The Great Lie

Many lies have been told about Mary Astor. She never abandoned her parents to poverty. Her face was their fortune rather than her own. Nor did she rate on a private scorecard the sexual prowess of Hollywood leading men. But two more dangerous and persistent lies have distorted the understanding of her life. One lie defines Astor as the survivor of sex scandals and suicide attempts who ended up living on charity in a retirement home for film folk. There is much more to her story than that miserable scenario, for, in fact, with grit and determination, she rebounded from middle-aged decline to invest her energies in a new career as an excellent memoirist and novelist. The other most important lie-indeed, the great lie-robbed her of her core identity as Lucile Langhanke and imposed on her a movie stardom that she did not want. This book tells how "Mary Astor" recovered who she really was and really wanted to be. "Falsehood flies," Jonathan Swift noted, "and the Truth comes limping after it." However halting its pace, the truth about this gifted and highly intelligent person is much more interesting than any of the lies. The first full biography of Mary Astor, this book makes extensive use of previously unknown primary material from archives. In doing so, it corrects many errors of dates and facts in previous accounts. Respecting Astor's own priorities, it rebalances its account of Astor's life in terms of her personal struggles, as well as her achievements as an actress on radio, in film, on stage, and in TV as well as an excellent memoirist and novelist. It also extends our understanding of Astor's difficult life by explaining the profound effects of emotional abuse and financial exploitation by a narcissistic parent.