Maureen O'Hara: The Irish Colleen Who Tamed The Duke

Born in Dublin Maureen O'Hara was acting on radio as a child and made her stage debut at 16. At 18 she came to Lon- don and was spotted by Charles Laughton who suggested her for the lead in Alfred Hitchcock's last British film Jamaica Inn. Laughton requested her again when he went to Hollywood in 1939 to play Quasimodo in The Hunchback of Notre Dame and she made a wonderful Esmeralda.

Staying in America, she soon began to become known for her action roles, and the stunts that she insisted on doing herself. She once so outshone Errol Flynn in a swash-buckling adventure that he insisted that most of her action footage be left on the cutting-room floor.

There were five films with her favourite co-star John Wayne and the big man emerged from McLintock! nursing a badly-bruised cheekbone. 'Maureen just doesn't know how to pull her punches,' he grumbled!