Mary Astor

Award won Role or nomination

1. 1906 age 0

   Born

2. 1921 age 15

   CreditThe Beggar Maid

3. 1924 age 18

   CreditBeau Brummel

4. 1925 age 19

   CreditDon Q, Son of Zorro

5. 1926 age 20

   CreditDon Juan

6. 1927 age 21

   CreditTwo Arabian Knights

7. 1930 age 24

   CreditHoliday

8. 1932 age 26

   CreditRed Dust

9. 1936 age 30

   CreditDodsworth

10. 1937 age 31

    CreditThe Hurricane

    CreditThe Prisoner of Zenda

11. 1939 age 33

    CreditMidnight

12. 1940 age 34

    CreditBrigham Young

13. 1941 age 35

    CreditThe Great Lie

    CreditThe Maltese Falcon

14. 1942 age 36

    CreditAcross the Pacific

    CreditThe Palm Beach Story

15. 1943 age 37

    CreditThousands Cheer

16. 1944 age 38

    CreditMeet Me in St. Louis

17. 1946 age 40

    CreditCynthia

18. 1947 age 41

    CreditDesert Fury

    CreditFiesta

19. 1948 age 42

    CreditAct of Violence

20. 1949 age 43

    CreditLittle Women

21. 1956 age 50

    CreditA Kiss Before Dying

22. 1964 age 58

    CreditHush... Hush, Sweet Charlotte

23. 1987 age 81

    Died

• CGCedric Gibbons5 titles
• HWHal B. Wallis4 titles
• ANAlfred Newman4 titles
• AEArthur Edeson3 titles
• ADAdolph Deutsch3 titles
• CSC. Aubrey Smith3 titles
• HHHedda Hopper3 titles
• JBJohn Barrymore3 titles
• JCJerome Cowan3 titles
• OMOdette Myrtil3 titles

• 
  Photo:Unknown author Unknown authorPublic domain
• 
  Photo:StudioPublic domain

• Tuesday night we had a dinner at ‘21’ and on the way to see he did kiss me—and I don’t think either of us remember much what the show was about. We played kneesies during the first two acts, my hand wasn’t in my own lap during the third. It’s been years since I’ve felt up a man in public, but I just got carried away. Afterwards we had a drink someplace and then went to a little flat in 73rd Street where we could be alone, and it was all very thrilling and beautiful. Once George lays down his glasses, he is quite a different man. His powers of recuperation are amazing, and we made love all night long. It all worked perfectly, and we shared our fourth climax at dawn. I didn’t see much of anybody else the rest of the time—we saw every show in town, had grand fun together and went frequently to 73rd Street where he fucked the living daylights out of me.”

  Mary Astor, CC BY-SA 4.0

• That guy over there, Ray Massey. He can put his boots under my bed any day of the week.

  Mary Astor, CC BY-SA 4.0

• Acting was my parents' idea for me. I happened to have a very pretty face. It was a very pretty face indeed, and it was sold to the highest bidder, that's all. I wanted to be a writer. I didn't know that until about 15 years ago, and I've been writing ever since. And that's about all I want to do.

  Mary Astor, CC BY-SA 4.0

• My father often used to rebuke me by saying, "You're almost nine years old" (and then "ten," and then "eleven," and "twelve") "and you haven't learned a thing!" Well, here I was, fifty years old and I still hadn't learned a thing! My father's rebuke had always seemed to imply a promise that years, the very accumulation of years, would bring experience and understanding. So, at whatever age I was, I wished I were older. At seventeen I longed to be twenty-five. At twenty I wanted to be a woman of the world of thirty. At thirty I read that the French thought a woman did not reach full maturity of beauty and attractiveness until she was forty. Finally, at forty-five, I decided that the whole thing was a pack of lies. Where was the "serenity" that the years were to bring? Where was :"the cooling of passion's blood?" I realized that I, who leaned on so many people and things, had been leaning even on the abstraction of time.

  Mary Astor, CC BY-SA 4.0

• As far as acting was concerned, I simply did what I was told. This I was good at. For too many years I had searched for cues as to my father's disposition and desires. And this ability called forth praise of "How beautifully she takes direction!" You bet I did! In silents the direction went on during the action: after the camera turned, I'd hear, "Now look at him, Mary—that's it—you can't believe it! Tears come to your eyes—reach out and touch his arm—gently, gently." The more experienced actors would refuse anything but the minimum of offstage cueing, like perhaps, "You hear the door slam," but I wouldn't have been able to carry a whole scene without help. Not because I'd forget what we had done in rehearsal, but because I was afraid I'd do it wrong. You see, I was "stupid"—I really thought I was—and that was the role I played in life. It was very safe.

  Mary Astor, CC BY-SA 4.0

• I think "laconic" is a good word for and for his technique of direction. No big deal about communication with John. Terse, pithy, to the point. Very Irish, a dark personality, a sensitivity which he did everything to conceal, but once he said to me while I was doing a scene with Ray Massey, "Make it scan, Mary." And I said to myself, "Aha! I know you now!".

  Mary Astor, CC BY-SA 4.0