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)
1994
- 100 Years at the Movies 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
- Ben Casey
- The Defenders as Flora Goode
- Dr. Kildare as Martha Lantzinge
- 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 Ninth Day
- The Devil's Hairpin as Mrs. Jargin
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
- The Philco Television Playhouse
- Studio One as Ruth Sparling
1947
- Fiesta as Señora Morales
- Desert Fury as Fritzi Haller
- Cass Timberlane as Queenie Havock
- 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
- Listen, Darling as Dottie Wingate
- No Time to Marry as Kay McGowan
- There's Always a Woman as Lola Fraser
- Paradise for Three as Mrs. Irene Mallebre
- Woman Against Woman as Cynthia Holland
1937
- The Hurricane as Mme. DeLaage
- The Prisoner of Zenda as Antoinette de Mauban
1936
- Dodsworth as Edith Cortright
- The Murder of Dr. Harrigan as Lillian Cooper
- Trapped by Television as Barbara 'Bobby' Blake
- Lady from Nowhere as Polly Dunlap
- And So They Were Married as Edith Farnham
1935
- Page Miss Glory as Gladys
- Man of Iron as Vida
- Dinky as Martha Daniels
- Red Hot Tires as Patricia Sanford
- Straight from the Heart as Marian Henshaw
1934
- I Am a Thief as Odette Mauclair
- The Case of the Howling Dog as Bessie Foley
- Upperworld as Hettie Stream
- Easy to Love as Charlotte
- Return of the Terror as Olga Morgan
- The Hollywood Gad-About as Self
- The Man with Two Faces as Jessica Wells
1933
- Convention City as Arlene Dale
- The Kennel Murder Case as Hilda Lake
- The World Changes as Virginia Claffin Nordholm
- Jennie Gerhardt as Letty Pace
- The Little Giant as Ruth Wayburn
1932
- Red Dust as Barbara "Babs" Willis
- Those We Love as May Ballard
- The Lost Squadron as Follette Marsh
- A Successful Calamity as Emmy 'Sweetie' Wilton
1931
- Other Men's Women as Lily Kulper
- White Shoulders as Norma Selbee
- Men of Chance as Marthe
- Smart Woman as Nancy Gibson
- Behind Office Doors as Mary Linden
- The Royal Bed as Princess Anne
- The Sin Ship as Frisco Kitty
1930
- Holiday as Julia Seton
- The Lash as Dona Rosita Garcia
- The Runaway Bride as Mary Gray
- Ladies Love Brutes as Mimi Howell
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
- 3-Ring Marriage as Anna
- Dry Martini as Elizabeth Quimby
- Romance of the Underworld as Judith Andrews
- Heart to Heart as Princess Delatorre / Ellen Guthrie
- Sailors' Wives as Carol Trent
- Dressed to Kill as Jeanne
1927
- The Rough Riders as Dolly
- No Place to Go as Sally Montgomery
- The Sea Tiger as Amy Cortissos
- Two Arabian Knights as Mirza
- Rose of the Golden West as Elena
- The Sunset Derby as Molly Gibson
1926
- Don Juan as Adriana della Varnese
- The Wise Guy as Mary
- Forever After as Jennie Clayton
- High Steppers as Audrey Nye
1925
- Oh, Doctor! as Dolores Hicks
- Don Q Son of Zorro as Dolores de Muro
- The Pace That Thrills as Doris
- Scarlet Saint as Fidele Tridon
- Enticement as Leonore Bewlay
- Playing with Souls as Margo
1924
- Unguarded Women as Helen Castle
- The Fighting American as Mary Brainard
- Beau Brummel as Lady Margery Alvanley
- The Fighting Coward as Lucy
- Inez from Hollywood as Fay Bartholdi
- The Price of a Party as Alice Barrows
- To the Ladies as Undetermined Secondary Role
1923
- Hollywood as Mary Astor
- The Bright Shawl as Narcissa Escobar
- Puritan Passions as Rachel
- Success as Rose Randolph
- The Marriage Maker as Vivian Hope-Clarke
- Woman-Proof as Violet Lynwood
- Second Fiddle as Polly Crawford
1922
- The Rapids as Elsie Worden
- The Angelus as Bit Part
- Hope as Joan - the Lighthouse Keeper's Daughter
- John Smith as Irene Mason
- The Man Who Played God as Young Woman
- The Young Painter as Helen Seymour
1921
- Sentimental Tommy
- The Beggar Maid as Peasant Girl / Beggar Maid
- My Lady o' the Pines as Norah Collison
- Bullets or Ballots as Bit Part
- Brother of the Bear as Marcia Harthorn
- Wings of the Border