Angela Lansbury, the award-winning star of such films as “The Manchurian Candidate,” the television series “Murder, She Wrote” and the Broadway musical “Sweeney Todd,” died Tuesday. She was 96.
Lansbury was a force in the entertainment business in a career that spanned eight decades and earned him an Oscar, five Tony Awards and 18 Emmy nominations, though he never won one for CBS’s “Murder.”
The children of Dame Angela Lansbury are sad to announce that their mother died peacefully in her sleep at her home in Los Angeles at 1:30am today, Tuesday, October 11, 2022, just five days shy of her 97th birthday. his family said. she said in a statement. She is survived by three children, Anthony, Deirdre and David, and her brother, producer Edgar Lansbury. Peter Shaw, her husband of 53 years, died in 2003.
Most actors would be happy to have just one of Lansbury’s three careers, let alone all of them.
Aspiring stars should not panic. All they will need to match their success is Lansbury’s talent, grace, class, craft, beauty, brains, dedication, perseverance and professionalism. So good luck with that.
It is right to grieve over what our culture has lost in Lansbury’s death. She was a great actress and a class act, and that combination doesn’t come along every day. But we should also celebrate what she accomplished while she was alive, throughout a remarkable career.
Lansbury became a movie star at age 19, earning an Oscar nomination in 1944 for his first film, “Gaslight,” and later nominations for “The Picture of Dorian Gray” in 1946 and “Manchurian” in 1963 before to finally receive an honorary award. Oscar in 2014 “for her extravagant achievements” of her. And so they were.
The actress reflected on “Gaslight,” which she said was one of her favorite roles of her long career.
“He was young enough that he was able to absorb a lot of the actors he was working with,” Lansbury said. “I was only 17 when I started. I turned 18 on set and everyone gave me a cigarette. Those things you never forget.”
In the ’60s, as her film work became less satisfying, she reinvented herself as a Broadway musical star, going from highly respected movie actress to extravagantly praised stage icon in almost an instant. She won the Tony for best actress in a musical for “Mame,” “Dear World,” “Gypsy,” and “Sweeney” before adding a belated award for best featured actress in a play in 2009 for “Blithe Spirit.” . “
That’s five Tony Awards per performance, one shy of the record, plus two more nominations for Lansbury, who has also hosted the Tony Awards five times.
If that run wasn’t enough, there’s the TV show he started as he was approaching 60: CBS’s “Murder, She Wrote,” one of the most popular and longest-running dramas in television history. She never earned her an Emmy, despite 12 consecutive nominations, but it gave her financial independence and made her a household name for the first time in her career. And not just a name: a loved one, like everyone’s favorite, slightly nosy electronic aunt.
Has any actor had more, or a more diverse set, of great roles and iconic performances? With most stars, you can point to a particular play and movie and say “She’s playing the guy in that one,” but what “guy” might you choose for Lansbury? The smug and dismissive maid in “Gaslight?” The manipulative, power-mad mother in “Manchurian”? The bohemian bon vivant from “Mame”? The blissfully murderous pastry chef from “Sweeney”? The sweet but ruthless crime solver in “Murder”?
This is an actor whose talent knew no bounds. And a woman who, when one door closed behind her, pushed another.
Of course, he might not have had to push if Hollywood had made better use of his gifts. She had those great Oscar-nominated roles, but too many times on screen, she was cast as the “other” sister or some variation of “the brittle girl who doesn’t get the boy.” Even in those roles, she could shine: If you haven’t seen her hilarious portrayal of the self-absorbed princess in “The Court Jester” or her nuanced portrayal of a bitter, unhappy wife in “The World of Henry Orient,” you must. Then add in some of the more popular performances she gave later in her life, like the wacky huckster in “Death on a Nile” or the voice of Mrs. Potts in the 1991 animated movie “Beauty and the Beast.” “.
Even television didn’t treat her as well as it could have. “Murder” was a great gift, for her and for the viewers, but no one would say that it tested her talent. It’s a shame that, when he was at the height of his popularity, CBS didn’t let him recreate any of his big Broadway triumphs in a TV movie, but at least he managed to shine in such TV jobs as “The Blackwater Lightship,” “Little Glory “, “Happy at Last” and “Mrs. Santa Claus”.
Still, it’s Broadway that really made the best use of Lansbury, in a series of legendary star turns crowned, perhaps, by his work in “Sweeney.” If that was the peak of hers, we can be thankful, because it’s the only one of her stage performances that was preserved on film, as a TV special.
Lansbury continued to work well into her ’90s, playing wealthy Aunt March in the 2017 PBS adaptation of “Little Women” and making a welcome cameo in the 2018 “Mary Poppins” sequel “Mary Poppins Returns.” Her unnamed character from the balloon lady barely appeared on screen, but her presence instantly elevated the Disney musical.
In January 2019, he offered words of wisdom to a room of hopefuls at the annual AFI Awards, reflecting on his long career in Hollywood. “I took my first steps in the business on stage 25 on the MGM lot,” she recalled. “I remember the first day I got there… and I never felt so alone in my life.”
Speaking to the likes of Bradley Cooper, Emily Blunt and Harry Winkler, he added: “As I walk out of here today and be invited to endure a seemingly endless parade of shows labeling you ‘winner’ or ‘loser’, I’ve been there, done that,” he said, laughing. “Remember this room, when we are all together as one.”
In all, the Lansbury race is one to celebrate and remember. And how you remember her, whether as the Nazi-fighting witch in “Bedknobs and Broomsticks” or the beautifully dressed, smiling grande dame who introduces the Tonys, is up to you. Only one thing is certain: it will be difficult not to miss it and impossible to replace it.
Chances are, few actors are foolish enough to try.
Collaboration: Kelly Lawler
