Maureen O'Hara

Miracle on 34th Street / The Christmas Box

Co-starring Maureen O’Hara Miracle on 34th street is one of the best Christmas movies of all time. Here is a biography of Maureen O’Hara and her movie career.

Full Name: Maureen O'Hara
DOB: 17-8-1920
DOD:
Where born: Dublin, Ireland

When Maureen O'Hara starred as Doris Walker in the original version of Miracle on 34th Street 1947 , she was already well established as a movie actress.

The red-haired Irish beauty had been appearing in films for almost a decade, having had roles in Kicking the Moon Around, as Eileen O'Shea in the tear-jerker My Irish Molly, both released in 1938.

Despite appearing in Miracle on 34th Street, a film so associated with Christmas, Maureen did not appear in any more festive season movies.

However, as the Irish beauty became as associated with television as she was with cinema, she starred as Mary Parking in The Christmas Box, a TV movie, in 1995.

Maureen O'Hara with Edmund Gwenn

Maureen's appearance in Miracle on 34th Street still brings her into the public's homes, as well their hearts, every festive season with the movie still getting regular TV airings.

Indeed, her official website proudly boasts that once after Mass in New York, a child asked her “Are you the lady who knows Santa Claus”? Which just goes to show the legacy Miracle on 34th Street has bequeathed the world!

Maureen O'Hara, nee Fitzsimmons, enjoyed her first taste of show business as teenager in her native Ireland. At 14 she joined the renowned Abbey Theatre in Dublin where she hoped to be involved in classical theatre and operatic singing.

However, this Irish girl's talents took her down another route and by the age of 19 she had appeared in her third motion picture, Jamaica Inn.

Maureen went on to appear in over 50 movies, her final picture being Only the Lonely in 1991, in which she appeared alongside John Candy. Her television career was almost as prolific and in 2000 she appeared as Helen Parker in her final TV movie The Last Dance.

Maureen's talents were not limited to acting. In 1978 she was elected as CEO and President of Antilles Airboats following the death of her third husband Charles F Blair. She was the first ever female chief of an airline in the United States, before later selling the company.

So actress and airline chief, Maureen O'Hara has seemingly fitted in several lifetimes during her 90 years.

But whenever her name is mentioned, her role in that famous Christmas movie Miracle on 34th Street is the first thing which comes into people's minds. maureenoharamaureenohara

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