One of the greatest ladies with a capital "L". I would have loved her in THE KING AND I film that she was about to be cast as Anna, but Rodgers wanted Deborah Kerr and while it became one of Kerr's best roles, O'Hara's singing would've been very beautiful to hear.
^I heard on the THE KING AND I 50th anniversary DVD commentary that O'Hara did sing "Hello Young Lovers" on a show from the 50's. I wish I could find the footage of that.
^Thank you so much, her singing reminds me so much of Gertrude Lawrence if she was younger. Deborah was a great Anna who had equal star power to Yul (he actually wanted her to play the role), if she was too busy, I guess Rodgers would've had no choice to cast O'Hara despite of what he thought of her (he loved her singing, but he thought of her as a "pirate queen").
Sad, but she had a good innings. 95's not so bad. I'm glad she lived long enough to get her overdue honorary Oscar last year.
Maureen O’Hara is one of the many, many great stars who never won an Oscar. More surprisingly, she never even managed a nomination. The Academy rectified the situation in time (just) when she was granted an honorary Oscar last year.
Only she and the equally great Myrna Loy have received honorary statuettes for careers in acting without having been previously nominated. She was frail, but she still looked rather fabulous. “What’s this?” she commented. “I only hope it’s silver or gold and not like a spoon out of the kitchen.” Her Dublin accent remained almost entirely unaltered.