If there was one thing that director, John Ford enjoyed, other than herding actors around like cattle of course, it was throwing parties for family and friends - good food would be served, even better drink would be in ample supply. Sentimental songs would be sung, stories told and reportedly a good time would be had by all.
It was at one such gathering in 1941 that John Wayne and Maureen O'Hara first met and theirs would be a friendship that was lifelong. Of course, there were numerous reports and speculation that the two were having a romantic relationship; those rumours have never really gone away.There have been claims that while Wayne was married to his third wife, Pilar Palette he was also in a love affair with O'Hara.
This was something that both John Wayne and Maureen O' Hara denied, both of them saying that their relationship was based on friendship....a very special kind of friendship.
So even if the romantic element is taken out of the picture, there is little doubt that theirs was a love story; a very special kind of love story.
'Duke and I were not just friends. We were best friends.' Maureen O'Hara
'There is only one woman who has been my friend over the years, and by that I mean a real friend, like a man would be. That woman is Maureen O'Hara,' John Wayne
When the pair first met,at a John Ford party they were both riding high - Wayne had finally shaken off the shackles of the B-movie after the success of Stagecoach, and O'Hara was about to star in John Ford's How Green was my Valley.
QUICK TRIVIA - How Green Was My Valley - based on the novel by Richard Llewellyn was actually based on my own home of Gilfach Goch. Llewellyn, actually an Englishman was of Welsh descent and used to spend a lot of time as a child at his grandfather's home in Gilfach Goch. The village in his novel was very much based on my home village. In fact we have a blue plaque on the village hall commemorating this fact
They became instant friends, and would often meet socially and finally in the early 1950's John Ford persuaded the pair to take the leads in a project he was developing called, The Quiet Man. This quirky Irish romance was a dream project for Ford but the powers that be were not keen, and would only agree to finance the movie if Ford would first film a western, Rio Grande which was guaranteed to make money at the box office.
This was the first time Wayne and O'Hara would star together on screen and the chemistry between the two was intense - the film, the third in Ford's Cavalry trilogy, is recognized as a stone cold classic of the genre.
'We loved working with each other. Working with John Wayne was comfortable for me.' Maureen O'Hara.
The Quiet Man followed and was a huge success, grossing $3.8 million in the first year and many times that since. Even the critics were wowed by Wayne and O' Hara together on screen.
'Beautifully filmed.Wayne works well under Ford's direction.' Variety
"A delightful and rollicking comedy melodrama of Irish life, directed with skill and acted with gusto by a fine cast." Harrison's Reports
"Director John Ford and star John Wayne depart the Western for the Irish countryside, and the result is a beautifully photographed, often comedic romance." 91% APPROVAL RATING Rotten Tomatoes
They remained friends, both of them laughing off press speculation that there was more to their relationship that the platonic, and they would be reunited on screen in 1957 Wings of Eagles, and then again in 1963 for the quite silly but excellent, comedy western McLintock. Loosely, based on The Taming of the Shrew the movie is in a sense, The Quiet Man out West.
The movie, which is actually in the public domain thanks to an oversight when the copyright was not renewed is great fun. And you get to see Wayne spanking O'Hara!
Off-Screen they remained friends - O'Hara often visited Wayne and the pair would take trips on Wayne's yacht, The Wild Goose.
The pair worked on screen together for one final time in 1971's Big Jake - a solid late period Wayne western. In November 1976 O'Hara appeared in an NBC show entitled, An All-Star Tribute to John Wayne, where she serenaded the Duke with the song, 'I've grown accustomed to his Face,'
The pair became even closer in Wayne's final years and in April 1979 O'Hara flew to Wayne's bedside to spend time with the dying actor. The pair went down memory lane, talking of old times and when O'Hara left she was sadly aware that she would never see Wayne again.
Wayne died on 11 June 1979, and O'Hara, who would outlive him by more than a quarter of a century never forgot her old friend, Duke. In her 2004 autobiography she wrote that Duke's death knocked her on her rear and sent her into a depression that lasted years.
So was there ever a romance between the two? Who knows! Though make no mistake theirs was a true love story....a very special kind of love story.
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