As the object of John Ford’s infatuation, Maureen O’Hara bore the brunt of the director’s abuse
Irish actress Maureen O’Hara frequently worked with Golden Hollywood director John Ford.
The pair did five films together over a 20-year period, most notably the Best Picture Oscar-winning How Green Was My Valley and The Quiet Man. Yet behind the scenes of their successful on-screen partnership was a volatile off-screen relationship.
Ford’s treatment of O’Hara ranged from praise and displays of affection to verbal and physical abuse. The Dublin native spent years wondering why the director hated her so much, only to discover he resented his unrequited infatuation with her.
With her vibrant red hair and bright green eyes, O’Hara was the embodiment of the romanticized image many Americans had of Irish women. This was particularly the case for Ford, who was born Séan Aloysius Kilmartin O’Feeney and raised in Maine by Irish immigrant parents.
In 2016, Bonhams Auctioneers sold a hand-drawn Valentine’s Day card which depicted O’Hara from the back and a side profile of Ford, dressed in green and surrounded by shamrocks, with a pipe that emitted heart-shaped smoke.
In their description of the item, Bonhams stated the director sent the card to O’Hara shortly after the release of their film The Long Gray Line.
“The film’s shoot had been troubled, with O’Hara singled out for Ford’s heavy verbal abuse,” the listing reads. “Ford frequently played up his Irish heritage, as in this hand-drawn Valentine.”
O’Hara herself realized his obsession with her was heavily influenced by his romantic fantasies of the “Old Country” his parents came from.
The Quiet Man was an ode to such fantasies, following an Irish-born American boxer who shares Ford’s real name and travels to his birthplace of Innisfree, then falls in love with a spirited local woman, played by O’Hara.
“We look like a real couple, Duke and I, don’t we?” the actress said in a Telegraph interview in 2004. “John Ford gave both of us the confidence to do our best.
“But he was living out his fantasy of life through Duke and me. He was Séan and I was his ideal woman.”
The Valentine’s card wasn’t the only time Ford put his feelings for O’Hara to paper. Bonhams also sold a set of love letters the director wrote to her while she was filming another project and he went to Ireland in the development stage of The Quiet Man.
In one of the letters, Ford wrote: “I have a great need of you – a great physical urge – not the body but the heart – if I could only see you, just to hear you laugh.
“I’m so grateful for the few weeks of happiness you’ve given me (few weeks! It was a lifetime!) You’re still my darling loyal girl – come hell or high water & I’ll always love and revere you.”
Ford also updated her on how the project was shaping up, and began pitching her the character that would ultimately become her most memorable role. “The girl’s part is simply terrific!” he wrote.
“It’s the best part I’ve ever read for a gal, dramatic, comedic, wistful, pathetic – yet full of hell & fire, passionate and sweet. For goodness sake and your family’s sake, bend every effort to get it.
“This is my farewell to movies & I want it good. It will be only great if you play it for I [have] written it – guided it – slanted it for you.”
Ford’s writing continued when the film went into production, as discovered by a letter found in 2019 by O’Hara’s grandson, Connor Fitzsimons. This note had been written on Ashford Castle-headed paper – the Co Mayo hotel was where most of the cast and crew stayed throughout filming.
“Oh Maureen, my darling, I love you so much!” the letter reads, per the Irish Times. “Thank you my love for the few months of happiness you have given me.
“I miss you so much. God, I long for you. I dream of you. Your face is constantly in my dreams.”
Yet working with Ford on the project again gave O’Hara mixed messages, with his resentment towards her coming out in his treatment of her on set. In the Telegraph interview, O’Hara theorized the director took advantage of his position to punish her.
“That was real dung in The Quiet Man,” she said. “He was the biggest devil, John Ford.
“He put as much of that dung in the field as he could, and then made sure that I was covered in it by the end of the day. Oh, I can still smell that awful stuff.”
The director, who O’Hara described as the “best” but “meanest”, was known for riling his actors up.
Being the object of his obsession saw the Queen of Technicolor take the brunt of his abuse. This went as far as Ford punching her in the jaw at a party, as reported by the Associated Press upon the actress’ death in 2015.
“For years I wondered why John Ford grew to hate me so much,” O’Hara wrote in her 2004 autobiography, ’Tis Herself. “I couldn’t understand what made him say and do so many terrible things to me.
“I realize now that he didn’t hate me at all. He loved me very much and even thought that he was in love with me.”