You probably know her as the breathy, double-crossing Brigid O’Shaughnessy from The Maltese Falcon. Or maybe the refined, long-suffering mother in Meet Me in St. Louis. But honestly, Mary Astor had a whole second life that most people completely gloss over. She wasn't just a face on a screen; she was a writer. A real one.
She didn't just slap her name on a ghostwritten "tell-all" to pay the bills. Between the late fifties and early seventies, she churned out two memoirs and five novels. Five! And we aren't talking about fluffy, starlet-penned romances here. One of her books actually became a case study for psychiatrists because she nailed the personality of a psychopath so accurately.
Kinda wild, right?
The Raw Truth of "My Story"
When books by Mary Astor come up, everyone usually points to her first autobiography, My Story (1959). It was a bestseller for a reason. Back then, Hollywood stars didn't talk about their problems. They were polished products.
Astor? She went the opposite way.
She wrote the book as part of her therapy while recovering from alcoholism. It’s gritty. She talks about her overbearing parents who basically saw her as a cash cow. Her father, Otto Langhanke, was a piece of work. He controlled her money, her dates, her life. She describes the suffocating pressure of being "The Cameo Girl" while her private life was falling apart.
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Of course, she touches on the "Purple Diary" scandal of 1936. If you haven't heard of it, it was the 1930s version of a leaked tape. During a custody battle, her ex-husband threatened to release her private diary, which supposedly detailed her affair with playwright George S. Kaufman. The press went nuts. But in My Story, she focuses less on the gossip and more on the internal wreckage. She’s brutally honest about her conversion to Roman Catholicism and her struggle to find some kind of peace.
It's a heavy read. It’s also incredibly human.
A Life on Film: The Craft
If My Story is the therapy session, A Life on Film (1967) is the masterclass.
She realized people wanted to know about the movies, so she wrote a second memoir focused specifically on her career. It’s fascinating because she doesn’t just name-drop. She breaks down the transition from silent films to "talkies." She talks about how the early sound equipment made everyone act like robots.
She also has this famous "five stages of an actor" quote in there:
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- Who’s Mary Astor?
- Get me Mary Astor.
- Get me a Mary Astor type.
- Get me a young Mary Astor.
- Who’s Mary Astor?
It’s cynical, funny, and 100% accurate. You can tell she had a complicated relationship with her own fame. She never really wanted to be a superstar; she just wanted to be a working actress who was good at her job.
The Novels: Where It Gets Weird (In a Good Way)
After the success of her memoirs, her editor suggested she try fiction. Most people assumed she'd write polite little dramas. They were wrong.
The standout is definitely The Incredible Charlie Carewe (1960). It’s a chilling look at a man who is essentially a high-functioning sociopath. Charlie is handsome, charming, and absolutely hollow. He ruins everyone he touches, and the family just keeps covering for him because of their social standing.
Psychiatrist Hervey Cleckley, who wrote the foundational book on psychopathy The Mask of Sanity, actually praised her. He said her portrayal of Charlie was one of the most realistic he’d ever seen in literature. Think about that. A Hollywood actress wrote a book so psychologically accurate that doctors were using it as a reference.
She wrote four other novels too:
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- The Image of Kate (1962)
- The O’Conners (1964)
- Goodbye, Darling, Be Happy (1965)
- A Place Called Saturday (1968)
They mostly deal with people trapped by their circumstances or their own bad choices. She had a knack for writing about "reaction characters"—people who are stuck in situations they can't quite control. Sound familiar? It’s basically the story of her own early life.
Why You Should Care
Reading books by Mary Astor today feels like finding a time capsule that isn't covered in glitter. She was a woman who was bullied by the studio system, her parents, and the press, yet she managed to find her own voice through the typewriter.
Most celebrity books are forgotten six months after they're published. Hers are still being hunted down in used bookstores and on eBay because they have actual substance. She wasn't trying to be a "brand." She was just trying to figure out who she was after the cameras stopped rolling.
If you’re looking to start, grab a copy of My Story. It’s the best entry point. If you’re more into psychological thrillers, track down The Incredible Charlie Carewe. It’s harder to find, but it’s worth the hunt.
Actionable Steps for Fans
- Check Open Library or AbeBooks: Many of her novels are out of print, but you can usually find used copies or digital scans if you look in the right places.
- Watch the Movies Alongside the Books: Read the chapter in A Life on Film about The Maltese Falcon or The Great Lie, then watch the movie. It’s like having a director’s commentary in your lap.
- Read for the Psychology: Don't go into her fiction expecting a Hollywood romance. Look for the way she describes how families enable "monsters"—she knew what she was talking about.
Mary Astor lived a dozen lives. Most of them were hard. But she was smart enough to write them down so we could actually learn something from them. That's more than most modern influencers can say.