An Actress to Admire

Angela Lansbury is an amazingly talented stage and screen actress. She was born on October 16, 1925, in London, England. All through her career, she had distinct facial features and a voice that I at least could recognize right away.

During WW II, the Lansburys fled England and eventually made their home in Los Angeles, California. When Lansbury was just a teenager, she got her first role in the movies in the 1944 romantic-thriller “Gaslight.” The film featured the great stars of that time, Ingrid Bergman, Charles Boyer, and Joseph Cotton. Although her role wasn’t significant, she portrayed a maid who becomes involved with a man’s plans to drive his wife insane. It was a role she did to perfection even then and was nominated for Best Supporting Actress. This Old Hollywood movie is worth watching, and if you have the opportunity, you will see what I mean. At first, you might not realize this young actress in Lansbury, but then you look at her face and listen to her speaking, and you can tell right away.

Her next role was in a 1945 movie “The Picture of Dorian Gray” based on the novel by Oscar Wilde. This film earned her the second Best Supporting Actress nomination. She portrayed Sibyl Vane, a woman who kills herself after she gets betrayed by the main character. This man is obsessed with staying young. In 1962 Lansbury starred with Frank Sinatra in a spy thriller, “The Manchurian Candidate,” earning a third nomination. Here she portrayed the manipulative mother of a Korean War hero brainwashed into becoming a Communist assassin.

Lansbury chose to perform on the Broadway stage during the 1960s and 1970s and starred in many musicals. She was awarded the Tony Award for Best Actress for her performances in “Mame,” “Dear World,” “Gypsy” and “Sweeny Todd.” I loved her in her role in “Sweeny Todd.” Afterward, she once again performed on the silver screen in such movies as Walt Disney’s Bedknobs and Broomsticks in 1971, “Death On The Nile” in 1978, and “The Mirror Crack’d” in 1980. Both of the last movies mentioned were from Agatha Christie novels, and in these, Lansbury portrayed Miss Marple.

She also made it to the TV screen portraying crime-solving mystery writer Jessica Fletcher on her series “Murder She Wrote” from 1984 to 1996. When the series ended, she reprised her role in some made-for-TV movies. The one part I loved her in was when she gave her voice to Miss Potts, the singing teapot in Walt Disney’s “Beauty and The Beast.” She also lent her voice to the Empress Dowager Marie in the animated movie “Anastasia” in 1997. If you can find and see this animated movie, you’ll love it for the music alone.

Lansbury continued her career, and in 2005 she portrayed Emma Thompson in “Nanny Mc Phee.” In 2007 she returned to Broadway to star in “Deuce.”

In 2011 she played opposite Jim Carrey in “Mr. Popper’s Penguins,” where she played the owner of the well-known restaurant in Central Park, New York City, Tavern on the Green. It is a delightful movie based on a children’s book of the same name. It was her first time back on the big screen since 2005.

In 2014 she received her Dame Commander or DBE medal presented by Queen Elizabeth II at a ceremony at Windsor Castle. She became Dame Angela Lansbury.

It came as no surprise to find the actress on the screen once again in 2018 in “Mary Poppins Returns,” where she had the role of The Balloon Lady.

Today Dame Angela Brigid Lansbury is alive and well and a young 94. The actress lives in California.