Maureen O'Hara- Biography & Discussion

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  • Gerry,

    That is super! Great job and thanks for sharing it with us! Can't want to see the future installments!

    Tbone



    "I have tried to live my life so that my family would love me and my friends respect me. The others can do whatever the hell they please."

  • She probably misses the old life... lots of fun and excitement. All of us are getting to an age where we see our friends dying off and that's pretty depressing. 20 out of my senior class are gone already. She made an excellent leading lady for The Duke.



  • I appreciate ytour comment about Maureen O'Hara in the "The Shootist", instead of Bacall. I would have preferred M.O. to Bacall as the leading lady. I thought Bacall was good, but I think M.O. could have given the character more edge and flavor. Plus, her firey hair would have matched Ron Howard's red better!!

  • Our favorite John Wayne costar has been Maureen O'Hara. The fact that they only were in (5) five pictures together is hard to believe. The movies are:
    Rio Grande
    The Wings of Eagles
    The Quite Man
    Big Jake
    McLintock!

    With the movies that both actors have done, what movies would you like to have seen them together?

    In a Duke movie, I would love to see Maureen O'Hara play with Duke in Rio Bravo. Now that movie would ROCK! Seeing O'Hara play Feathers would have been so much better, and I would have loved to see Dean Martin & Maureen O'Hara have some scenes together. I don't think they ever did anything together.

    In a O'Hara movie, what would you think of them playing together in The Parent Trap. the only problem in that movie is it would have been better if the movie was made in 1951 instead of 1961. In 1961 he was around 54 years old. I think he would have been a little too old for that part.

    What movies would you like to see John Wayne & Maureen O'Hara play together in?

    Cheers :cool: Hondo



    Quote

    "When you come slam bang up against trouble, it never looks half as bad if you face up to it"

    - John Wayne quote

  • There should have been many more. She was a brilliant actress and acted amazingly well with Duke. I almost think she would have been better as the woman in The Shootist. And I think he would have been good with her in The Rare Breed.

  • And I think he would have been good with her in The Rare Breed.



    DakotaSurfer,

    Which part are you talking about? The James Stewart part or the Brian Keith part?

    Cheers :cool:



    Quote

    "When you come slam bang up against trouble, it never looks half as bad if you face up to it"

    - John Wayne quote

  • Even though I really liked Laraine Day with Duke in Tycoon, I was thinking during the movie how much Maureen would have brought to that part. Guess she would not have passed for a Spanish maiden though...And I am with Dakota on The Shootist as well. I did not see any chemistry between Bacall and Duke....Maureen would have brought a spark back into Duke's eye, I'll tell ya.....and a skip in his step...:hyper:

  • Bacall did play a good stuffy old woman. And in a way made Duke's part standout. Maybe Maureen would have added maybe a cat fight between her and his ex-girlfriend that want to marry him? :teeth_smile:

  • I think Bacall did a great job in The Shootist and there was a tender chemistry that built between them as they got to know each other. O'Hara wouldn't be good for that part, because she would have tossed Books out on his caboose long before she called Marshall Thibidoe. :wink_smile:

    Mark

    "I couldn't go to sleep at night if the director didn't call 'cut'. "

  • Hondo,

    I agree with you that Rio Bravo and Parent Trap would have been great with the Duke and Maureen in it!

    As to the discussion of Bacall being a better fit in the Shootist, I think she did very well and don't want to argue it.

    But, from a "all things being right with the world" perspective, it would have been nice for Maureen to have been opposite Duke in his last film. She's such a quality actress, she could have played the part however they needed it IMHO.

    Tbone



    "I have tried to live my life so that my family would love me and my friends respect me. The others can do whatever the hell they please."

  • How about Duke and O'Hara in The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance? Can you imagine Duke losing O'Hara to Stewart?

    And from the other side of the isle, Let's try Miracle on 34th Street. Duke playing a lawyer trying to win the hand of O'Hara? He's worked with Natalie Wood in The Searchers year later.

    Cheers :cool:



    Quote

    "When you come slam bang up against trouble, it never looks half as bad if you face up to it"

    - John Wayne quote

  • Gee, I don't know. I think a reindeer with a saddle on it might look kind of weird. Although I always wish that psychiatrist had gotten a punch in the snoot.

    "John Wayne is not just an actor and a very fine actor,John Wayne is the United States of America."

  • I would also find it surprising. I've never heard anything negative about Jimmy Stewart - not even one word. I haven't spent a lot of time studying him, but you get ideas about people from seeing them on screen, and when those ideas are largely borne out by what you hear over the years you sort of form a pretty solid opinion of a person. I thought everyone liked him.

    Of course, it's hard to tell what you mean by Jimmy Stewart not being inspiring to her. Please clarify, and give us some facts, if you can. :smile:



    The only bad things I have heard about Stewart is that he was a racist and that he fell out with Anthony Mann over a western called Night Passage. Does anyone know why Maureen didn't like him?

  • Hi Cole

    I have never heard that Jimmy Stewart was a racist. I think this might be the old Ford story of how he tricked Stewart into criticising Woody Strode role in Who Shot Liberty Valance by describing it as Uncle Tom.

    The references in Maureen's book to Stewart are as follows:-


    "I discovered that in a Jimmy Stewart movie that every scenes revolves around Jimmy Stewart. I was never allowed to really play out a single scene in the picture. He is a remarkable actor but not a generous one"


    Later when she starred in The Rare Breed with Jimmy Stewart and when she stole a scene from him. Later in the day Stewart suddenly became unwell with a mysterious illness and went home.


    "When I showed up for work the next day to finish the scene, new pages of script were handed out. The scene had been completely rewritten overnight and was now impossible for me to steal."


    She regarded Rare Breed as a total flop and only praised Brian Keith who also starred in the movie.



    The only other fact that I know about Stewart was that he parted company pretty disgracefully with director Anthony Mann after a dispute with how much credit Mann was getting for invigorating Stewart's career with the westerns he made with him in the 1950s. Ironically after the rift neither of them enjoyed the success they had when they worked as a team.



    Mike

  • The only other fact that I know about Stewart was that he parted company pretty disgracefully with director Anthony Mann after a dispute with how much credit Mann was getting for invigorating Stewart's career with the westerns he made with him in the 1950s. Ironically after the rift neither of them enjoyed the success they had when they worked as a team.



    I had read that Mann was unhappy with the weak script that was 'Night Passage', and he wanted it reworked before shooting was to start. Also, Stewart insisted on playing the accordian and singing in the film, which Mann felt would stop the film dead in tracks whenever those scenes happened. Mann left the project and this began a riff between the two, that was never mended.

    Mann was, in retrospect, correct. Night Passage was certainly the weakest of all Jimmy Stewart's 1950-era westerns. It's one saving grace is the beautiful technicolor photography, especially one long tracking scene, done from a train cutting thru the side of a mountain.

  • I think we've had quite a few new members since this thread last saw the light of day, so I thought I'd (bump) it back to the front.


    I also see that we never commented on the topic the first time around . . . must have missed it . . . .


    Here's another O'Hara vehicle where it might have been interesting to see Duke, as the interested, amorous neighbor in Only the Lonely.


    Chester :newyear: