Mary Astor (May 3, 1906 - September 25,
1987) was a US film actress.
Born Lucile Vasconcellos Langhanke in Quincy, Illinois, Astor was signed to a Hollywood
contract at the age of 14 after winning a beauty contest. She was selected as one of the
WAMPAS Baby Stars in 1926. She achieved success playing opposite John Barrymore in Beau Brummell
(1924) and Don Juan (1926), and her stature as a film star continued to grow steadily with the
advent of "talking pictures".
By 1936, her career had begun to lose momentum until she became the subject of a widely
publicised scandal. During divorce proceedings her estranged husband produced a diary Astor
had kept, which detailed among other events, her affair with playwright George Kaufman. The
sexually explicit diary was entered as evidence in court, and extracts were published in
newspapers throughout the world. Determined to separate her private and professional lives,
Astor refused to apologise and her career was renewed by the huge level of publicity.
She appeared in Dodsworth (1936) and The Prisoner of Zenda (1937) and the success of both
films, and the public's acceptance of Astor, assured the studios that she was still a viable
commercial property.
In 1941 she played the role for which she would be most famous, as Brigid O'Shaunessy in John
Huston's The Maltese Falcon opposite Humphrey Bogart.
At Bette Davis's suggestion she was cast in The Great Lie (also 1941), with Davis deliberately
stepping back to allow Astor to shine in her key scenes. An Academy Award for Best Supporting
Actress resulted, and for the rest of her life, Astor acknowledged Davis for her generosity.
These successes were not enough to propel Astor into the upper echelon of film stars, but she
continued working throughout the 1940s in such films as The Palm Beach Story (1942), Across
the Pacific (also 1942 and costarring Humphrey Bogart) and Meet Me in St. Louis (1944). By the
end of the decade she was playing motherly roles such as Mrs March in Little Women (1949). By
the 1950s her Hollywood career had faded considerably and she made few film appearances, but
she found success in the theater and in television.
She published her memoirs in 1959 and the book titled My Story, detailed her troubled personal
life and battle with alcoholism, while scarcely mentioning her film career. It was a best
seller.
She received good reviews for her role in Return to Peyton Place (1961), and played her final
film role in Hush, Hush, Sweet Charlotte (1964), in the small but integral role of Jewel
Mayhew.
A heart condition had caused Astor ill health since the early 1950s, and by the mid 1960s her
health had deteriorated to the point that she was forced to retire. She wrote several novels
during this period, and in 1971 published a second memoir that chronicled her Hollywood career,
and provided her with another best seller.
She lived her final years in a Motion Picture Home, before dying as a result of a heart attack.
She was interred in the Holy Cross Cemetery, Culver City, California.
Mary Astor has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in recognition of her services to Motion
Pictures, at 6701 Hollywood Boulevard.
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