10|25|50|75|100 in celebration of major film anniversaries
One hundred years ago on this very day, Maureen O'Sullivan was born in Ireland. She went on to become Hollywood's first major female Irish movie star. Though she appeared in The Thin Man (1934) and an early version of Pride and Prejudice (1940) she is best remembered as Jane from six Tarzan adventures. Tomorrow on "Hit Me With Your Best Shot" we'll be looking at Tarzan the Ape Man (1932). The Weismuller and O'Sullivan pairing is basically what people think of when they think of Tarzan at the movies though the character had plentiful interpretations before and since.
Here she is talking about how the controversies that swirled around "Jane" for her skimpy wardrobe.
O'Sullivan retired for most of the 1940s (her thirtysomething years) and in that time she gave us what might have been her greatest gift to the cinema, the incomparable Mia Farrow.
Before her death in 1998 she was even graced with a wonderful elegiac exit from the movies 25 years ago playing both Kathleen Turner's dearly departed grandmother in Peggy Sue Got Married (1986) and Mia's screen mother (art imitating life) in Woody Allen's masterpiece Hannah and Her Sisters (1986).
Maureen & Mia
So here's to Maureen O'Sullivan on her 100th birthday!