Maureen O'Hara Net Worth

What is Maureen O'Hara's Net Worth?

Maureen O'Hara was an Irish actress who had a net worth of $10 million at the time of her death in 2015. Maureen O'Hara was a major star during Hollywood's Golden Age. Among her credits were many films directed by John Ford, including "How Green Was My Valley," "Rio Grande," and "The Quiet Man," as well as such films as "The Black Swan," "Miracle on 34th Street," "Sinbad the Sailor," and "The Parent Trap." During her late career, O'Hara helped run her husband's flying business in the US Virgin Islands and edited the Virgin Islander magazine. Maureen O'Hara died on October 24, 2015 at the age of 95.

Early Life and Education

Maureen O'Hara was born as Maureen FitzSimons on August 17, 1920 in Dublin, Ireland as the second of six children of Marguerite and Charles, and the only one with red hair. Both of her parents worked in the clothing business, and her mother was a former operatic contralto. A tomboy growing up, O'Hara fished, swam, rode horses, and played soccer, and as a teenager she trained in judo. She was educated at the John Street West Girls' School and the Ena May Burke School of Drama and Elocution. At the age of 10, she began doing amateur theater at the Rathmines Theatre Company, and at 14 she joined the Abbey Theatre. O'Hara also went to the Guildhall School of Music, graduating in 1936. The following year, she won the Dawn Beauty Competition.

Career Beginnings in Film

Following a screen test in London in 1937, which greatly impressed actor Charles Laughton and his producing partner Erich Pommer, O'Hara signed a seven-year contract with the men's new production company, Mayflower Pictures. She went on to make her film debut with a brief part in the 1938 musical comedy "Kicking the Moon Around." O'Hara followed that with a starring role in the musical "My Irish Molly." She had an even bigger role in Alfred Hitchcock's "Jamaica Inn," which came out in 1939 and co-starred Charles Laughton. O'Hara reunited with Laughton in that year's "The Hunchback of Notre Dame," her Hollywood debut. The film was a commercial success for RKO. Staying with RKO in the early 1940s, O'Hara appeared in "A Bill of Divorcement," "Dance, Girl, Dance," and "They Met in Argentina."

Hollywood Success in the 1940s and '50s

O'Hara had her breakout role in the 1941 drama "How Green Was My Valley," her first film at 20th Century Fox and her first of many collaborations with director John Ford. Highly acclaimed, the film ended up winning the Academy Award for Best Picture. O'Hara subsequently began starring in Technicolor films, starting with "To the Shores of Tripoli" in 1942. Also that year, she was in the Western "Ten Gentlemen from West Point" and the swashbuckler "The Black Swan." In 1943, O'Hara starred opposite Henry Fonda in "Immortal Sergeant"; opposite Charles Laughton and George Sanders in "This Land is Mine"; and opposite John Garfield in "The Fallen Sparrow." Around this time, she earned the nickname 'Queen of Technicolor,' as the process emphasized her bright red hair and green eyes. She next starred in "Buffalo Bill," "The Spanish Main," "Sentimental Journey," and "Do You Love Me." In 1947, O'Hara had a major commercial hit with the RKO adventure film "Sinbad the Sailor," and also starred in "The Homestretch," "Miracle on 34th Street," and "The Foxes of Harrow."

At the end of the 1940s, O'Hara starred in the comedy "Sitting Pretty," the film noir "A Woman's Secret," the melodrama "The Forbidden Street," the comedy "Father Was a Fullback," and the adventure film "Bagdad." The lattermost title, her first for Universal Pictures, was a box-office smash. Kicking off the 1950s, O'Hara starred in the Westerns "Comanche Territory" and "Rio Grande" and the adventure film "Tripoli." In "Rio Grande," directed by John Ford, O'Hara had her first of five pairings with John Wayne. After starring in "Flame of Araby" and "At Sword's Point," she reunited with Wayne in Ford's 1952 romance "The Quiet Man," which was shot on location in Ireland. The film was a critical and commercial success, winning Ford a record fourth Academy Award for Best Director. O'Hara considered it her favorite of all of her films. She next starred in "Against All Flags," "The Redhead from Wyoming," "War Arrow," and "Malaga." In 1955, O'Hara starred in her fourth film directed by Ford, "The Long Gray Line." By this time, her relationship with Ford had seriously deteriorated. Also in 1955, she starred in "The Magnificent Matador" and "Lady Godiva of Coventry."

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Later Film Career

In 1956, O'Hara played a rare villain role in "Lisbon," the first Hollywood film shot in Portugal. Later in the year, she starred in the comedy "Everything But the Truth." In 1957, O'Hara starred in her fifth and final film by John Ford, "The Wings of Eagles," co-starring John Wayne. After that, she took a break from the big screen due to back surgery that put her in a full-body brace for four months. O'Hara made her return in the 1959 British spy comedy "Our Man in Havana," starring Alec Guinness. Following an unsuccessful stint on Broadway in 1960, she starred in "The Deadly Companions" and the popular Disney film "The Parent Trap" in 1961. O'Hara's subsequent credits were "Mr. Hobbs Takes a Vacation," with James Stewart; "Spencer's Mountain," with Henry Fonda; and "McLintock!," with John Wayne. She reunited with Stewart in "The Rare Breed" in 1966.

Having not appeared on film in four years, O'Hara returned in 1970 to star opposite Jackie Gleason in "How Do I Love Thee?" The following year, she made her final film with John Wayne, the Western "Big Jake." After that, O'Hara retired from Hollywood, expressing disapprobation over the direction in which it was going. Nearly 20 years later, in 1991, she came out of retirement to star opposite John Candy in Chris Columbus's romantic dramedy "Only the Lonely." Although that film marked O'Hara's final appearance on the silver screen, she starred in a number of television films over the ensuing years, including "The Christmas Box," "Cab to Canada," and "The Last Dance." Her final film, "The Last Dance" premiered in 2000.

Personal Life and Death

O'Hara was married three times. She wed her first husband, Englishman George Brown, secretly in 1939. The marriage was annulled two years later. O'Hara subsequently wed director William Price in late 1941. With Price, she had her only child, a daughter named Bronwyn. The marriage ultimately fell apart due to Price's alcoholism, leading to divorce in 1951. In 1953, O'Hara began a relationship with wealthy Mexican politician Enrique Parra, with whom she stayed until 1967. After leaving Parra, she married aviation pioneer Charles F. Blair Jr. in 1968. O'Hara became CEO and president of Blair's airline, Antilles Air Boats, which was based in the US Virgin Islands. She also became the editor of the travel magazine the Virgin Islander. In 1978, Blair died when the plane he was piloting crashed.

After selling her magazine and her late husband's airline in the early 1980s, O'Hara began spending more time in Glengarriff, Ireland, where she established a golf tournament. Later in the decade, her home in the Virgin Islands was destroyed in a hurricane, and she had six successive heart attacks that led to her undergoing an angioplasty. Following a stroke in 2005, O'Hara permanently moved to Glengarriff. However, in 2012, while suffering from short-term memory loss, she returned to the United States and moved in with her grandson in Boise, Idaho. On October 24, 2015, O'Hara passed away in her sleep. She was interred at Arlington National Cemetery in Virginia beside her late husband Charles F. Blair Jr.

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