Maureen O'Hara: 'She was calling out the Harvey Weinsteins of the day 70 years ago'

A new documentary delves into the fascinating life of the Quiet Man star who spent some of her happiest times in West Cork 
Maureen O'Hara: 'She was calling out the Harvey Weinsteins of the day 70 years ago'

Maureen O'Hara and John Wayne in The Quiet Man. 

Apart from being arguably Ireland’s greatest film actor, Maureen O’Hara was one helluva lady, which comes across in a charming TG4 documentary to be screened on Christmas Day. As John Wayne – who’s forever linked with her from co-starring together on several classic films, most notably The Quiet Man – remarked: “The greatest guy I ever knew.” 

When O’Hara arrived in Hollywood in the 1940s, she was mainly cast as the leading lady in decorative roles, which came with steamy publicity trailers like those for Baghdad (“love on hot desert sands, the story of a princess with a hundred moods”) or Sinbad the Sailor (“Shireen, beautiful and dangerous, who had flame in her hair”).

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