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Mary Astor: Maltese Falcon
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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.
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Miss Wonderly (Mary Astor) hires the San Francisco private eye team of Sam Spade (Humphrey Bogart)and Miles Archer (Jerome Cowan) to follow the man she claims knows the whereabouts of her missing sister. Miles is killed and Sam is suspected of murdering him. In search for the truth, he gets tangled up with rival gangs on the trail of the Maltese falcon, a valable gold statue.
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Astor, an extraordinarily beautiful and versatile actress, had two of the best roles of her long career in 1941. As the selfish concert pianist Sandra Kovak, who makes an illicit deal with her rival in love, she steals The Great Lie from star Bette Davis (whom Astor later credited for her generosity and support in the film). Her wicked, intelligent characterization not only won her an Oscar but ... led to her being cast in what is perhaps her most famous role—the lovely and devious Brigid O'Shaughnessy in The Maltese Falcon (1941). Writer and director John Huston had wanted Geraldine Fitzgerald for Brigid, but when she proved unavailable he cast Astor, who played the part to perfection.
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Astor made headlines in a different way in 1936, when she was in the midst of divorce and custody battle with her second husband. Admitted as evidence at the trial was Astor's diary, which included a graphic and detailed account of Astor's 16-month affair with playwright George S. Kaufman, and the case became the most publicized and talked-about scandal in Hollywood in the 1930s. But rather than end Astor's career, the trial publicity seemed to energize it, and she next appeared in "The Prisoner of Zenda" (1937), "The Hurricane" (1937), "Midnight" (1939) and "Turnabout" (1940), before co-starring with Humphrey Bogart in Dashiell Hammett's "The Maltese Falcon" (1941). For her performance in her next film, "The Great Lie" (1941), Astor won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress.
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Mary continued working in films during the golden era of the 1930s and 1940s, and is best known for her role as Brigid O’Shaughnessy opposite Humphrey Bogart in The Maltese Falcon (1941). Her final feature film was Hush, Hush, Sweet Charlotte (1965).
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