Mary Astor

After she starred in Beggar Maid in 1921 Astor appeared in Beau Brummell in 1923 opposite John Barrymore and again they came together in Don Juan in 1926. She had a romantic affair with John Barrymore. She had perfected her vocal technique in several stage productions Edward Everett Horton's Los Angeles-based Majestic Theatre so that she didn't get victimized by talking-picture revolution. One of her most famous role was The Maltese Falcon (1941) where she starred as Brigid O'Shaughnessy opposite Humphrey Bogart. She began her motion picture career in the silent movies of the early 1920s.

In the midst of a divorce suit in 1936 her ex-husband to gain custody of their daughter made her affair with playwright George S. Kaufman public by exposing her diary and things began to fall apart in her personal and professional life as well. But Sam Goldwyn then-current employer permitted her to complete her role in his production of Dodsworth in 1936. Her other famous movies were released after this divorce scandal subsided and the world saw her once again as Brigid O'Shaughnessy in The Maltese Falcon and as the highly aggressive concert pianist in the The Great Lie and she won an Academy Award for this.