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
- Youngblood Hawke as Irene Perry
- Hush... Hush, Sweet Charlotte as Jewel Mayhew
1963
- Burke's Law as Florence Roberts
1961
- Dr. Kildare as Martha Lantzinge
- Ben Casey
- The Defenders as Flora Goode
- Return to Peyton Place as Mrs. Roberta Carter
1960
- Thriller as Rose French
- Checkmate as Esther Brack
- Journey to the Day as Helen May Whitfield
- The Snows of Kilimanjaro as Mrs. Leslie
1959
- Rawhide as Emma Cardwell
- A Stranger in My Arms as Virgilnie Beasley
1958
- This Happy Feeling as Mrs. Tremaine
1957
- The Devil's Hairpin as Mrs. Jargin
- 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
- The Thief as Isabelle Lagarde
- Playwrights '56
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
- Cynthia as Louise Bishop
- Desert Fury as Fritzi Haller
- Fiesta as Señora Morales
- Cass Timberlane as Queenie Havock
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
- Young Ideas as Josephine Evans
- Thousands Cheer as Hyllary Jones
1942
- Across the Pacific as Alberta Marlow
- The Palm Beach Story as The Princess Centimillia
1941
- The Great Lie as Sandra Kovak
- The Maltese Falcon as Brigid O'Shaughnessy
- 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
- Paradise for Three as Mrs. Irene Mallebre
- Woman Against Woman as Cynthia Holland
- There's Always a Woman as Lola Fraser
- No Time to Marry as Kay McGowan
1937
- The Prisoner of Zenda as Antoinette de Mauban
- The Hurricane as Mme. DeLaage
1936
- Lady from Nowhere as Polly Dunlap
- And So They Were Married as Edith Farnham
- Trapped by Television as Barbara 'Bobby' Blake
- Dodsworth as Edith Cortright
- The Murder of Dr. Harrigan as Lillian Cooper
1935
- Dinky as Martha Daniels
- Page Miss Glory as Gladys
- Man of Iron as Vida
- Red Hot Tires as Patricia Sanford
- Straight from the Heart as Marian Henshaw
1934
- Upperworld as Hettie Stream
- The Case of the Howling Dog as Bessie Foley
- I Am a Thief as Odette Mauclair
- The Man with Two Faces as Jessica Wells
- The Hollywood Gad-About as Self
- Return of the Terror as Olga Morgan
- Easy to Love as Charlotte
1933
- Jennie Gerhardt as Letty Pace
- The Kennel Murder Case as Hilda Lake
- The World Changes as Virginia Claffin Nordholm
- The Little Giant as Ruth Wayburn
- Convention City as Arlene Dale
1932
- A Successful Calamity as Emmy 'Sweetie' Wilton
- The Lost Squadron as Follette Marsh
- Those We Love as May Ballard
- Red Dust as Barbara "Babs" Willis
1931
- Behind Office Doors as Mary Linden
- White Shoulders as Norma Selbee
- The Royal Bed as Princess Anne
- The Sin Ship as Frisco Kitty
- Men of Chance as Marthe
- Other Men's Women as Lily Kulper
- Smart Woman as Nancy Gibson
1930
- The Lash as Dona Rosita Garcia
- The Runaway Bride as Mary Gray
- Holiday as Julia Seton
- Ladies Love Brutes as Mimi Howell
1929
- The Show of Shows as Performer in 'The Pirate' Number (uncredited)
- New Year's Eve as Marjorie Ware
- The Woman from Hell as Dee Renaud
1928
- Heart to Heart as Princess Delatorre / Ellen Guthrie
- Dry Martini as Elizabeth Quimby
- Romance of the Underworld as Judith Andrews
- 3-Ring Marriage as Anna
- Dressed to Kill as Jeanne
- Sailors' Wives as Carol Trent
1927
- Two Arabian Knights as Mirza
- Rose of the Golden West as Elena
- No Place to Go as Sally Montgomery
- The Rough Riders as Dolly
- The Sunset Derby as Molly Gibson
- The Sea Tiger as Amy Cortissos
1926
- Forever After as Jennie Clayton
- High Steppers as Audrey Nye
- The Wise Guy as Mary
- Don Juan as Adriana della Varnese
1925
- Scarlet Saint as Fidele Tridon
- Don Q Son of Zorro as Dolores de Muro
- Oh, Doctor! as Dolores Hicks
- Playing with Souls as Margo
- Enticement as Leonore Bewlay
- The Pace That Thrills as Doris
1924
- The Fighting American as Mary Brainard
- The Price of a Party as Alice Barrows
- The Fighting Coward as Lucy
- Unguarded Women as Helen Castle
- Beau Brummel as Lady Margery Alvanley
- To the Ladies as Undetermined Secondary Role
- Inez from Hollywood as Fay Bartholdi
1923
- Second Fiddle as Polly Crawford
- Puritan Passions as Rachel
- Hollywood as Mary Astor
- Woman-Proof as Violet Lynwood
- The Bright Shawl as Narcissa Escobar
- The Marriage Maker as Vivian Hope-Clarke
- Success as Rose Randolph
1922
- John Smith as Irene Mason
- The Man Who Played God as Young Woman
- The Rapids as Elsie Worden
- The Young Painter as Helen Seymour
- Hope as Joan - the Lighthouse Keeper's Daughter
- The Angelus as Bit Part
1921
- Sentimental Tommy
- The Beggar Maid as Peasant Girl / Beggar Maid
- Brother of the Bear as Marcia Harthorn
- Wings of the Border
- My Lady o' the Pines as Norah Collison
- Bullets or Ballots as Bit Part