MARY BARRETT DYER ,RELIGIOUS REFORMER BORN 1611 - 1660 JUNE 1

 

MARY BARRETT DYER ,RELIGIOUS REFORMER

 BORN 1611 - 1660 JUNE 1

மேரி பாரெட் டயர் (Mary Barrett Dyer) (1611^[2] – சூன் 1, 1660) ஓர் ஆங்கில சீர்திருத்தத் திருச்சபையினராக இருந்து அமெரிக்காவின் மாசசூசெட்ஸ் மாநிலத்திலுள்ள பாசுடன் நகரில் மாநில சட்டங்களுக்கு எதிராக குவாக்கராக மாறியதால் தூக்கில் இடப்பட்டவர்.^[3] பாசுடன் தியாகிகள் எனக் குறிப்பிடப்படும் தூக்கிலிடப்பட்ட நால்வரில் ஒருவராவார்.

இறைவனுடன் தொடர்பு கொள்ள பைபில் படித்தால் போதுமானது என்றும், அதற்கு இடைத்தரகர் போல பாதிரியார்கள் தேவையில்லை என்றும் வலியுறுத்தினார். இவ்வாறு கருதுவது குற்றமாக கருதப்பெற்றமையால், இருமுறை நாடுகடத்தப்பட்டார். இருப்பினும் தம் கருத்தினை வலியுருத்தி மாசசூசெட்சுக்கு மீண்டும் வந்து பிரட்சாரம் செய்தமையால், 1660ல் மக்கள் முன்னிலையில் பாஸ்டன் ஹவுஸ் அருகேயுள்ள காமன்ஸ் பார்கில் தூக்கிலிடப்பட்டார்.^[4]

ஆரம்பகால வாழ்க்கை[தொகு]

மேரி பாரெட் டயர் அவர்களின் பிறந்த காலம் தோராயமாக 1611 என்று கணிக்கப்படுகிறது. இவர் லேடி அர்பெல்லா ஸ்டுவர்ட் மற்றும் சர் வில்லியம் சீமோர் ஆகியோரின் மகளாவாள். இவருடைய இளமைக்காலப் பெயர் பாரெட் என்று சந்தேகிக்ப்பெறுகிறது. இவர் குழந்தையாக இருந்தபொழுது, கிங் சார்லஸ் I நீதிமன்றத்தில் சிறப்பு விருந்தினராக இருந்துள்ளார்.

அமெரிக்க காலனித்துவம்[தொகு]

மேரி (மாரி) பாரெட்டின் திருமணம் இலண்டனில் அக்டோபர் 27, 1633ஆம் ஆண்டு வில்லியம் டயர் என்பவருடன் நடந்ததாக புனித மார்ட்டின் இன் த பீல்ட்ஸ் தேவாலய ஆவணங்களின்படி தெரிய வருகிறது.^[5] வில்லியம் டயர் மார்ச் 3, 1635 அல்லது 1636ஆம் ஆண்டு பாசுடனின் பொதுமன்றத்தில் கடன்பட்டோர் எடுக்கும் பிரீமேன்சு உறுதிமொழி எடுத்துக்கொண்டார்.

1637ஆம் ஆண்டு அன்னி அட்சின்சன் "கடவுள் மனிதரிடம் நேரடியாகப் பேசுகிறார்;மதக்குருக்கள் தேவையில்லை" என்ற கூற்றை ஆதரிக்கலானார்.^[6] அவருடன் இணைந்து திருச்சபை விதிகளுக்குப் புறம்பாகவும்^[7] மாசசூசெட்சு விரிகுடா காலனி விதிகளை மீறியும் ஆண்களையும் பெண்களையும் விவிலியத்தை மீள்வாசிப்பு செய்தார்.அங்கிருந்து ரோட் தீவிற்குச் சென்றார்.

அக்டோபர் 11, 1637ஆம் ஆண்டு அவருக்கு ஊனமுற்ற மகவொன்று இறந்து பிறந்தது. அதனை தானே தனிப்பட்டமுறையில் புதைத்தார். இடைவேளையில் 1637-8களில் அட்சின்சன் , மேரி இருவரையும் மாசசூசெட்சிலிருந்து தள்ளி வைத்திருந்த நிர்வாகம் இந்த "அரக்கப் பிறப்பை" கேள்விப்பட்டு மார்ச்சு 1638ஆம் ஆண்டு ஆளுநரால் மீட்டெடுக்க ஆணை பிறப்பித்து பெருந்திரளான மக்கள் முன்னிலையில் தோண்டி எடுத்தனர்.இதனை ஜான் வின்தராப் இவ்வாறு விவரித்துள்ளார்:^[8]:

“அது சாதாரணமாக பெரியது; முகமிருந்தது, தலையில்லை, காதுகள் தோள்களின் மேல் மனிதக்குரங்கினுடையதைப் போன்றிருந்தது; கண்களின் மேல் நான்கு கொம்புகள் இருந்தன;அவற்றில் இரண்டு ஒரு அங்குலத்திற்கும் நீளமாக இருந்ததன, மற்றவை சற்று சிறியதாக இருந்தது;கண்களும் வாயும் துறுத்திக் கொண்டிருந்தன;மூக்கு மேல்நோக்கி வளைந்திருந்தது; மார்பிலும் முதுகிலும் கட்டிகளும் சிரங்குமாக வயிறும் இடுப்பும் இடம் மாறி இரண்டு வாய்களுடன்;கைகளும் கால்களும் மற்ற குழந்தைகள் போன்றிருப்பினும் கால்நகங்களுக்குப் பதிலாக இளங்கோழியினுடையது போல கூரிய நகங்கள் இருந்தன.

இந்த விவரணத்தை வின்தராப் பல பத்திரிகையாளர்களுக்கும் அனுப்ப, 1642 மற்றும் 1644 ஆண்டுகளில் இங்கிலாந்தில் பிரசுரமாயின. இவாறான வினோதக்குழந்தையின் பிறப்பு கடவுளை மறுத்தோருக்கும் சமய கோட்பாடுகளை மீறியவருக்கும் வழங்கப்படும் தண்டனையாக கருதப்பட்டது.

1638ஆம் ஆண்டு மேரி டயரும் கணவர் வில்லியமும் காலனியிலிருந்து விலக்கப்பட்டனர். ரோஜர் வில்லியம்சு என்பவரின் ஆலோசனைப்படி அட்சின்சன்,டயர் அடங்கிய குழு ரோட் தீவில் போர்ட்மவுத் பகுதிக்கு தஞ்சம் புகுந்தனர்.வில்லியம் டயர் 18 பேருடன் போர்ட்மவுத் உடன்பாடு கையெழுத்திட்டார்.

1652ஆம் ஆண்டு மேரி டயரும் கணவரும் ரோஜர் வில்லியம்சு மற்றும் ஜான் கிளார்க்குடன் இங்கிலாந்து சென்றார். அங்கு ஜியார்ஜ் ஃபாக்சின் உரைகளைக் கேட்டு அவை தானும் அட்சின்சனும் ஏற்கெனவே பல ஆண்டுகளாக நம்பிவந்த கருத்துகளுக்கு ஒத்திருந்தமையால் நண்பர்களின் சமய சமூகத்தில் இணைந்தார். அக்கோட்பாடுகளின் போதகராக மாறினார்.

வில்லியம் டயர் 1652ஆம் ஆண்டு ரோட் தீவிற்குத் திரும்பினார்.ஆனால் மேரி டயர் 1657 வரை இங்கிலாந்தில் இருந்தார்.திரும்பிவந்த மேரி பாசுடன் சென்று அங்கு குவாக்கர்களுக்கு எதிராக இயற்றப்பட்ட சட்டங்களுக்கு எதிராக போராடினார்.கைது செய்யப்பட்டு மாச்சூசெட்சிலிருந்து விலக்கப்பட்டார்.அவரது கணவர் குவாக்கராக மாறாதமையால் கைது செய்யப்படவில்லை.

அங்கிருந்து நியூ இங்கிலாந்து பகுதியில் சமயபோதனை செய்யச் சென்றார். 1658ஆம் ஆண்டு நியூ ஹெவன், கனெக்டிகட்டில் கைது செய்யப்பட்டார். விடுதலையான மேரி கைது செய்யப்பட்டிருந்த சக குவாக்கர்கள் வில்லியம் ராபின்சன்,மர்மடூக் ஸ்டெபென்சன் ஆகியோரைக் காண மீண்டும் தடை விதிக்கப்பட்ட மாசசூசெட்ஸ் சென்றார்.அங்கு மீண்டும் கைது செய்யப்பட்டு நிரந்தரமாக மாநிலத்திற்கு வெளியே கடத்தப்பட்டார். ஆனால் மூன்றாம் முறையாக அவர் சட்டத்தை மீறி குவாக்கர்கள் குழுவொன்றுடன் மாசசூசெட்சினுள் நுழைந்தார். இச்சமயம் அவரை கைது செய்த நிர்வாகம் அவருக்கு மரண தண்டனை விதித்தது.அவரது கணவரின் விண்ணப்பத்தால் மன்னிக்கப்பட்டு றோட் தீவிற்குத் கட்டாயமாக அனுப்பி வைக்கப்பட்டார்.

மரணம்[தொகு]

1660ஆம் ஆண்டு சூன் 1 அன்று மேரி டயர் தூக்குமேடைக்கு அனுப்பப்படுதல் - 19வது நூற்றாண்டு ஓவியம்

றோட் தீவிலிருந்து நியூயார்க் நகரம் லாங் தீவில் பிரச்சாரம் செய்யச் சென்றார். இருப்பினும் உள்மனதின் கட்டளையால் குவாக்கர்களுக்கு எதிரான சட்டமுள்ள மாசசூசெட்சிற்கு மீண்டும் செல்ல விழைந்தார். தனது குடும்பம் மற்றும் கணவனின் வேண்டுகோள்களுக்கு செவிசாய்க்காது, மன்னிப்பு கேட்கவும் மறுத்து, மே 31, 1660ஆம் ஆண்டு ஆங்கு சென்று கைதானார். இவருக்கு ஜூன் 1, 1660ல் மக்கள் முன்னிலையில் பாசுடன் பொதுப் பூங்காவில் தூக்கில் இடப்பட்டார்.^[9]

இவருடைய மரணம் குவேக்கர்களுக்கு எதிரான சட்டங்களை தளர்த்த பிற்காலத்தில் உதவியது ^[10]

நினைவகம்[தொகு]

அன்னே ஹட்சின்சன் / மேரி டயர் நினைவு தாவரவியல் தோட்டம், போர்ட்ஸ்மவுத், ரோட் தீவு

மேரி டயரின் வெங்கலச்சிலை சில்வியா சா யட்சன் என்பவரால் செதுக்கப்பட்டு பாஸ்டன் நகரில் மாசசூசெட்ஸ் மாநில சட்டமன்றத்தின் எதிரே வைக்கப்பட்டுள்ளது.

நண்பர்களின் சமய சமூகத்தினை சார்ந்த மேரி டயர் மற்றும் அவரது நண்பர் அன்னே ஹட்சின்சன் அவர்களுக்கு ரோட் தீவில் போர்ட்ஸ்மவுத் எனும் இடத்தில் நீர்வீழ்ச்சியுடன் கூடிய தாவரவியல் தோட்டம் நினைவிடமாக அமைக்கப்பெற்றுள்ளது.

குறிப்பிடத்தக்க வழித்தோன்றல்கள்[தொகு]

ரோட் தீவு ஆளுநர்களான எலிஷா டயர், எலிஷா டயர் ஜூனியர், மற்றும் அமெரிக்க செனட்டர் ஜொனாதன் சாஸ் ஆகியோர் மேரி டயரின் குறிப்பிடத்தக்க வழித்தோன்றல்களாக கருதப்படுபவர்களாவர்.^[11]

Mary Astor Biography

 

Mary Astor Biography

Born May 3, 1906 in Quincy, Illinois, USA

Died September 25, 1987 in Woodland Hills, Los Angeles, California, USA  (respiratory failure due to pulmonary emphysema)

Birth Name Lucile Vasconcellos Langhanke

Nicknames The Cameo Girl

Rusty

Height 5' 6" (1.68 m)

Mini Bio (2)

Mary Astor was born Lucile Vasconcellos Langhanke, on May 3, 1906 in Quincy, Illinois to a German immigrant father, Otto Ludwig Langhanke, and an American mother from Illinois, Helen Marie Vasconcellos, of Portuguese and Irish ancestry. Her parents were very ambitious for her as they recognized Mary's beauty and knowing if they played their cards right, they could make her famous. They understood that they wanted something better for their daughter than they had, so they made it happen by pushing Mary into various beauty contests. Luck was with Mary and her parents because one contest came to the attention of Hollywood moguls who signed her at the age of 14. Her first movie was a bit part in The Scarecrow (1920). It wasn't much, but it was a start. Throughout 1921-1923 she continued her career with bit or minor roles in a number of motion pictures. In 1924, Mary landed a plum assignment with a role as Lady Margery Alvaney opposite the great John Barrymore in the film Beau Brummel (1924). This launched her career to stardom as it did with a lively affair with Barrymore. However the affair ended before she could star with him again in the classic Don Juan (1926). Mary was, now, the new cinematic darling with each film packing the theaters. By the end of the twenties, the sound revolution had taken a strong hold on the industry and Mary was one of those lucky actresses who made the successful transition to "talkies" because of her voice and strong screen presence. Mary's career took off to greater heights. Films such as Red Dust (1932), Convention City (1933), Man of Iron (1935), and The Prisoner of Zenda (1937), kept her star at the top. In 1938, Mary turned out five feature films which kept her busy and in the spotlight. Afterwards, she churned out films at a lesser rate. In 1941, she won the Oscar for Best Supporting Actress for her role of Sandra Kovac in The Great Lie (1941). That same year she appeared in the celebrated film The Maltese Falcon (1941), but her star soon began to fall. Because of her three divorces, the death of her first husband, Kenneth Hawks who died in a plane crash, alcoholism, a suicide attempt, and a persistent heart condition, Mary got smaller roles in movies. In the whole of the 1950s she appeared in only five productions. Her final fling with the silver screen was as Jewell Mayhew in Hush...Hush, Sweet Charlotte (1964). Even though this was her final film, she had appeared in a phenomenal 123 motion pictures. Mary lived out her remaining days confined to the Motion Picture Country Home where she died of a heart attack on September 25, 1987 at the age of 81.

- IMDb Mini Biography By: Denny Jackson

Her German immigrant father pushed her into a beauty contest at 14 and her first movie Sentimental Tommy (1921) at 15. After a number of minor parts she starred in John Barrymore's Beau Brummel (1924). She had a lively affair with Barrymore, over with before she starred a second time with him, in Don Juan (1926), the first silent movie with Vitaphone music and sound effects. Her first husband, director Kenneth Hawks (brother of Howard Hawks), died in a 1930 plane crash. While divorcing her second husband in 1936 her personal diary was entered in evidence in the custody fight for their daughter. Included among other well-publicized juicy bits was her secret affair with playwright 'George S. Kaufman (I)'. Her career picked up after the scandal -- The Prisoner of Zenda (1937), Midnight (1939) (again with Barrymore), Brigham Young (1940), and a best supporting Oscar for The Great Lie (1941). Her crowning role was the lying Brigid O'Shaughnessy in The Maltese Falcon (1941). Three divorces, alcoholism, and attempted suicide resulted in smaller parts from then on till Hush...Hush, Sweet Charlotte (1964), her last due to a heart condition. She lived her final years confined to the Motion Picture Country Home.

- IMDb Mini Biography By: Ed Stephan <stephan@cc.wwu.edu>

Family (3)

Spouse Thomas Gordon Wheelock (24 December 1945 - 30 August 1955)  (divorced)

Manuel del Campo (1936 - 1941)  (divorced)  (1 child)

Dr. Franklyn Thorpe (29 June 1931 - 12 April 1935)  (divorced)  (1 child)

Kenneth Hawks (24 February 1928 - 2 January 1930)  (his death)

Children Marylyn Thorpe Roh

del Campo, Anthony

Parents Otto Ludwig Wilhelm Langhanke

Helen Vasconcells

Trivia (36)

WAMPAS (Western Association of Motion Picture Advertisers) Baby Star on 1926.

Attended and graduated from Kenwood-Loring School in Chicago, Illinois.

In 1959, she penned her frank autobiography, "My Story", which was a bestseller, a tell-all in which she openly discussed her battle with alcohol and her failed marriages, but, interestingly, avoided the subject of her film career. In 1971, she also wrote five novels and came out with a memoir, "A Life on Film", in which she DID discuss her film career. This was also a bestseller.

Sister-in-law of Howard Hawks and William B. Hawks, cousin-in-law of Carole Lombard.

Acording to an August 1924 Topeka Capital article, Mary Astor (Lucille Langhanke) grew up and attended school in Topeka. Her father was a window dresser at the Crosby Brothers store.

Biography in: "The Scribner Encyclopedia of American Lives". Volume Two, 1986-1990, pages 38-40. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1999.

She was awarded a Star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6701 Hollywood Boulevard in Hollywood, California on February 8, 1960.

Gave birth to her daughter Marylyn two months premature on her yacht in Honolulu, Hawaii. Both mother and daughter almost lost their lives.

Lived with her close friend Florence Eldridge and her husband Fredric March following the sudden death of her husband Kenneth Hawks.

Her father Otto died in February 1943 of a heart attack and her mother Helen died in January 1947 of a heart ailment.

After shooting Little Women (1949), Astor decided against renewing her contract with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer as she had grown tired of playing humdrum mothers.

Lived with her son Tono in Fountain Valley, California after filming Hush...Hush, Sweet Charlotte (1964) until 1971 when she moved to a small cottage on the grounds of the Motion Picture and Television Country House in Woodland Hills due to her chronic heart condition.

Having suffered from alcoholism for 20 years, Astor finally checked into a sanitarium for alcoholics in 1949.

Converted to Roman Catholicism in 1951 following a suicide attempt.

Was almost fired from Dodsworth (1936) following the revelation of her affair with George S. Kaufman, but Samuel Goldwyn insisted she remain in the picture.

Bette Davis was originally cast as Sandra Kovak, the hot-tempered but talented pianist, in The Great Lie (1941) but instead opted for the smaller role of Maggie Van Allen in a bid to let her good friend Astor save her film career. As a result, Astor won the Best Supporting Actress Oscar for her performance.

Thanked both Bette Davis and Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky in her acceptance speech for the Best Supporting Actress Oscar for 1941 for The Great Lie (1941).

According to "Reel Facts: The Movie Book of Records", Astor earned $500 per week in the early 1920s at Famous Players and rose to $3750 per week at 20th Century Fox during the 40 week 1928-1929 season.

She was a staunch liberal Democrat who was active in the women's chapter of the Hollywood Democratic Committee as well as the campaigns of such liberal presidents as Franklin D. Roosevelt, Harry Truman, Lyndon B. Johnson, John F. Kennedy and Jimmy Carter.

Had appeared with Henry O'Neill in five films: The Kennel Murder Case (1933), The World Changes (1933), The Man with Two Faces (1934), Upperworld (1934) and Dinky (1935).

Was the 17th actress to receive an Academy Award; she won the Best Supporting Actress Oscar for The Great Lie (1941) at The 14th Academy Awards on February 26, 1942.

She died only seven days before her The Prisoner of Zenda (1937) co-star Madeleine Carroll.

Following her death, she was interred at Holy Cross Cemetery in Culver City, California.

Her nickname "Rusty" came from her dark auburn hair. One fan magazine described her hair color as "Titian, which photographs black, and her eyes are very dark".

In March 2014, she was honored as Turner Classic Movies Star of the Month.

Although Hush...Hush, Sweet Charlotte (1964) will show as Miss Astor's final film on a chronological list of her work, Youngblood Hawke (1964) was actually the last film she worked on. "Hawke" was released on November 4, 1964, before "Charlotte"; which was released about 7 weeks later, on December 24.

Became pregnant by her 1st husband Kenneth Hawks in July 1928, but she underwent an abortion.

Had two children: daughter Marylyn Hauoli Thorpe (Marilyn Thorpe; b. June 15, 1932) with ex-husband Dr. Franklyn Thorpe, and son Anthony Paul Del Campo (June 5, 1939 - May 26, 2014) with ex-husband Manuel Del Campo.

Her son Anthony was born five weeks premature.

Grandmother to Frances (b. March 11, 1951), Clare (b. July 16, 1955), Gabrielle (b. October 15, 1957) and John (b. November 28, 1961) via daughter Marylyn and her husband, Frank Roh.

Grandmother to Krystin (b. August 29, 1970) and Michael (b. December 11, 1974) via son Tono and his wife, Patrica Leuty.

Is one of 6 actresses to have won a Best Supporting Actress Oscar for playing a character who is pregnant at some point during the film, hers being for The Great Lie (1941). The others are Kim Hunter for A Streetcar Named Desire (1951), Mary Steenburgen for Melvin and Howard (1980), Brenda Fricker for My Left Foot (1989), Rachel Weisz for The Constant Gardener (2005), and Jennifer Hudson for Dreamgirls (2006).

In her book "A Life on Film," Mary Astor recalled that by the time the film Young Ideas (1943) came along, she was beginning to be disturbed about the direction her career was taking, having signed a term contract with MGM. She was pushed into a long line of what she called "Mothers for Metro", and when informed that in this film, she would be playing Susan Peters' mother, she thought, "Swell; what do I do as Susan Peters mother: change her diaper or console her because she wasn't asked to the prom?".

On August 26, 2019, she was honored with a day of her film work during the Turner Classic Movies Summer Under the Stars.

She has appeared in six films that have been selected for the National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically or aesthetically" significant: Red Dust (1932), Dodsworth (1936), The Prisoner of Zenda (1937), Midnight (1939), The Maltese Falcon (1941) and Meet Me in St. Louis (1944).

Wrote her autobiography 'My Story'.

Personal Quotes (13)

A painter paints, a musician plays, a writer writes - but a movie actor waits.

I was never totally involved in movies. I was just making my father's dream come true.

It's not good to make sentimental journeys. You see the differences instead of the sameness.

[on her early Hollywood roles] I was as two-dimensional as the screen itself: cool, indifferent, looking lovely in close-ups. Period. Period. Period. When was I ever going to learn to act? You can't learn if you can't experiment and find out what works and doesn't work. But the hours are long, the schedule rigid, so I did what I was told and saved time and money for the front office. And got a lot of jobs that way.

Once you start asking questions, innocence is gone.

A person without memory is either a child or an amnesiac. A country without memory is neither a child nor an amnesiac, but neither is it a country.

[on George S. Kaufman] He was the kind of man I'd go over a cliff for.

There are five stages in the life of an actor: Who's Mary Astor? Get me Mary Astor. Get me a Mary Astor Type. Get me a young Mary Astor. Who's Mary Astor?

At Metro, you practically had to go to the front office if you wanted something as real as having your hair mussed. All automobiles were shiny, a picture never hung crooked, a door never squeaked, stocking seams were always straight and no actress ever had a shiny nose.

I was never totally involved in movies. I was making someone else's dream come true. Not mine.

[on her Little Women (1949) co-stars] The girls all giggled and chattered and made a game of every scene. Taylor [Elizabeth Taylor] was engaged, and in love, and talking on the telephone most of the time (which is fine normally, but not when the production clock is ticking away the company's money). June Allyson chewed gum constantly and irritatingly, and Maggie O'Brien [Margaret O'Brien] looked at me as though she were planning something very unpleasant.

I admire nudity and I like sex, and so did a lot of people in the '30s. But, to me, overexposure blunts the fun. Sex as something beautiful may soon disappear. Once it was a knife so finely honed the edge was invisible until it was touched and then it cut deep. Now it is so blunt that it merely bruises and leaves ugly marks. Nudity is fine in the privacy of my own bedroom with the appropriate partner. Or for a model in life class at art school. Or as portrayed in stone and paint. But I don't like it used as a joke or to titillate. Or be so bloody frank about.

[on Greta Garbo] I don't think Garbo with her clothes off, panting in a brass bed, would have been more sexy than she was.

Salary (3)

John Smith (1922) $60 /week

Second Fiddle (1923) $750 /week

Beau Brummel (1924) $1,100 /week

 

MARY ASTOR AMERICAN ACTRESS BORN MAY 3,1906 -1987 SEPTEMBER 25

 

MARY ASTOR 

AMERICAN ACTRESS BORN 

MAY 3,1906 -1987 SEPTEMBER 25

Mary Astor, born Lucile Vasconcellos Langhanke in 1906 was a successful American actress, best remembered for her role as Brigid O’Shaughnessy in The Maltese Falcon (1941).

Starting out as a teenager in the silent movies of the early 1920s Astor made a smooth transition to talkies. However her career was nearly derailed in the mid-1930s in what could be described as a case of life imitating art.

But few of Astor’s films could match the turbulence of her private life.  In 1930, her first husband, Kenneth Hawks, was killed in a plane crash while directing a movie. Suffering delayed shock she had a nervous breakdown. During her recuperation she was attended to by a Dr. Franklyn Thorpe, whom she married in June 1931. At the same time her parents were consuming most of her salary, living a lavish lifestyle in stark contrast to the poverty from which they rose before Astor’s film career took off. After putting them on an allowance in 1934, they sued Astor for nonsupport. She claimed that ”from 1920 to 1930, I gave my father $461,000” while she kept only $24,000. She agreed to pay them $100 a month, and the suit was dismissed.

In 1936, she was the center of one of Hollywood’s most salacious scandals when she sued ex-husband Franklyn Thorpe for legal custody of their four year-old daughter, Marylyn. Branded an adulterous wife by Thorpe, the court case led to the disclosure of her diary, in which she allegedly wrote about liaisons with many celebrities. Thorpe sought to use the diary to prove she was an unfit mother. The press had a field day publishing purported excerpts from the diary under suggestive headlines. Astor had just begun work opposite Walter Huston in the movie Dodsworth as news of the diary became public. Producer Samuel Goldwyn was urged to fire her, as her contract included a morality clause, but Goldwyn refused and the movie was a hit.

During the 30-day trial, Astor was also pressured to drop the suit, because Hollywood producers feared the scandal would damage the film industry. Astor resolutely refused risking her reputation and career to keep her daughter. Soon after the trial, her fans and the public in general praised her courage and rewarded her by their attendances at her films.

Astor defended herself claiming that the excerpts were lurid forgeries. She later conceded an affair with the playwright George S. Kaufman. The trial judge ruled the diary inadmissible as evidence because Thorpe had removed pages involving himself. The diary was impounded, never made public and later with her permission and witnessed by a judge, it was burned in 1952.  Miss Astor was granted custody of her daughter for nine months a year, with Thorpe allowed custody the other three months.

Astor was a Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer contract player through most of the 1940s and went on to achieve great screen success, her most famous roles being the female lead in The Maltese Falcon, (1941) opposite Humphrey Bogart.  In the same year she won an  Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her performance in The Great Lie. She continued to work in film, on television and on stage until her retirement in 1964.

Astor made 109 movies in a career spanning 45 years and was always highly regarded for her acting ability. Director, Lindsay Anderson wrote of her in 1990,

“… that when two or three who love the cinema are gathered together, the name of Mary Astor always comes up, and everybody agrees that she was an actress of special attraction, whose qualities of depth and reality always seemed to illuminate the parts she played.”

Her life off screen however was still full of torment; always battling alcoholism she converted to Roman Catholicism in 1951 following a suicide attempt from overdose of seeping tablets. She suffered three overdoses in two years but maintained they were all accidental.

Astor passed away on this day September 25, 1987 at age 81, due to respiratory failure and  pulmonary emphysema.

Astor wrote five novels between 1959 and 1971 plus two memoirs. In 1959 she published her tell-all autobiography, My Story, a best seller in which she talks candidly about her battle with alcohol and her failed marriages and in 1971 another best-selling memoir, A Life on Film in which she explains,

“There are five stages in the life of an actor: Who’s Mary Astor? Get me Mary Astor. Get me a Mary Astor type. Get me a young Mary Astor. Who’s Mary Astor?”

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

____________________________________________________________

[on her early Hollywood roles] “I was as two-dimensional as the screen itself: cool, indifferent, looking lovely in close-ups. Period. Period. Period. When was I ever going to learn to act? You can’t learn if you can’t experiment and find out what works and doesn’t work. But the hours are long, the schedule rigid, so I did what I was told and saved time and money for the front office. And got a lot of jobs that way.’   –  Mary Astor

BIOGRAPHY OF MARY ASTOR

 

BIOGRAPHY OF MARY ASTOR

Sex as something beautiful may soon disappear. Once it was a knife so finely honed the edge was invisible until it was touched and then it cut deep. Now it is so blunt that it merely bruises and leaves ugly marks.

செக்ஸ் என்பது அழகான ஒன்று விரைவில் மறைந்துவிடும். செக்ஸ் என்பது அழகான , கூர்மையான கத்தி போன்றது , அதை தொட்டு விட்டால் அது நம்மை ஆழமாக காயப்படுத்தி விடும்   அது வெறும் காயங்கள் மற்றும் அசிங்கமான அடையாளங்களை விட்டுச்செல்கிறது.

Biography by Hal Erickson  [-]

Pressured into an acting career by her ambitious parents, Mary Astor was a silent film star before she was 17 -- a tribute more to her dazzling good looks than anything else. Debuting in The Beggar Maid (1921), Astor appeared opposite John Barrymore in 1923's Beau Brummell with whom she had a romantic relationship and later starred with in Don Juan (1926), Anxious not to be a victim of the talking-picture revolution, the actress perfected her vocal technique in several stage productions for Edward Everett Horton's Los Angeles-based Majestic Theatre, and the result was a most successful talkie career. Things nearly fell to pieces in 1936 when, in the midst of a divorce suit, Astor's ex-husband tried to gain custody of the couple's daughter by making public a diary she had kept. In this volume, Astor detailed her affair with playwright George S. Kaufman; portions of the diary made it to the newspapers, causing despair for Astor and no end of embarrassment for Kaufman. But Astor's then-current employer, producer Sam Goldwyn, stood by his star and permitted her to complete her role in his production of Dodsworth (1936). Goldwyn was touched by Astor's fight for the custody of her child, and was willing to overlook her past mistakes. Some of Astor's best films were made after the scandal subsided, including The Maltese Falcon (1941), in which she played the gloriously untrustworthy Brigid O'Shaughnessy opposite Humphrey Bogart's Sam Spade, and The Great Lie (1941), in which she played a supremely truculent concert pianist (and won an Academy Award in the bargain). Seemingly getting better as she got older, Astor spent the final phase of her career playing spiteful or snobbish mothers, with one atypical role as murderer Robert Wagner's slow-on-the-uptake mom in A Kiss Before Dying (1956). A lifelong aspiring writer, Astor wrote two entertaining and insightful books on her career, My Story and A Life on Film. Retiring after the film Hush Hush Sweet Charlotte (1966), Astor fell victim to health complications and financial tangles, compelling her to spend her last years in a small but comfortable bungalow on the grounds of the Motion Picture Country House and Hospital.

Factsheet

• Was discovered by Harry Durant of the film studio Famous Players-Lasky after seeing a photograph of her taken in New York City.  
• Was given the name Mary Astor by Paramount boss Jesse Lasky.
• Was home-schooled, and was taught to play piano by her father, who insisted she practice every day.
• Began her career acting in silent films at the age of 14.
• Her transition to "talkies" was not a smooth one: her voice was deemed "too deep" at first.
• Despite earning a considerable salary, she was eventually left destitute due to her parents' lavish lifestyle and spending.
• Wrote two autobiographies; both became best-sellers.
• Penned five novels between 1960 and '68.

Mary Astor

British postcard in the Picturegoer Series, London, no. 240b.

 

American film actress Mary Astor (1906–1987) was famous for her part as Brigid O'Shaughnessy in The Maltese Falcon (1941) with Humphrey Bogart. She won an Oscar as best supporting actress for The Great Lie (1941). Astor had a long acting career that already started in the silent era in 1921 and included over 100 films.

 

Mary Astor was born as Lucile Vasconcellos Langhanke in Quincy, Illinois, in 1906. She was the only child of Otto Ludwig Langhanke and Helen Marie de Vasconcellos. Both of her parents were teachers. Astor's father taught German at Quincy High School until the U.S. entered World War I. Later on, he took up light farming. Astor's mother, who had always wanted to be an actress, taught drama and elocution. Astor was home-schooled in academics and was taught to play the piano by her father, who insisted she practice daily. Her piano talents came in handy when she played piano in her films The Great Lie (1941) and Meet Me in St. Louis. In 1919, Astor sent a photograph of herself to a beauty contest in Motion Picture Magazine, becoming a semifinalist. When Astor was 15, the family moved to Chicago, Illinois, with her father teaching German in public schools. Astor took drama lessons and appeared in various amateur stage productions. The following year, she sent another photograph to Motion Picture Magazine, this time becoming a finalist and then runner-up in the national contest. Her father then moved the family to New York City, in order for his daughter to act in films. He managed her affairs from September 1920 to June 1930. A Manhattan photographer, Charles Albin, saw her photograph and asked the young girl with haunting eyes and long auburn hair to pose for him. The Albin photographs were seen by Harry Durant of Famous Players-Lasky and Astor was signed to a six-month contract with Paramount Pictures. Her name was changed to Mary Astor during a conference among Paramount Pictures chief Jesse Lasky, film producer Walter Wanger, and gossip columnist Louella Parsons.

 

Mary Astor's first screen test was directed by Lillian Gish, who was so impressed with her recitation of Shakespeare that she shot a thousand feet of her. She made her debut at age 14 either in the Buster Keaton comedy The Scarecrow (Edward F. Cline, Buster Keaton, 1920) - according to IMDb, or in Sentimental Tommy (John S. Robertson, 1921) according to Wikipedia. She then appeared in some short films with sequences based on famous paintings. She received critical recognition for the two-reeler The Beggar Maid (Herbert Blaché, 1921) with Reginald Denny. Her first feature-length film was John Smith (Victor Heerman, 1922), followed that same year by The Man Who Played God (F. Harmon Weight, 1922) starring George Arliss. In 1923, she and her parents moved to Hollywood. After appearing in several larger roles at various studios, she was again signed by Paramount, this time to a one-year contract at $500 a week. After she appeared in several more films, John Barrymore saw her photograph in a magazine and wanted her cast in his upcoming film. On loan-out to Warner Bros., she starred with him in Beau Brummel (Harry Beaumont, 1924). The older actor wooed the young actress, but their relationship was severely constrained by Astor's parents' unwillingness to let the couple spend time alone together. Mary was only seventeen and legally underage. It was only after Barrymore convinced the Langhankes that his acting lessons required privacy that the couple managed to be alone at all. Their secret engagement ended largely because of the Langhankes' interference and Astor's inability to escape their heavy-handed authority, and because Barrymore became involved with Astor's fellow WAMPAS Baby Star Dolores Costello, whom he later married. In 1925, Astor's parents bought a Moorish style mansion with 1 acre (4,000 m2) of land known as Moorcrest in the hills above Hollywood. The Langhankes not only lived lavishly off of Astor's earnings but kept her a virtual prisoner inside Moorcrest. The following year when she was 19, Astor, fed up with her father's constant physical and psychological abuse as well as his control of her money, climbed from her second-floor bedroom window and escaped to a hotel in Hollywood, as recounted in her memoirs. She returned when Otto Langhanke gave her a savings account with $500 and the freedom to come and go as she pleased. Nevertheless, she did not gain control of her salary until she was 26 years old, at which point her parents sued her for financial support. Astor settled the case by agreeing to pay her parents $100 a month. Otto Langhanke put Moorcrest up for auction in the early 1930s, hoping to realise more than the $80,000 he had been offered for it; it sold for $25,000.

 

Mary Astor continued to appear in films at various studios. When her Paramount contract ended in 1925, she was signed at Warner Bros. Among her assignments was another role with John Barrymore, this time in Don Juan (Alan Crosland, 1926). She was named one of the WAMPAS (Western Association of Motion Picture Advertisers) Baby Stars in 1926, along with Mary Brian, Dolores Costello, Joan Crawford, Dolores del Río, Janet Gaynor, and Fay Wray. On loan to Fox, Astor starred in Dressed to Kill (Irving Cummings, 1928), which received good reviews, and the sophisticated comedy Dry Martini (Harry d'Abbadie d'Arrast, 1928). When her Warner Bros. contract ended, she signed a contract with Fox for $3,750 a week. In 1928, she married director Kenneth Hawks (brother of Howard Hawks) at her family home, Moorcrest. He gave her a Packard automobile as a wedding present and the couple moved into a home high up on Lookout Mountain in Los Angeles above Beverly Hills. As the film industry made the transition to talkies, Fox gave her a sound test, which she failed because the studio found her voice to be too deep. Though this result was probably due to early sound equipment and inexperienced technicians, the studio released her from her contract and she found herself out of work for eight months in 1929. Astor took voice training and singing lessons in her time off with Francis Stuart, an exponent of Francesco Lamperti, but no roles were offered. Her acting career was then given a boost by her friend, Florence Eldridge (wife of Fredric March), in whom she confided. Eldridge, who was to star in the stage play 'Among the Married' at the Majestic Theatre in Los Angeles, recommended Astor for the second female lead. The play was a success and her voice was deemed suitable, being described as low and vibrant. In early 1930, while filming sequences for the Fox film Such Men Are Dangerous, Kenneth Hawks was killed in a mid-air plane crash over the Pacific. Astor had just finished a matinee performance at the Majestic when Florence Eldridge gave her the news. Astor remained with Eldridge at her apartment for some time, then soon returned to work. Shortly after her husband's death, she debuted in her first talkie, Ladies Love Brutes (Rowland V. Lee, 1930) at Paramount, in which she co-starred with George Bancroft and her friend Fredric March. While her career picked up, her private life remained difficult. After working on several more films, she suffered delayed shock over her husband's death and had a nervous breakdown.

 

During the months of her illness, Mary Astor was attended to by Dr. Franklyn Thorpe, whom she married in 1931. That year, she starred as Nancy Gibson in Smart Woman (Gregory La Cava, 1931), playing a woman determined to retrieve her husband from a gold-digging flirtation. In 1932, the Thorpes purchased a yacht and sailed to Hawaii. Astor was expecting a baby in August but gave birth in June in Honolulu. The child, a daughter, was named Marylyn Hauoli Thorpe: her first name combined her parents' names and her middle name is Hawaiian. When they returned to California, Astor freelanced and gained the pivotal role of Barbara Willis in Red Dust (Victor Fleming, 1932) with Clark Gable and Jean Harlow. In late 1932, Astor signed a featured player contract with Warner Bros. Meanwhile, besides spending lavishly, her parents invested in the stock market, which often turned out unprofitable. While they remained in Moorcrest, Astor dubbed it a "white elephant", and she refused to maintain the house. She had to turn to the Motion Picture Relief Fund in 1933 to pay her bills. She appeared as the female lead, Hilda Lake, niece of the murder victims, in The Kennel Murder Case (Michael Curtiz, 1933), co-starring with William Powell as detective Philo Vance. Soon unhappy with her marriage, due to Thorpe having a short temper and a habit of listing her faults, Astor wanted a divorce by 1933. At a friend's suggestion, she took a break from film-making in 1933 and visited New York alone. While there, enjoying a whirlwind social life, she met the playwright George S. Kaufman, who was in a strong but open marriage. She documented their affair in her diary. Thorpe, by now making use of his wife's income, had discovered Astor's diary. He indicated her liaisons with other men, including Kaufman, would be used to claim she was an unfit mother in any divorce proceedings. Thorpe divorced Astor in April 1935. A legal battle drew press attention to Astor in 1936 when a custody battle resulted over their four-year-old daughter, Marylyn. Astor's diary was never formally offered as evidence during the trial, but Thorpe and his lawyers constantly referred to it, and its notoriety grew. Astor admitted that the diary existed and that she had documented her affair with Kaufman, but maintained that many of the parts that had been referred to were forgeries, following the theft of the diary from her desk. The diary was deemed inadmissible as a mutilated document because Thorpe had removed pages referring to himself and had fabricated content. The trial judge, Goodwin J. Knight, ordered it sealed and impounded. News of the diary became public when Astor's role in Dodsworth (William Wyler, 1936), as Edith Cortwright, was beginning to be filmed. Producer Samuel Goldwyn was urged to fire her, as her contract included a morality clause, but Goldwyn refused. With Walter Huston in the title role, Dodsworth received rave reviews on release, and the public's acceptance assured the studios that casting Astor remained a viable proposition. Ultimately, the scandals caused no harm to Astor's career, which was actually revitalised because of the custody fight and the publicity it generated. In 1952, by court order, Astor's diary was removed from the bank vault where it had been sequestered for 16 years and destroyed.

 

In 1937, Mary Astor returned to the stage in well-received productions of Noël Coward's 'Tonight at 8.30', 'The Astonished Heart', and 'Still Life'. She also began performing regularly on the radio. Over the next few years, she had roles in The Prisoner of Zenda (John Cromwell, 1937), John Ford's The Hurricane (1937), Midnight (Mitchell Leisen, 1939) and Brigham Young (Henry Hathaway, 1940), starring Tyrone Power. In John Huston's The Maltese Falcon (1941), Astor played scheming temptress and murderer Brigid O'Shaughnessy. The film also starred Humphrey Bogart and featured Peter Lorre and Sydney Greenstreet. For her performance in The Great Lie (Edmund Goulding, 1941) she won an Oscar as Best Supporting Actress. As Sandra Kovak, the self-absorbed concert pianist who relinquishes her unborn child, her intermittent love interest was played by George Brent, but the film's star was Bette Davis. Davis wanted Astor cast in the role after watching her screen test and seeing her play Tchaikovsky's Piano Concerto no. 1. She then recruited Astor to collaborate on rewriting the script, which Davis felt was mediocre and needed work to make it more interesting. Astor further followed Davis's advice and sported a bobbed hairdo for the role. The soundtrack of the film in the scenes where she plays the concerto, with violent hand movements on the piano keyboard, was dubbed by pianist Max Rabinovitch. Davis deliberately stepped back to allow Astor to shine in her key scenes. In her Oscar acceptance speech, Astor thanked Bette Davis and Tchaikovsky. Astor and Davis became good friends. Astor was not propelled into the upper echelon of movie stars by these successes, however. She always declined offers of starring in her own right. Not wanting the responsibility of top billing and having to carry the picture, she preferred the security of being a featured player. She reunited with Humphrey Bogart and Sydney Greenstreet in John Huston's Across the Pacific (1942). Though usually cast in dramatic or melodramatic roles, Astor showed a flair for comedy as The Princess Centimillia in the screwball comedy, The Palm Beach Story (Preston Sturges, 1942) with Claudette Colbert and Joel McCrea. In February 1943, Astor's father, Otto Langhanke, died in Cedars of Lebanon Hospital as a result of a heart attack complicated by influenza. His wife and daughter were at his bedside. That same year, Astor signed a seven-year contract with MGM, a regrettable mistake. She was kept busy playing what she considered mediocre roles she called "Mothers for Metro". After Meet Me in St. Louis (Vincente Minnelli, 1944), the studio allowed her to debut on Broadway in 'Many Happy Returns' (1945). The play was a failure, but Astor received good reviews. On loan-out to 20th Century Fox, she played a wealthy widow in Claudia and David (Walter Lang, 1946). She was also loaned to Paramount to play Fritzi Haller in Desert Fury (Lewis Allen, 1947) playing the tough owner of a saloon and casino in a small mining town. In 1947 Helen Langhanke died of a heart ailment. Back at MGM, Astor continued being cast in undistinguished, colorless mother roles. One exception was when she played a prostitute in the Film Noir Act of Violence (Fred Zinnemann, 1948) with Van Heflin and Robert Ryan. The last straw came when she was cast as Marmee March in Little Women (Mervyn LeRoy, 1949). Astor found no redemption in playing what she considered another humdrum mother and grew despondent. She later described her disappointment with her cast members and the shoot in her memoir 'A Life on Film'. The studio wanted to renew her contract, promising better roles, but she declined the offer.

 

At the same time, Mary Astor's drinking was growing troublesome. She admitted to alcoholism as far back as the 1930s, but it had never interfered with her work schedule or performance. She hit bottom in 1949 and went into a sanitarium for alcoholics. In 1951, she made a frantic call to her doctor and said that she had taken too many sleeping pills. She was taken to a hospital and the police reported that she had attempted suicide, this being her third overdose in two years, and the story made headline news. She maintained it had been an accident. That same year, she joined Alcoholics Anonymous and converted to Roman Catholicism. She credited her recovery to a priest, Peter Ciklic, also a practicing psychologist, who encouraged her to write about her experiences as part of therapy. She also separated from her fourth husband, Thomas Wheelock (a stockbroker she married on Christmas Day 1945), but did not actually divorce him until 1955. In 1952, she was cast in the leading role of the stage play 'The Time of the Cuckoo', which was later made into the film Summertime (David Lean, 1955) with Katharine Hepburn, and subsequently toured with it. After the tour, Astor lived in New York for four years and worked in the theatre and on television. During the 1952 presidential election, Astor, a lifelong Democrat, supported the campaign of Adlai Stevenson. Her TV debut was in The Missing Years (1954) for Kraft Television Theatre. In 1954, she also appeared in the episode Fearful Hour of the Gary Merrill NBC series Justice in the role of a desperately poor and aging film star who attempts suicide to avoid exposure as a thief. She also played an ex-film star on the Boris Karloff-hosted Thriller, in an episode titled Rose's Last Summer (1960). During these years, she appeared on many big shows of the time, including Alfred Hitchcock Presents (1958-`1959), Rawhide (1961), and Dr. Kildare (1963-1963). She starred on Broadway again in 'The Starcross Story' (1954), another failure, and returned to Southern California in 1956. She then went on a successful theatre tour of 'Don Juan in Hell' directed by Agnes Moorehead and co-starring Ricardo Montalbán. Astor's memoir, 'My Story: An Autobiography', was published in 1959, becoming a sensation in its day and a bestseller. It was the result of Father Ciklic urging her to write. Though she spoke of her troubled personal life, her parents, her marriages, the scandals, her battle with alcoholism, and other areas of her life, she did not mention the film industry or her career in detail. In 1971, a second book was published, 'A Life on Film', where she discussed her career. It, too, became a bestseller. Astor also tried her hand at fiction. She appeared in several films during this time, including A Kiss Before Dying (Gerd Oswald, 1956) with Robert Wagner, and A Stranger in My Arms (Helmut Käutner, 1959).

 

Mary Astor made a comeback in Return to Peyton Place (José Ferrer, 1961) playing Roberta Carter, the domineering mother who insists the 'shocking' novel written by Allison Mackenzie should be banned from the school library and received good reviews for her performance. After a trip around the world in 1964, Astor was lured away from her Malibu, California home, where she was gardening and working on her third novel. She was offered the small role as a key figure, Jewel Mayhew, in the murder mystery Hush...Hush, Sweet Charlotte (Robert Aldrich, 1964), starring her friend Bette Davis. In 'A Life on Film', she described her character as "a little old lady, waiting to die". Astor decided it would serve as her swan song in the film business. She only appeared in the drama Youngblood Hawke (Delmer Daves, 1964), which premiered before Hush...Hush, Sweet Charlotte. After 109 films in a career spanning 45 years, she turned in her Screen Actors Guild card and retired. Astor later moved to Fountain Valley, California, where she lived near her son, Anthony del Campo (from her third marriage to Mexican film editor Manuel del Campo), and his family, until 1971. That same year, suffering from a chronic heart condition, she moved to a small cottage on the grounds of the Motion Picture & Television Country House, the industry's retirement facility in Woodland Hills, Los Angeles, where she had a private table when she chose to eat in the resident dining room. She appeared in the television documentary series Hollywood: A Celebration of the American Silent Film (1980), co-produced by Kevin Brownlow, in which she discussed her roles during the silent film period. Astor died in 1987, at age 81, of respiratory failure due to pulmonary emphysema while in the hospital at the Motion Picture House complex. She is interred in Holy Cross Cemetery in Culver City, California. Astor has a motion pictures star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6701 Hollywood Boulevard.

MARY MILES MINTER ,AMERICAN ACTRESS BORN 1902 APRIL 25 -1984 AUGUST 4

 

MARY MILES MINTER ,AMERICAN ACTRESS 

BORN 1902 APRIL 25 -1984 AUGUST 4

Mary Miles Minter (born Juliet Reilly; April 25, 1902[1][2]– August 4, 1984) was an American actress. She appeared in 53 silent films from 1912 to 1923.

In 1922, Minter was involved in a scandal surrounding the murder of director William Desmond Taylor, for whom she professed her love. Although gossip implicated her mother, former actress Charlotte Shelby, as the murderer, Minter's reputation was tarnished, and she gave up her film career in 1923.

Early life

Minter was born in Shreveport, Louisiana, the younger of two daughters born to J. Homer Reilly[3] (1877–1958)[citation needed] and Lily Pearl Miles (later known as Broadway actress Charlotte Shelby;[3] 1877–1957). Her sister was Margaret Reilly, who later became an actress using the name Margaret Shelby.

Career

Stage and film career

Minter, c. 1918

At the age of five, she accompanied her sister Margaret on an audition because no babysitter was available. She was noticed by the director and given her first part. She began her stage career and frequently was employed afterward, widely noted for both her talent and visual appeal. To avoid child labor laws while the 10-year-old was appearing in a play in Chicago in 1912, Charlotte Shelby obtained the birth certification of her older sister's deceased daughter from Louisiana, and Juliet became Mary Miles Minter.

In her screen debut, in which she was billed as Juliet Shelby, she appeared in the 1-reel short film The Nurse (1912). Her new stage name was applied, and Minter starred in the role as Viola Drayton, the fairy, in the 5-reel drama The Fairy and the Waif (1915).

Minter's career steadily grew after that. She specialized in playing demure young women. With her photogenic features, blue eyes, and blonde curls, she emulated and later rivaled Mary Pickford.

Her first movie for director William Desmond Taylor was Anne of Green Gables (1919). It was well-received, and Taylor actively promoted Minter. According to Minter, a romantic relationship developed between them. However, Minter (who had grown up fatherless) said Taylor had reservations from the outset and later curtailed the romance, citing their 30-year age difference. [4] Other people who knew Taylor and Minter said he never reciprocated her feelings.

Scandal

On February 1, 1922, Taylor was murdered in his home, a two-story bungalow apartment on Alvarado Street,[3] at the southeast corner of Alvarado and Maryland Street in the Westlake area of Los Angeles.

Minter in 1922

The ensuing scandal, following the Roscoe "Fatty" Arbuckle scandal of Labor Day weekend 1921, and Arbuckle's murder trial, was the subject of widespread media speculation and embellishment. Newspapers reported that coded love letters written by Minter had been found in his bungalow after his death (these were later shown to have been written three years earlier in 1919). Minter was at the height of her success, having starred in more than 50 films, and newspaper revelations of the 20-year-old star's association with the 49-year-old murdered director was cause for a sensational scandal.[citation needed]

There were several suspects (including her mother Charlotte Shelby) in the long investigation of Taylor's murder. In 1937, Minter publicly announced to the Los Angeles Examiner newspaper: "Now I demand that I either be prosecuted for the murder committed fifteen years ago, or exonerated completely. If the District Attorney has any evidence, he should prosecute. If not, then I should be exonerated... Shadows have been cast upon my reputation."[5] Taylor's murder was never solved.

In a 1970 interview, during which she described Taylor as her "mate," Minter recalled going to view Taylor's body immediately after the murder. In shock, she demanded to be used for a blood transfusion to revive him, not believing he was dead until she touched his body in the morgue: "That deadly cold... convinced me as nothing else could have done. No life can return to this man." She broke down and sobbed: "They crucified Jesus. Now they've crucified... They've crucified my mate."[6]

Later career and retirement

Minter made four more motion pictures for Paramount, with her last being The Trail of the Lonesome Pine (1923). When the studio did not renew her contract, she received many other offers but declined them all, saying she had never been happy as an actress.

Personal life

Miles Minter by Witzel, circa 1917

Minter was involved with James Kirkwood Sr. for a time in 1916 when she was 15 years old. Minter and Kirkwood "married" without benefit of clergy in the countryside near Santa Barbara. The relationship ended after Minter became pregnant by Kirkwood and underwent an abortion, which was paid for by her mother.[7]

In late 1922, several months after Taylor's death, Minter became involved romantically for a time with then-news correspondent of Los Angeles and movie critic Louis Sherwin, who had at one time been married to actress Maude Fealy.[8]

In 1925, Minter sued her mother for an accounting of the money Shelby had received for her during her screen career.[9] The case was settled out of court, with the settlement being signed by Minter and Shelby at the American consulate in Paris, France, on January 24, 1927.[10]

In 1934, a hearing took place in Los Angeles, in which Hilda Desey, the proprietor of a dress shop on Wilshire Blvd., claimed that Minter entered her shop and took a tweed dress valued at $55.00 by force. Minter countered in court by stating that she had helped finance Miss Desey's dress shop and that she took the dress as she was owed interest. The deputy district attorney declined to issue a complaint for either petty theft or malicious mischief, as it was decided that there was no evidence of malicious intent on the part of Minter.[11]

In 1957, Minter and real estate developer Brandon O. Hildebrandt (1898–1965) were married. They remained married until Hildebrandt's death in 1965.[12]

Later years

Minter commented she was content to live without her Hollywood career. She later reconciled with her mother and proclaimed her love for Taylor throughout her life. Minter's money had been invested in Los Angeles real estate, and she seems to have lived in relative comfort and prosperity. She later moved to a house in Santa Monica, California; her mother Charlotte Shelby died there in 1957.

In 1981, Minter was severely beaten in a burglary at her home in which more than $300,000 worth of antiques, china and jewelry were taken. A former live-in companion and three other people were charged with attempted murder and burglary.[13] The police described her as a frail, old woman, and people often were shocked to learn she had been a famous movie star.

Minter died in 1984 at age 82 from a stroke in Santa Monica.[2][14] She was cremated, and her ashes were scattered at sea. For her contribution to movies, she has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 1724 Vine Street in Hollywood.

Legacy

As is common with silent movie stars, much of Minter's work has been lost; of her 53 films, approximately a dozen are known to exist today. A print of her 1919 movie The Ghost of Rosy Taylor surfaced in New Zealand in the 1990s. Other known surviving movies include The Fairy and the Waif (1915), Youth's Endearing Charm (1916), A Dream or Two Ago (1916), The Innocence of Lizette (1916), The Eyes of Julia Deep (1918), Nurse Marjorie (1920), A Cumberland Romance (1920) and The Little Clown (1921).[15][16]

FAME, LOVE, AND MURDER: THE STORY OF ACTRESS MARY MILES MINTER

by Sara Catherine Lichon.

Mary Miles Minter, silent film star and suspect in her lover’s 1922 murder.

Sometimes the stories and scandals of celebrities come up when researching for the JAPP. Oftentimes, the famous are only mentioned briefly in one of Addams’ letters, and their scandals become known when we research their lives to write their biographies. One such person is the silent film actress, Mary Miles Minter. In December 1911, Ida White Parker interviewed Anna V. Morrison, a dramatic agent, who discussed Jane Addams’ opposition to a child actor exception to the 1903 Illinois Child Labor Law, one of the first strict child labor laws in the United States. Minter was only mentioned in passing, as an example of how child actors in Illinois could easily bypass the law by providing fake birth certificates or lying about their age. Little did anyone know then that Minter would later figure in a case of unrequited love and murder.

Mary Miles Minter was born in 1902 in Shreveport, Louisiana, as Juliet Reilly. Her mother, Lily Pearl Miles, was known professionally as Charlotte Shelby, an actress. Juliet’s sister, Margaret Shelby was also an actresses, and when Juliet was five she followed her sister to an audition. A director noticed her and gave her a role, marking the beginning of her acting career. When she was ten, her mother used the birth certificate of her elder sister’s deceased daughter in order to bypass the child labor laws in Chicago, and she adopted the stage name Mary Miles Minter. In 1912, Minter made her screen debut when she appeared in the short film The Nurse. Her next role was that of Viola Drayton in the 1915 feature length film The Fairy and the Waif. From there, Minter became a silent movie star.

Director William Desmond Taylor, Minter’s lover who was murdered in 1922.

In 1919, Minter was in Anne of Green Gables, directed by William Desmond Taylor. Despite a thirty year age difference, the two began a romantic relationship. However, Taylor eventually called the affair off because of their ages, and many who knew the couple said Taylor never reciprocated Minter’s feelings. Minter, however, claimed that she was the one to end the relationship, though it had been on and off for quite some time.

On February 1, 1922, everything changed for Minter when Taylor was found shot and murdered in his home. Minter and her mother became prime suspects, and Minter’s reputation was destroyed. Stories circulated of unrequited love, jealousy, and ambition; Taylor had reportedly been romantically involved with the actress Mabel Normand, and both she and Minter were reported to have visited Taylor the night of his murder.  Minter claimed she hadn’t seen Taylor since December 23rd. Charlotte Shelby’s maid reported that Shelby left the house that night with a gun. The murder was never solved, but Minter’s reputation never recovered. In an interview fifteen years later, she stated “Shadows have been cast upon my reputation. . .  My career was blasted and my private life ruined.” The scandal followed her to the point that she demanded “that I either be prosecuted or exonerated.”

After Taylor’s death, Minter appeared in four more movies, the last being The Trail of the Lonesome Pine in 1923. Though she received offers after 1923, she never accepted them, claiming she could not be happy as an actress. Despite declaring that she would always love Taylor and no other, Minter was engaged for a short period to movie critic Louis Sherwin, and in 1957 she married real estate developer Brandon O. Hildebrandt.

Listen to Minter’s 1970 interview about the murder.

Despite wanting to step out of the spotlight, Minter’s later life was anything but calm. In 1925, she sued her mother for keeping the money Minter made from movies as a child. Much later, in 1981, Minter was severely beaten when her home was robbed, and a former companion of hers and three other people were charged with the crime.

Regardless of the scandal that followed her throughout her life, Minter was loved by many for her acting. She has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, and some of her movies have survived and still exist today (see Nurse Marjorie, directed by Taylor on You Tube). In 1984, Minter died, and her cremated ashes were scattered at sea.

We may never know who Taylor’s murderer was, or to what extent Minter was involved in the murder. All we can do is speculate, and remember Minter for her talent – and the fact that she bypassed Illinois’ child labor laws, much to Jane Addams’ chagrin!

மேரி மைல்ஸ் மின்டர் (பிறப்பு ஜூலியட் ரெய்லி; ஏப்ரல் 25, 1902[1][2]- ஆகஸ்ட் 4, 1984) ஒரு அமெரிக்க நடிகை. அவர் 1912 முதல் 1923 வரை 53 அமைதியான படங்களில் நடித்தார்.

சில சமயங்களில் பிரபலங்களின் கதைகள் மற்றும் அவதூறுகள் JAPP க்காக ஆராய்ச்சி செய்யும் போது வரும். பெரும்பாலும், பிரபலமானவர்கள் ஆடம்ஸின் கடிதங்களில் ஒன்றில் மட்டுமே சுருக்கமாக குறிப்பிடப்படுகிறார்கள், மேலும் அவர்களின் வாழ்க்கை வரலாற்றை எழுதுவதற்காக அவர்களின் வாழ்க்கையை ஆராயும்போது அவர்களின் ஊழல்கள் அறியப்படுகின்றன. அப்படிப்பட்டவர்களில் ஒருவர்தான் மௌன திரைப்பட நடிகையான மேரி மைல்ஸ் மின்டர். டிசம்பர் 1911 இல், ஐடா வைட் பார்க்கர், வியத்தகு முகவரான அன்னா வி. மோரிசனை நேர்காணல் செய்தார், அவர் அமெரிக்காவில் முதல் கடுமையான குழந்தை தொழிலாளர் சட்டங்களில் ஒன்றான 1903 இல்லினாய்ஸ் குழந்தைத் தொழிலாளர் சட்டத்திற்கு விதிவிலக்காக குழந்தை நடிகருக்கு ஜேன் ஆடம்ஸின் எதிர்ப்பைப் பற்றி விவாதித்தார். இல்லினாய்ஸில் உள்ள குழந்தை நடிகர்கள் போலி பிறப்புச் சான்றிதழ்களை வழங்குவதன் மூலமோ அல்லது அவர்களின் வயதைப் பற்றி பொய் சொல்வதன் மூலமோ எவ்வாறு சட்டத்தை எளிதில் புறக்கணிக்க முடியும் என்பதற்கான உதாரணம், கடந்து செல்வதில் மட்டுமே Minter குறிப்பிடப்பட்டார். மிண்டர் பின்னர் கோரப்படாத காதல் மற்றும் கொலை வழக்கில் சிக்குவார் என்று யாருக்கும் தெரியாது.

மேரி மைல்ஸ் மின்டர் 1902 இல் லூசியானாவின் ஷ்ரெவ்போர்ட்டில் ஜூலியட் ரெய்லியாகப் பிறந்தார். அவரது தாயார், லில்லி பேர்ல் மைல்ஸ், தொழில்ரீதியாக சார்லோட் ஷெல்பி, ஒரு நடிகை என்று அறியப்பட்டார். ஜூலியட்டின் சகோதரி, மார்கரெட் ஷெல்பியும் ஒரு நடிகையாக இருந்தார், மேலும் ஜூலியட்டுக்கு ஐந்து வயதாக இருந்தபோது, ​​அவர் தனது சகோதரியை ஆடிஷனுக்குப் பின்தொடர்ந்தார். ஒரு இயக்குனர் அவளைக் கவனித்து அவளுக்கு ஒரு பாத்திரத்தைக் கொடுத்தார், இது அவரது நடிப்பு வாழ்க்கையின் தொடக்கத்தைக் குறிக்கிறது. அவளுக்கு பத்து வயதாக இருந்தபோது, ​​சிகாகோவில் குழந்தைத் தொழிலாளர் சட்டங்களை மீறுவதற்காக அவரது தாயார் தனது மூத்த சகோதரியின் இறந்த மகளின் பிறப்புச் சான்றிதழைப் பயன்படுத்தினார், மேலும் அவர் மேரி மைல்ஸ் மின்டர் என்ற மேடைப் பெயரை ஏற்றுக்கொண்டார். 1912 ஆம் ஆண்டில், மிண்டர் தி நர்ஸ் என்ற குறும்படத்தில் தோன்றியதன் மூலம் திரையுலகில் அறிமுகமானார். அவரது அடுத்த பாத்திரம் 1915 ஆம் ஆண்டு திரைப்படமான தி ஃபேரி அண்ட் தி வைஃப் இல் வயோலா டிரேட்டனின் பாத்திரமாகும். அங்கிருந்து, மின்டர் ஒரு அமைதியான திரைப்பட நட்சத்திரமானார்.

இயக்குனர் வில்லியம் டெஸ்மண்ட் டெய்லர், 1922 இல் கொலை செய்யப்பட்ட மிண்டரின் காதலர்.

1919 இல், வில்லியம் டெஸ்மண்ட் டெய்லர் இயக்கிய அன்னே ஆஃப் கிரீன் கேபிள்ஸில் மின்டர் நடித்தார். முப்பது வயது வித்தியாசம் இருந்தபோதிலும், இருவரும் காதல் உறவைத் தொடங்கினர். இருப்பினும், டெய்லர் அவர்களின் வயது காரணமாக இந்த விவகாரத்தை நிறுத்தினார், மேலும் தம்பதியரை அறிந்த பலர் டெய்லர் மிண்டரின் உணர்வுகளை ஒருபோதும் பரிமாறவில்லை என்று கூறினார். இருப்பினும், மிண்டர், உறவை முடிவுக்குக் கொண்டுவருவது அவள்தான் என்று கூறினார், அது சில காலமாக இருந்தது மற்றும் முடக்கப்பட்டது.

பிப்ரவரி 1, 1922 இல், டெய்லர் அவரது வீட்டில் சுட்டுக் கொல்லப்பட்டதைக் கண்டபோது மின்டருக்கு எல்லாமே மாறியது. மின்டரும் அவரது தாயும் பிரதான சந்தேக நபர்களானார்கள், மேலும் மிண்டரின் நற்பெயர் அழிக்கப்பட்டது. கோரப்படாத காதல், பொறாமை மற்றும் லட்சியம் ஆகியவற்றால் பரப்பப்பட்ட கதைகள்; டெய்லர் நடிகை மாபெல் நார்மண்டுடன் காதல் வயப்பட்டதாகக் கூறப்படுகிறது, மேலும் அவரும் மிண்டரும் டெய்லரைக் கொன்ற இரவில் அவரைச் சந்தித்ததாகக் கூறப்படுகிறது. டிசம்பர் 23 முதல் டெய்லரைப் பார்க்கவில்லை என்று மிண்டர் கூறினார். அன்று இரவு துப்பாக்கியுடன் ஷெல்பி வீட்டை விட்டு வெளியேறியதாக சார்லட் ஷெல்பியின் பணிப்பெண் தெரிவித்தார். கொலை ஒருபோதும் தீர்க்கப்படவில்லை, ஆனால் மிண்டரின் நற்பெயர் ஒருபோதும் மீட்கப்படவில்லை. பதினைந்து ஆண்டுகளுக்குப் பிறகு ஒரு நேர்காணலில், 'என் நற்பெயரின் மீது நிழல்கள் விழுந்தன. . . எனது தொழில் வெடித்தது மற்றும் எனது தனிப்பட்ட வாழ்க்கை அழிக்கப்பட்டது. 'நான் வழக்குத் தொடரப்பட வேண்டும் அல்லது விடுவிக்கப்பட வேண்டும்' என்று அவள் கோரும் அளவிற்கு அந்த ஊழல் அவளைப் பின்தொடர்ந்தது.

டெய்லரின் மரணத்திற்குப் பிறகு, மிண்டர் மேலும் நான்கு திரைப்படங்களில் தோன்றினார், கடைசியாக 1923 இல் தி டிரெயில் ஆஃப் தி லோன்சம் பைன் நடித்தார். 1923க்குப் பிறகு அவருக்கு வாய்ப்புகள் வந்தாலும், அவர் ஒரு நடிகையாக மகிழ்ச்சியாக இருக்க முடியாது எனக் கூறி, அவற்றை அவர் ஏற்கவில்லை. டெய்லரை தான் எப்போதும் நேசிப்பேன் என்றும் வேறு யாரையும் நேசிப்பதில்லை என்று அறிவித்த போதிலும், மிண்டர் திரைப்பட விமர்சகர் லூயிஸ் ஷெர்வினுடன் சிறிது காலத்திற்கு நிச்சயதார்த்தம் செய்து கொண்டார், மேலும் 1957 இல் அவர் ரியல் எஸ்டேட் டெவலப்பர் பிராண்டன் ஓ. ஹில்டெப்ராண்டை மணந்தார்.

கொலையைப் பற்றி மிண்டரின் 1970 நேர்காணலைக் கேளுங்கள்.

கவனத்தை விட்டு வெளியேற விரும்பினாலும், மிண்டரின் பிற்கால வாழ்க்கை அமைதியாக இருந்தது. 1925 ஆம் ஆண்டில், சிறுவயதில் திரைப்படங்களில் இருந்து மிண்டர் சம்பாதித்த பணத்தை வைத்து தன் தாய் மீது வழக்கு தொடர்ந்தார். வெகு காலத்திற்குப் பிறகு, 1981 ஆம் ஆண்டில், மிண்டரின் வீடு திருடப்பட்டபோது கடுமையாகத் தாக்கப்பட்டார், மேலும் அவரது முன்னாள் துணைவியார் மற்றும் மூன்று பேர் மீது குற்றம் சுமத்தப்பட்டது.

அவரது வாழ்நாள் முழுவதும் அவளைப் பின்தொடர்ந்த அவதூறுகளைப் பொருட்படுத்தாமல், மிண்டர் அவரது நடிப்பிற்காக பலரால் விரும்பப்பட்டார். ஹாலிவுட் வாக் ஆஃப் ஃபேமில் அவருக்கு ஒரு நட்சத்திரம் உள்ளது, மேலும் அவரது சில திரைப்படங்கள் உயிர் பிழைத்திருக்கின்றன, இன்றும் இருக்கின்றன (யூ டியூப்பில் டெய்லர் இயக்கிய நர்ஸ் மார்ஜோரியைப் பார்க்கவும்). 1984 இல், மின்டர் இறந்தார், மேலும் அவரது தகனம் செய்யப்பட்ட சாம்பல் கடலில் சிதறடிக்கப்பட்டது.

டெய்லரின் கொலையாளி யார், அல்லது மிண்டர் எந்த அளவிற்கு கொலையில் ஈடுபட்டார் என்பது எங்களுக்கு ஒருபோதும் தெரியாது. நாம் செய்யக்கூடியது எல்லாம் மிண்டரின் திறமைக்காக யூகித்து, நினைவுகூர்வதுதான் - மேலும் அவர் இல்லினாய்ஸின் குழந்தைத் தொழிலாளர் சட்டங்களை மீறியதால், ஜேன் ஆடம்ஸின் வருத்தம் அதிகம்!

Filmography[edit]

The Amazing Impostor (1919)

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1912	The Nurse	The Child	Credited as Juliet Shelby
1915	The Fairy and the Waif	Viola Drayton, the Fairy
1915	Always in the Way	Dorothy North	Lost film
1915	Emmy of Stork's Nest	Emmy Garrett	Lost film
1915	Barbara Frietchie (1915 film)	Barbara, Mrs. Frietchie's granddaughter	Lost film
1916	Rose of the Alley	Nell Drogan
1916	Dimples	Dimples
1916	Lovely Mary	Mary Lane	Lost film
1916	Youth's Endearing Charm	Mary Wade
1916	Dulcie's Adventure	Dulcie	Lost film
1916	Faith	Faith
1916	A Dream or Two Ago	Millicent Hawthorne
1916	The Innocence of Lizette	Lizette
1917	The Gentle Intruder	Sylvia
1917	Environment	Liz Simpkins	Lost film
1917	Annie-for-Spite	Annie Johnson	Lost film
1917	Periwinkle	Periwinkle	Lost film
1917	Melissa of the Hills	Melissa Stark	Lost film
1917	Somewhere in America	Rose Dorgan
1917	Charity Castle	Charity	Lost film
1917	Her Country's Call	Jess Slocum	Lost film
1917	Peggy Leads the Way	Peggy Manners
1917	The Mate of the Sally Ann	Sally	Lost film
1918	Beauty and the Rogue	Roberta Lee	Lost film
1918	Powers That Prey	Sylvia Grant	Lost film
1918	A Bit of Jade	Phyllis King	Lost film
1918	Social Briars	Iris Lee	Lost film
1918	The Ghost of Rosy Taylor	Rhoda Eldridge Sayles
1918	The Eyes of Julia Deep	Julia Deep
1918	Rosemary Climbs the Heights	Rosemary Van Voort
1918	Wives and Other Wives	Robin Challoner	Lost film
1919	The Amazing Impostor	Joan Hope	Lost film
1919	The Intrusion of Isabel	Isabel Trevor	Lost film
1919	A Bachelor's Wife	Mary O'Rourke	Lost film
1919	Yvonne from Paris	Yvonne Halbert	Lost film
1919	Anne of Green Gables	Anne Shirley	Lost film
1920	Judy of Rogue's Harbor	Judy	Lost film
1920	Nurse Marjorie	Lady Marjorie Killonan
1920	Jenny Be Good	Jenny Riano	Lost film
1920	A Cumberland Romance	Easter Hicks
1920	Sweet Lavender	Lavender	Lost film
1920	Eyes of the Heart	Laura	Lost film
1921	All Soul's Eve	Alice Heath/Nora O'Hallahan	Lost film
1921	The Little Clown	Pat
1921	Don't Call Me Little Girl	Jerry	Lost film
1921	Moonlight and Honeysuckle	Judith Baldwin	Lost film
1921	Her Winning Way	Ann Annington	Lost film
1922	Tillie	Tillie Getz	Lost film
1922	The Heart Specialist	Rosalie Beckwith	Lost film
1922	South of Suva	Phyllis Latimer	Lost film
1922	The Cowboy and the Lady	Jessica Westoon	Lost film
1923	Drums of Fate	Carol Dolliver	Lost film
1923	The Trail of the Lonesome Pine	June Tolliver	Lost film