It was 1930 when the film director Frank Borzage was in the Irish capital filming Song o ‘My Heart for FOX, he had met the young woman and did a camera test, the results he obtained were quite favorable, that’s why he gave the role of Eileen O’Brien and had to travel to Hollywood to finish the film.
Maureen was only 19 years old and traveled to California with her mother.
Although her first appearance in the cinema was not as good as she would have liked, the young woman continued as an actress and was in other musicals such as Just Imagine “and then in A Connecticut Yankee with the actor. Will rogers.
It would be the year 1932 when he decided to leave FOX and started working for the Metro Goldwyn Mayer. Almost immediately she was cast as Jane Parker in the film Tarzan The Ape Man which she directed. WS Van Dyke and in which he shared credits with the well-known actor and athlete Johnny weissmuller.
This first installment of the King of the Jungle was so successful that five more films were made with O’Sullivan in attendance. The following were Tarzan and his Mate from 1934, Tarzan escapes from 1936, Tarzan finds a song shot in 1939, Tarzan’s secret treasure of 1941 and finally Tarzan’s New York Adventure from 1942.
In the film called “Tarzan Escapes” he was among the scriptwriters John Farrow, whom Maureen fell in love with and married on September 12 of the same year they met, 1936. The couple had a total of seven children: Michael, Patrick, Mia, John, Prudence, Theresa and Stephanie Farrow.
After the Tarzan films, the actress acted in the horror film The Devil Doll, and was also in A day at the races.
Before becoming famous, Maureen appeared in several film productions such as the one she did with the actor Clark gable in 1932 Strange Interlude, based on the play of the same name by Eugene O’Neill.
After having married and become the mother of seven children, time was short and little by little she stopped acting. In 1942 she stopped working to care for her husband, who had fallen ill with typhus, and to dedicate herself to her large family.
Six years later, she would appear on the screens again with The Killer Clock, a film directed by her husband and in which she also acted Charles Laughton.
But her husband’s illness would worsen and John Farrow ceased to exist on January 28, 1963, due to a heart attack.
After spending a brief time alone after her husband’s death, O’Sullivan alternated her time to work in film, theater, and television. One of his last roles was in Never too late 1965, film that did not achieve greater success.
Twenty years had passed since the death of John Farrow, and in 1983 he would marry again with James curshing.
It appears again in Peggy Sue Got Married shot 1986, director’s film Francis Ford Coppola. That same year, she became an actress in the movie of who was her son-in-law in those years, Woody Allen, Hannah and her sisters.
Retired from show business and installed in his Arizona residence, Maureen O’Sullivan he passed away June 23, 1998, at the age of 87 victim of a heart attack.