Mary Astor (born Lucile Vasconcellos Langhanke; May 3, 1906 – September 25, 1987) was an American actress.
[ ][ ] Although her career spanned several decades, she may be best remembered for her performance as Brigid O'Shaughnessy in ''
The Maltese Falcon'' (1941).
Astor began her long motion picture career as a teenager in the
silent movies
A silent film is a film with no synchronized recorded sound (or more generally, no audible dialogue). Though silent films convey narrative and emotion visually, various plot elements (such as a setting or era) or key lines of dialogue may, when ...
of the early 1920s. When
talkies
A sound film is a motion picture with synchronized sound, or sound technologically coupled to image, as opposed to a silent film. The first known public exhibition of projected sound films took place in Paris in 1900, but decades passed before ...
arrived, her voice was initially considered too masculine and she was off the screen for a year. After she appeared in a play with friend
Florence Eldridge
Florence Eldridge (born Florence McKechnie, September 5, 1901 – August 1, 1988) was an American actress. She was nominated for the Tony Award for Best Actress in a Play in 1957 for her performance in '' Long Day's Journey into Night''.
E ...
, film offers returned, and she resumed her career in sound pictures.
In 1936, Astor's career was nearly destroyed by scandal. She had an affair with playwright
George S. Kaufman and was branded an adulterous wife by her ex-husband during a custody fight over their daughter. Overcoming these stumbling blocks in her private life, she went on to greater film success, eventually winning an
Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her portrayal of concert pianist Sandra Kovak in ''
The Great Lie
''The Great Lie'' is a 1941 American drama film directed by Edmund Goulding, and starring Bette Davis, George Brent and Mary Astor. The screenplay by Lenore J. Coffee is based on the novel ''January Heights'' by Polan Banks.
Plot
When concert ...
'' (1941).
Astor was a
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios Inc., also known as Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Pictures and abbreviated as MGM, is an American film, television production, distribution and media company owned by amazon (company), Amazon through MGM Holdings, founded o ...
contract player through most of the 1940s and continued to work in film, television and on stage until her retirement in 1964. She authored five novels. Her autobiography was a bestseller, as was her later book, ''A Life on Film'', which was about her career.
Director
Lindsay Anderson
Lindsay Gordon Anderson (17 April 1923 – 30 August 1994) was a British feature-film, theatre and documentary director, film critic, and leading-light of the Free Cinema movement and of the British New Wave. He is most widely remembered for h ...
wrote of Astor 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."
Early life and career
Astor was born in
Quincy, Illinois
Quincy ( ), known as Illinois's "Gem City", is a city in and the county seat of Adams County, Illinois, United States, located on the Mississippi River. The 2020 census counted a population of 39,463 in the city itself, down from 40,633 in 2010. ...
, the only child of Otto Ludwig Langhanke (October 2, 1871 – February 3, 1943) and Helen Marie de Vasconcellos
(April 19, 1881 – January 18, 1947). Both of her parents were teachers. Her German father emigrated to the United States from Berlin in 1891 and became a
naturalized U.S. citizen; her American mother was born in
Jacksonville, Illinois
Jacksonville is a city in Morgan County, Illinois, Morgan County, Illinois, United States. The population was 19,446 at the 2010 census. It is the county seat of Morgan County. It is home to Illinois College, Illinois School for the Deaf, and the ...
, and had Portuguese roots.
They married on August 3, 1904, in
Lyons, Kansas
Lyons is a city in and the county seat of Rice County, Kansas, United States. As of the 2020 census, the population of the city was 3,611.
History
For millennia, the land now known as Kansas was inhabited by Native Americans.
Although Cor ...
.
Astor's father taught German at Quincy High School until the U.S. entered
World War I
World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...
. Later on, he took up light farming. Astor's mother, who had always wanted to be an actress, taught drama and elocution. Astor was
home-schooled
Homeschooling or home schooling, also known as home education or elective home education (EHE), is the education of school-aged children at home or a variety of places other than a school. Usually conducted by a parent, tutor, or an onlin ...
in academics and was taught to play the piano by her father, who insisted she practice daily. Her piano talents came in handy when she played piano in her films ''
The Great Lie
''The Great Lie'' is a 1941 American drama film directed by Edmund Goulding, and starring Bette Davis, George Brent and Mary Astor. The screenplay by Lenore J. Coffee is based on the novel ''January Heights'' by Polan Banks.
Plot
When concert ...
'' and ''
Meet Me in St. Louis
''Meet Me in St. Louis'' is a 1944 American Christmas film, Christmas musical film made by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. Divided into a series of seasonal vignettes, starting with Summer 1903, it relates the story of a year in the life of the Smith famil ...
''.
In 1919, Astor sent a photograph of herself to a beauty contest in ''
Motion Picture Magazine
''Motion Picture'' was an American monthly fan magazine about film, published from 1911 to 1977.Fuller, Kathryn H. “Motion Picture Story Magazine and the Gendered Construction of the Movie Fan.” ''At the Picture Show: Small-Town Audiences a ...
'', becoming a semifinalist. When Astor was 15, the family moved to Chicago, Illinois,
with her father teaching German in public schools. Astor took drama lessons and appeared in various amateur stage productions. The following year, she sent another photograph to ''Motion Picture Magazine'', this time becoming a finalist and then runner-up in the national contest. Her father then moved the family to New York City, in order for his daughter to act in motion pictures. He managed her affairs from September 1920 to June 1930.
A Manhattan photographer, Charles Albin, saw her photograph and asked the young girl with haunting eyes and long auburn hair whose nickname was "Rusty" to pose for him. The Albin photographs were seen by Harry Durant of
Famous Players-Lasky
Famous Players-Lasky Corporation was an American motion picture and distribution company formed on June 28, 1916, from the merger of Adolph Zukor's Famous Players Film Company—originally formed by Zukor as Famous Players in Famous Plays—and ...
and Astor was signed to a six-month contract with
Paramount Pictures
Paramount Pictures Corporation is an American film and television production company, production and Distribution (marketing), distribution company and the main namesake division of Paramount Global (formerly ViacomCBS). It is the fifth-oldes ...
. Her name was changed to Mary Astor during a conference among Paramount Pictures chief
Jesse Lasky
Jesse Louis Lasky (September 13, 1880 – January 13, 1958) was an American pioneer motion picture producer who was a key founder of what was to become Paramount Pictures, and father of screenwriter Jesse L. Lasky Jr.
Early life
Born in to ...
, film producer
Walter Wanger
Walter Wanger (born Walter Feuchtwanger; July 11, 1894 – November 18, 1968) was an American film producer active from the 1910s, his career concluding with the turbulent production of '' Cleopatra,'' his last film, in 1963. He began at Para ...
, and gossip columnist
Louella Parsons
Louella Parsons (born Louella Rose Oettinger; August 6, 1881 – December 9, 1972) was an American movie columnist and a screenwriter. She was retained by William Randolph Hearst because she had championed Hearst's mistress Marion Davies and su ...
.
Silent movie career
Astor's first screen test was directed by
Lillian Gish
Lillian Diana Gish (October 14, 1893February 27, 1993) was an American actress, director, and screenwriter. Her film-acting career spanned 75 years, from 1912, in silent film shorts, to 1987. Gish was called the "First Lady of American Cinema", ...
, who was so impressed with her recitation of Shakespeare that she shot a thousand feet of her. She made her debut at age 14
in the 1921 film ''
Sentimental Tommy
''Sentimental Tommy'' is a 1921 American silent drama film directed by John S. Robertson. It featured Mary Astor in one of her earliest roles, although her scenes were deleted before release. The story is based on James M. Barrie's novel. Th ...
'', but her small part in a dream sequence wound up on the
cutting room floor
The term cutting room floor is used in the film industry as a figure of speech referring to unused or scrapped footage not included in the finished film. Outside of the film industry, it may refer to any creative work unused in the final product. ...
. Paramount let her contract lapse. She then appeared in some movie shorts with sequences based on famous paintings. She received critical recognition for the 1921 two-reeler ''The Beggar Maid''. Her first feature-length movie was ''John Smith'' (1922), followed that same year by ''
The Man Who Played God''. In 1923, she and her parents moved to
Hollywood.
After appearing in several larger roles at various studios, she was again signed by Paramount, this time to a one-year contract at $500 a week. After she appeared in several more movies,
John Barrymore
John Barrymore (born John Sidney Blyth; February 14 or 15, 1882 – May 29, 1942) was an American actor on stage, screen and radio. A member of the Drew and Barrymore theatrical families, he initially tried to avoid the stage, and briefly att ...
saw her photograph in a magazine and wanted her cast in his upcoming movie. On loan-out to
Warner Bros.
Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. (commonly known as Warner Bros. or abbreviated as WB) is an American film and entertainment studio headquartered at the Warner Bros. Studios complex in Burbank, California, and a subsidiary of Warner Bros. D ...
, she starred with him in ''
Beau Brummel'' (1924). The older actor wooed the young actress, but their relationship was severely constrained by Astor's parents' unwillingness to let the couple spend time alone together; Mary was only seventeen and legally underage. It was only after Barrymore convinced the Langhankes that his acting lessons required privacy that the couple managed to be alone at all. Their secret engagement ended largely because of the Langhankes' interference and Astor's inability to escape their heavy-handed authority, and because Barrymore became involved with Astor's fellow
WAMPAS Baby Star Dolores Costello
Dolores Costello (September 17, 1903Costello's obituary in ''The New York Times'' says that she was born on September 17, 1905. – March 1, 1979) was an American film actress who achieved her greatest success during the era of silent movies. ...
, whom he later married. In 1925, Astor's parents bought a Moorish style mansion with of land known as "
Moorcrest Moorcrest is a house in Beachwood Canyon, Los Angeles, California, United States. It was built in 1921 for the utopian Krotona Colony in Beachwood Canyon and was designed by Marie Russak Hotchener, an architect who designed several buildings for th ...
" in the hills above Hollywood. The Langhankes not only lived lavishly off of Astor's earnings, but kept her a virtual prisoner inside Moorcrest. Moorcrest is known not only for its ornate style, but its place as the most lavish residence associated with the
Krotona Colony, a utopian society founded by the
Theosophical Society
The Theosophical Society, founded in 1875, is a worldwide body with the aim to advance the ideas of Theosophy in continuation of previous Theosophists, especially the Greek and Alexandrian Neo-Platonic philosophers dating back to 3rd century CE ...
in 1912. Built by Marie Russak Hotchener, a
Theosophist
Theosophy is a religion established in the United States during the late 19th century. It was founded primarily by the Russian Helena Blavatsky and draws its teachings predominantly from Blavatsky's writings. Categorized by scholars of religion ...
who had no formal architectural training, the house combines Moorish and
Mission Revival
The Mission Revival style was part of an architectural movement, beginning in the late 19th century, for the revival and reinterpretation of American colonial styles. Mission Revival drew inspiration from the late 18th and early 19th century ...
styles and contains such
Arts and Crafts
A handicraft, sometimes more precisely expressed as artisanal handicraft or handmade, is any of a wide variety of types of work where useful and decorative objects are made completely by one’s hand or by using only simple, non-automated re ...
features as art-glass windows (whose red lotus design Astor called "unfortunate"), and Batchelder tiles. Moorcrest, which has since undergone a multimillion-dollar renovation, remains standing. Before the Langhankes bought it, it was rented by
Charlie Chaplin
Sir Charles Spencer Chaplin Jr. (16 April 188925 December 1977) was an English comic actor, filmmaker, and composer who rose to fame in the era of silent film. He became a worldwide icon through his screen persona, the Tramp, and is consider ...
, whose tenure is memorialized by an art glass window featuring the
Little Tramp
: ''See The Tramp for the character played by Charlie Chaplin''.
''Little Tramp'' is a musical with a book by David Pomeranz and Steven David Horwich and music and lyrics by David Pomeranz.
Based on the life of comedian Charles Chaplin and na ...
.
Astor's parents were not Theosophists, though the family was friendly with both Marie Hotchener and her husband Harry, prominent Theosophical Society members. Marie Hotchener negotiated Astor's right to a $5 a week allowance (at a time when she was making $2,500 a week) and the right to go to work unchaperoned by her mother. The following year when she was 19, Astor, fed up with her father's constant physical and psychological abuse as well as his control of her money, climbed from her second floor bedroom window and escaped to a hotel in Hollywood, as recounted in her memoirs. Hotchener facilitated her return by persuading Otto Langhanke to give Astor a savings account with $500 and the freedom to come and go as she pleased. Nevertheless, she did not gain control of her salary until she was 26 years old, at which point her parents sued her for financial support. Astor settled the case by agreeing to pay her parents $100 a month. Otto Langhanke put Moorcrest up for auction in the early 1930s, hoping to realize more than the $80,000 he had been offered for it; it sold for $25,000.
Astor continued to appear in movies at various studios. When her Paramount contract ended in 1925, she was signed at Warner Bros. Among her assignments was another role with John Barrymore, this time in ''
Don Juan
Don Juan (), also known as Don Giovanni (Italian), is a legendary, fictional Spanish libertine who devotes his life to seducing women. Famous versions of the story include a 17th-century play, '' El burlador de Sevilla y convidado de piedra'' ...
'' (1926). She was named one of the
WAMPAS Baby Stars
The WAMPAS Baby Stars was a promotional campaign sponsored by the United States Western Association of Motion Picture Advertisers, which honored 13 (15 in 1932) young actresses each year whom they believed to be on the threshold of movie stardom. ...
in 1926, along with
Mary Brian
Mary Brian (born Louise Byrdie Dantzler, February 17, 1906 – December 30, 2002) was an American actress who made the transition from silent films to sound films.
Early life
Brian was born in Corsicana, Texas, the daughter of Taurrence J. ...
,
Dolores Costello
Dolores Costello (September 17, 1903Costello's obituary in ''The New York Times'' says that she was born on September 17, 1905. – March 1, 1979) was an American film actress who achieved her greatest success during the era of silent movies. ...
,
Joan Crawford
Joan Crawford (born Lucille Fay LeSueur; March 23, ncertain year from 1904 to 1908was an American actress. She started her career as a dancer in traveling theatrical companies before debuting on Broadway. Crawford was signed to a motion pict ...
,
Dolores del Río,
Janet Gaynor
Janet Gaynor (born Laura Augusta Gainor; October 6, 1906 – September 14, 1984) was an American film, stage, and television actress.
Gaynor began her career as an extra in shorts and silent films. After signing with Fox Film Corporation (later ...
, and
Fay Wray
Vina Fay Wray (September 15, 1907 – August 8, 2004) was a Canadian/American actress best known for starring as Ann Darrow in the 1933 film ''King Kong''. Through an acting career that spanned nearly six decades, Wray attained international r ...
. On loan to
Fox Film Corporation
The Fox Film Corporation (also known as Fox Studios) was an American Independent film production studio formed by William Fox (1879–1952) in 1915, by combining his earlier Greater New York Film Rental Company and Box Office Attractions Film C ...
, Astor starred in ''
Dressed to Kill'' (1928), which received good reviews, and the sophisticated comedy ''
Dry Martini
The martini is a cocktail made with gin and vermouth, and garnished with an olive or a lemon twist. Over the years, the martini has become one of the best-known mixed alcoholic beverages. A popular variation, the vodka martini, uses vodka in ...
'' (also 1928). She later said that, while working on the latter, she "absorbed and assumed something of the atmosphere and emotional climate of the picture." She said it offered "a new and exciting point of view; with its specious doctrine of self-indulgence, it rushed into the vacuum of my moral sense and captivated me completely." When her Warner Bros. contract ended, she signed a contract with Fox for $3,750 a week. In 1928, she married director
Kenneth Hawks
Kenneth Neil Hawks (August 12, 1898 – January 2, 1930) was an American film director and producer.
Life and career
Hawks served in the United States Army Air Service during World War I. He then graduated from Yale University in 1919. He so ...
at her family home, Moorcrest. He gave her a
Packard
Packard or Packard Motor Car Company was an American luxury automobile company located in Detroit, Michigan. The first Packard automobiles were produced in 1899, and the last Packards were built in South Bend, Indiana in 1958.
One of the "Thr ...
automobile as a wedding present and the couple moved into a home high up on Lookout Mountain in Los Angeles above
Beverly Hills
Beverly Hills is a city located in Los Angeles County, California. A notable and historic suburb of Greater Los Angeles, it is in a wealthy area immediately southwest of the Hollywood Hills, approximately northwest of downtown Los Angeles. Bev ...
. As the film industry made the transition to
talkies
A sound film is a motion picture with synchronized sound, or sound technologically coupled to image, as opposed to a silent film. The first known public exhibition of projected sound films took place in Paris in 1900, but decades passed before ...
, Fox gave her a sound test, which she failed because the studio found her voice to be too deep. Though this result was probably due to early sound equipment and inexperienced technicians, the studio released her from her contract and she found herself out of work for eight months in 1929.
New beginnings
During her time off, Astor took voice training and singing lessons with Francis Stuart, an exponent of
Francesco Lamperti
Francesco Lamperti (11 March 1811 or 1813 – 1 May 1892) was an Italian singing teacher.
Biography
A native of Savona, Lamperti attended the Milan Conservatory where, beginning in 1850, he taught for a quarter of a century. He was director ...
, but no roles were offered. Her acting career was then given a boost by her friend,
Florence Eldridge
Florence Eldridge (born Florence McKechnie, September 5, 1901 – August 1, 1988) was an American actress. She was nominated for the Tony Award for Best Actress in a Play in 1957 for her performance in '' Long Day's Journey into Night''.
E ...
, (wife of
Fredric March
Fredric March (born Ernest Frederick McIntyre Bickel; August 31, 1897 – April 14, 1975) was an American actor, regarded as one of Hollywood's most celebrated, versatile stars of the 1930s and 1940s.Obituary '' Variety'', April 16, 1975, ...
), in whom she confided. Eldridge, who was to star in the stage play ''Among the Married'' at the
Majestic Theatre Majestic Theatre or Majestic Theater may refer to:
Australia
* Majestic Theatre, Adelaide, former name of a theatre in King William Street, Adelaide, built 1916, now demolished
* Majestic Theatre, Launceston, a former cinema in Tasmania designed b ...
in
Downtown Los Angeles
Downtown Los Angeles (DTLA) contains the central business district of Los Angeles. In addition, it contains a diverse residential area of some 85,000 people, and covers . A 2013 study found that the district is home to over 500,000 jobs. It is ...
, recommended Astor for the second female lead. The play was a success, and her voice was deemed suitable, being described as low and vibrant. She was happy to work again, but her happiness soon ended. On January 2, 1930, while filming sequences for the Fox movie ''
Such Men Are Dangerous'', Kenneth Hawks was killed in a mid-air plane crash over the
Pacific
The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean (or, depending on definition, to Antarctica) in the south, and is bounded by the continen ...
. Astor had just finished a matinee performance at the Majestic when Florence Eldridge gave her the news. She was rushed from the theatre to Eldridge's apartment. A replacement,
Doris Lloyd
Hessy Doris Lloyd (3 July 1891 – 21 May 1968) was an English–American film and stage actress. She is perhaps best known for her roles in ''The Time Machine'' (1960) and ''The Sound of Music'' (1965). Lloyd appeared in two Academy Award w ...
, stepped in for the next show. Astor remained with Eldridge at her apartment for some time, then soon returned to work. Shortly after her husband's death, she debuted in her first talkie, ''
Ladies Love Brutes
''Ladies Love Brutes'' is a 1930 American pre-Code comedy film starring George Bancroft, Mary Astor, and Fredric March. The film was directed by Rowland V. Lee and based on the play ''Pardon My Glove'' by Zoë Akins.
Cast
*George Bancroft as J ...
'' (1930) at Paramount, in which she co-starred with her friend
Fredric March
Fredric March (born Ernest Frederick McIntyre Bickel; August 31, 1897 – April 14, 1975) was an American actor, regarded as one of Hollywood's most celebrated, versatile stars of the 1930s and 1940s.Obituary '' Variety'', April 16, 1975, ...
. While her career picked up, her private life remained difficult. After working on several more movies, she suffered delayed shock over her husband's death and had a
nervous breakdown
A mental disorder, also referred to as a mental illness or psychiatric disorder, is a behavioral or mental pattern that causes significant distress or impairment of personal functioning. Such features may be persistent, relapsing and remitti ...
. During the months of her illness, she was attended to by Dr. Franklyn Thorpe, whom she married on June 29, 1931. That year, she starred as Nancy Gibson in ''
Smart Woman'', playing a woman determined to retrieve her husband from a gold-digging flirtation.
In May 1932, the Thorpes purchased a yacht and sailed to Hawaii. Astor was expecting a baby in August, but gave birth in June in
Honolulu
Honolulu (; ) is the capital and largest city of the U.S. state of Hawaii, which is in the Pacific Ocean. It is an unincorporated county seat of the consolidated City and County of Honolulu, situated along the southeast coast of the island ...
. The child, a daughter, was named Marylyn Hauoli Thorpe: her first name combined her parents' names, and her middle name is Hawaiian. When they returned to
Southern California
Southern California (commonly shortened to SoCal) is a geographic and Cultural area, cultural region that generally comprises the southern portion of the U.S. state of California. It includes the Los Angeles metropolitan area, the second most po ...
, Astor freelanced and gained the pivotal role of Barbara Willis in
MGM
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios Inc., also known as Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Pictures and abbreviated as MGM, is an American film, television production, distribution and media company owned by Amazon through MGM Holdings, founded on April 17, 1924 a ...
's ''
Red Dust'' (1932) with
Clark Gable
William Clark Gable (February 1, 1901November 16, 1960) was an American film actor, often referred to as "The King of Hollywood". He had roles in more than 60 motion pictures in multiple genres during a career that lasted 37 years, three decades ...
and
Jean Harlow
Jean Harlow (born Harlean Harlow Carpenter; March 3, 1911 – June 7, 1937) was an American actress. Known for her portrayal of "bad girl" characters, she was the leading sex symbol of the early 1930s and one of the defining figures of the ...
. In late 1932, Astor signed a featured player contract with Warner Bros. Meanwhile, besides spending lavishly, her parents invested in the
stock market
A stock market, equity market, or share market is the aggregation of buyers and sellers of stocks (also called shares), which represent ownership claims on businesses; these may include ''securities'' listed on a public stock exchange, as ...
, which often turned out unprofitable. While they remained in Moorcrest, Astor dubbed it a "white elephant", and she refused to maintain the house. She had to turn to the
Motion Picture Relief Fund in 1933 to pay her bills. She appeared as the female lead, Hilda Lake, niece of the murder victims, in ''
The Kennel Murder Case
''The Kennel Murder Case'' is a 1933 murder mystery novel written by S. S. Van Dine with fictional detective Philo Vance investigating a complex locked-room mystery.
Plot summary
One of the Coe brothers is found dead in his bedroom, locked f ...
'' (1933), co-starring with
William Powell
William Horatio Powell (July 29, 1892 – March 5, 1984) was an American actor. A major star at Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, he was paired with Myrna Loy in 14 films, including the ''The Thin Man (film), Thin Man'' series based on the Nick and Nora Cha ...
as detective
Philo Vance
Philo Vance is a fictional amateur detective originally featured in 12 crime novels by S. S. Van Dine in the 1920s and 1930s. During that time, Vance was immensely popular in books, films, and radio. He was portrayed as a stylish—even foppish— ...
. Film critic
William K. Everson
Keith William Everson (8 April 1929 – 14 April 1996) was an English- American archivist, author, critic, educator, collector, and film historian. He also discovered several lost films. Everson's given first names were Keith William, but he r ...
pronounced it a "masterpiece" in the August 1984 issue of ''Films in Review''.
Soon unhappy with her marriage, due to Thorpe having a short temper and a habit of listing her faults, Astor wanted a divorce by 1933. At a friend's suggestion, she took a break from movie-making in 1933 and visited New York alone. While there, enjoying a whirlwind social life, she met the playwright
George S. Kaufman, who was in a strong, but open marriage. She documented their affair in her diary.
Thorpe, by now making use of his wife's income, had discovered Astor's diary. He indicated her liaisons with other men, including Kaufman, would be used to claim she was an unfit mother in any divorce proceedings.
[Mary Astor Profile]
/ref>
Custody case
Dr. Franklyn Thorpe divorced Astor in April 1935. A custody battle over their four-year-old daughter, Marylyn, drew press attention to Astor in 1936. Astor's diary was never formally offered as evidence during the trial, but Thorpe and his lawyers constantly referred to it, and its notoriety grew. Astor admitted that the diary existed and that she had documented her affair with Kaufman, but maintained that many of the parts that had been referred to were forgeries, following the theft of the diary from her desk. The diary was deemed inadmissible as a mutilated document because Thorpe had removed pages referring to himself and had fabricated content. The trial judge, Goodwin J. Knight, ordered it sealed and impounded. Florabel Muir
Florabel Muir (May 6, 1889 – April 27, 1970) was an American reporter, newspaper columnist and author. She became known for covering both Hollywood celebrities and underworld gangsters from the 1920s through the 1960s.
Career
Muir was b ...
, then with the ''New York Daily News
The New York ''Daily News'', officially titled the ''Daily News'', is an American newspaper based in Jersey City, NJ. It was founded in 1919 by Joseph Medill Patterson as the ''Illustrated Daily News''. It was the first U.S. daily printed in ta ...
'' is known to have invented fabricated diary passages in her articles. Interestingly, the plot in a 1934 Perry Mason
Perry Mason is a fictional character, an American criminal defense lawyer who is the main character in works of detective fiction written by Erle Stanley Gardner. Perry Mason features in 82 novels and 4 short stories, all of which involve a c ...
film in which Astor had recently co-starred, ''The Case of the Howling Dog
''The Case of the Howling Dog'' is a 1934 American mystery film directed by Alan Crosland, based on the 1934 novel of the same name by Erle Stanley Gardner. The film stars Warren William and Mary Astor. This was the first in a series of four film ...
'', featured an attempt to access the incriminating diary kept by a woman suspect in a murder case who was having an affair with her married boss.
News of the diary became public when Astor's role in '' Dodsworth'' (1936), as Edith Cortwright, was beginning to be filmed. Producer Samuel Goldwyn
Samuel Goldwyn (born Szmuel Gelbfisz; yi, שמואל געלבפֿיש; August 27, 1882 (claimed) January 31, 1974), also known as Samuel Goldfish, was a Polish-born American film producer. He was best known for being the founding contributor a ...
was urged to fire her, as her contract included a morality clause, but Goldwyn refused. With in the title role, ''Dodsworth'' received rave reviews on release, and the public's acceptance assured the studios that casting Astor remained a viable proposition. Ultimately, the scandals caused minimal harm to Astor's career, which was actually revitalized because of the custody fight and the publicity it generated.
In 1952, by court order, Astor's diary was removed from the bank vault where it had been sequestered for 16 years and destroyed.
Mid-career
In 1937, she returned to the stage in well-received productions of Noël Coward
Sir Noël Peirce Coward (16 December 189926 March 1973) was an English playwright, composer, director, actor, and singer, known for his wit, flamboyance, and what ''Time'' magazine called "a sense of personal style, a combination of cheek and ...
's '' Tonight at 8.30'', ''The Astonished Heart'', and ''Still Life''. She also began performing regularly on radio
Radio is the technology of signaling and communicating using radio waves. Radio waves are electromagnetic waves of frequency between 30 hertz (Hz) and 300 gigahertz (GHz). They are generated by an electronic device called a transmit ...
. Over the next few years, she had roles in ''The Prisoner of Zenda
''The Prisoner of Zenda'' is an 1894 adventure novel by Anthony Hope, in which the King of Ruritania is drugged on the eve of his coronation and thus is unable to attend the ceremony. Political forces within the realm are such that, in orde ...
'' (1937), John Ford
John Martin Feeney (February 1, 1894 – August 31, 1973), known professionally as John Ford, was an American film director and naval officer. He is widely regarded as one of the most important and influential filmmakers of his generation. He ...
's '' The Hurricane'' (1937), ''Midnight
Midnight is the transition time from one day to the next – the moment when the date changes, on the local official clock time for any particular jurisdiction. By clock time, midnight is the opposite of noon, differing from it by 12 hours. ...
'' (1939) and ''Brigham Young
Brigham Young (; June 1, 1801August 29, 1877) was an American religious leader and politician. He was the second President of the Church (LDS Church), president of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church), from 1847 until his ...
'' (1940). In John Huston
John Marcellus Huston ( ; August 5, 1906 – August 28, 1987) was an American film director, screenwriter, actor and visual artist. He wrote the screenplays for most of the 37 feature films he directed, many of which are today considered ...
’s all time classic '' The Maltese Falcon'' (1941), Astor played scheming temptress Brigid O'Shaughnessy. The film, based upon the novel
A novel is a relatively long work of narrative fiction, typically written in prose and published as a book. The present English word for a long work of prose fiction derives from the for "new", "news", or "short story of something new", itsel ...
by Dashiell Hammett
Samuel Dashiell Hammett (; May 27, 1894 – January 10, 1961) was an American writer of hard-boiled detective novels and short stories. He was also a screenwriter and political activist. Among the enduring characters he created are Sam Spade ('' ...
, also starred Humphrey Bogart and featured Peter Lorre
Peter Lorre (; born László Löwenstein, ; June 26, 1904 – March 23, 1964) was a Hungarian and American actor, first in Europe and later in the United States. He began his stage career in Vienna, in the Austro-Hungarian Empire, before movin ...
and Sydney Greenstreet
Sydney Hughes Greenstreet (December 27, 1879 – January 18, 1954) was a British-American actor. While he did not begin his career in films until the age of 61, he had a run of significant motion pictures in a Hollywood career lasting throu ...
. For her performance in ''The Great Lie
''The Great Lie'' is a 1941 American drama film directed by Edmund Goulding, and starring Bette Davis, George Brent and Mary Astor. The screenplay by Lenore J. Coffee is based on the novel ''January Heights'' by Polan Banks.
Plot
When concert ...
'' (also 1941) she won an Oscar as Best Supporting Actress in the 14th Academy Awards. As Sandra Kovak, the self absorbed concert pianist who relinquishes her unborn child, her intermittent love interest was played by George Brent
George Brent (born George Brendan Nolan; 15 March 1904 – 26 May 1979) was an Irish-American stage, film, and television actor. He is best remembered for the eleven films he made with Bette Davis, which included '' Jezebel'' and '' Dark Victo ...
, but the film's star was Bette Davis
Ruth Elizabeth "Bette" Davis (; April 5, 1908 – October 6, 1989) was an American actress with a career spanning more than 50 years and 100 acting credits. She was noted for playing unsympathetic, sardonic characters, and was famous for her pe ...
. Davis wanted Astor cast in the role after watching her screen test
A screen test is a method of determining the suitability of an actor or actress for performing on film or in a particular role. The performer is generally given a scene, or selected lines and actions, and instructed to perform in front of a came ...
and seeing her play Tchaikovsky
Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky , group=n ( ; 7 May 1840 – 6 November 1893) was a Russian composer of the Romantic period. He was the first Russian composer whose music would make a lasting impression internationally. He wrote some of the most popu ...
's Piano Concerto No. 1. She then recruited Astor to collaborate on rewriting the script, which Davis felt was mediocre and needed work to make it more interesting. Astor further followed Davis's advice and sported a bobbed hairdo for the role.
The soundtrack of the movie in the scenes where she plays the concerto, with violent hand movements on the piano keyboard, was dubbed by pianist Max Rabinovitch. Davis deliberately stepped back to allow Astor to shine in her key scenes. In her Oscar acceptance speech, Astor thanked Bette Davis and Tchaikovsky. Astor and Davis became good friends.
Astor was not propelled into the upper echelon of movie stars by these successes, however. She always declined offers of starring in her own right. Not wanting the responsibility of top billing and having to carry the picture, she preferred the security of being a featured player. She reunited with Humphrey Bogart and Sydney Greenstreet
Sydney Hughes Greenstreet (December 27, 1879 – January 18, 1954) was a British-American actor. While he did not begin his career in films until the age of 61, he had a run of significant motion pictures in a Hollywood career lasting throu ...
in John Huston
John Marcellus Huston ( ; August 5, 1906 – August 28, 1987) was an American film director, screenwriter, actor and visual artist. He wrote the screenplays for most of the 37 feature films he directed, many of which are today considered ...
's ''Across the Pacific
''Across the Pacific'' is a 1942 American spy film set on the eve of the entry of the United States into World War II. It was directed first by John Huston, then by Vincent Sherman after Huston joined the United States Army Signal Corps. It sta ...
'' (1942). Though usually cast in dramatic or melodramatic roles, Astor showed a flair for comedy as The Princess Centimillia in the Preston Sturges
Preston Sturges (; born Edmund Preston Biden; August 29, 1898 – August 6, 1959) was an American playwright, screenwriter, and film director. In 1941, he won the Oscar for Best Original Screenplay for the film '' The Great McGinty'' (1940), h ...
film, ''The Palm Beach Story
''The Palm Beach Story'' is a 1942 screwball comedy film written and directed by Preston Sturges, and starring Claudette Colbert, Joel McCrea, Mary Astor and Rudy Vallée. Victor Young contributed the musical score, including a fast-paced variati ...
'' (also 1942) for Paramount. In February 1943, Astor's father, Otto Langhanke, died in Cedars of Lebanon Hospital
Cedars-Sinai Medical Center is a nonprofit, tertiary, 886-bed teaching hospital and multi-specialty academic health science center located in Los Angeles, California. Part of the Cedars-Sinai Health System, the hospital employs a staff of over ...
as a result of a heart attack complicated by influenza
Influenza, commonly known as "the flu", is an infectious disease caused by influenza viruses. Symptoms range from mild to severe and often include fever, runny nose, sore throat, muscle pain, headache, coughing, and fatigue. These symptoms ...
. His wife and daughter were at his bedside.
That same year, Astor signed a seven-year contract with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios Inc., also known as Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Pictures and abbreviated as MGM, is an American film, television production, distribution and media company owned by amazon (company), Amazon through MGM Holdings, founded o ...
(MGM), a move she soon came to regret. She was kept busy, playing what appeared to be under-written and largely interchangeable supporting roles, a category Astor later dubbed "Mothers for Metro". After ''Meet Me in St. Louis
''Meet Me in St. Louis'' is a 1944 American Christmas film, Christmas musical film made by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. Divided into a series of seasonal vignettes, starting with Summer 1903, it relates the story of a year in the life of the Smith famil ...
'' (1944), the studio allowed her to debut on Broadway in ''Many Happy Returns'' (1945). The play was a failure, but Astor received good reviews. On loan-out to 20th Century Fox
20th Century Studios, Inc. (previously known as 20th Century Fox) is an American film production company headquartered at the Fox Studio Lot in the Century City area of Los Angeles. As of 2019, it serves as a film production arm of Walt Dis ...
, she played a wealthy widow in '' Claudia and David'' (1946). She was also loaned to Paramount
Paramount (from the word ''paramount'' meaning "above all others") may refer to:
Entertainment and music companies
* Paramount Global, also known simply as Paramount, an American mass media company formerly known as ViacomCBS. The following busin ...
to play Fritzi Haller in ''Desert Fury
''Desert Fury'' is a 1947 American film noir crime film directed by Lewis Allen and starring John Hodiak, Lizabeth Scott and Burt Lancaster.
The story was adapted for the screen by Robert Rossen and A. I. Bezzerides (uncredited), based on th ...
'' (1947), the tough owner of a saloon and casino in a small mining town. Before Helen Langhanke died of a heart ailment in January 1947, Astor said she sat in the hospital room with her mother, who was delirious and did not know her, and listened quietly as Helen told her all about terrible, selfish Lucile. After her death, Astor said she spent countless hours copying her mother's diary so she could read it and was surprised to learn how much she was hated. Back at MGM, Astor continued being cast in undistinguished, colorless mother roles. One exception was when she played a prostitute in the film noir
Film noir (; ) is a cinematic term used primarily to describe stylish Hollywood crime dramas, particularly those that emphasize cynical attitudes and motivations. The 1940s and 1950s are generally regarded as the "classic period" of American ' ...
''Act of Violence
''Act of Violence'' is a 1949 American film noir starring Van Heflin, Robert Ryan and featuring Janet Leigh, Mary Astor and Phyllis Thaxter.
Directed by Fred Zinnemann and adapted for the screen by Robert L. Richards from a story by Collier Yo ...
'' (1948). The last straw came when she was cast as Marmee March in '' Little Women'' (1949). Astor found no redemption in playing what she considered another humdrum mother and grew despondent. She later described her disappointment with her cast members and the shoot in her memoir ''A Life on Film'':
The studio wanted to renew her contract, promising better roles, but she declined the offer.
Middle years
At the same time, Astor's drinking was growing troublesome. She admitted to alcoholism
Alcoholism is, broadly, any drinking of alcohol (drug), alcohol that results in significant Mental health, mental or physical health problems. Because there is disagreement on the definition of the word ''alcoholism'', it is not a recognize ...
as far back as the 1930s, but it had never interfered with her work schedule or performance. She hit bottom in 1949 and went into a sanitarium for alcoholics.
In 1951, she made a frantic call to her doctor and said that she had taken too many sleeping pills. She was taken to a hospital and the police reported that she had attempted suicide, this being her third overdose in two years. The story made headline news. She maintained it had been an accident.
That same year, she joined Alcoholics Anonymous
Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) is an international mutual aid fellowship of alcoholics dedicated to abstinence-based recovery from alcoholism through its spiritually-inclined Twelve Step program. Following its Twelve Traditions, AA is non-professi ...
and converted to Roman Catholicism
The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the List of Christian denominations by number of members, largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics Catholic Church by country, worldwide . It is am ...
. She credited her recovery to a priest, Peter Ciklic, also a practicing psychologist
A psychologist is a professional who practices psychology and studies mental states, perceptual, cognitive, emotional, and social processes and behavior. Their work often involves the experimentation, observation, and interpretation of how indi ...
, who encouraged her to write about her experiences as part of therapy. She also separated from her fourth husband, Thomas Wheelock (a stockbroker she married on Christmas Day 1945), but did not actually divorce him until 1955.
In 1952, she was cast in the leading role of the play ''The Time of the Cuckoo
''The Time of the Cuckoo'' is a play by Arthur Laurents. It focuses on the bittersweet romance between Leona Samish, a single American executive secretary vacationing in Europe and Renato Di Rossi, a shopkeeper she meets in Venice. Di Rossi, trappe ...
'', which was later made into the movie '' Summertime'' (1955), and subsequently toured with it. After the tour, Astor lived in New York for four years and worked in the theater and on television. During the 1952 presidential election, Astor, a lifelong Democrat
Democrat, Democrats, or Democratic may refer to:
Politics
*A proponent of democracy, or democratic government; a form of government involving rule by the people.
*A member of a Democratic Party:
**Democratic Party (United States) (D)
**Democratic ...
, supported the campaign of Adlai Stevenson.
Her TV debut was in ''The Missing Years'' (1954) for ''Kraft Television Theatre
''Kraft Television Theatre'' is an American anthology drama television series running from 1947 to 1958. It began May 7, 1947 on NBC, airing at 7:30pm on Wednesday evenings until December of that year. It first promoted MacLaren's Imperial Chees ...
''. She acted frequently in TV during the ensuing years and appeared on many big shows of the time, including ''The United States Steel Hour
''The United States Steel Hour'' is an anthology series which brought hour long dramas to television from 1953 to 1963. The television series and the radio program that preceded it were both sponsored by the United States Steel Corporation (U. S ...
'', ''Alfred Hitchcock Presents
''Alfred Hitchcock Presents'' is an American television anthology series created, hosted and produced by Alfred Hitchcock, aired on CBS and NBC between 1955 and 1965. It features dramas, thrillers and mysteries. Between 1962 and 1965 it was ren ...
'', '' Rawhide'', ''Dr. Kildare
Dr. James Kildare is a fictional American medical doctor, originally created in the 1930s by the author Frederick Schiller Faust under the pen name Max Brand. Shortly after the character's first appearance in a magazine story, Paramount Pictur ...
'', '' Burke's Law'', and ''Ben Casey
''Ben Casey'' is an American medical drama series that aired on ABC from 1961 to 1966. The show was known for its opening titles, which consisted of a hand drawing the symbols "♂, ♀, ✳, †, ∞" on a chalkboard, as cast member Sam Jaff ...
''. In 1954, she appeared in the episode "Fearful Hour" of the Gary Merrill
Gary Fred Merrill (August 2, 1915 – March 5, 1990) was an American film and television actor whose credits included more than 50 feature films, a half-dozen mostly short-lived TV series, and dozens of television guest appearances. He starr ...
NBC
The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) is an American English-language commercial broadcast television and radio network. The flagship property of the NBC Entertainment division of NBCUniversal, a division of Comcast, its headquarters are l ...
series ''Justice
Justice, in its broadest sense, is the principle that people receive that which they deserve, with the interpretation of what then constitutes "deserving" being impacted upon by numerous fields, with many differing viewpoints and perspective ...
'' in the role of a desperately poor and aging film star who attempts suicide to avoid exposure as a thief. She also played an ex-film star on the Boris Karloff
William Henry Pratt (23 November 1887 – 2 February 1969), better known by his stage name Boris Karloff (), was an English actor. His portrayal of Frankenstein's monster in the horror film ''Frankenstein'' (1931) (his 82nd film) established h ...
-hosted '' Thriller'' in an episode titled "Rose's Last Summer."
She starred on Broadway again in ''The Starcross Story'' (1954), another failure, and returned to southern California in 1956. She then went on a successful theatre tour of ''Don Juan in Hell
''Man and Superman'' is a four-act drama written by George Bernard Shaw in 1903. The series was written in response to a call for Shaw to write a play based on the Don Juan theme. ''Man and Superman'' opened at the Royal Court Theatre in London o ...
'' directed by Agnes Moorehead
Agnes Robertson Moorehead (December 6, 1900April 30, 1974) was an American actress. In a career spanning four decades, her credits included work in radio, stage, film, and television.Obituary ''Variety'', May 8, 1974, page 286. Moorehead was th ...
and co-starring Ricardo Montalbán
Ricardo Gonzalo Pedro Montalbán y Merino, KSG (; ; November 25, 1920 – January 14, 2009) was a Mexican and American film and television actor. Montalbán's career spanned seven decades, during which he became known for performances in a var ...
.
Astor's memoir
A memoir (; , ) is any nonfiction narrative writing based in the author's personal memories. The assertions made in the work are thus understood to be factual. While memoir has historically been defined as a subcategory of biography or autobi ...
, ''My Story: An Autobiography'', was published in 1959, becoming a sensation in its day and a bestseller. It was the result of Father Ciklic urging her to write. Though she spoke of her troubled personal life, her parents, her marriages, the scandals, her battle with alcoholism, and other areas of her life, she did not mention the movie industry or her career in detail. In 1971, a second book was published, ''A Life on Film'', where she discussed her career. It, too, became a bestseller. Astor also tried her hand at fiction, writing the novels ''The Incredible Charley Carewe'' (1960), ''The Image of Kate'' (1962), which was published in 1964 in a German translation as ''Jahre und Tage'', ''The O'Conners'' (1964), ''Goodbye, Darling, be Happy'' (1965), and ''A Place Called Saturday'' (1968).
She appeared in several movies during this time, including '' Stranger in My Arms'' (1959). She made a comeback in ''Return to Peyton Place
''Return to Peyton Place'' is a 1959 novel by Grace Metalious, a sequel to her best-selling 1956 novel '' Peyton Place''.
Plot summary
After the phenomenal success of her first novel, Metalious hastily penned a sequel centering on the life and ...
'' (1961) playing Roberta Carter, the domineering mother who insists the "shocking" novel written by Allison Mackenzie should be banned from the school library, and received good reviews for her performance. According to film scholar Gavin Lambert, Astor invented memorable bits of business in her last scene of that film, where Roberta's vindictive motives are exposed.
Final years and death
After a trip around the world in 1964, Astor was lured away from her Malibu, California
Malibu ( ; es, Malibú; Chumash: ) is a beach city in the Santa Monica Mountains region of Los Angeles County, California, situated about west of Downtown Los Angeles. It is known for its Mediterranean climate and its strip of the Malibu ...
home, where she was gardening and working on her third novel, to make what she decided would be her final film. She was offered the small role as a key figure, Jewel Mayhew, in the murder mystery '' Hush...Hush, Sweet Charlotte'' (1964), starring her friend Bette Davis
Ruth Elizabeth "Bette" Davis (; April 5, 1908 – October 6, 1989) was an American actress with a career spanning more than 50 years and 100 acting credits. She was noted for playing unsympathetic, sardonic characters, and was famous for her pe ...
. She filmed her final scene with Cecil Kellaway
Cecil Lauriston Kellaway (22 August 1890 – 28 February 1973) was a South African character actor. He was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor twice, for '' The Luck of the Irish'' (1948) and '' Guess Who's Coming to Dinner ...
at Oak Alley Plantation in southern Louisiana. In ''A Life on Film'', she described her character as "a little old lady, waiting to die". Astor decided it would serve as her swan song in the movie business. After 109 movies in a career spanning 45 years, she turned in her Screen Actors Guild
The Screen Actors Guild (SAG) was an American labor union which represented over 100,000 film and television principal and background performers worldwide. On March 30, 2012, the union leadership announced that the SAG membership voted to m ...
card and retired.
Astor later moved to Fountain Valley, California
Fountain Valley is a suburban city in Orange County, California. The population was 57,047 at the 2020 United States Census, 2020 census.
History
The area encompassing Fountain Valley was originally inhabited by the Tongva people. Europea ...
, where she lived near her son, Anthony del Campo (from her third marriage to Mexican film editor Manuel del Campo), and his family, until 1971. That same year, suffering from a chronic heart condition, she moved to a small cottage on the grounds of the Motion Picture & Television Country House, the industry's retirement facility in Woodland Hills, Los Angeles
Woodland Hills is a neighborhood bordering the Santa Monica Mountains in the San Fernando Valley region of Los Angeles, Los Angeles, California.
Geography
Woodland Hills is in the southwestern region of the San Fernando Valley, which is locate ...
, where she had a private table when she chose to eat in the resident dining room. She appeared in the television documentary series '' Hollywood: A Celebration of the American Silent Film'' (1980), co-produced by Kevin Brownlow
Kevin Brownlow (born Robert Kevin Brownlow; 2 June 1938) is a British film historian, television documentary-maker, filmmaker, author, and film editor. He is best known for his work documenting the history of the silent era, having become inter ...
, in which she discussed her roles during the silent film period. After years of retirement, she had been urged to appear in Brownlow's documentary by a former sister-in-law Bessie Love
Bessie Love (born Juanita Horton; September 10, 1898April 26, 1986) was an American-British actress who achieved prominence playing innocent, young girls and wholesome leading ladies in silent and early sound films. Her acting career spanned e ...
who also appeared in the series.
Astor died on September 25, 1987, at age 81, of respiratory failure
Respiratory failure results from inadequate gas exchange by the respiratory system, meaning that the arterial oxygen, carbon dioxide, or both cannot be kept at normal levels. A drop in the oxygen carried in the blood is known as hypoxemia; a rise ...
due to pulmonary emphysema
Emphysema, or pulmonary emphysema, is a lower respiratory tract disease, characterised by air-filled spaces ( pneumatoses) in the lungs, that can vary in size and may be very large. The spaces are caused by the breakdown of the walls of the alve ...
while in the hospital at the Motion Picture House complex. She is interred in Holy Cross Cemetery in Culver City, California
Culver City is a city in Los Angeles County, California, United States. As of the 2020 census, the population was 40,779. Founded in 1917 as a "whites only" sundown town, it is now an ethnically diverse city with what was called the "third-most d ...
. Astor has a motion pictures star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame
The Hollywood Walk of Fame is a historic landmark which consists of more than 2,700 five-pointed terrazzo and brass stars embedded in the sidewalks along 15 blocks of Hollywood Boulevard and three blocks of Vine Street in Hollywood, Californ ...
at 6701 Hollywood Boulevard.
Filmography
Radio appearances
See also
* List of actors with Academy Award nominations
Bibliography
*
My Story: An Autobiography
' (1959)
* ''The Incredible Charlie Carewe'' (1963)
* ''The O'Conners'' (1964)
* ''Goodbye Darling, Be Happy'' (1965)
* ''The Image of Kate'' (1966)
*
A Life on Film
' (1967)
* ''A Place Called Saturday'' (1968)
*
by Woody Allen
Heywood "Woody" Allen (born Allan Stewart Konigsberg; November 30, 1935) is an American film director, writer, actor, and comedian whose career spans more than six decades and multiple Academy Award-winning films. He began his career writing ...
, ''The New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...
'', December 22, 2016
*
*
The Great Lie: The Creation of Mary Astor' (2021)
References
Further reading
* TES staff (March 1922)
"Film Catalogue: Literary and Historical" ''The Educational Screen''. p. 152
* Martin, Quinn (February 1923)
"Cinema: 'Success'" ''Theatre Magazine''. p. 30
* LHJ staff; photographs,
Nickolas Muray
Nickolas Muray (born Miklós Mandl; 15 February 1892 – 2 November 1965) was a Hungarian-born American photographer and Olympic saber fencer.
Early and personal life
Muray was born in Szeged, Hungary, and was Jewish. His father Samu Mandl was ...
ic(September 1925)
"Velours Is Best for Our First Fall Hat" ''The Ladies' Home Journal''. p. 65
*
Barton, Ralph (June 1927)
"As Imagined by a Noted American Artist, Ralph Barton" ''Vanity Fair''. p. 63
* Calkins, Selby (January 1939)
"Cupid Gets Streamlined" ''Flying Magazine''. p. 22
* U.S. House of Representatives, Subcommittee of the Special Committee to Investigate Un-American Activities (August 27, 1940)
"Investigation of Un-American Propaganda Activities in the United States; Volume 4: Executive Hearings" p. 1756
External links
*
*
*
*
AFI Catalog Silent Films entry for Mary AstorPhotographs and literatureA Lady's a Lady: The Versatile Elegance of Mary Astor by Imogene S. Smith
by SelfStyledSiren (July 6, 2010)
*
ttps://findingaid.lib.byu.edu/viewItem/MSS%20SC%20435/ Mary Astor scrapbook, Brigham Young University, Harold B. Lee Library, L. Tom Perry Special CollectionsThe Mary Astor Collection historical website dedicated to the study of Mary Astor's work as an actress and author
{{DEFAULTSORT:Astor, Mary
1906 births
1987 deaths
Actors from Quincy, Illinois
Actresses from Illinois
American film actresses
20th-century American memoirists
American women memoirists
20th-century American novelists
American women novelists
American silent film actresses
American stage actresses
American television actresses
American people of German descent
American people of Portuguese descent
Best Supporting Actress Academy Award winners
Burials at Holy Cross Cemetery, Culver City
Respiratory disease deaths in California
Deaths from respiratory failure
Deaths from emphysema
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer contract players
20th-century American actresses
Warner Bros. contract players
Paramount Pictures contract players
20th Century Studios contract players
20th-century American women writers
Illinois Democrats
California Democrats
WAMPAS Baby Stars
Catholics from California
Catholics from Illinois
Converts to Roman Catholicism