Mary Astor

Mary Astor (May 3, 1906 – September 25, 1987) was an Academy Award-winning American actress. Most famous for her role as Brigid O'Shaughnessy in The Maltese Falcon (1941) opposite 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). Director Lindsay Anderson said of her: "...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." She continued to act in movies, on television and on stage into the 1960s. She retired from the screen in 1964.
Astor was also 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.
Contents[hide]
1 Early life
2 Silent movie career
3 New beginnings
4 Scandals
5 Career continues
6 Middle years
7 Later life
8 Filmography
9 Bibliography
10 References
11 External links
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[edit] Early life
She was born Lucile de Vasconcellos Langhanke in Quincy, Illinois in May 3, 1906. Mary was the only child of Otto Ludwig Langhanke (October 2, 1871-February 3, 1943) and Helen Marie de Vasconcellos (April 19, 1881-January 18, 1947).
Her father, who was born in Berlin, immigrated to the United States from Germany in 1891 and became a naturalized citizen; her mother was born in Jacksonville, Illinois, of Portuguese and Irish extraction.[1] They married on August 3, 1904 in Lyons, Kansas. Otto was a German teacher at Quincy High School until the U.S. entered World War I. He then began doing light farming. Helen, who had always wanted to be an actress, began teaching drama and elocution.
Lucile was homeschooled in academics and taught to play the piano by her father, who insisted she practice daily. In 1919, she sent a photograph of herself to a beauty contest in Motion Picture Magazine and became a semifinalist. Her father then moved the family to Chicago, where he took a position teaching German in public schools. Lucile took drama lessons and appeared in various amateur stage plays.
The following year, she sent another photograph to the magazine and this time became a finalist, this time being named runner-up in the national contest. Her father then moved the family to New York, in order for his pretty daughter to become an actress in motion pictures. He managed all her affairs from September 1920 to June 1930.
A Manhattan photographer, Charles Albin, saw a 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 and Lucile was signed to a six-month contract with Paramount Pictures. Her name was changed to Mary Astor during a conference between Paramount chief Jesse Lasky, gossip columnist Louella Parsons, and producer Walter Wanger.