Global InformationAngela Lansbury on screen and stage information
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British and American actress Angela Lansbury was known for her prolific work in theatre, film, and television.
Lansbury's career spanned nine decades.[1] She made her film debut in Gaslight (1944),[2] and followed it up with an appearance in The Picture of Dorian Gray (1945).[3] She earned two consecutive Academy Award nominations for Best Supporting Actress, and won the Supporting Actress Golden Globe for the latter film.[4] Subsequent films throughout the late 1940s and the 1950s included National Velvet (1944),[1] The Harvey Girls (1946),[5] State of the Union (1948),[1] Kind Lady (1951),[6] The Court Jester (1956),[7] and The Long, Hot Summer (1958).[8]
She drifted towards more complex, mature work with The Dark at the Top of the Stairs (1960),[9] All Fall Down (1962),[10] In the Cool of the Day (1963),[11] Dear Heart (1964);[12] and, in one of her most infamous roles, as the Machiavellian Mrs. Iselin in The Manchurian Candidate (1962). For the latter, she received stellar reviews, winning a second Golden Globe and earning her third Oscar nomination.
Meanwhile, Lansbury also found success on stage. She starred on Broadway in A Taste of Honey, Stephen Sondheim's Anyone Can Whistle, and later on as Anna Leonowens in The King and I. But that time with Sondheim began a collaborative partnership that would garner them both frequent success. Together, they also worked on Mame, the Broadway revival of Gypsy, and Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street. And for those three successful hits (plus one considered a flop, for which she was nonetheless praised, Dear World;[13] albeit not by Sondheim), Lansbury won the Tony Award for Best Actress in a Musical an unprecedented, and undefeated, four times.
Intermittently, she returned to do films, appearing in the dark comedy, Something for Everyone (1970). The following year, she starred in Disney's Bedknobs and Broomsticks (1971). She earned Best Comedy/Musical Actress Golden Globe nominations for both roles. For the Hercule Poirot yarn, Death on the Nile (1978), she won the National Board of Review Award for Best Supporting Actress and earned a BAFTA nomination as well. She portrayed Miss Marple two years later in another Agatha Christie tale, The Mirror Crack'd (1980), earning a Saturn Award nom.
In the 1980s, she began to direct her efforts towards television. She earned her first Primetime Emmy nomination alongside Bette Davis, both for the miniseries Little Gloria...Happy at Last (1982). However, it would be her iconic role as mystery author Jessica Fletcher on Murder, She Wrote (1984-1996) which would immortalize her with a whole new generation. She starred in every episode for twelve seasons, and received an Emmy nomination for each of them, although she never won. She did win four more Golden Globe Awards, however, for Best Actress in a TV Drama Series, bringing her grand total to six. In total, she received eighteen unsuccessful Emmy bids, rendering her the most nominated individual performer never to win that award.
Lansbury lent her talents as a voice actress to Disney's Beauty and the Beast (1991) as Mrs. Potts, who sang the titular song in the film, as well as Anastasia (1997). She acted sporadically throughout various films, TV shows, and stage productions throughout the next two and a half decades, including playing the wicked Great Aunt Adelaide in Emma Thompson's Nanny McPhee (2005). She made a return to the stage opposite Marian Seldes in Deuce, and received her fifth nomination. She earned a sixth nomination for Blithe Spirit and won her fifth Tony as a result. Lansbury earned a seventh and final nomination for A Little Night Music, at the following year's ceremony. For her distinguished career, she has been presented with several honorary tributes, including the Honorary Academy Award and a Special Tony Award, plus damehood from Queen Elizabeth II. Lansbury's final role was a cameo as herself in Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery (2022), which was released posthumously, shortly after her death.
- ^ a b c Kay, Jeremy (11 October 2022). Mueller, Matt (ed.). "Angela Lansbury, multiple Oscar nominee and star of Murder, She Wrote, dies aged 96". Screen International. ISSN 0307-4617. Archived from the original on 28 October 2022. Retrieved 22 October 2023 – via ScreenDaily.com.
...Jessica Fletcher in Murder, She Wrote. Despite early misgivings among CBS executives who feared the show lacked wide appeal, it became a massive hit and ran from 1984-96.
- ^ Seibold, Witney (11 October 2022). "Angela Lansbury's Brilliant Acting Career Started With An Oscar Nomination For Gaslight". /Film. Archived from the original on 1 November 2023. Retrieved 23 October 2023.
...it's Lansbury who carries the film's menace. Without her condescending stares, her mock-confused prodding, and her wraithlike presence, Gaslight would be a mere psychological hothouse.
- ^ Austin Film Society (16 October 2015). HAPPY 90TH BIRTHDAY TO THE LEGENDARY ANGELA LANSBURY (Video clip). Archived from the original on 1 November 2023. Retrieved 23 October 2023 – via YouTube.
...and singing Sibyl Vane in THE PICTURE OF DORIAN GRAY (1945) that the public saw her worth well before the studios did.
- ^ King, Susan (16 November 2013). Maharaj, Davan (ed.). "Angela Lansbury will receive honorary Oscar". Los Angeles Times. eISSN 2165-1736. ISSN 0458-3035. OCLC 3638237. Archived from the original on 1 November 2023. Retrieved 23 October 2023.
...the 88-year-old legend is winning her first Oscar. On Saturday evening, Lansbury will receive an honorary Oscar...
- ^ Rogers, Nathaniel (8 August 2011). "Judy Fest: The Harvey Girls". The Film Experience. Archived from the original on 1 November 2023. Retrieved 23 October 2023.
...and Angela Lansbury's 'perma-scowl' is amusing...
- ^ Barson, Michael (14 August 2023). "Section ~ Bad, Magnificent, and Great". Encyclopædia Britannica. Entry re: John Sturges. ISBN 978-1-59339-292-5. Archived from the original on 6 June 2023. Retrieved 31 October 2023.
...a group of thieves (Maurice Evans and Angela Lansbury, among others) plot to steal her collection.
- ^ Beggs, Scott (15 June 2008). "A Look Back at Danny Kaye in The Court Jester (1955)". Film School Rejects. Archived from the original on 1 November 2023. Retrieved 31 October 2023.
Plus, it features a hot Angela Lansbury. That's right. Hot Angela Lansbury.
- ^ Gould, Rick (7 August 2017). "The Long, Hot Summer 1958". Rick's Real/Reel Life. Archived from the original on 1 November 2023. Retrieved 31 October 2023.
...but he does have goodhearted town whore to selectively ignore, Minnie Littlejohn (Lansbury).
- ^ Variety Staff (31 December 1959). Green, Abel (ed.). "Reviews: The Dark at the Top of the Stairs". Variety. ISSN 0042-2738. OCLC 810134503. Archived from the original on 1 November 2023. Retrieved 1 November 2023.
Angela Lansbury plays one of her better and more sympathetic roles....
- ^ Crowther, Bosley (12 April 1962). Catledge, Turner (ed.). "The Screen: All Fall Down, Inge's Version of Herlihy Novel: Beatty and Miss Saint Starred in Drama; 4 Other Movies Have Local Premieres". The New York Times. Dryfoos, Orvil E. (publ.). eISSN 1553-8095. ISSN 0362-4331. LCCN sn78004456. OCLC 1645522. Archived from the original on 1 November 2023. Retrieved 1 November 2023.
The mother, whom Angela Lansbury makes a most rash, possessive 'mom', comes close to being psychopathic in her attentiveness to her older son.
- ^ Variety Staff (31 December 1962). Green, Abel (ed.). "Reviews: In the Cool of the Day". Variety. ISSN 0042-2738. OCLC 810134503. Archived from the original on 1 November 2023. Retrieved 1 November 2023.
Lansbury gets off the best acting in the film as Finch's sour, scarfaced wife.
- ^ Crowther, Bosley (8 March 1965). Catledge, Turner (ed.). "Screen: Dear Heart Is at Music Hall:Geraldine Page Plays Old-Maid Postmaster". The New York Times. Sulzberger, Sr.; Arthur Ochs "Punch" (publ.). eISSN 1553-8095. ISSN 0362-4331. LCCN sn78004456. OCLC 1645522. Archived from the original on 2 April 2022. Retrieved 1 November 2023.
— Michael Anderson Jr., as the stepson-to-be, Angela Lansbury as his bumptious mother, Joanna Crawford as the Bennington girl.
- ^ Skethway, Nathan (6 February 2021). "Look Back, Dear World, on Star Angela Lansbury on Broadway". Playbill. ISSN 0551-0678. Archived from the original on 9 June 2023. Retrieved 25 October 2023 – via Playbill Online.
The production starred Angela Lansbury, whose performance as Countess Aurelia earned her the Tony Award for Best Leading Actress in a Musical—her second, after her 1966 win for Mame.