indifference and howl like a baby wolf". She pleaded with her agent for a role, however small, in
John Ford's upcoming film
How Green Was My Valley (1941), at
20th Century Fox, a film about a close, hard-working
Welsh mining family living in the heart of the
South Wales Valleys in the 19th century. The film, which won the
Academy Award for Best Picture, Film historian
Joseph McBride considered O'Hara's performance to have been the most emotionally powerful he'd seen since Katharine Hepburn in
Mary of Scotland (1936). O'Hara stated that her favorite scene in the film took place outside the church after her character gets married, remarking, "I make my way down the steps to the carriage waiting below, the wind catches my veil and fans it out in a perfect circle all the way around my face. Then it floats straight up above my head and points to the heavens. It's breathtaking." and O'Hara in the trailer for
The Black Swan (1942) Malone notes that when the United States entered World War II in 1941, many of the better actors became involved in the war effort and O'Hara struggled to find good co-stars. He points out that she increasingly starred in adventure pictures, which allowed her to develop her acting and keep her profile high in Hollywood. O'Hara had next intended appearing opposite
Tyrone Power in
Son of Fury: The Story of Benjamin Blake, but was hospitalized in early 1942, during which she had her appendix and two ovarian cysts removed at
Reno Hospital. Producer Zanuck scoffed at the operation, thinking it was an excuse for a break. He passed it off as "probably a fragment left over from an abortion", which deeply offended her, as a devout Catholic. O'Hara instead starred in the
Technicolor war picture,
To the Shores of Tripoli, her first Technicolor picture and first on-screen partnership with
John Payne, in which she portrayed Navy nurse Lieutenant Mary Carter. Though the film was a considerable commercial success, becoming a benchmark for "service pictures" of the era, O'Hara later commented that she "couldn't understand why the quality of his (
Bruce Humberstone's) pictures never seemed to match their impressive box-office receipts". Malone wrote that "nobody in the film seemed to have lived life. The character's emotions, like their uniforms, seem too streamlined". O'Hara next played an unconventional role as a timid socialite who joins the army as a cook in
Henry Hathaway's
Ten Gentlemen from West Point (1942), which tells the fictional story of the first class of the
United States Military Academy in the early 19th century. The film was disagreeable to O'Hara because Payne dropped out and was replaced by
George Montgomery, whom she found "positively loathsome". Montgomery attempted to make a pass at her during the production, prolonging his kiss with her after the director had yelled "cut". '' (1942) Later that year, O'Hara starred opposite Power,
George Sanders,
Laird Cregar and
Anthony Quinn in
Henry King's swashbuckler
The Black Swan. O'Hara recalled that it was "everything you could want in a lavish pirate picture: a magnificent ship with thundering cannons; a dashing hero battling menacing villains ... sword fights; fabulous costumes ...". She found it exhilarating working with Power, who was renowned for his "wicked sense of humor". O'Hara grew very concerned about one scene in the picture in which she is thrown overboard in her underwear by Power, and sent a warning letter home to Ireland in advance. She refused to take her wedding ring off in one scene which resulted in screen adjustments to make it look like a dinner ring. Though the film was praised by critics and is seen as one of the period's most enjoyable adventure films, the critic from
The New York Times thought O'Hara's character lacked depth, commenting that "Maureen O'Hara is brunette and beautiful—which is all the part requires". O'Hara played the love interest of
Henry Fonda in the 1943 war picture
Immortal Sergeant. O'Hara noted that Fonda was studying for his service entry exams at the time and had his head in books between takes, and that 20th Century Fox publicized one of the last love scenes between them in the film as Fonda's last screen kiss before entering the war. She next portrayed a European school teacher opposite
George Sanders and Charles Laughton, in their last film together, in
Jean Renoir's
This Land Is Mine for RKO. At the end of a court case in the film, during a hearty speech by Laughton, O'Hara is shown teary-eyed on screen for a prolonged period. Malone thought her performance was effective, both crying and smiling, though considered Renoir to have overdone the film and confused the audience as a result. Later, she had a role in
Richard Wallace's
The Fallen Sparrow opposite
John Garfield, whom she described as "my shortest leading man, an outspoken Communist and a real sweetheart". Malone states that despite the two working together effectively on the film, Garfield was not overly impressed with her acting. Malone considers
This Land is Mine and
The Fallen Sparrow to have been two important pictures in O'Hara's career, "adding to her growing prestige in the film industry", and helping her "crawl out from the gimcrack melodrama of adventure films".
1944–1949: The Queen of Technicolor Although O'Hara became known as the "Queen of Technicolor" (like
Rhonda Fleming), she professed to dislike the process because it required special cameras and intense light that burned her eyes and gave her
klieg eye. She believed that the term negatively affected her career, as most people viewed her solely as a beauty who looked good on film rather than as a talented actress. In 1944 O'Hara was cast opposite
Joel McCrea in
William A. Wellman's biographical western
Buffalo Bill. Though O'Hara did not think that McCrea was rugged enough for the part of
William F. "Buffalo Bill" Cody, and according to Malone gave her "little to work off", it did well at the box office. Contrary to O'Hara's opinion,
Variety was highly praising of the film, describing it as a "super-western and often a tear-jerker", and thought that McCrea was convincing in the part and that O'Hara's own performance was "satisfactory". in
The Spanish Main (1945) In 1945, O'Hara starred opposite
Paul Henreid in
The Spanish Main as feisty noblewoman Contessa Francesca, the daughter of a Mexican viceroy. O'Hara described it as "one of my more decorative roles", as her character is a particularly aggressive one among the men on a ship, and during the course of the film her face is smothered in chimney soot. O'Hara almost did not win the role when another actress falsely told RKO executive Joe Nolan that she was "as big as a horse" after giving birth to a daughter in 1944. Around this time "an actress named Kathryn" also falsely accused O'Hara of making sexual advances towards her in an elevator, which she believed was a way for the actress to gain attention at the start of her career. During the production of
The Spanish Main, O'Hara was visited by John Ford, who was initially turned away for being shabbily dressed, but was later admitted. He informed her about the project that would become
The Quiet Man (1952). Malone notes that in the film O'Hara "shows her determination not to leave her sexuality at the birthing stool", commenting that she looks "deliciously fragrant in the splashy histrionics on view here, in RKO's first film in the three-color Technicolor process" O'Hara became a
naturalized citizen of the United States on 24 January 1946, In the same year, she portrayed an actress with a fatal heart condition in
Walter Lang's
Sentimental Journey. A commercially successful production, O'Hara described it as a "rip-your-heart-out tearjerker that reduced my agents and the toughest brass at Fox to mush when they saw it". It was poorly received by critics, and was later declared by Harvard as the worst film of all time. One critic attacked O'Hara as "just another one of those precious Hollywood juvenile products who in workday life would benefit from a good hiding", while Bosley Crowther dismissed the film as a "compound of hackneyed situations, maudlin dialogue and preposterously bad acting". In
Gregory Ratoff's musical
Do You Love Me, O'Hara portrayed a prim, bespectacled music school dean who transforms herself into a desirable, sophisticated lady in the big city. She commented that it was "one of the worst pictures I ever made". It frustrated her that she could not put her talents to good use, to not even sing in it. and O'Hara in the trailer for
Sinbad the Sailor (1947) O'Hara was offered roles in ''
The Razor's Edge'' (1946), which went to Tierney, John Wayne's film
Tycoon (1947), which went to
Laraine Day, and
Bob Hope's
The Paleface, which went to
Jane Russell. She turned down the role in
The Paleface as she was going through a turbulent period in her personal life and "didn't think I would be able to laugh every day and have fun". She later deeply regretted turning it down and confessed that she'd made a "terrible mistake". In 1947, O'Hara starred opposite
Douglas Fairbanks Jr. as Shireen in the adventure film
Sinbad the Sailor. O'Hara plays a glamorous adventuress who assists Sinbad (Fairbanks) locate the hidden treasure of
Alexander the Great. She found the scenario to be "ridiculous", but stated that it made a "pot of money for RKO—action-adventures almost always did". Malone wrote: "O'Hara looks splendid and gets to wear some of the most stunning costumes of her career—a different one in almost every scene—but her dialogue is floridly empty. She exudes potential in early scenes, where her air of sybaritic slyness seems promise she'll be something more than window dressing", but thought the film "totally lacked drama". The critic from
The New York Times thought that O'Hara excessive costume changes made watching her an "exhausting" experience". '' (1947) After a role as the Bostonian love interest of
Cornel Wilde in Humberstone's
The Homestretch (1947), O'Hara had grown frustrated with Hollywood and took a considerable break to return to her native Ireland, where people thought she did not look well, having lost a lot of weight. While there she received a call from 20th Century Fox to portray the role of Doris Walker, the mother of Susan Walker (played by a young
Natalie Wood) in the
Christmas film,
Miracle on 34th Street (1947). It became a perennial Christmas classic, with a traditional network television airing every
Thanksgiving Day on
NBC. On Natalie Wood, O'Hara said: "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's, we had to do them at night because the store was full of people doing their Christmas shopping during the day. Natalie loved this because it meant she was allowed to stay up late. I really enjoyed this time with Natalie. We loved to walk through the quiet, closed store and look at all the toys and girls' dresses and shoes. The day she died, I cried shamelessly". The film garnered several awards, including an Academy Award nomination for Best Picture. In O'Hara's last film of 1947, she played a Creole woman opposite
Rex Harrison in
John M. Stahl's
The Foxes of Harrow; the film was set in pre-Civil War
New Orleans. TCM state that O'Hara had been "angling" to star in
Forever Amber (1947), Fox's big historical romance at the time, but believe that due to a contractual clause, neither of her joint contract owners, Fox and RKO, would accept her appearing in a "major star vehicle" at the time. The following year, O'Hara starred opposite
Robert Young in the commercially successful
comedy film,
Sitting Pretty.
Bosley Crowther of
The New York Times praised O'Hara and Young as husband and wife, remarking that they were "delightfully clever", acting with "elaborate indignation, alternating with good-natured despair". '' (1949)|left|180x180pxIn 1949, 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. She only agreed to appear in the production to meet the one-picture-a-year contractual obligation to RKO. It was a box office flop and, at the time, not well received critically—director Nicholas Ray himself was dissatisfied with it. She next had a role as a wealthy widow who falls in love with an alcoholic artist (Dana Andrews) in the Victorian melodrama The Forbidden Street'', which was shot at
Shepperton Studios in London. The film was shot on location in the
Alabama Hills of
Lone Pine, California. She "mastered the American bullwhip" during the filming, in a role which Crowther believed was "more significant than a setting sun" in that she "tackles her assignment with so much relish that the rest of the cast, even the Indians, are completely subdued." She received first billing above co-star
Macdonald Carey. O'Hara then appeared as Countess D'Arneau opposite John Payne in
Tripoli, directed by O'Hara's second husband, William Houston Price. She was next cast by John Ford in the Western
Rio Grande, the final installment of his cavalry trilogy. It was the first of five films to be made over 22 years with John Wayne, including
The Quiet Man (1952),
The Wings of Eagles (1957),
McLintock! (1963) and
Big Jake (1971), the first three of which were directed by Ford. O'Hara declared that "from our very first scenes together, working with John Wayne was comfortable for me". Her chemistry with Wayne was so powerful that over the years many people assumed that they were married, and newspapers occasionally published sensationalist stories from people claiming to be their love child. In April 1951, she received a call from Universal Pictures that she was cast as a Tunisian princess named Tanya in the swashbuckler film,
Flame of Araby (1951). O'Hara "despised" the film and everything it stood for, but had no choice but to make the film or be suspended. By that time, she began to grow tired of the roles she was offered and wanted to perform roles that had more depth than the ones she had done thus far. In 1952, 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". The film had actually been made in 1949 but was not released until 1952. The role was the most physically demanding of her career, doing her own stunts and training in the art of
fencing for six weeks under Belgian-born fencing master
Fred Cavens. She disliked director
Lewis Allen and producer
Howard Hughes, whom she thought was "cold as ice". The critic from
The New York Times appreciated O'Hara's swordsmanship in the film, stating that she was "snarling like a Fury, impales her opponents as though she were threading a needle." O'Hara next played Irish immigrant Australian-based cowgirl, Dell McGuire, in
Lewis Milestone's drama
Kangaroo (1952), set during the drought of 1900.
Kangaroo is noted for being the first Technicolor film to be shot on location in Australia, mostly shot in the desert near
Port Augusta. Although O'Hara disliked the production due to changes made to the script, she found the Australians extremely welcoming. The Australian government offered her a plot of land during the production to own permanently, but she turned it down for political reasons, only to later discover that significant oil reserves were on the land. In 1952, O'Hara starred opposite John Wayne again in Ford's romantic
comedy drama,
The Quiet Man. Shot on location in
Cong, County Mayo, Ireland, O'Hara described the film as her "personal favourite of all the pictures I have made. It is the one I am most proud of, and I tend to be very protective of it. I loved Mary Kate Danaher. I loved the hell and fire in her." Malone notes that she rarely appeared in an interview without mentioning this fact. O'Hara was disconcerted with Ford's harsh treatment of Wayne during the production and constant ribbing. Though Ford generally treated her very well, on one occasion when filming a cart scene in which the wind in her eyes made it difficult to see, Ford yelled "Open your damn eyes" and O'Hara flipped, responding with "What would a bald-headed son of a bitch like you know about hair lashing across his eyeballs?" '' (1952)
The Quiet Man was both a critical and commercial success, grossing $3.8 million domestically in its first year of release against a budget of $1.75 million. Film critic
James Berardinelli called O'Hara "the perfect match for Wayne" and that "she never allows him to steal a scene without a fight, and occasionally snatches one away from him on her own", while film critic and
sports writer Danny Peary praised their chemistry, "exhibiting strength" through "love, vulnerability and tenderness". According to
Harry Carey Jr., who noted that O'Hara held a strong gaze with Wayne in all of the films they made together, director Ford was uncomfortable with the romantic scenes in the film and refused to shoot the scene until the last day. The film was nominated for six Academy Awards including Best Picture, though O'Hara was devastated at not even being nominated for an award. Film director
Martin Scorsese called
The Quiet Man "one of the greatest movies of all time", and in 1996 it topped a poll of the greatest films in the
Irish Times. O'Hara's last release of 1952 was
Against All Flags opposite
Errol Flynn, marking her only collaboration with the actor. O'Hara, knowing Flynn's reputation as a womanizer, was on close guard during the production. Though she "respected him professionally and was quite fond of him personally" she found Flynn's alcoholism a problem and remarked that "if the director prohibited alcohol on the set, then Errol would inject oranges with booze and eat them during breaks". According to
Steve Jacques, O'Hara outdid Flynn in the combat scenes, many of which had to be cut from the final version to protect Flynn's heroic image. The film was a commercially successful venture. The following year she appeared in
The Redhead from Wyoming, which she dismissed as "another western stinkeroo for Universal", and appeared in another western with Jeff Chandler,
War Arrow. O'Hara noted that "Jeff was a real sweetheart, but acting with him was like acting with a broomstick". '' (1952) In 1954, O'Hara starred in
Malaga, also known as
Fire over Africa, which was shot on location in Spain. O'Hara played a
Mata Hari-like character, a secret agent who attempts to find the ringleader of a smuggling ring in
Tangiers. Malone compares the relationship in the film between O'Hara as Joanne and Macdonald Carey as agent Van Logan to that of
Bogart and
Bacall, with frequent verbal sparring. The
Monthly Film Bulletin wrote: "Maureen O'Hara looks very handsome in Technicolor but her expressions are limited—mostly to disgust at shooting smugglers or pulling knives from dying men". In 1955, 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. John Wayne had originally intended co-starring, but due to a conflicting schedule O'Hara recommended Tyrone Power in replacement. Malone notes that the Irish accents by O'Hara and Power are overdone, and that there is little trace of a
Donegal accent in it. The film production marked the lowest point of O'Hara's relationship with Ford, and each day he would greet her with "Well, did Herself have a good shit this morning?". He would ask the crew if she was in a good mood, and if that was the case, he would say "then we're going to have a horrible day" and vice versa. He would provoke her by telling her to "move her fat Irish ass". Their relationship deteriorated further when O'Hara reportedly saw him kissing an actor on set; Ford knew that she thought he was a closeted homosexual. In
The Magnificent Matador, O'Hara played a spoiled, wealthy American who falls in love with a brooding, tormented, about-to-retire matador (Anthony Quinn) in Mexico.
Ava Gardner, who was dating a bullfighter in real life,
Luis Miguel Dominguín, and
Lana Turner were considered for O'Hara's part of Karen Harrison. The film was panned by the critics. One of her best-known roles came later year, playing
Lady Godiva in
Lady Godiva of Coventry. Contrary to what Universal claimed to the press, O'Hara was not nude in the film, wearing a "full-length body leotard and underwear that was concealed by my long tresses". '' (1956) In December 1955, O'Hara negotiated a new five-picture contract with Columbia Pictures boss
Harry Cohn, with $85,000 per picture. The following year, she starred in the Portuguese-set melodramatic mystery film
Lisbon for
Republic Pictures. For the first time in her career she played a villain, and remarked that "
Bette Davis was right—bitches
are fun to play". In the film, the first Hollywood production to be shot in Portugal, she is caught in a love triangle with
Ray Milland and
Claude Rains, who according to Malone both attempted to "outsuave each other" during the whole production. Later that year she made
Everything But the Truth for Universal, at a time in her career when she was trying to distance herself from adventure films. O'Hara thought the film was so bad that neither she nor her family saw it, though she enjoyed working with
John Forsythe. In 1957, 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. Malone wrote that "Wayne and O'Hara interact well in these early scenes, giving effortless performances and exhibiting a strong chemistry. One can sense the offscreen friendship in little nuances between them". Though not a major commercial success, it fared better in the eyes of the critics. The relationship between O'Hara and Ford grew increasingly bitter, and that year he referred to her as a "greedy bitch" to director
Joseph McBride, who had shown an interest in casting her for
The Rising of the Moon. O'Hara later referred to him as an "instant conman" who would say the opposite of what he felt and said of his bitterness: "He wanted to be born in Ireland and he wanted to be an Irish rebel. The fact that he wasn't left him very bitter".
1959–2000: Later career Although O'Hara was consciously moving away from adventure films, an ongoing court case against
Confidential magazine in 1957 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. During this period away from film she took lessons in singing to improve her abilities. O'Hara had a
soprano voice and described singing as her first love, which she was able to channel through television. In the late 1950s and early 1960s, she was a guest on musical variety shows with
Perry Como,
Andy Williams,
Betty Grable and
Tennessee Ernie Ford. In 1960, O'Hara starred on
Broadway in the musical
Christine which ran for 12 performances. It was a problematic production, and the director,
Jerome Chodorov, was so displeased with it that he requested that his name be removed from the credits. She found her Broadway failure to be a "major disappointment" and returned to Hollywood. That year she released two recordings, ''Love Letters from Maureen O'Hara
and Maureen O'Hara Sings her Favorite Irish Songs
. She described Love Letters from Maureen O'Hara'', a moderate success, as an act of revenge, given that Hollywood would not let her appear in a musical. '' (1961) In 1959, 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. O'Hara beat Lauren Bacall to the role as she was busy with other engagements. Though the film was critically acclaimed, Crowther of
The New York Times felt that the characters of O'Hara and the daughter could have been made "more humorous and spirited than they are". The following year, O'Hara appeared in the CBS television film,
Mrs. Miniver, but despite some critics approving her performance, most thought that the remake was ill-timed and that she could not top
Greer Garson's performance in the 1942 Oscar-winning film. In 1961, O'Hara portrayed Kit Tilden in the western
The Deadly Companions,
Sam Peckinpah's feature-film debut. Playing against stereotype as the strong, aggressive redhead, she plays a character who is vulnerable to rape and violence from men. The plot involves her traveling across
Apache territory with an ex-Sergeant to bury her young son next to his father in the desert. Malone considered her character in the film to be "radically underdeveloped". While O'Hara acknowledged that Peckinpah later "reached icon status as a great director of westerns", she thought he was "just awful" and "one of the strangest and most objectionable people I had ever worked with". Later that year she starred in
The Parent Trap, one of her most popular films, opposite a young
Hayley Mills. Filmed just before
The Deadly Companions (but released just after), she co-starred with
Brian Keith in both films. O'Hara credits Mills for the success of the film, remarking that "she really did bring two different girls to life in the movie" and wrote that "Sharon and Susan were so believable that I'd sometimes forget myself and look for the other one when Hayley and I were standing around the set". Malone notes that this was the film that she "made a transition from comely maiden to trendy mother", one which received some of the best critical plaudits of her career. O'Hara was subsequently involved in a legal dispute with
Walt Disney, backed by the
Screen Actors Guild, over billing for the film. She never worked for Disney again. ,
John Wayne, O'Hara and
Chill Wills in
McLintock! (1963) , Ireland The following year, O'Hara appeared opposite
James Stewart in
Mr. Hobbs Takes a Vacation, about a family vacation in a dilapidated house on the beach. She played Peggy, the wife of Hobbs (Stewart), a character who is very family-oriented and talkative. Though the two became friends, O'Hara confessed that she was not happy with the dynamic between her and Stewart onscreen, commenting that "every scene revolves around Jimmy Stewart. I was never allowed to really play out a single scene in the picture. He was a remarkable actor, but not a generous one". With the success of
The Parent Trap and
Mr. Hobbs Takes a Vacation, O'Hara felt that her career had been given a new lease of life. She united with Henry Fonda after 20 years to appear in ''
Spencer's Mountain (1963), roughly based on the novel by Earl Hamner Jr. The film was shot on location in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, the same place that the classic 1953 western Shane'' was shot. O'Hara played Olivia Spencer, the devout Christian wife of Fonda's atheist character, who during the course of the film sings a hymn at an outdoor funeral. Though Malone considers her to have given a "commendable performance", he thought she lacked chemistry with Fonda and notes that the film came at a difficult period in his life, with the breakdown of his third marriage. It was poorly received by the critics at the time, but fared well at the box office. Later in 1963 she starred with John Wayne in
Andrew V. McLaglen's Technicolor comedic western,
McLintock!. O'Hara performed many of her own stunts in the film, including one scene where she falls backwards off a ladder into a trough. '' in 1965 In late 1964, O'Hara went to Italy to shoot
The Battle of the Villa Fiorita (1965) with
Rossano Brazzi. O'Hara played a British woman who leaves her diplomat husband in England for an Italian pianist (Brazzi). She had high expectations for the film but soon realized that Brazzi was miscast. She was so frustrated with the finished film, which was a box office flop, that she cried. O'Hara made her last picture with James Stewart the following year in the comedic western,
The Rare Breed. Malone thought that she modeled her performance on
Julie Andrews, "adopting a schoolmarmish voice and demeanor that ill befit her", and coming out with pious statements like "cleanliness is next to godliness". In 1970, O'Hara starred opposite
Jackie Gleason in
How Do I Love Thee?. During filming in the summer of 1969, O'Hara was involved in an accident on set with Gleason when he tripped on a Cyclone wire fence, falling heavily on her hand, which was resting on it. She later required orthopedic surgery to correct the injury. Though she got on well with Gleason, O'Hara remarked that it was a "terrible film. The script was awful, and the director couldn't fix it". The film was poorly received critically, with
The Guardian calling it "the most mawkish film of the year/decade/era". In October of that year, she made her last film with Wayne in
Big Jake (1971), shot on location in
Durango, Mexico. Director Budd Boetticher cast O'Hara as he believed that she and Wayne had chemistry which was "head and shoulders" over those of other leading actresses at the time. After
Big Jake, O'Hara retired from the industry. In 1972, she professed to strongly disapprove of the way Hollywood was going, "making dirty pictures", and she wanted no part of it. That year, she was asked to give a speech at the Lifetime Achievement Award ceremony for John Ford, which was the last occasion she saw him before his death on 31 August 1973. After a 20-year retirement from the film industry, O'Hara returned to the screen in 1991 to star opposite
John Candy in the romantic comedy drama
Only the Lonely. She played Rose Muldoon, the domineering Irish mother of a
Chicago cop (Candy), who has an indifference to Sicilians. The film reunited her with Anthony Quinn who plays her brief love interest, Nick the Greek. O'Hara stated of her return: "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'd been away". She described Candy as "one of my all-time favorite leading men", and was surprised by the extent of his talent, remarking that he was a "comedic genius but an actor with an extraordinary dramatic talent" who very much reminded her of Charles Laughton. In the following years, she continued to work, starring in several made-for-TV films, including
The Christmas Box,
Cab to Canada with
Catherine Bell, and
The Last Dance before retiring permanently in 2000. ==Reception and character==