In 1937 , she 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 radio . Over the next few years , she had roles in '' The Prisoner of Zenda '' ( 1937 ) , John Ford 's '' The Hurricane '' ( 1937 ) , '' Midnight '' ( 1939 ) and '' Brigham Young '' ( 1940 ) . 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 '' ( also 1941 ) she won an Oscar as Best Supporting Actress in the 14th Academy Awards . As Sandra Kovak , the selfish , self-centered concert pianist who willingly gives up her 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 brazenly bobbed hairdo for the role
14th Academy Awards
14th Academy Awards
Mary Astor