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Mary Astor


1906 - 1987

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The actress Mary Astor was born as Lucile Vasconcellos Langhanke in Quincy, Illinois as a daughter of parents who were immigrated from Germany.

Her parents wanted a better life for her daughter, therefore they put her in different beauty contests. The luck Die Eltern waren früh dafür besorgt, dass Mary Astor ein besseres Leben haben sollte als sie selbst. So steckten sie die junge Mary in verschiedene Schönheitskonkurrenzen. Mary Astor was lucky and was spotted by a Hollywood producer who sign her on at the age of 14.

Her firsts movie of all was "Scarecrow" (20), in which she played a very small role. It followed other small roles in "John Smith" (22), "Success" (23), "The Man Who Played God" (22), "Woman-Proof" (23) and "The Fighting Coward" (24).

When she impersonated the part of Lady Margery Alvaney in the movie "Beau Brummel" in 1924 at John Barrymore's side, this meant the breakthrough she longed for. It brought her early staradom and a passionate affair with Barrymore.

In the next years she had the reputation of a crowd-puller with movies like "Don Q Son of Zorro" (25), "Scarlet Saint" (25), "The Wise Guy" (26), "Don Juan" (26), "Two Arabian Knights" (27), "Dressed to Kill" (28) and "Romance of the Underworld" (28).

Thanks to Mary Astor's great screen presence she mastered the transition to the talkies without difficulties and her fame grew on and on. With the movies "Smart Woman" (31), "Red Dust" (32), "Convention City" (33), "Man of Iron" (34) and "The Prisoner of Zenda" (37) she belonged to the darlings of the public of the 30's. 

In the 40's she continued her career with the impressive movies "Turnabout" (40), "The Maltese Falcon" (41), "The Great Lie" (41) - for which she got an Oscar for the best support role, "The Palm Beach Story" (42), "Meet Me in St. Louis" (44), "Desert Fury" (47), "Cynthia" (47) and "Act of Violence" (49).

When her fame faded her role became smaller and she took part in fewer movies. In the 50's she only appeared in five movies, so in "A Kiss Before Dying" (56) and "A Stranger in My Arms" (59), her last work for the cinema was "Hush...Hush, Sweet Charlotte" (64). Instead sie accepted often offers for the TV and appeared in a whole string of episodes like "The United States Steel Hour: The Thief" (55), "Alfred Hitchcock Presents: The Impossible Dream" (59), "Dr. Kildare: Operation: Lazarus" (62) or "Ben Casey: Dispel the Black Dyclone That Shakes the Throne" (63).

Later Mary Astor said about her career:
"I was never totally involved in movies. I was just making my father's dream come true".
 

Other movies with Mary Astor:
Second Fiddle (23) The Bright Shawl (23) Puritan Passions (23) The Marriage Maker (23) The Fighting American (24) Unguarded Women (24) The Prcie of a Party (24) Inez from Hollywood (24) Playing with Souls (25) Oh, Doctor! (25) The Pace That Thrills (25) Enticement (25) High Steppers (26) Forever After (26) The Sea Tiger (27) The Sunset Derby (27) Rose of the Golden West (27) The Rough Riders (27) No Place to Go (27) Sailors' Wives (28) Three-Ring Marriage (28) Heart to Heart (28) Dry Martini (28) New Year's Eve (29) The Woman from Hell (29) The Show of Shows (29) The Runaway Bride (30) Holiday (30) Ladies Love Brutes (30) The Lash (30) The Sin Ship (30) The Royal Bed (31) Other Men's Women (31) White Shoulders (31) Behind Office Doors (31) Men of Chance (32) The Lost Squadron (32) Those We Love (32) A Successful Calamity (32) The Little Giant (33) The World Change (33) Jennie Gerhardt (33) The Kennel Murder Case (33) Easy to Love (34) Upperworld (34) Page Miss Glory (35) Straight from the Heart (35) Red Hot Tires (35) I Am a Thief (35) Dodsworth (36) And So They Were Married (36)Trapped by Television (36) The Murder of Dr. Harrigan (36) Lady from Nowhere (36) The Hurricane (37) Paradise for Three (38) There's Always a Woman (38) Listen, Darling (38) Woman Against Woman (38) No Time to Marry (38) Midnight (39) Brigham Young - Frontiersman (40) Across the Pacific (42) Thousands Cheer (43) Young Ideas (43) Blonde Fever (44) Claudia and David (46) Fiesta (47) Cass Timberlane (47) Little Women (49) Any Number Can Play (49) Serie "Studio One: Jack Sperling, Forty-six" (54) Serie "The Best of Broadway: The Philadelphia Story" (54) The Philco Television Playhouse: Run, Girl, Run" (54) Serie "Front Row Center: Dinner at Eight" (55) The Power and the Prize (56) The Devil's Hairpin (57) Serie "Zane Grey Theater: Black Is for Grief" (57) Serie "Studio One: The Lonely Stage" (58) Serie "The United States Steel Hour: The Littlest Enemy" (58) This Happy Feeling (58) Serie "Alfred Hitchcock Presents: Mrs. Herman and Mrs. Fenimore" (58) Serie "Thriller: Rose's Last Summer" (60) Serie "The United States Steel Hour: The Women of Hadley" (60) Serie "The United States Steel Hour: Revolt in Hadley" (60) Serie "Rawhide: Incident Near the Promised Land" (61) Return to Peyton Place (61) Serie "The Defenders: Poltergeist" (63) Serie "Dr. Kildare: Face of Fear" (63) Serie "Burke's Law: Who Killed Cable Roberts?" (63) Youngblood Hawke (64) 


 
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