Everything about Angela Lansbury totally explained
Angela Brigid Lansbury,
CBE (born
October 16,
1925) is an
English three-time
Academy Award-nominated,
Emmy-nominated, four-time
Tony-winning and six-time
Golden Globe-winning
actress and singer best known for her work in film, her award-winning tenures on
Broadway in such musicals as
Mame,, and
Sweeney Todd, and her performance in the starring role of
Jessica Fletcher on the
American television series Murder, She Wrote. She holds the record for most
Emmy nominations without winning an award, with eighteen nominations to her name.
Her multi-faceted career has spanned seven decades, and she's well known for her roles on both stage and screen.
Early life
Born in
Regents Park in
London, Lansbury was the daughter of
Belfast-born actress
Moyna MacGill and Edgar Lansbury, a prominent businessman, and the granddaughter of the former
Labour Party leader George Lansbury. She is related to the English animator and puppeteer
Oliver Postgate, as George Lansbury is also his grandfather. Her earliest theatrical influences were teen-aged
coloratura Deanna Durbin, screen star
Irene Dunne, and her own mother, who encouraged her daughter's ambition by taking her to plays at the
Old Vic and removing her from
South Hampstead High School for Girls in order to enroll her in the Ritman School of Dancing and later the Webber-Douglas School of Singing and Dramatic Art (later the
Webber Douglas Academy of Dramatic Art).
After her father's death of
stomach cancer, her mother became involved with a
Scotsman named Leckie Forbes, and the two merged their families under one roof in
Hampstead. A former
colonel with the
British Army in
India, Forbes proved to be a jealous and suspicious tyrant who ruled the household with an iron hand. Just prior to the
German bombing campaign of
London, Lansbury's mother was presented with the opportunity to take her children to America, and under cover of dark of night they fled from their unhappy home and sailed for
Montreal, from there they headed to
New York City. When her mother settled in
Hollywood following a fund-raising
Canadian tour of a
Noel Coward play, she (and later her brothers) joined her there.
Lansbury worked at the
Bullocks Wilshire department store in
Los Angeles. At one of the frequent parties her mother hosted for British emigré performers in their
Laurel Canyon home, she met would-be actor Michael Dyne, who arranged for her to meet Mel Ballerino, the casting director for the upcoming film adaptation of
Oscar Wilde's novel
The Picture of Dorian Gray. Ballerino was casting
Gaslight with
Ingrid Bergman and
Charles Boyer, as well, and he offered her the role of the impertinent and slightly malevolent
maid Nancy. She was nominated for an
Academy Award for her
1944 film debut, and the following year garnered another for her portrayal of Sibyl Vane in
The Picture of Dorian Gray.
Career
Theatre
On
Broadway, Lansbury received good reviews from her first musical outing, the short-lived 1964
Stephen Sondheim musical
Anyone Can Whistle, which co-starred
Lee Remick. Two years later, she was offered what proved to be the biggest triumph of her theatrical career, the title role in
Mame,
Jerry Herman's musical adaptation of the novel and subsequent film
Auntie Mame, which had starred
Rosalind Russell. Opening at the
Winter Garden Theater on
May 24,
1966,
Mame ran for 1508 performances. Lansbury's portrayal, opposite
Bea Arthur as Vera Charles, earned her the Tony Award for Best Leading Actress in a Musical. She and Arthur became life-long friends. In addition, Lansbury's version of one of the play's songs, "We Need A Little Christmas", became the definitive version and has received substantial radio air-play around Christmas time every year since its release.
Lansbury won additional Tony Awards for
Dear World (1969), the first Broadway revival of (1974), and her English music hall turn as affection-starved meat pie entrepreneur
Mrs. Lovett in
Stephen Sondheim's ballad opera
Sweeney Todd (1979). In a television interview with
Robert Osborne on
Turner Classic Movies aired in August 2006, Lansbury stated that, theatrically, she feels she'd "most like to be remembered for this role." She also stated that this production was also a triumph and a comeback of sorts for Sondheim, whom she admires.
She also is a two-time winner of the
Sarah Siddons Award (1975 and 1981) for dramatic achievement in
Chicago theatre.
In 1971, Lansbury accepted the title role in the
Jule Styne –
Bob Merrill musical
Prettybelle. After a difficult
rehearsal period, the show opened to brutal reviews in Boston, where it closed within a week. In 1982 a recording of the show was released by
Varese Sarabande which included most of the original cast and Lansbury's 11 o'clock number "When I'm Drunk, I'm Beautiful" along with "You Never Looked Better", a song that was cut early in the run.
Lansbury returned to the
Broadway stage for the first time in more than 25 years in
Deuce, a play by
Terrence McNally, co-starring with
Marian Seldes. The play previewed at the
Music Box Theatre on
April 11,
2007, and opened on
May 6,
2007 in a limited run of 18 weeks. Lansbury received a Tony nomination in the category of
Leading Actress in a Play for her role in this production, but didn't win the Tony that year.
Film and television
Lansbury has enjoyed a long and varied career, mainly as a film actress in roles generally older than her actual age, appearing in everything from
Samson and Delilah (1949) to
Disney's
Bedknobs and Broomsticks (1971). Her notable credits include
The Manchurian Candidate (1962) in which she played
Mrs. Iselin, the cold-blooded mother of a war veteran
brainwashed into becoming a
Communist assassin. She won much critical praise for her performance, and received her third Oscar nomination. (
Lucille Ball had been considered for the role; a decade later, Ball coincidentally landed the title role in the film version of
Mame, the role Lansbury had created on Broadway.) On
CNN's
Larry King Live, Lansbury said that her character in
The Manchurian Candidate was her favorite of her many film roles.
Lansbury's popularity from and association with
Mame on Broadway in the '60s had her very much in demand everywhere in the media. Ever the
humanitarian, she used her fame as an opportunity to benefit others wherever possible. For example, when appearing as a guest panelist on the popular Sunday night
CBS-TV show,
What's My Line?, she made an impassioned plea for viewers to contribute to the 1966
Muscular Dystrophy Association fundraising drive, chaired by
Jerry Lewis.
After many years focused on the theatre, Lansbury returned to film, playing Salome Otterbourne in
Death on the Nile (1978). She was somewhat less successful as
Agatha Christie's
Miss Marple in
The Mirror Crack'd (1980).
Lansbury then turned to character voice work in animated films like
The Last Unicorn (1982) and as the Dowager Empress in the animated film
Anastasia in 1997. Her most famous voice work was the singing teapot
Mrs. Potts in the
Disney hit
Beauty and the Beast (1991), who performed the Oscar-winning title song written by
Alan Menken and
Howard Ashman. She reprised the role in "" (1997), and again in the Disney/
Square-Enix video game
Kingdom Hearts II in 2006. In the same year, she appeared in
Nanny McPhee as great aunt Adelaide.
While Lansbury has won every Tony for which she's been nominated, with the exception of her nomination for
Deuce in 2007, she was less successful with the Oscars and Emmys. The Oscar has always eluded her, and Lansbury holds the record for the most primetime Emmy nominations (twelve) as Best Actress without a single win. Yet, she's the recipient of several other prominent awards, including the
People's Choice and
Golden Globe.
Lansbury found her biggest success and a worldwide following as
Jessica Fletcher in the long-running television series,
Murder, She Wrote (1984 - 1996), which was one of the longest running
detective drama series in US TV history and made her one of the highest paid actresses in the world.
She was also one of the alien voices in the Cadbury's Smash advertisements in the 1970s
In 1983 Lansbury starred opposite Sir
Laurence Olivier in a
BBC adaptation of the Broadway play
A Talent for Murder. According to
The Complete Films of Laurence Olivier (Author Jerry Vermilye, Publisher Citadel), Lansbury later stated that the production was "a rushed job", and her only reason for participating was the opportunity to work/team up with Sir Laurence Olivier.
In the early 1990s,
Queen Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom appointed her a Commander of the
Order of the British Empire. She was named a
Disney Legend in 1995. She received a
Screen Actors Guild Lifetime Achievement Award in 1997,
Kennedy Center Honors in 2000, and has a star on the
Hollywood Walk of Fame.
Personal life
In 1945, Lansbury married American actor
Richard Cromwell when she was 19 and he was 35. Unbeknownst to her, Cromwell was
bisexual, and the marriage dissolved after a year, but the two remained friends.
In 1949, Lansbury married
British-born actor and businessman
Peter Shaw, who had been a former boyfriend of
Joan Crawford. Shaw was instrumental in guiding and managing Lansbury's career. Until his death in 2003, they enjoyed one of the longest show-business marriages on record.
Lansbury is the mother of two, stepmother of one, and a grandmother several times over. In an interview with
Barbara Walters, Lansbury revealed a firestorm that destroyed the family's
Malibu home in September 1970 was a blessing in disguise, as it prompted a move to rural
County Cork in the
Republic of Ireland, where her children were separated from the hard drugs with which they'd been experimenting. Her son
Anthony Shaw, after a brief fling with acting, became producer/director of
Murder, She Wrote and presently is a television executive and director. Her only daughter Deirdre and son-in-law, a chef, are in
West Los Angeles.
Lansbury was related to the late Sir
Peter Ustinov by her half-sister Isolde's marriage to the
British actor (they divorced in 1946). The two former in-laws appeared together professionally just once, in 1978's
Death on the Nile. Lansbury is related by marriage to actress
Ally Sheedy, wife of her nephew David Lansbury. Both her brothers, twins Edgar and Bruce, are successful theater producers (Edgar Lansbury was instrumental in bringing
Godspell to Broadway, and Bruce Lansbury was also a television producer, notably for shows like ).
Lansbury is a long-time resident of
Brentwood, California, and supports various
philanthropic groups in
Southern California.
Lansbury had knee replacement surgery on
July 14,
2005 .
In 2006, Lansbury purchased a condominium in
New York City at a reported cost of $2 million. The following year she returned to Broadway once more in
Deuce.
Filmography
Features
Dubbed the voice of Suzy Parker in the
The Best of Everything (1959) although she was given no credit.
Upcoming
Broadway: Beyond the Golden Age (2008) (documentary)
The Boys (2008) (documentary)
Short Subjects
Some of the Best (1949)
Your Studio and You (1995)
Angela Landsbury's Positive Moves, A Personal Plan for Fitness and Well-Being at Any Age (Exercise and Lifestyle video, 1988)
Television credits
Grannytram (1956)
The Man From U.N.C.L.E. - "The Deadly Toys Affair" (1965)
The 22nd Tony Awards (1968)
The 25th Tony Awards (1971)
The Story of the First Christmas Snow (1975)
Sweeney Todd (1982)
Little Gloria... Happy at Last (1982)
(1983)
A Talent for Murder (1984) (with Laurence Olivier)
Lace (1984)
(1984)
The Murder of Sherlock Holmes (1984) (pilot for Murder, She Wrote)
Murder, She Wrote (1984–1996)
Magnum, P.I. - "Novel Connection" (1986) (appeared as character Jessica Fletcher)
(1986)
The 41st Tony Awards (1987)
Shootdown (1988)
The 42nd Tony Awards (1988)
The Shell Seekers (1989)
The 43rd Tony Awards (1989)
The Love She Sought (1990)
Mrs. 'Arris Goes to Paris (1992)
Mrs. Santa Claus (1996)
(1997)
The Unexpected Mrs. Pollifax (1999)
(2000)
(2001)
Music and the Spoken Word (2001)
Touched by an Angel - "For All the Tea in China" (2002)
(2003)
The Blackwater Lightship (2004)
- "Night" (2005)
- "Day" (2005)
The 61st Tony Awards (2007)
The Paul O'Grady Show (2008) (guest appearance)
Theatre
West End
All Over (1972, Royal Shakespeare Company, London)
(May 29, 1973-March 2, 1974 - Piccadilly Theatre, London)
Broadway
Hotel Paradiso (April - July 1957)
A Taste of Honey (October 1960 - September 1961)
Anyone Can Whistle (April 1964)
Mame (May 1966 - Jan. 1969)
Dear World (February - May 1969)
(September 1974 - Jan. 1975)
The King and I (Substitute for several weeks, April 1978)
Sweeney Todd: the Demon Barber of Fleet Street (Mar. 1979 - Jun. 1980)
A Little Family Business (December 1982)
Mame (July - August 1983)
Deuce (April - August 2007)
Other
Prettybelle (February 1971, Shubert Theatre, Boston)
Anyone Can Whistle (April 8, 1995, Benefit Concert)
Short Talks on the Universe (November 2002, Benefit)
Oscar and the Pink Lady (March 2006, Geffen Playhouse)
Awards and nominations
Academy Awards
Nominations
Best Supporting Actress (Gaslight, 1945)
Best Supporting Actress (The Picture of Dorian Gray, 1946)
Best Supporting Actress (The Manchurian Candidate, 1963)
CableACE Awards
Wins
Actress in a Theatrical or Musical Program (Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street (1982)(TV)(musical), 1983)
BAFTA Awards
Wins
Britannia Award (Lifetime Achievement, 2003)
Nominations
Best Supporting Actress (Death on the Nile, 1978)
Drama Desk Awards
Wins
Outstanding Actress in a Musical, Sweeney Todd, (1979)
Outstanding Actress in a Musical,, (1975)
Nominations
Outstanding Actress in a Musical, The King and I, (1978)
Emmy Awards
Nominations
Outstanding Guest Actress in a Drama Series (for playing Eleanor Duvall in "", 2005)
Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Miniseries or Movie (The Blackwater Lightship, 2004)
Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series ("Murder, She Wrote", 1985-1996) (12 Consecutive Nominations)
Outstanding Individual Performance in a Variety or Music Program ("The 43rd Annual Tony Awards", 1990)
Outstanding Individual Performance in a Variety or Music Program ("The 41st Annual Tony Awards", 1987)
Outstanding Individual Performance in a Variety or Music Program (Sweeney Todd, 1985)
Outstanding Lead Actress in a Miniseries or Movie (Little Gloria... Happy at Last, 1983)
Golden Globes
Wins
Best Performance by an Actress in a TV-Series - Drama ("Murder, She Wrote", 1992)
Best Performance by an Actress in a TV-Series - Drama ("Murder, She Wrote", 1990)
Best Performance by an Actress in a TV-Series - Drama ("Murder, She Wrote", 1987)
Best Performance by an Actress in a TV-Series - Drama ("Murder, She Wrote", 1985)
Best Supporting Actress (The Manchurian Candidate, 1963)
Best Supporting Actress (The Picture of Dorian Gray, 1946)
Nominations
Best Performance by an Actress in a TV-Series - Drama ("Murder, She Wrote", 1995)
Best Performance by an Actress in a TV-Series - Drama ("Murder, She Wrote", 1993)
Best Performance by an Actress in a TV-Series - Drama ("Murder, She Wrote", 1991)
Best Performance by an Actress in a TV-Series - Drama ("Murder, She Wrote", 1989)
Best Performance by an Actress in a TV-Series - Drama ("Murder, She Wrote", 1988)
Best Performance by an Actress in a TV-Series - Drama ("Murder, She Wrote", 1986)
Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role in a Miniseries or TV-Movie (A Gift of Love: A Christmas Story, 1984)
Best Motion Picture Actress - Musical/Comedy (Bedknobs and Broomsticks, 1972)
Best Motion Picture Actress - Musical/Comedy (Something for Everyone, 1971)
Hasty Pudding Theatricals
Wins
Hasty Pudding Woman of the Year (1968)
National Board of Review
Wins
Best Supporting Actress (Death on the Nile, 1978)
Best Supporting Actress (All Fall Down and The Manchurian Candidate, 1962)
Screen Actors Guild Awards
Wins
Life Achievement Award (1996)
Nominations
Best Performance by an Actress in a TV-Series - Drama ("Murder, She Wrote", 1995)
Television Critics Association Awards
Wins
Career Achievement Award (1996)
Tony Awards
Wins
Best Actress in a Musical, Sweeney Todd, (1979)
Best Actress in a Musical,, (1975)
Best Actress in a Musical, Dear World, (1969)
Best Actress in a Musical, Mame, (1966)
Nominations
Best Actress in a Play, Deuce (2007)
University of Miami: Doctor of Humane Letters
Further Information
Get more info on 'Angela Lansbury'.
|
External Link Exchanges
Do you know how hard it is to get a link from a large encyclopaedia? Well we're different and will prove it. To get a link from us just add the following HTML to your site on a relevant page:
<a href="http://angela_lansbury.totallyexplained.com">Angela Lansbury Totally Explained</a>
Then simply click through this link from your web page. Our crawlers will verify your link, extract the title of your web page and instantly add a link back to it. If you like you can remove the words Totally Explained and embed the link in article text.
As long as your link remains in place, we'll keep our link to you right here. Please play fair - our crawlers are watching. Your site must be closely related to this one's topic. Any kind of spamming, dubious practises or removing the link will result in your link from us being dropped and, potentially, your whole site being banned. |
