Angela Lansbury
| Dame Angela Lansbury, DBE | ||
 | ||
| Background information | ||
| Born as: | Angela Brigid Lansbury | |
| Born | Oct 16, 1925 Regent's Park, London, England | |
| Died | Oct 12, 2002 - age 76 Los Angeles, California, US | |
| Spouse(s): | Richard Cromwell (1945 - 1946) divorced[Note 1] Peter Shaw] (1949 - 2003) died | |
| Children: | 2 | |
| Relatives: |
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| Occupation: | Actress, singer | |
| Years active | 1942–present | |
| Nationality: | Irish, English, and American (since 1951) | |
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Dame Angela Brigid Lansbury DBE (✦16 October 1925 - †12 October, 2022) is an Irish-British and American actress and singer who has played many films, theatre, and television roles. With one of the longest careers in the entertainment industry, her career has spanned over 80 years, much of it in the United States; her work has also received much international attention. Upon the death of Olivia de Havilland in July 2020, Lansbury became the oldest surviving Academy Award nominee and one of the last stars from the Golden Age of Hollywood cinema.
Lansbury was born to an upper-middle-class family in central London, the daughter of Irish actress Moyna Macgill and English politician Edgar Lansbury. To escape the Blitz, in 1940 she moved to the United States, there studying acting in New York City. Proceeding to Hollywood in 1942, she signed to MGM and obtained her first film roles, in Gaslight (1944) and The Picture of Dorian Gray (1945), earning her two Oscar nominations and a Golden Globe Award. She appeared in 11 further MGM films, mostly in minor roles, and after her contract ended in 1952 she began supplementing her cinematic work with theatrical appearances. Although largely seen as a B-list star during this period, her appearance in the film The Manchurian Candidate (1962) received widespread acclaim and is cited as being one of her finer performances leading her to her third Academy Award nomination. Moving into musical theatre, Lansbury finally gained stardom for playing the leading role in the Broadway musical Mame (1966), which earned her her first Tony Award and established her as a gay icon.
Amid difficulties in her personal life, Lansbury moved from California to County Cork, Ireland in 1970, and continued with a variety of theatrical and cinematic appearances throughout that decade. These included leading roles in the stage musicals Gypsy, Sweeney Todd, and The King and I, as well as in the hit Disney film Bedknobs and Broomsticks (1971). Moving into television in 1984, she achieved worldwide fame as fictional writer and sleuth Jessica Fletcher in the American whodunit series "Murder, She Wrote", which ran for 12 seasons until 1996, becoming one of the longest-running and most popular detective drama series in television history. Through Corymore Productions, a company that she co-owned with her husband Peter Shaw, Lansbury assumed ownership of the series and was its executive producer for the final four seasons. She also moved into voice work, contributing to animated films like Disney's Beauty and the Beast (1991) and Don Bluth's Anastasia (1997). Since then, she has toured in a variety of international productions and continued to make occasional film appearances such as Nanny McPhee (2005) and Mary Poppins Returns (2018).
Lansbury has received an Honorary Academy Award, a Lifetime Achievement Award from the BAFTA, a Lifetime Achievement Tony Award and five additional Tony Awards, six Golden Globes, and an Olivier Award. She has also been nominated for numerous other industry awards, including the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress on three occasions, various Primetime Emmy Awards on 18 occasions, and a Grammy Award. In 2014, Lansbury was made a Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire by Queen Elizabeth II. She has been the subject of three biographies.
Mini Biography from http://www.IMDB.com
- written by Jim Beaver
- Date of Birth
- 16 October 1925, London, England, UK
- Birth Name
- Angela Brigid Lansbury
- Height
- 5' 8" (1.73 m)
Mini Biography
British character actress, long in the United States. The daughter of an actress and the granddaughter of a high-ranking politician, Lansbury studied acting from her youth, departing for the United States as the Second World War began. She was contracted by MGM while still a teenager and nominated for an Academy Award for her first film, Gaslight (1944). Two pictures later, she was again nominated for Best Supporting Actress, this time for The Picture of Dorian Gray (1945). Now established as a supporting player of quality, she began a long career, often as "the other woman" in major productions and as the leading lady in lesser films. Her features, while not at all old-appearing, gave her an air of maturity that allowed her to pass as much older than she actually was, and she began playing mother roles, often to players of her own age, while yet in her thirties. She concentrated more and more on stage work, achieving notable success in a number of Broadway plays and musicals, winning four Tony Awards in sixteen years. Although active in television since the early 1950s, she obtained her greatest fame in the 1980s by starring in the light mystery program "Murder, She Wrote" (1984). As Jessica Fletcher, she became known and loved by millions for well over a decade. She also became known for the odd fact of almost annual Emmy Award nominations for the role without ever winning for it. An institution in American theatre and television, she is also an inspiration for the graciousness of her personality, which is often exploited and always admired.
Death
In early life, Lansbury was a chain smoker, but she conquered the addiction in the mid-1960s. In 1976 and 1987, she had cosmetic surgery on her neck to prevent it from broadening with age. During the 1990s, she began to have arthritis. Lansbury underwent hip replacement surgery in May 1994 and knee replacement surgery in 2005.
Lansbury died in her sleep at her home in Los Angeles, California, on the morning of 11 October 2022, shortly before her 97th birthday.
in Till the Clouds Roll By
Filmography
- Wikipedia article: Angela Lansbury Filmography
External links
A Personal Note from Robin
This month, TCM is showing Oscar-winning movies. Last night The Harvey Girls with Angela Lansbury and Judy Garland was presented. Lansbury played the "other woman" against Garland - marvelous portrayal!
- Wikipedia article: Angela Lansbury
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Note: Angela Lansbury was a volunteer at the Hollywood Canteen |
Notes
- ↑ Cromwell was gay - https://en.newsner.com/news/angela-lansbury-age-family-children-net-worth/
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