{"id":4041,"date":"2017-05-06T21:42:34","date_gmt":"2017-05-06T21:42:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/sixtiescinema.com\/?p=4041"},"modified":"2017-05-06T21:42:34","modified_gmt":"2017-05-06T21:42:34","slug":"rip-quinn-ohara","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tomlisanti.com\/index.php\/2017\/05\/06\/rip-quinn-ohara\/","title":{"rendered":"RIP Quinn O’Hara"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Sad to report one of my fave interviewees 1960s starlet Quinn O’Hara has passed away.<\/p>\n

A \u201cred-headed gasser,\u201d Quinn O\u2019Hara certainly lived up to that description and became very popular with teenage audiences during the sixties.\u00a0 A former Miss Scotland, this titan-haired beauty began on television before appearing in minor film roles with major stars such as Jerry Lewis and Jack Lemmon.\u00a0 Younger audiences remembered her best for her two back-to-back starring roles in two beach-party movies. \u00a0<\/em>O\u2019Hara exuded a natural sex appeal that had every boy\u2019s heart racing either playing the good girl as in A Swingin\u2019 Summer<\/em> (1965) or the vixen as in The Ghost in the<\/em> Invisible Bikini<\/em> (1966).\u00a0 She should have become a major star however, disenchanted with the roles being offered her, Quinn fled to England in the late sixties where she worked on stage, TV and an occasional film.<\/p>\n

Quinn O\u2019Hara was dramatically born in a hospital\u2019s elevator going up in Edinburgh, Scotland on Jan. 3, 1941 to a Welsh father and a Scottish-Irish mother who named the impatient newborn Alice Jones.\u00a0 Most of her childhood was spent in a convent boarding school in Wales.\u00a0 When she turned fourteen, she and her mother moved to Quebec, Canada where the blossoming teenager learned to speak French.\u00a0 After three years, they upped and moved to Long Beach, California where the red haired beauty stood out from the myriad of California blondes.\u00a0 Her European origins prevented her from competing in the Miss California contest but she was dubbed Miss Scotland by the Royal Order of her home country.<\/p>\n

With all the newfound attention she was receiving and with the acting offers coming in, Alice Jones morphed into the more appropriate name for a titan-hair Scottish lass, Quinn O\u2019Hara.\u00a0 Her big screen debut was in a bit part in The Errand Boy<\/em> (1961) starring Jerry Lewis.\u00a0 O\u2019Hara would go on to work with Lewis again in The Patsy<\/em> (1964) playing the minor role of a cigarette girl and in Who\u2019s Minding the Store?<\/em> (1963), though her scenes were cut.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

O\u2019Hara\u2019s first taste of fame came when she was selected to appear with Vic Damone in his 1962 Emmy-nominated summer series The Lively<\/em> Ones<\/em>.\u00a0 The popular show brought O\u2019Hara notoriety and she became very much in demand on TV but she wasn\u2019t having much luck with films.\u00a0 Only her hand was on display in The Caretakers<\/em> (1963) where she played a nurse. \u00a0Good<\/em> Neighbor, Sam<\/em> (1964) featured all of Quinn in the small role of a curvy secretary to recently promoted ad man Jack Lemmon. O\u2019Hara kept persevering.\u00a0 She began getting press in all the movie rags of the time and she was chosen by Photoplay <\/em>to be photographed on a pre-arranged \u201cdate\u201d with teen idol Fabian.\u00a0 But surprisingly, the duo hit it off and it developed into a relationship that lasted a year.<\/p>\n

Quinn’s Notable Quotable About Working with titan-haired witch\u00a0Jill St. John in Who’s Minding the Store?<\/em><\/p>\n

“[She] was an unbelievably cruel person who I am not fond of in the least.”<\/p>\n

In 1965 Quinn O\u2019Hara co-starred in one of the better Beach Party<\/em> knockoffs A Swingin\u2019 Summer <\/em>with William Wellman, Jr. and James Stacy.\u00a0 Though it was not her first color movie it was her first lead role.\u00a0 She looked terrific in her mod swimsuits and more than held her own with rising superstar, Raquel Welch.<\/p>\n

Quinn’s Notable Quotable About Working with diva-in-training\u00a0Raquel Welch\u00a0\u00a0in\u00a0A Swingin’ Summer<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cI had no trouble with Raquel. But everybody else did\u2014including the cameraman and make up person. Lori Williams, who was such a nice girl, also had a terrible time with Raquel. I wasn\u2019t on the set but I heard that Lori had the same color bikini on as Raquel and she told the director to go make Lori change her bathing suit! When we went to do promotion for the film in conjunction with Suzuki, Raquel and I both showed up wearing pink. I said to somebody, \u2018If she thinks I\u2019m going to change, she\u2019s crazy.\u2019 Raquel didn\u2019t say a word and went and changed her outfit.”<\/p>\n