Mary Astor
Born: 1906-05-03 in Quincy, Illinois, USA
Died: 1987-09-25
Known For: Acting
Biography
Mary Astor (May 3, 1906 - September 25, 1987) 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: "...(W)hen 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." Description above from the Wikipedia article Mary Astor, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia.
Filmography
2006
- The Maltese Falcon: One Magnificent Bird as Self (archive footage)
1997
- Bogart: The Untold Story as Self (archive footage)
1980
- Hollywood as Self
1976
- That's Entertainment, Part II as (archive footage)
1973
- The Men Who Made the Movies: Vincente Minnelli as Self (archive footage)
1964
- Hush... Hush, Sweet Charlotte as Jewel Mayhew
- Youngblood Hawke as Irene Perry
1963
- Burke's Law as Florence Roberts
1961
- Dr. Kildare as Martha Lantzinge
- The Defenders as Flora Goode
- Ben Casey
- Return to Peyton Place as Roberta Carter
1960
- Thriller as Rose French
- Checkmate as Esther Brack
- The Snows of Kilimanjaro as Mrs. Leslie
- Journey to the Day as Helen May Whitfield
1959
- Rawhide as Emma Cardwell
- A Stranger in My Arms as Virgilnie Beasley
1958
- This Happy Feeling as Mrs. Tremaine
- The Littlest Enemy as Mrs. Wickens
1957
- The Devil's Hairpin as Mrs. Jargin
- The Troublemakers as Mattie Gerrity
- The Ninth Day
1956
- Dick Powell's Zane Grey Theatre as Sarah Simmons
- A Kiss Before Dying as Mrs. Corliss
- The Power and the Prize as Mrs. George Salt
1955
- Alfred Hitchcock Presents as Mrs. Fenimore
- Playwrights '56
- The Thief as Isabelle Lagarde
1954
- Climax! as Mrs. Harriss
- Producers' Showcase as Nancy Blake
1953
- The United States Steel Hour as Isabelle Lagarde
- General Electric Theater as Bea Hicks
- Yesterday and Today as (archive footage)
1950
- Robert Montgomery Presents as Norma Desmond
- Lux Video Theatre as Margaret Eliot
1949
- Little Women as Marmee
- Act of Violence as Pat
- Any Number Can Play as Ada
1948
- Studio One as Ruth Sparling
- The Philco Television Playhouse
1947
- Cass Timberlane as Queenie Havock
- Fiesta as Señora Morales
- Desert Fury as Fritzi Haller
- Cynthia as Louise Bishop
1946
- Claudia and David as Elizabeth Van Doren
- Okay for Sound as Adriana (archive footage)
1944
- Meet Me in St. Louis as Anna Smith
- Blonde Fever as Delilah Donay
1943
- Thousands Cheer as Hyllary Jones
- Young Ideas as Josephine Evans
1942
- The Palm Beach Story as The Princess Centimillia
- Across the Pacific as Alberta Marlow
1941
- The Maltese Falcon as Brigid O'Shaughnessy
- The Great Lie as Sandra Kovak
- Breakdowns of 1941 as Self (archive footage) (uncredited)
1940
- Brigham Young as Mary Ann Young
- Turnabout as Marion Manning
1939
- Midnight as Helene Flammarion
1938
- There's Always a Woman as Lola Fraser
- No Time to Marry as Kay McGowan
- Listen, Darling as Dottie Wingate
- Woman Against Woman as Cynthia Holland
- Paradise for Three as Mrs. Irene Mallebre
1937
- The Prisoner of Zenda as Antoinette de Mauban
- The Hurricane as Mme. DeLaage
1936
- Dodsworth as Edith Cortright
- The Murder of Dr. Harrigan as Lillian Cooper
- And So They Were Married as Edith Farnham
- Trapped by Television as Barbara 'Bobby' Blake
- Lady from Nowhere as Polly Dunlap
1935
- Straight from the Heart as Marian Henshaw
- Page Miss Glory as Gladys
- Dinky as Martha Daniels
- Red Hot Tires as Patricia Sanford
- Man of Iron as Vida
1934
- The Case of the Howling Dog as Bessie Foley
- I Am a Thief as Odette Mauclair
- Return of the Terror as Olga Morgan
- The Man with Two Faces as Jessica Wells
- The Hollywood Gad-About as Self
- Upperworld as Hettie Stream
- Easy to Love as Charlotte
1933
- Convention City as Arlene Dale
- The Kennel Murder Case as Hilda Lake
- The World Changes as Virginia Claffin Nordholm
- The Little Giant as Ruth Wayburn
- Jennie Gerhardt as Letty Pace
1932
- Red Dust as Barbara "Babs" Willis
- The Lost Squadron as Follette Marsh
- A Successful Calamity as Emmy 'Sweetie' Wilton
- Those We Love as May Ballard
1931
- Behind Office Doors as Mary Linden
- Other Men's Women as Lily Kulper
- White Shoulders as Norma Selbee
- The Royal Bed as Princess Anne
- Smart Woman as Nancy Gibson
- Men of Chance as Marthe
- The Sin Ship as Frisco Kitty
1930
- The Runaway Bride as Mary Gray
- Holiday as Julia Seton
- Ladies Love Brutes as Mimi Howell
- The Lash as Dona Rosita Garcia
1929
- The Show of Shows as Performer in 'The Pirate' Number (uncredited)
- The Woman from Hell as Dee Renaud
- New Year's Eve as Marjorie Ware
1928
- Romance of the Underworld as Judith Andrews
- 3-Ring Marriage as Anna
- Sailors' Wives as Carol Trent
- Dressed to Kill as Jeanne
- Heart to Heart as Princess Delatorre / Ellen Guthrie
- Dry Martini as Elizabeth Quimby
1927
- Rose of the Golden West as Elena
- No Place to Go as Sally Montgomery
- Two Arabian Knights as Mirza
- The Rough Riders as Dolly
- The Sea Tiger as Amy Cortissos
- The Sunset Derby as Molly Gibson
1926
- Don Juan as Adriana della Varnese
- The Wise Guy as Mary
- High Steppers as Audrey Nye
- Forever After as Jennie Clayton
1925
- Don Q Son of Zorro as Dolores de Muro
- Oh, Doctor! as Dolores Hicks
- The Pace That Thrills as Doris
- Playing with Souls as Margo
- Scarlet Saint as Fidele Tridon
- Enticement as Leonore Bewlay
1924
- Unguarded Women as Helen Castle
- The Fighting American as Mary Brainard
- Beau Brummel as Lady Margery Alvanley
- The Price of a Party as Alice Barrows
- Inez from Hollywood as Fay Bartholdi
- The Fighting Coward as Lucy
- To the Ladies as Undetermined Secondary Role
1923
- Hollywood as Mary Astor
- Woman-Proof as Violet Lynwood
- The Bright Shawl as Narcissa Escobar
- The Marriage Maker as Vivian Hope-Clarke
- Puritan Passions as Rachel
- Second Fiddle as Polly Crawford
- Success as Rose Randolph
1922
- The Rapids as Elsie Worden
- The Man Who Played God as Young Woman
- Hope as Joan - the Lighthouse Keeper's Daughter
- John Smith as Irene Mason
- The Young Painter as Helen Seymour
- The Angelus as Bit Part
1921
- Sentimental Tommy
- Wings of the Border
- My Lady o' the Pines as Norah Collison
- Brother of the Bear as Marcia Harthorn
- The Beggar Maid as Peasant Girl / Beggar Maid
- Bullets or Ballots as Bit Part