Actor: Mary Astor

Mary Astor played Brigid O’Shaughnessy in The Maltese Falcon, lying continuously for the entire film, and Huston reportedly had her run in circles before takes so she would seem breathless and unreliable.

A 1936 custody trial in which her private diaries were read publicly nearly destroyed her career, and she worked through it. The Great Lie won her Best Supporting Actress, and she wrote several novels and two memoirs afterward.