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Maureen O’Hara to receive an Honorary Oscar

Maureen O'Hara

Maureen O’Hara in ‘Black Swan’. Photo: Wikipedia via CC.

Acclaimed Irish actress Maureen O’Hara is set to receive an Honorary Oscar from the Board of Governors of the Academy of Motion Pictures and Sciences on 8 November.

The Honorary Oscar is a lifetime achievement award and is given to those who have made an exceptional contribution to the motion pictures, arts and sciences. Previous winners include Robert Redford and Steve Martin.

Academy President Cheryl Boone Isaac said “The Governors Awards allow us to reflect upon not the year in film, but the achievements of a lifetime,”.

O’Hara was born in Ranelagh, Dublin and was first educated in John Street West Girls’ School near Thomas Street in the Liberties where her love for stage and acting first manifested.

O’Hara got her break in film with a role in Alfred Hitchcock’s ‘Jamaica Inn’ before moving to Hollywood. During her long career she worked on many notable films including ‘The Hunchback of Notre Dame’,’ Miracle on 34th Street’ and ‘The Parent Trap’ as well as ‘The Quiet Man’ where she starred opposite John Wayne.

O’Hara spent most of the 1970s and 1980s retired, but she came out of retirement in the 1990s to make a number of film and television appearances, which included a film with the late John Candy, called ‘Only the Lonely’. Her final film ‘The Last Dance’ was completed in 2000.

Among others nominated for the Honorary Award, are French screenwriter Jean-Claude Carrière and Japanese animator Hayao Miyazaki. American actor and singer Harry Belafonte will also be awarded the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award.

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