Mary Astor

Mary Astor has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in recognition of her services to Motion Pictures, at 6701 Hollywood Boulevard. Linda Blair has long been active in charities involving prevention of cruelty to animals such as PETA. She was interred in the Holy Cross Cemetery, Culver City, California. In the late 1990s, Blair won wide acclaim for her performance in the stage revival of Grease. She lived her final years in a Motion Picture Home, before dying as a result of a heart attack. In 1990, she spoofed her "Exorcist" character in the film Repossessed that also starred Leslie Nielsen. She wrote several novels during this period, and in 1971 published a second memoir that chronicled her Hollywood career, and provided her with another best seller. During the early 80's she had a passionate relationship with the popular singer Rick James, but left him when she could no longer handle his drug addiction.

A heart condition had caused Astor ill health since the early 1950s, and by the mid 1960s her health had deteriorated to the point that she was forced to retire. Blair's career went into decline afterwards and she appeared in many minor films often with a horror theme. She received good reviews for her role in Return to Peyton Place (1961), and played her final film role in Hush, Hush, Sweet Charlotte (1964), in the small but integral role of Jewel Mayhew. She also had a featured role in the disaster film Airport '75. It was a best seller. A controversial movie due to the actress's age, the tagline of the film was "She was born innocent, but that was fourteen years ago.") and Sarah T...Portrait Of A Teenage Alcoholic. She published her memoirs in 1959 and the book titled My Story, detailed her troubled personal life and battle with alcoholism, while scarcely mentioning her film career. Following the success of this film, Blair appeared in the controversial television films Born Innocent (in which Blair portrays a girl sent away to face the brutal life of a women's prison.

By the 1950s her Hollywood career had faded considerably and she made few film appearances, but she found success in the theater and in television. Blair had originally planned to be a doctor but was offered The Exorcist role. By the end of the decade she was playing motherly roles such as Mrs March in Little Women (1949). Linda Blair began her career as a young child modelling and then moved into commercials. These successes were not enough to propel Astor into the upper echelon of film stars, but she continued working throughout the 1940s in such films as The Palm Beach Story (1942), Across the Pacific (also 1942 and costarring Humphrey Bogart) and Meet Me in St. Louis (1944). She did not receive the Academy Award for the role and it is thought that this was due in part to the fact that her voice was dubbed and a dummy was used in many scenes. An Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress resulted, and for the rest of her life, Astor acknowledged Davis for her generosity. and its first sequel, Exorcist II: The Heretic.

At Bette Davis's suggestion she was cast in The Great Lie (also 1941), with Davis deliberately stepping back to allow Astor to shine in her key scenes. Linda Blair (born January 22, 1959) is an American actress famous for her role as the possessed child in The Exorcist. In 1941 she played the role for which she would be most famous, as Brigid O'Shaunessy in John Huston's The Maltese Falcon opposite Humphrey Bogart. Fatal Bond, (1991). She appeared in Dodsworth (1936) and The Prisoner of Zenda (1937) and the success of both films, and the public's acceptance of Astor, assured the studios that she was still a viable commercial property. Repossessed, (1990). During divorce proceedings her estranged husband produced a diary Astor had kept, which detailed among other events, her affair with playwright George Kaufman. The sexually explicit diary was entered as evidence in court, and extracts were published in newspapers throughout the world. Determined to separate her private and professional lives, Astor refused to apologise and her career was renewed by the huge level of publicity. The Chilling, (1989).

By 1936, her career had begun to lose momentum until she became the subject of a widely publicised scandal. Up Your Alley, (1989). She achieved success playing opposite John Barrymore in Beau Brummell (1924) and Don Juan (1926), and her stature as a film star continued to grow steadily with the advent of "talking pictures". Witchery, (1988). She was selected as one of the WAMPAS Baby Stars in 1926. Grotesque, (1988). Born Lucile Vasconcellos Langhanke in Quincy, Illinois, Astor was signed to a Hollywood contract at the age of 14 after winning a beauty contest. Savage Streets, (1984).

Mary Astor (May 3, 1906 - September 25, 1987) was a US film actress. Chained Heat, (1983). Hell Night, (1981). Exorcist II: The Heretic (1977). Airport '75, (1974).

Born Innocent (1974, TV movie). The Exorcist (1973).