Most of us have grown up with her and, with a career almost spanning eight decades on stage, film, and television, Dame Angela Lansbury is a living legend.
The Early Years
She was born October 16, 1925 in Central London to a Northern Irish stage and scene actress named Maynard Macgill and an english politician named Edgar Lansbury. Lansbury has often taken pride in and attributes her success as an actress to her heritage.
“I’m eternally grateful for the Irish side of me. That’s where I got my sense of comedy and whimsy. As for the English half – that’s my reserved side… But put me onstage, and the Irish comes out. The combination makes a good mix for acting.”
Angela Lansbury
At the age of nine, her father, Edgar, passed away from stomach cancer and, as a way to deal with the grief, Lansbury retreated into playing character roles. As a result, she considers herself largely self-educated in her craft. She loved reading, the theater, and cinema even proclaiming herself to be a “complete movie maniac!”
In 1940 she and most of her siblings were brought to the United States due to the onset of “The Blitz,” where she was sponsored by a Wall Street businessman and his family. From there Lansbury gained a scholarship from the American Theatre Wing, a New York City based organization “dedicated to supporting excellence and adulation in theatre,” which allowed her to attend the Feagin School of Drama and Radio where she eventually graduated in 1942.
A Big Break
Following her graduation Lansbury moved with her mother to Los Angeles, where her mother intended on rekindling her on-screen career. Through her mother, Lansbury was able to attend many Hollywood parties both above and underground – especially the city’s underground gay scene. It was at one of these parties, this one hosted by her mother, where she met John van Druten who helped her land her first motion picture role as Nancy Oliver in the film Gaslight at the age of 17. She was then signed to a seven-year contract with MGM studios. Her role in Gaslight was widely praised and even earned her an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actress.
She later went on to star in such films as National Velvet (1944) and The Picture of Dorian Gray (1945), which gained her another Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actress, but she ultimately lost a second time. Lansbury grew increasingly dissatisfied working with MGM because they repeatedly cast her in older and/or villain roles. As a result, she asked her manager to terminate her contract with MGM in 1952.
What comes next?
Through most of the 50’s, Lansbury’s career was at an all time low. As a freelance actress, she found it difficult to avoid being typecast due to her roles in her past MGM films. Due to those films she continued to be cast in roles suited for women twice her age and was regarded as a “B-List” actress. Through this time she made many television appearances and took on minor roles in some films, however in 1958 she appeared in the films The Long, Hot Summer and The Reluctant Debutante which seemed to renew interest in her and helped bring her back up to “A-List” status.
In 1957, Lansbury made her Broadway debut Hotel Paradiso, a French burlesque where Lansbury played the role of “Marcel Cat”. It only ran for 15 weeks, but Lansbury received good reviews and she has stated that her “whole career would have fizzled out” had she not done the show. Next she appeared in A Taste of Honey on Broadway in 1960.
The early 60’s brought back much needed life into Lansbury’s career appearing in a few films, but most notably The Manchuria Candidate in 1962. Her role as Mrs. Iselin is regarded as one of her finest performances in her entire career. For it, she was nominated for a third time by the Academy for Best Supporting Actress, but was left disappointed once again when the award was given to Patty Duke for her part in The Miracle Worker. Later in 1964 Lansbury made her Broadway Musical debut in the panned and short lived Arthur Laurents and Stephen Sondheim musical Anyone Can Whistle.
Mame
In May of 1966, Mame opened at the famed Winter Garden Theatre starring Lansbury as the titular role. Originally Lansbury wasn’t the director’s first choice, and the role had been offered to Rosalind Russell, who played Auntie Mame in the originally non-musical film. Russell however turned down the role, which gave Lansbury a ticket to rocketing success! Reviewers gave Lansbury overwhelming praise and the role led to her first Tony award for Best Leading Actress in a Musical.
Lansbury was now a superstar which led to many television appearances and opened the door to numerous opportunities to further her career. She followed Mame by playing Countess Aurelia in Dear World earning her a second Tony. When it came to the film of the musical Mame, Lansbury lost the role to Lucille Ball, which Lansbury confesses to be “one of my bitterest disappointments”.
She entered the 70’s declining many cinematic roles, one of the most notable being Nurse Ratched in One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest. It was a rough period of time for Lansbury and her family, but in 1971 she starred in Disney’s Bedknobs and Broomsticks which solidified her as a household name. She was able to use this time to focus on family health and relocated from California to Ireland. From there, Lansbury was able to make a return to London’s West End and starred in Edward Albee’s All Over. Afterwards she made a return to the United States to for a tour of Mame, albeit a reluctant return. When the Mame tour was over, she went back to the West End to star as Rose in Gypsy. Lansbury again, received rave reviews for Gypsy which following its London run, toured through the US, and eventually made its way to Broadway where it earned Lansbury her third Tony Award.
In 1979, Lanbury jumped at the opportunity to play Nellie Lovett in the new Sondheim musical Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street. She grew very fond of Sondheim and his work during and after their time together on Anyone Can Whistle, and was very happy to play the role. It was another huge success for Lansbury and led to her fourth Tony Award. She was replaced after playing the role for fourteen months, but later returned for the US tour and the filming of the production.
80’s Television Icon
The 80’s were filled with even more films, stage opportunities, and US tours for Lansbury, but gold was in the small screen. On September 30, 1984, the pilot episode of Murder, She Wrote starring Angela Lansbury as Jessica Fletcher premiered on CBS. It received mixed critical reviews, but was very popular with audiences. Lansbury was given unique character input into her role, and insisted on Jessica Fletcher remaining a strong older single female throughout the series. As the show went on Lansbury continued to grow behind the scenes and in 1989 she begin co-producing the show with her own company, Corymore Productions. The show continued to air until 1996, where at the time it tied with Hawaii Five-O as longest running detective series.
Throughout the time of Murder, She Wrote Lansbury also made other television, miniseries, and cinema appearances most notably in the role of Mrs. Potts in Disney Animation’s Beauty and the Beast (1991). Lansbury took on the role as a gift to her three grandchildren and never believed the movie would earn the success it did. In fact, her recording of the title song Beauty and the Beast was recorded in a single take. That single recording went on to win the Academy Award for Best Original Song, the Golden Globe Award for Best Original Song, and the Grammy Award for Best Song Written for a Motion Picture, Television or Other Visual Media.
A Living Legend
Following the end of Murder, She Wrote Lansbury had intended to return to the stage, but her husband’s deteriorating health took precedence and she took time to focus on him and the family. In 2003, her husband, Peter Shaw, passed away, and Lansbury focused on only accepting smaller roles and cameo appearances. However, in 2005 she accepted and played the role of Aunt Adelaide in the film Nanny McPhee which she credits as bringing her back from “the abyss”. In 2007 she returned to Broadway in Deuce which earned her a Tony Award nomination for Best Leading Actress in a Play. 2009 brought the revival of Blithe Spirit where Lansbury played the role of Madame Arcadi and earned her a fifth Tony Award for Best Featured Actress in a Play. She went on to reprise this role in 2014 when it made it’s way to London’s West End as well as on a US tour through 2015 where she received her first Olivier Award as Best Supporting Actress in the role.
Throughout the 2000’s to today, Lansbury continues to find work and share her art with all of us. Some other notable moments of her most recent career are an Australian production of Driving Miss Daisy (2013) that she starred alongside James Earl Jones, the role of Aunt March in the BBC television miniseries Little Women (2017), and even an appearance in Disney’s Mary Poppins Returns (2018). Her career continues to grow and at 95 years of age, doesn’t show signs of stopping. Through grace and dignity, Lansbury has defied Hollywood norms and proven to be a trusted advocate and ally to all women, as well as a friend to those less fortunate.
