Today is the 117th birthday of the actress Mary Astor. Have you seen Red Dust, The Palm Beach Story, The Maltese Falcon, and Hush… Hush, Sweet Charlotte? You need to. For so many reason, if not only for Mary Astor. The world is a better place because she was in it and still feels the loss that she has left.
NAME: Mary Astor
OCCUPATION: Film Actress, Theater Actress, Journalist, Author
BIRTH DATE: May 03, 1906
DEATH DATE: September 25, 1987
PLACE OF BIRTH: Quincy, Illinois
PLACE OF DEATH: Woodland Hills, California
ORIGINALLY: Lucille Vasconcellos Langhanke
OSCAR FOR BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS: 1942 for The Great Lie
HOLLYWOOD WALK OF FAME: 6701 Hollywood Blvd.
BEST KNOWN FOR: Mary Astor was an Academy Award-winning actress of the stage and screen. Her best known role was in The Maltese Falcon.
Mary Astor was an American actress. Most remembered for her role as Brigid O’Shaughnessy in The Maltese Falcon (1941) with Humphrey Bogart, Astor began her long motion picture career as a teenager in the silent movies of the early 1920s.
She eventually made a successful transition to talkies, but almost saw her career destroyed due to public scandal in the mid-1930s. She was sued for support by her parents and was later branded an adulterous wife by her ex-husband during a custody fight over her daughter. Overcoming these stumbling blocks in her private life, Astor went on to even greater success on the screen, eventually winning the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her portrayal of Sandra Kovak in The Great Lie (1941). She was an MGM contract player through most of the 1940s and continued to act in movies, on television and on stage until her retirement from the screen in 1964. Astor was the author of five novels. Her autobiography became a bestseller, as did her later book, A Life on Film, which was specifically about her career.
Director Lindsay Anderson wrote of her in 1990: “…that when two or three who love the cinema are gathered together, the name of Mary Astor always comes up, and everybody agrees that she was an actress of special attraction, whose qualities of depth and reality always seemed to illuminate the parts she played.”
Mary Astor has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6701 Hollywood Boulevard in Hollywood. She has been quoted as saying: “There are five stages in the life of an actor: Who’s Mary Astor? Get me Mary Astor. Get me a Mary Astor type. Get me a young Mary Astor. Who’s Mary Astor?”
FILMOGRAPHY AS ACTOR
Hush… Hush, Sweet Charlotte (15-Dec-1964) · Jewel Mayhew
Youngblood Hawke (4-Nov-1964)
Return to Peyton Place (5-May-1961) · Mrs. Roberta Carter
A Stranger in My Arms (3-Mar-1959)
This Happy Feeling (18-Jun-1958)
The Devil’s Hairpin (4-Oct-1957)
The Power and the Prize (26-Sep-1956) · Mrs. George Salt
A Kiss Before Dying (12-Jun-1956) · Mrs. Corliss
Any Number Can Play (2-Jul-1949) · Ada
Little Women (10-Mar-1949) · Marmee
Act of Violence (21-Dec-1948) · Pat
Cass Timberlane (6-Nov-1947) · Queenie Havock
Cynthia (29-Aug-1947) · Louise Bishop
Desert Fury (15-Aug-1947) · Fritzi Haller
Fiesta (12-Jun-1947) · Señora Morales
Claudia and David (25-Feb-1946)
Blonde Fever (5-Dec-1944) · Delilah Donay
Meet Me in St. Louis (28-Nov-1944) · Mrs. Anna Smith
Thousands Cheer (13-Sep-1943)
Young Ideas (2-Aug-1943)
The Palm Beach Story (2-Nov-1942) · The Princess Centimillia
Across the Pacific (4-Sep-1942)
The Maltese Falcon (3-Oct-1941) · Brigid O’Shaughnessy
The Great Lie (5-Apr-1941) · Sandra
Brigham Young: Frontiersman (20-Sep-1940)
Turnabout (17-May-1940)
Midnight (15-Mar-1939) · Helene Flammarion
Listen, Darling (18-Oct-1938) · Dottie Wingate
Woman Against Woman (18-Jun-1938) · Cynthia Holland
There’s Always a Woman (20-Apr-1938) · Lola Fraser
Paradise for Three (15-Feb-1938) · Mrs. Irene Mallebre
The Hurricane (9-Nov-1937) · Madame DeLaage
The Prisoner of Zenda (2-Sep-1937) · Antoinette de Mauban
Dodsworth (23-Sep-1936) · Edith Cortright
And So They Were Married (10-May-1936) · Edith Farnham
The Murder of Dr. Harrigan (11-Jan-1936)
Man of Iron (21-Dec-1935) · Vida
Red Hot Tires (25-Oct-1935)
Page Miss Glory (7-Sep-1935) · Gladys
Dinky (11-May-1935)
I Am a Thief (24-Nov-1934) · Odette
The Case of the Howling Dog (22-Sep-1934) · Bessie Foley
The Man with Two Faces (4-Aug-1934) · Jessica
Upperworld (28-Apr-1934) · Mrs. Stream
Easy to Love (13-Jan-1934) · Charlotte
The World Changes (25-Nov-1933)
The Kennel Murder Case (28-Oct-1933) · Hilda Lake
Jennie Gerhardt (9-Jun-1933)
The Little Giant (14-Apr-1933) · Ruth Wayburn
Red Dust (22-Oct-1932) · Barbara Willis
A Successful Calamity (17-Sep-1932) · Emmy Wilton
The Lost Squadron (10-Mar-1932) · Follette
Men of Chance (26-Dec-1931) · Marthe
Smart Woman (12-Sep-1931)
The Sin Ship (18-Apr-1931)
Behind Office Doors (15-Mar-1931)
Other Men’s Women (17-Jan-1931)
The Royal Bed (15-Jan-1931) · Princess Anne
The Lash (12-Dec-1930)
Holiday (3-Jul-1930)
The Runaway Bride (4-May-1930)
Two Arabian Knights (23-Sep-1927) · Mirza
Don Juan (6-Aug-1926)
Don Q, Son of Zorro (15-Jun-1925)
Beau Brummel (30-Mar-1924) · The Bride, Maid Margery
waldina 