She was innate Lucile Vasconcellos Langhanke around Quincy, Illinois, the only infant of Otto Ludwig Langhanke (October 2, 1871-February 3, 1943) and Helen Marie Vasconcellos (April 19, 1881-January 18, 1947).

Her father, world health organization was innate within Berlin, immigrated to the United States from Germany in 1891 and became a naturalized citizen; her mother was born within Jacksonville, Illinois, of Portuguese and Irish extraction. It married August 3, 1904 in Lyons, Kansas. Otto was the teacher of German at Quincy High School until the U.S. entered World War I. He so began doing lightly farming. Helen, world health organization got universally wanted to become an actress, began teaching drama & elocution.

Lucile was homeschooled inside faculty member & taught to play a piano by her father, world health organization insisted she practice day-to-day. Around 1919, she sent the pic of herself to a beauty contest in Motion Picture Magazine and became the finalist. Her father so moved a personal to Chicago, where he took a position teaching German publicly schools there. Lucile took drama lessons & appeared around various amateur stage plays.

the below month, she sent a second exposure to the magazine & over again became a finalist, this period existence known as runner-second best in the national contest. Her father so moved a personal to New York, inside order for his jolly girl to get an actress in motion pictures. He managed completely her affairs from either September 1920 to June 1930.

The Manhattan photographer, Charles Albin, saw a pic & asked a lass sustaining haunting eyes & hanker auburn hair, whose nickname was "Rusty," to pose for him. A Albin photo were seen by Harry Durant of Famous Players-Lasky and Lucile was signed to a sixer-year contract with Paramount. Her title was changed to Mary Astor when you took the conference between studio chief Jesse Lasky, gossip columnist Louella Parsons, and producer Walter Wanger.

Silent movie career
At age 14, she debuted using her freshly stage name in the silent movie Sentimental Tommy (1921), but her little the share around a dream sequence wound au courant the cutting room floor. Paramount let her contract lapse. She so appeared within a select few picture shorts by owning sequences according to far-famed paintings. She received critical recognition for the both-reeler A Beggar Maid (1921).

Her foremost feature-length moving picture was John Smith (1922), which was followed that same season by The Man Who Played God starring George Arliss for United Artists. Within 1923, she and her parents moved to Hollywood.

When appearing inside many big roles at various studios, she was signed by Paramount once again, this period to the of these-annual contract at $500 the week. She appeared inside many other moving picture, so John Barrymore saw the pic of her witharound a magazine & wanted her cast in his approaching moving picture. In loan-out to Warner Bros., she starred opposite "The Great Profile" inside Beau Brummel (1924). A older actor wooed a young actress, however their engagement ended whilst he became exposed using Dolores Costello.

Within 1925, Astor's parents bought a Moorish style mansion sustaining 1 acre of land called "Moorcroft" in the hills above Hollywood. It lived lavishly in her earnings, experienced servants, the gr& piano, the luxury car and the chauffeur. Moorcroft, which however stands at 6147 Temple Hill Cause northerly of Franklin Avenue & upright west of Beachwood Cause, was, incidentally, rented by Charlie Chaplin before a Langhankes bought the place. It was from either this brassy searching mansion that Astor, fed higher by having her father's constant bedevilment to practice a piano, climbed from either her 2nd floor sleeping room window & walked down to Hollywood Boulevard, as recounted inside her memoirs.

Astor went around appearing in 1 moving-picture show when a second at various studios. Whenever her Paramount contract ended within 1925, she was signed at Warner Bros. Among her assignments was an additional role using John Barrymore, this instance within Don Juan (1926).

She was known as one of a WAMPAS Baby Stars in 1926, along with Mary Brian, Dolores Costello, Joan Crawford, Dolores Del Rio, Janet Gaynor, and Fay Wray.

In loan-out to Fox, Astor starred around the role as Jeanne in Spiffed up (1928), which received good reviews. That equivalent month, she starred when Elizabeth Quimby in the sophisticated comedy Dry Martini at Mutt. She late said that, when 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." Whilst her Warner Bros. contract ended, she was signed at Hound for $3,750 the week.

Around 1928, she and director Kenneth Hawks were married at her family personal, Moorcroft. He gave her the Packard machine for the wedding present & it get inside the personal high in Lookout Mountain in Los Angeles above Beverly Hills.

When a screenland manufactured a transition to talkies, Fox gave her a healthy line 1 text, which she failed because the studio incurred her voice to become as well deep. Though this was probably due to early healthy devices & a rawness of technicians, a studio freed her from either her contract & she incurred herself away from act for eight months inside 1929.

New beginnings
Astor took voice educational videos & singing lessons in the period of her instance off, however there is no roles were offered. Her acting career was so given the boost by her friend, Florence Eldridge (wife of Fredric March), whom she confided in all about her woes. Eldridge, world health organization was to star in the stage play Among a Married at a Majestic Theatre inside Downtown Los Angeles, recommended Astor for the second female lead. the play wwhen a profits & her voice was deemed suitable, existence described as moo & vibrant.

She was happy to become back at act, however her happiness short come to an prevent. In January 3, 1930, while filming sequences for the Coyote picture Such Men Come Dangerous, Kenneth Hawks was flushed around a mid-air plane crash across the Pacific off San Pedro. Astor experienced good finished a matinee performance at the Majestic & was prevaricatiin down in a couch that was a share of the placed of the play once Florence Eldridge come to her on stage by having the news. She was so rushed from either a theatre & taken to Eldridge's flat; the replacement, Doris Lloyd, stepped in for the next indicate.

Astor remained sustaining her friend, Eldridge, at her flat for a select few period. Seeming to become "bearing up well," she before long went back to operate under a effect of her grief. Shortly when a dying of her hubby, she debuted within her 1st talking picture, Ladies Love Brutes (1930) at Paramount, which co-starred friend Fredric March.

When her career picked higher, her personal life remained jolty. Fallowing working in many other motion-picture show, she suffered delayed shock across the demise of Hawks & got a nervous breakdown. In a period of the months of her sickness, she was attended by Dr. Franklyn Thorpe, whom she afterwards married.

Astor got quatern married man, director Kenneth Hawks (married February 26, 1928-his death 1930); physician & operating surgeon Franklyn Thorpe (married June 29, 1931-divorced 1936); insurance salesman Manuel del Campo (married February 1936-divorced 1941); and stockbroker Thomas Wheelock (married December 25, 1945-divorced 1955).

She & Thorpe got 1 girl, Marylyn Hauoli Thorpe (born June 16, 1932). Within Might 1932, the Thorpes purchased the racing yacht & sailed to Hawaii. Astor was pregnant, however a birth was scheduled for August. Her girl was innate around June within Honolulu, her name existence the combination of the list of her parents. Her middle title, Hauoli, means "To sing with joy."

After it returned to Southern California, Astor began freelancing and accepted a polar role of Barbara Willis within Red Dust (1932) at MGM with Clark Gable and Jean Harlow.

Around late 1932, Astor signed a featured streaming video player locate Warner Bros. Besides disbursal lavishly, her parents invested in the stock market, which turned out in several cases to become unprofitable. It however sleep in Moorcroft, which Astor dubbed the "white elephant" & refused to maintain. She experienced to turn to the Motion Picture Relief Fund in 1933 to pay her bills.

Unhappy withinside her marriage, she took the swell merited break from either picture show making in 1933 and went to Just released York by herself. Piece there, enjoying a whirlwind social life, she met the playwright George Kaufman and had an affair, which she documented around her diary.

Scandals
Inside March 1934, Astor wwhen sued by her parents, Otto and Helen Langhanke, for support and the public personal feud burst out violently as it altogether went threshing into court hurling charges.

A Langhankes said it did non potentially keep around plenty money for a necessities of life; the just money it got received from either their girl within the live vi months was $60 in grocery coupons, & it experienced to sell a bit of of their article of furniture to survive. It too cited a foreclosure notice in their page, saying their girl would non aid the two pay the mortgage.

Despite a Depression, Otto had continued to improve their estate. He so took out an $18,000 loan & experienced the playing pool installed, which Astor said neither of the babies ever utilized & was the waste of money, & he may not afford to pay on the unexpended $15,000 incumbrance.

Astor said wholly her earnings attend her parents until 1930, being deposited per studio directly into their bank account, & she received the little allowance. She so decided it was necessary for her to look out for her have first & wiped a slate clean and jerk. She gave the two the home within June of that season, loose & clear of a lot incumbrance, & for a year thenceforth gave the children $1000 a year. Additionally, within March 1931, she loaned the two $2,515.Xix, which it did non repay & she never asked for. She said that she told a babies around March 1933 that she may not afford to trend lines the babies in their expensive residence, which dollars & cents to a higher degree the of these she & her hubby and girl were sleep in. She offered the babies an allowance of $100 the year whenever it moved from either the mansion; she besides offered to placed the babies higher inside a suitable home around San Mateo County, together with food & utilities, however it did non assume either offer. Their attorney responded that the girl may not dictate to her parents in which it may or even may not survive when whenever it were "Peter the hermit."

the judge ruled that she should give her parents $100 a year. Moorcroft, nowadays valued at $200,000, went on the block & sold for simply $21,500. Otto was outraged & did non obviously assume a bid, however a auctioneer said it experienced a sign-language contract, a vendee got deposited a proper dump, & the low was final. A Langhankes so moved to San Fernando.

Meanwhile, Astor's marriage to Franklyn Thorpe continued to deteriorate. She learned from either Kaufman that Thorpe experienced talked to him just about their affair. While the inevitable confrontation come, Thorpe told her he would title Kaufman within a divorcement lawsuit. He said that whenever she would let him require their girl, Marylyn, she stand her back when hexad months to keep for 6 months. She believed that afterwards she may acquire custody of Marylyn & stay away from bad publicity.

Witharound April 1935, Thorpe divorced her in an uncontested lawsuit & gained resole custody of their girl. When working in Dodsworth (1936) starring Walter Huston and Ruth Chatterton, Astor even sued to gainside resole custody in July 1936, fallowing getting Marylyn swallow her for sextet months, likewise when for the recovery of equities & property invite by her flick earnings, or the value, & a vicious battle broke retired that was also swell documented per click.

Thorpe cited her fornication by having Kaufman & introduced excerption of her diary when grounds to believe of the affair. Astor said he got stolen her diary & that virtually all of the passages submitted were forgeries. She said she was intimidated into non contesting custody once he threatened to ruin her career. She said he assertedly threatened to deprive her of her girl's company unless she transferred a securities to him, which she did shortly prior to a divorcement. She farther asserted that he was occupy using his practice & unable to properly tail a baby.

Extract of what she write of her marriage & affair by owning Kaufman were so freed by Thorpe's attorney to a click, world health organization dubbed it the "purple diary," although it was actually penned inside Aztec light brown ink & non purple, & it became newspaper headline news. Although a excerption in the papers were fairly harmless, sustaining romantic & sentimental chatter & there is no intimate details, lurid tales of sexually expressed contents began to circulate. There is no a single ever actually page through a authentic diary, nevertheless, & such reports of its contents were strictly speculative.

Once Thorpe fell back a diary to a court it was impounded & the to the full contents never revealed. A judge was merely caring by having a welfare of the baby. Astor wanted her diary back, when Thorpe asserted it should become returned to him. the judge so ordered that it exist as stored inside a safe lockbox at Security-Number 1 National Bank at Hollywood Boulevard & Highland Avenue within Hollywood, sealed against nosy eyes. Around April 1952, with there is no objection from either Astor even or Thorpe, a diary was destroyed, unread, by sequentially of the court.

Astor received joint custody of her girl. Marylyn accept her mother when you took a hanker school months & sustaining her father when you took summertime vacation. She shared Christmas with both parents.

Career continues
As luck would have it, a scandal stimulated there is no harm to Astor's career, which was actually renewed because of a custody fight & the vast level of publicity generated; Dodsworth was freed to rave review, & a public's acceptance assured the studios that she was however a viable commercial property.

Within 1937, she returned to the stage in swell standard productions of Noel Coward's Tonight at 8:30, The Astonished Heart, & However Life, at a Biltmore Theatre within Downtown Los Angeles. She likewise began doing regular performances in radio. & a few of her better motion-picture show were however to are, including The Prisoner of Zenda (1937) starring Ronald Colman and Madeleine Carroll; John Ford's The Hurricane (1937) starring Dorothy Lamour and Jon Hall; and Brigham Young - Frontiersman (1940) starring Tyrone Power and Linda Darnell.

Astor is probably virtually all-famous for her role when Brigid O'Shaunessy, a scheming siren world health organization murders Sam Spade's partner, within John Huston's The Maltese Falcon (1941) opposite Humphrey Bogart, with Peter Lorre and Sydney Greenstreet.

An additional noteworthy performance wwhen her role as Sandra Kovack, a selfish, self-egoistic, concert piano player, world health organization volitionally gives higher her baby, in The Great Lie (1941) starring Bette Davis and George Brent.

Davis cherished Astor cast in the role when watching her screen test and seeing her play Tchaikovsky's Piano Concerto No. 1. She so recruited Astor to collaborate by owning her in rewriting a script, which Davis felt was mediocre & required function to produce it additional interesting. Astor farther followed Davis's counsel & sported the barefaced bobbed coiffure for the role. A soundtrack of a picture show when you took a scenes in which she plays the concerto, by using violent hand movements on the soft keys, was actually recorded by having Max Rabinovitch playing.

She let Davis exist as boss & redo a indicate, using there are no objection, & it became serious friends. Davis deliberately stepped back to allow Astor to shine inside her key scenes. Following of her performance, Astor won a Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for The Great Lie.

Astor was non propelled into a upper echelon of movie stars by these successes. She universally declined offers of starring within her have best. Non wanting a responsibility of top charge & getting to "carry the picture," she favorite the security of existence a featured streaming video player.

She was reunited sustaining Bogie & Sydney Greenstreet within John Huston's Across the Pacific (1942), and she too played a Princess Centimillia in The Palm Beach Story (1942), starring Claudette Colbert, Joel McCrea, and Rudy Vallee.

Inside February 1943, Otto Langhanke died in Cedars of Lebanon Hospital as a result of a heart attack complicated by flu. His married woman & girl were two at his bedside.

That equivalent season, Astor signed the sevener-season locate MGM, which turned bent on exist as the too bad mistake. She was saved occupy swimming what she considered mediocre mother roles. After Meet Me In St. Louis (1944), starring Judy Garland and Margaret O'Brien, the studio allowed her to make her Broadway debut in Many Happy Returns (1945). the play was a miserable failure, however Astor received adept reviews.

within loan to 20th Century Wild dog, she played the loaded widow woman in Claudia and David (1946) starring Dorothy McGuire and Robert Young. She likewise was loaned to Paramount to play Fritzi Haller around Desert Fury (1947) starring John Hodiak, Lizabeth Scott, Burt Lancaster, and Wendell Corey. It was the second mother role, however she played the hard creator of a saloon & casino around a little mining town.

Prior to Helen Langhanke died of the heart ill around January 1947, Astor said she sat in the hospital room with her mother, world health organization wwhen delirious & did non underst& her, and listened quietly as Helen told her tons terrible, selfish Lucile. Fallowing her dying, Astor said she spent numberless hours copying her mother's diary therefore she can scan it & was surprised to view how else very much she was despised.

Back at MGM, Astor went around existence cast in insignificant, colorless mother roles. 1 exception was while she played the working girl in the film noir Act of Violence (1948). A endure straw come whilst she wwhen cast as Marmee March around Little Women (1949), starring June Allyson, Peter Lawford, Margaret O'Brien, Elizabeth Taylor, and Janet Leigh. Astor obtained there are no redemption within swimming what she considered a second humdrum mother & became heartsick. A studio wanted to renew her contract, promising to give her better roles, however she declined a offer.

Middle years
At a equivalent instance, Astor's ingesting was catching lot worse. She admitted to using the condition with alcohol as far back as a 1930s, but it got never interfered by having her act schedule or even performance. She hit bottom around 1949 and went into a sanatarium for alcoholics.

Inside 1951, she made the frantic call for to her doctor & told him she experienced taken as well several sleeping pills. She was taken to a hospital & a police force reported that she experienced attempted suicide, this existence her third overdose inside both years, & the story mass produced newspaper headline news. She maintained it got been an accident.

That equivalent season, she joined Alcoholics Anonymous and converted to Roman Catholicism. She credited her recovery to the priest, Peter Ciklic, as well the practicing psychologist, who encouraged her to write just about her lives when a share of therapy. She likewise separated from either her married man, Thomas Wheelock, however did non actually divorce him until 1955.

Inside 1952, she was cast in the leading role of the stage play Time of the Cuckoo, which was processed into a film Summertime (1955) starring Katharine Hepburn, and toured by having a company. When a tour, Astor sleep in Up to date York for quaternity years & worked in the theatre & in television.

Her TV debut was in The Missing Years (1954) for Kraft Television Theatre. She acted often inside TV when you took a following years & appeared in virtually all of the large shows, including The United States Steel Hour, Alfred Hitchcock Presents, Rawhide, Dr. Kildare, ''Burke's Law, and Ben Casey. She besides starred in Broadway in The Starcross Story (1954), which was another failure.

She returned to Southern California within 1956. She so went in the successful theatre tour of Don Juan around Hell'' directed by Agnes Moorehead and co-starring Ricardo Montalban.

Astor's memoir, My Story: An Autobiography, was promulgated within 1959, becoming the sensation for its day and a bestseller. It was a symptom of Father Ciklic urging her to write. Though she spoke of her disruptive family life, her parents, her marriages, a scandals, her battle by using alcoholism, and more items just about her life, she did non mention a screenland or even her career in any detail. Around 1971, another book was published, The Life in Film, in which she righted a wrong of her earliest omission & discussed her career. It as well became the best seller. Astor as well tried her hand at fiction, writing the novels The Intense Charley Carewe (1960); The Image of Kate (1962); ''The O'Conners (1964); Jahre und Tage (1964) (a German translation of The Image of Kate); Goodbye, Darling, become Happy (1965); and The Place Known as Saturday (1968).

She appeared within many moving picture in the period of this instance, including A Stranger in My Arms (1959). She manufactured the comeback in Return to Peyton Place (1961) playing Roberta Carter, a domineering mother world health organization insists a "shocking" novel written by Allison Mackenzie should become banned from either a school library, & received full reviews for her performance.

Later life
Fallowing ingesting the hike around the world inside 1964, Astor was lured away from her Malibu home, where she was spending period horticulture & working in her third novel, to produce what she decided would exist as her final picture show appearance.

After she was offered a little role as a key figure in the execution mystery Hush... Hush, Sweet Charlotte'', starring Bette Davis and Olivia de Havilland, with Agnes Moorehead in a supporting role, Astor decided it would serve as her swan song in the movie business. When additional than Hundred pic when you took the career spanning 44 years, she turned within her SAG card and retired.

She late moved to Fountain Valley, California, where she lived near her boy, Tono del Campo, & his personal until 1976. Suffering from either the chronic cardiopathy, she so moved to the little bungalow on the evidence of the Motion Picture & Television Country House, the industry's retirement facility in Woodland Hills, where she had her own private table when she chose to eat in the resident dining room.

When dwelling there, Astor got the heart attack, 2 strokes & developed pulmonary emphysema. She died at age eighty-one of respiratory failure due to pulmonary emphysemthe patch a patient in the hospital that is section of the Motion Picture Home complex. She is interred within Holy Cross Cemetery, Culver City.

Mary Astor has the star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6701 Hollywood Boulevard in Hollywood.