Although there were other Irish film actors who made a name for themselves in Hollywood, Maureen O’Sullivan passed into legend as being one of the first Irish actresses to gain popularity in the film capital.
She was the most popular Jane in the Tarzan films and was the first to interpret the character in a sound feature film. She was also the mother of actress Mia Farrow.
O’Sullivan was a petite, pretty brunette with a gift of sincerity who became a competent actress in an overall career that spanned 64 years and over 60 films.
In the late 1950s, however, she took time off from acting to raise her growing family. She also had to endure the heartbreaks caused by the deaths of her husband and her son.
O’Sullivan was born in Boyle, County Roscommon, Ireland, on May 17, 1911 –100 years ago last Tuesday. She was raised as a Roman Catholic by her father, Charles Joseph O’Sullivan, who was an officer in the Connaught Rangers and who served during World War I, and his wife Mary Lovatt Fraser.
O’Sullivan attended a Catholic school in Dublin and then studied at the Convent of the Sacred Heart at Roehampton (now Woldingham School) in London. One of her classmates there was another girl who was destined for screen immortality, Vivien Leigh.
After finishing school in France, O’Sullivan returned to Ireland and began working with the poor.
O’Sullivan began her acting career when she met Hollywood director Frank Borzage who was doing location work in Dublin for his film Song o’ My Heart (1930).
On his suggestion she took a screen test that proved to be successful. He gave her a substantial part in the film that required her to move to Hollywood to finish the film there.
Once in Hollywood, O’Sullivan settled down quickly and immediately made several movies, including So This is London, Just Image, The Princess and the Plumber (all 1930), A Connecticut Yankee (released in Malta as A Yankee in King Arthur’s Court) and Skyline (both 1931).
In 1932, O’Sullivan signed a contract with MGM and on the insistence of the legendary film producer Irving Thalberg she was cast as Jane Parker in Tarzan the Ape Man (1932) opposite the Olympic swimmer Johnny Weissmuller.
O’Sullivan was the first to portray the character in a talking feature-length film and become the most famous Jane of all.
O’Sullivan repeated the character in five other films: Tarzan and His Mate (1934), Tarzan Escapes (1936), Tarzan Finds a Son (1939), Tarzan’s Secret Treasure (1941) and Tarzan’s New York Adventure (1942).
In the 1930s and 1940s, O’Sullivan had a prolific career in other films. She led the cast in the gangster drama Okay, America! (released in Malta as The Penalty of Fame), Skyscraper Souls (both 1932), Stage Mother (1933), the comedy The Bishop Misbehaves, the thriller Woman Wanted (both 1935) and the superior horror film The Devil Doll (1936).
O’Sullivan also featured in good, solid supporting roles in films like Tugboat Annie (1933) with Marie Dressler, then played the helpless Henrietta, opposite Norma Shearer in The Barretts of Wimpole Street and was the lady in distress in The Thin Man (both 1934).
She then appeared with Ann Harding in The Flame Within and with Greta Garbo in Anna Karenina (both 1935) while providing the love interest in the Marx Brothers comedy in A Day at the Races (1937) and romanced Robert Taylor in A Yank at Oxford (1938).
The 1940s began with O’Sullivan playing a different Jane in Pride and Prejudice (1940) and appeared with Ann Sothern in Maisie was a Lady (1941).
In 1942 she took time off from work to take care of her big family after she had married film director John Farrow in 1936. But her husband lured her back to the screen to appear in two of his films, The Big Clock (1948) and Where Danger Lives (1950).
During the 1950s O’Sullivan’s films were getting fewer and her roles smaller probably because she was now also appearing on the stage and on television .
Her best remaining films include All I Desire (1953), The Tall T (1957), Never Too Late (1965), Hannah and Her Sisters (1985) and Peggy Sue Got Married (1986). Her last film appearance was in Good Old Boy: A Delta Boyhood (1988).
O’Sullivan’s marriage with Farrow ended with his death in 1963 after yielding seven children: Michael, who died in a plane crash in 1958, Patrick, Maria Lourdes (Mia), who is an established actress, John, Stephanie, Prudence and Therese (Tisa), who is also an actress.
In 1983, O’Sullivan married James Cushing, who survived her. O’Sullivan died from a heart attack on June 23, 1998 in Scottsdale, Arizona.