Maureen O’Hara started her acting career with her real name, Maureen FitzSimons. Raised in a loving Irish family, O’Hara’s mother, Mammy, introduced all her children to the arts. O’Hara’s parents gathered the children together every night and the family would sing songs before retiring.
O’Hara Wins Acting Competition
At age twelve, O’Hara won an acting competition at a prominent acting festival. The next day her picture appeared on the front page of the newspaper, Irish Independent. For the previous six years, O’Hara took lessons in acting, dancing, and singing. After winning the contest, she continued lessons until she made her first movie at the age of seventeen.
When she turned fourteen, O’Hara joined the Abbey Theater. O’Hara started at the bottom and for three years, she painted, helped build sets, and cleaned. Finally, at the age of seventeen, O’Hara landed the lead role of a play and her good fortunes began.
While having dinner with her parents, the manager of the hotel introduced them to Harry Richman, a famous singer at the time. A few days later Richman arranged a screen test for O’Hara in London. At first, she refused, as she wanted to be a theater actress and not a movie star. Her mother quickly straightened her out and O’Hara did the screen test.
O’Hara Meets Charles Laughton
Immediately after the screen test, O’Hara went to Connie’s talent agency and signed a contract. Vere Barker, one of the owners of the agency, asked O’Hara to meet someone before she went back to Ireland. The agency directed her to Mayflower pictures. When she arrived at the Mayflower office, she was surprised to meet Charles Laughton. O’Hara thought the world of Laughton and loved his work in The Private Life of Henry VIII and Mutiny on the Bounty.
Laughton and O’Hara engaged in small talk for a bit, and then Laughton asked her if she liked movies. O’Hara replied, “Oh, I don’t go to many movies. I only go to Charles Laughton movies and Laurel and Hardy movies.” Laughton’s eyes twinkled and then he asked her if she would mind doing a reading. For some inexplicable reason O’Hara declined to do the reading.
The Mesmerizing Eyes of O’Hara Capture Laughton’s Heart
After their meeting, Laughton went to the studio that O’Hara had done her screen test. Laughton thought the screen test was awful, yet he would later say he fell in love with O’Hara’s eyes. Laughton asked his business partner, Erich Pommer, to watch the test and Pommer’s reaction was the same; her eyes mesmerized both men. When O’Hara arrived back at her home in Ireland a telegram was waiting for her. The telegram contained an offer for a seven-year contract with Mayflower pictures.
O’Hara was still only seventeen and thus her parents had to sign the contract. Her parents accepted the offer because they knew of O’Hara’s ambition and they could not turn down such a wonderful offer. The local priest, Father James Doyle, witnessed the contract, and at age seventeen, Maureen FitzSimons, officially became the protégé of Laughton.
O’Hara Makes Jamaica Inn with Alfred Hitchcock
The first picture the young FitzSimons made, My Irish Molly, was a low budget flick and the only movie in which she used her real name. Alfred Hitchcock directed her next movie, Jamaica Inn. Before the filming of Jamaica Inn, Laughton called FitzSimons into his office and told her she needed a name change. He gave her a choice of O’Mara or O’Hara. The young FitzSimons protested to no avail, and when she left the office, she became Maureen O’Hara.
Laughton and O’Hara were the stars of the film and O’Hara looked up to him as a second father. Laughton was enamored with O’Hara and thought of her as a daughter. In fact, he once asked O’Hara’s parents if he could adopt her. As Laughton and his wife were childless, the offer was probably not a jest.
O’Hara thought that Laughton was an outstanding actor and she said that she found a hidden strength within herself in order to share the screen with him. After the premier of Jamaica Inn, the newspapers in England dubbed O’Hara, “the girl with black-cherry eyes.” The next movie the two made together involved O’Hara’s first trip to America.
Laughton and O’Hara Sail the Queen Mary to America
On her mother’s birthday in June 1939, Laughton, O’Hara, and Mammy set sail for America onboard the Queen Mary. The headlines in one British newspaper read, “Beauty and the Beast Leave for Hollywood.”Within a week of arriving in Hollywood, O’Hara started work on RKO studio’s production of The Hunchback of Notre Dame. Laughton starred as Quasimodo and O’Hara as Esmeralda.
Two Hundred Monkeys Make a Mess
The director of the film, William Dieterle, had a strong German accent. The accent led to a comical day on the set. O’Hara arrived at work to find the town square of the set full of chimpanzees, baboons, and gorillas. The primates had littered the area with smelly feces and made quite a mess. When the director arrived he screamed, “Mein Gott! Vat is diss?” The assistant answered that they were the two hundred monkeys that Dieterle had ordered the day before. Dieterle replied, “No you idyet! I vonted two hundred priests, I vonted monks, not monkeys. After cleaning up the set, the crew continued filming the movie.
World War II Begins
The filming continued without incident until the first of September. That fateful day Germany invaded Poland and the war in Europe began. Laughton was distressed and after a bit of silence he rose from his chair and recited the Gettysburg address. O’Hara described the scene as surreal, as Laughton recited the speech while in his Quasimodo outfit. O’Hara later said it was the finest piece of acting she ever saw.
Two days later England declared war on Germany. Laughton rang the church bells on the set until he collapsed from exhaustion. O’Hara asked him why he did it and he said, I could only think of the poor people out there going to fight that bloody, bloody, war. To arouse the world, to stop that terrible butchery! Awake! Awake! That’s all I could feel.” The film was a huge success and made RKO studios over three million dollars on its release.
After the release of Hunchback, Laughton informed O’Hara that RKO studios purchased her contract. O’Hara was hurt, but later found out that Mayflower pictures was bankrupt. The two remained friends until Laughton died in 1962. O’Hara lauded him as an immense talent, with an eloquent voice and a magical gleam in his eye. The finest compliment she paid Laughton was to say his death was like losing a parent.
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Maureen O’Hara, Lucille Ball, and Desi Arnaz
Reference:
O’Hara, Maureen and Nicolletti, John. ‘Tis Herself, A Memoir. New York, N.Y. Simon & Schuster, 2004.
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