MAUREEN O'HARA was known as much for her fiery persona as she was her incredible beauty.
She arrived in Hollywood when she was still a teenager, and almost immediately, clashed with the men who ran the movie business.
In her own words, “I acted, punched, swashbuckled, and shot my way through an absurdly masculine profession…. As a woman, I’m proud to say that I stood toe-to-toe with the best of them.”
In the wake of the Harvey Weinstein scandal and everything that follow, a newspaper article from 1945 resurfaced showing how she wasn't prepared to put up with the disgraceful behaviour that was common place in the industry even then.
The article describes how O'Hara "charged Hollywood producers and directors with calling her a 'cold potato without sex appeal' because she refuses to let them make love to her."
"I am so upset with it that I am ready to quit Hollywood," O'Hara is quoted as saying. "It's got so bad I hate to come to work in the morning. I am a helpless victim of a Hollywood whispering campaign."
She adds: "Because I don't let the producer and director kiss me every morning or let them paw me they have spread word around town that I am not a woman."
"It's that's Hollywood's idea of a woman I'm ready to quit now."
A powerful and prescient message, O'Hara's words will resonate with millions of actors across the planet today.
Born Maureen Fitzsimons in Co. Dublin in 1920, one of six children, O’Hara began acting at age six with the encouragement of her parents.
Her father was a football player, her mother an actress and singer.
She came to Hollywood to star in 1939’s The Hunchback of Notre Dame and went on to a long career.
How Green Was My Valley, a touching 1941 drama about a Welsh mining family, won five Oscars including best picture.
The flame-haired actress became John Wayne’s favourite leading lady, appearing with him in The Quiet Man and other films.
And she was little Natalie Wood’s mother in the Christmas classic Miracle on 34th Street.
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