Legendary actress avoids blarney in autobiography

? In 1939, an Irish miss of 18 landed in Hollywood not knowing what to expect. Her education came swiftly as she was thrust into stardom with her first movie and became a pawn in the big-studio system.

With customary frankness, Maureen O’Hara recounts her life story in “‘Tis Herself,” written with John Nicoletti. She tells it all: her love-hate relationship with mentor John Ford; her devotion — strictly platonic — to co-star John Wayne; the misbehavior of Errol Flynn; the rudeness of Rex Harrison; two failed marriages and a happy marriage that ended in tragedy; a phony scandal that helped put Confidential magazine out of business.

O’Hara, with her flaming red hair and a startling beauty that belies her 83 years, came here from her current home in Arizona to talk about the book and her life.

She sold her longtime residence in St. Croix, Virgin Islands, though she keeps a smaller condominium nearby, and now lives with her 30-year-old grandson, Conor Beau FitzSimons, in Scottsdale, Ariz. She also maintains her longtime routine of spending summers in Ireland, where she heads a charity golf tournament.

In a recent interview at a Westside hotel, O’Hara cited her Irish luck in her early mentors. Charles Laughton chose her to co-star in her first important film, “Jamaica Inn,” and Alfred Hitchcock directed it in England in 1939.

That year, Laughton brought O’Hara to Hollywood to play Esmeralda to his Quasimodo in “The Hunchback of Notre Dame,” which won her contracts with both RKO and 20th Century-Fox.

In 1941’s “How Green Was My Valley,” she began her association with the cantankerous Ford. She was asked why the four-time Academy Award-winning director was so hard on his actors and crew.

“I think he didn’t achieve what he wanted in life,” she replied. “He didn’t become a great military hero, he wasn’t a great Irish rebel leader. I don’t think he got what he wanted.”

Ford’s major target was John Wayne, whom he made a star with “Stagecoach.”

“I think Ford adored Duke, but maybe he was jealous,” O’Hara said. “Duke had the physique and the strength that Pappy (Ford) hoped he would have but didn’t have.

“Duke wouldn’t have crossed him for anything. The only person whoever punched him in the nose was Henry Fonda on ‘Mister Roberts.’ And they changed directors.”

O’Hara made five movies with Wayne, including “Rio Grande” and “The Quiet Man,” and he gave her a compliment she cherishes to this day: “He said I was the greatest guy he ever knew.”

Yet despite their many love scenes together, she maintained he never made a pass at her. “Why would he?” she asked. “I could have punched him out. I did judo, I fenced, I played soccer, football. I would’ve hauled off and hit him.”