​Passage: Maureen O'Hara

It happened yesterday ... word of the death of actress Maureen O'Hara.

Known as "The Queen of Technicolor" for her fiery red hair, O'Hara was born in Ireland in 1920.

She made her Hollywood debut in the 1939 film, "The Hunchback of Notre Dame," and won still wider fame in "How Green Was My Valley" in 1941.

O'Hara went on to play Natalie Wood's mother in the classic Christmas film, "Miracle on 34th Street," where she had a memorable confrontation with Kris Kringle, played by Edmund Gwenn:

O'Hara: "Would you please tell her that you're not really Santa Claus, that there actually is no such person?"
Gwenn: "Well, I'm sorry to disagree with you, Mrs. Walker, but not only is there such a person, but here I am to prove it."

She played very different kinds of roles in five films opposite John Wayne, actually duking it out with The Duke in 1952's "The Quiet Man" (her personal favorite).

And she went back to motherhood -- times two -- in the 1961 film, "The Parent Trap," with Hayley Mills playing BOTH of her twin daughters.

In a CBS interview back in 2000, she looked back with pride on her long career: "I've always tried to do the best I could do, whether it was punching John Wayne or Henry Fonda or Brian Keith or Jimmy Stewart ... all the wonderful, wonderful men that I worked with."

O'Hara's family says she died in her sleep at her home in Boise, Idaho.

Maureen O'Hara was 95.