While shopping the other day, I met this nice lady who recognized me and generously
told me how much she enjoyed my column.  That was flattering, and. of course, I liked her immediately.  She also said that Maureen O'Hara was her favorite actress and mentioned several of her films that she especially liked.  I commented that she must be a mind reader, too, as I was planning to feature Maureen in my next article.  Perhaps part of the attention on Maureen is because she celebrated her 90th birthday August 17th and her movies were featured all that day on the Turner Classic Network.
     Maureen O'Hara was born in Ireland in 1920, and, fortunately, like many great performers of the past, she is still with us.  Her first film was Jamaica Inn in 1939, directed by Alfred Hitchcock and starring Charles Laughton.  The scene with this gorgeous young woman standing on a cliff overlooking the ocean, with her beautiful long hair whipped around by the wind, is unforgettable.  Although Maureen costarred with many great actors over the years, her most famous films were with John Wayne.  They included The Quiet Man, one of the great movies of all time, which was laid in Ireland.  It featured some of the Irish Abbey Theatre stars, headed by Barry Fitzgerald, who later made many films in America.
     Other memorable ones with John Wayne were Rio Grande and McLintock, an action-packed, amusing Western that reminded us of Shakespeare's Taming of the Shrew.  O'Hara's last movie was a very touching holiday story, The Christmas Box, which was made for television and received rave reviews from repeated telecasts.  Maureen's last big screen movie, made in 1991, was another good one, Only the Lonely, where she vigorously played a domineering mother.  Maureen O'Hara is still healthy and active, spending time in Arizona and her native Ireland, and is a naturalized American citizen.  She has received more honors in more areas than just about any other actress, and is also remembered for her key role in the original Miracle on 34th Street Christmas movie.  Not only was Maureen beautiful, but she was physically talented for rough and tough roles, could dance, sing and be romantic with just a touch of a charming Irish accent.
     As I approach my mid-eighties, it's so stimulating to see how many great stars of my era are still around.  These statistics, as I have noted before, make me believe that performing on stage and screen may be a pretty healthy profession.  Lauren Bacall will be 86 this month, and she's still active.  Her first movie was the memorable To Have and Have Not with Humphrey Bogart.  Lauren married the great Bogart the next year, and they were together until he died in 1957.  Although heartbroken, she moved on, winning a Tony for best actress in the musical Applause, which I was thrilled to see on Broadway in 1970.  Bacall costarred with John Wayne in his last movie, The Shootist, in 1976.  Part of it was filmed in an interesting little side street in Reno, Nevada, and I enjoyed visiting the site many years ago.
     Another great star and favorite of mine, Doris Day, is still around and living in Carmel, California, at the age of 88.  She still rates as the top ranked female box office star in history and is sixth on the list of all stars, with John Wayne at the top of the list.  Doris Day's first movie was Romance on the High Seas in 1948.  She was in 39 movies and recorded 650 songs. Wow! Another famous performer, Mitch Miller, died July 31 at the age of 99.  His Sing Along With Mitch dominated the airwaves for years, including The Yellow Rose of Texas, and many of us enjoyed joining in.
     Several of my alert and astute readers send me messages about a typographical error in my last column.  I correctly listed Olivia Haviland's age as 94, but in a slip of the computer, I had her birthday as 1926 instead of 1916.  Thanks, friends, for calling attention to my stupidity!  As a final thought, my beloved late wife Lea always had me pretty well figured out. She said I had a split personality.  Based on my many clippings and nods of recognition from people we met, she said I was the greatest athlete she had ever known.  What a stretch, but she also said I was by far the clumsiest man she ever knew.  And then she pointed out that I wrote sports for over 25 years and then switched to writing about theater the next 35.  As usual, Lea was right in giving me the split personality label.
     (Jack Ledoux is a drama critic, columnist and freelance writer who has been published around the world for more than 50 years.  He welcomes your comments at jackled@aol.com).