“It’s nice to be immortal. Film has given us immortality. Now my children are going to appreciate Tarzan.”
Maureen O’Sullivan was born in Ireland in 1911. The future mother of Mia Farrow was educated in London, Dublin and Paris and was a classmate of Vivien Leigh. Maureen aspired to be an actress from a young age and was a diligent student who read widely.
Maureen O’ Sullivan’s film career began by chance when she met film director, Frank Borzage, who was filming “Song o’ My Heart” in Ireland for 20th Century Fox and he suggested that she take a screen test. O’Sullivan passed the screen test and won a part in the film which starred Irish tenor John McCormack and travelled to the United States in order to finish filming in Hollywood. O’Sullivan appeared in six more films at 20th Century Fox and then made three more films at other studios.
In 1932, Maureen O’Sullivan signed a contract with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, and after several roles there, she was chosen by Irving Thalberg to play the role of “Jane Parker” in “Tarzan the Ape Man” starring opposite Johnny Weissmuller, with whom she had a brief affair in the early 1930’s. In addition to playing Jane, O’Sullivan was one of the most popular actresses at MGM during the 1930’s and appeared in a number of other productions with various stars. O’ Sullivan appeared as Jane in six films between 1932 and 1942 although was afraid of being typecast and eventually grew tired of the role.
Maureen also srarred with William Powell and Myrna Loy in “The Thin Man” (1934) and “Anna Karenina” (1935) with Greta Garbo and Basil Rathbone. In 1940, O’Sullivan starred in “Pride and Prejudice” with Laurence Olivier and Greer Garson. After appearing in “Tarzan’s New York Adventure” in 1942, O’Sullivan asked MGM to release her from her contract so that she could care for her husband, John Farrow, who had just left the Navy with typhoid. O’Sullivan then retired from show business to focus on being a wife and mother to her seven children, including Mia Farrow, later to become a famous actress in her own right who would marry Woody Allen.
O’Sullivan returned to the big screen in 1948 to star in Paramount Pictures‘ “The Big Clock”, directed by her husband and continued to make occasional appearances in his films and on television. O’Sullivan believed that she had permanently retired in 1960 which may have been prompted by the fact that she had begun to be given roles whose prime meaning was her advancing years. However, O’Sullivan was persuaded by fellow Irish actor, Pat O’Brien to appear on the stage. “A Roomful of Roses” opened in 1961 and led to another play “Never Too Late” where she made her Broadway debut. John Farrow died shortly after the play opened and O’Sullivan continued to act, appearing as the Today Girl for NBC and in the Warner Bros. film, “Never Too Late” in 1965. When O’Sullivan’s daughter, Mia Farrow, began to be professionally and romantically involved with Woody Allen, O’Sullivan played her daughter’s mother in the film “Hannah and her Sisters” and later played an important role in “Peggy Sue Got Married” (1986) with Kathleen Turner and Nicolas Cage. O’Sullivan’s last acting role was in the 1994 made-for-TV movie, “Hart to Hart: Home is Where the Hart is”, co-starring Robert Wagner and Stefanie Powers.
Maureen O’Sullivan died in Arizona in 1998 at the age of 87 after complications from heart surgery and is buried in New York, in her second husband’s hometown. Maureen O’Sullivan has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
