A Very Brief Biography of Angela Lansbury

Filmography

Broadway Stage Performances

Televison Roles

Awards

Angela Brigid Lansbury, one of the most talented, versatile, best known and well-respected actresses of our time, has enjoyed a successful and enduring career lasting over six decades long. She is a triple threat, having demonstrated great talent in not just one area of acting, but three: the movies, theater, and television. She was born on October 16th, 1925, in London, England, the daughter of Irish actress Moyna MacGill and granddaughter of British politician George Lansbury. Her early education at the Webber-Douglas Academy of Dramatic Art was interrupted in 1940 when Moyna moved the family, which included Angela and her twin brothers Bruce and Edgar, from England to the United States to escape World War II. She did not become an actualized American citizen until 1951.

After exiting a short-lived first marriage to Richard Cromwell, Ms. Lansbury married Peter Shaw in 1948. Their long-lasting marriage, a rarity in Hollywood, lasted until Peter’s death in 2003. They had two children, Anthony and Deirdre, as well as Peter’s son David Shaw from his previous marriage.

Her first Academy Award nominated movie role was in the 1944 film Gaslight at which time she was only 19 years old. Over the following decades she would star in dozens more productions, usually as a character actress, and often as the “other (sometimes evil) woman” set up against the protagonist. The most memorable of these roles was as the manipulative mother in 1962’s The Manchurian Candidate. Other memorable Hollywood productions included The Harvey Girls, National Velvet, Samson and Delilah, Mutiny, Blue Hawaii (as Elvis Presley’s mother!), Bedknobs and Broomsticks, The Last Unicorn, Death on the Nile, and The Mirror Crack’d. In 1991 she voiced the role of Mrs. Potts in Disney’s tremendously successful animated film Beauty and the Beast. Her most recent appearance on the big screen was in the 2005 movie Nanny McPhee.

Ms. Lansbury made her Broadway debut in 1957’s production of Hotel Paradiso. Her first musical, 1964’s Stephen Sondheim production Anyone Can Whistle, earned her critical acclaim and set the stage for her long-running title role in Jerry Herman’s 1966 musical Mame, for which she earned her first Tony award for Best Actress. She went on to win the award three more times, for 1969’s Dear World, 1974’s Gypsy, and as her most outrageously off-the-wall character, Mrs. Lovett in 1979’s Sweeney Todd: the Demon Barber of Fleet Street. Her record four wins for all four nominations represents a Tony Awards record that remains unbroken to the present day.

In 1984 at the age of 59, Ms. Lansbury took on her first major role in a television series as mystery writer Jessica Fletcher of Murder, She Wrote. Although she had originally planned to spend a maximum of five years as Jessica, the series ultimately lasted for twelve years, including a record nine straight seasons as the highest rated drama series on television. The last four seasons featured Ms. Lansbury not just as the series’ star but also as its executive producer. After Murder, She Wrote ended its twelve year run, Lansbury reprised her role as Jessica for four made-for-TV movies, the last of which aired in May of 2003.

In 2000 Ms. Lansbury received the Kennedy Center Honors. She was previously awarded with the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire by Queen Elizabeth II in the 1990’s and the Screen Actors Guild Lifetime Achievement Award in 1997.

Filmography

Broadway Stage Performances
Hotel Paradiso (Apr. - Jul. 1957)
A Taste of Honey (Oct. 1960 - Sep. 1961)
Anyone Can Whistle (Apr. 1964)
Mame (May 1966 - Jan. 1970)
Dear World (Feb. - May 1969)
Gypsy (Sep. 1974 - Jan. 1975)
The King and I (May 1977 - Dec. 1978)
Sweeney Todd: the Demon Barber of Fleet Street (Mar. 1979 - Jun. 1980)
A Little Family Business (Dec. 1982)
Mame (Jul. - Aug. 1983)
Short Talks on the Universe (Nov. 2002)
Deuce (May 2007 - Aug. 2007)
Blithe Spirit (March 2009 - July 2009)
A Little Night Music (December 2009 - June 2010)
The Best Man (March 2012 - July 2012)
Driving Miss Daisy (Australia) (February 2013 - June 2013)
Blithe Spirit (UK) (March 2014 - )

Television Roles
The Story of the First Christmas Snow (1975)
Sweeney Todd (1982)
Little Gloria... Happy at Last (1982)
The Gift of Love: A Christmas Story (1983)
A Talent for Murder (1984)
Lace (1984)
The First Olympics: Athens 1896 (1984)
The Murder of Sherlock Holmes (1984) (pilot for Murder, She Wrote)
Murder, She Wrote (1984-1996)
Rage of Angels: The Story Continues (1986)
Shootdown (1988)
The Shell Seekers (1989)
The Love She Sought (1990)
Mrs. 'Arris Goes to Paris (1992)
Mrs. Santa Claus (1996)
Murder, She Wrote: South by Southwest (1997)
The Unexpected Mrs. Pollifax (1999)
Murder, She Wrote: A Story to Die For (2000)
Murder, She Wrote: The Last Free Man (2001)
Murder, She Wrote: The Celtic Riddle (2003)
The Blackwater Lightship (2004)

Awards

Tony Awards Won:

1966: Best Actress, for Mame
1969: Best Actress, for Dear World
1975: Best Actress, for Gypsy
1979: Best Actress, for Sweeney Todd
2009: Best Featured Actress, for Blithe Spirit

Emmy Awards Nominations:

1983: Outstanding Lead Actress in a Miniseries or Movie, for Little Gloria - Happy at Last
1985: Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series, for Murder, She Wrote
1985: Outstanding Individual Performance in a Variety or Music Program, for Sweeney Todd
1986: Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series, for Murder, She Wrote
1987: Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series, for Murder, She Wrote
1987: Outstanding Individual Performance in a Variety or Music Program, for “The 41st Annual Tony Awards”
1988: Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series, for Murder, She Wrote
1989: Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series, for Murder, She Wrote
1990: Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series, for Murder, She Wrote
1990: Outstanding Individual Performance in a Variety or Music Program, for “The 43rd Annual Tony Awards”
1991: Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series, for Murder, She Wrote
1992: Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series, for Murder, She Wrote
1993: Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series, for Murder, She Wrote
1994: Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series, for Murder, She Wrote
1995: Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series, for Murder, She Wrote
1996: Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series, for Murder, She Wrote
2004: Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Miniseries or Movie, for The Blackwater Lightship
2005: Outstanding Guest Actress in a Drama Series, for the character of Eleanor Duvall in Law & Order: Trial by Jury

Perplexingly, none of these nominations translated into an actual win.

Academy Award Nominations:

1945: Best Supporting Actress, for Gaslight
1946: Best Supporting Actress, for The Picture of Dorian Gray
1963: Best Supporting Actress, for The Manchurian Candidate

Golden Globes Won:

1946: Best Supporting Actress, for The Picture of Dorian Gray
1963: Best Supporting Actress, for The Manchurian Candidate
1985: Best Performance by an Actress in a TV Series (Drama), for Murder, She Wrote
1987: Best Performance by an Actress in a TV Series (Drama), for Murder, She Wrote
1990: Best Performance by an Actress in a TV Series (Drama), for Murder, She Wrote
1992: Best Performance by an Actress in a TV Series (Drama), for Murder, She Wrote

Golden Globe Nominations:

1970: Best Motion Picture Actress in a Musical/Comedy, for Something for Everyone
1972: Best Motion Picture Actress in a Musical/Comedy, for Bedknobs and Broomsticks
1983: Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role in a Miniseries or TV Movie, for A Gift of Love: A Christmas Story
1986: Best Performance by an Actress in a TV Series (Drama), for Murder, She Wrote
1988: Best Performance by an Actress in a TV Series (Drama), for Murder, She Wrote
1989: Best Performance by an Actress in a TV Series (Drama), for Murder, She Wrote
1991: Best Performance by an Actress in a TV Series (Drama), for Murder, She Wrote
1993: Best Performance by an Actress in a TV Series (Drama), for Murder, She Wrote
1995: Best Performance by an Actress in a TV Series (Drama), for Murder, She Wrote

Sources:

Angela Lansbury: A Life on Stage and Screen. Edelman, Robert and Audrey E. Kupferberg. Birch Lane Press, New York, NY, 1996.

Balancing Act: The Authorized Biography of Angela Lansbury. Gottfried, Martin. Little, Brown, and Company, Boston, MA, New York, NY, and London, England, 1999.

And some of the various bios of Angela Lansbury to be found on the Internet.